The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-11-21
ODD FUNERALS
rsxrwos LEAVE CoRPsEs ON TOP OF THE GROUND.
nor uaces Home Always Important Feature--whife Man Now Chahs- inw ways of the Norfh-
 Taught to Inter
 the Dead.

I | .,x,,ils ana homes of I,200 long dead EsLimos in the Episcopal burying
 grounds here under direction of bishop
 P T Rowe may usher Tn new e'a
 sn hnrial customs in the North, says poinf Hope (Alaska) correspondent oi The Seattle Post-Inteillgencer, " w
 be recalled that these skulls ana pones were picked up on the sulAace oa grounds. just where they were teAt !" their last long sleep M"'o
 and years ago.
 Ar along the shores of the Arctic, from Cape Prince of Wales to Lap,e- dor. and far into the untraveled ih- terior th,s apparently heartless custom of leaving the dead prey to hungry wolves and half-woh dogs mas ple- vailed from time immemoriai. Ihe,9 is scarcely a ridge or headlapa ln a.. tbe vast territory over which the Es- ,rit,os lave roamed that mas not some where upou 1t place of skulls.
 There is nothing that so impresses inc Arctic traveller. be he timit tourist or datlnss ptDapsctag. Rf 1aa nsS sts itssl ioneiy staTs frdfi1 theft sdark moss sbsust on the frozen hills of the Norf hlanu Some of them haye Kept their ions vigils through the fofgottsh scen. cen ,,.s and now serumble toS the fonch nke chs,k some of them are staringiy Sresh from the Framework of tne ls-' ing Tell your Eskimo guide that ne shonId bury his dead and he VIII teh vol, thai, in summer water swould coHie into the grave. s~Telk shtrn that in civilized lands they sometimes cremase the dead, and he VIII pc hor fed. As matter of fact. .tne sesahs .,,s ,nslv heartiess custom of leaving the dsad m the Arctic hill-tops to be the food of savage beasts Is perfectly na- tural and quite unavoidable
 Hard to Dig Graves.
 The digging of & grave In the Tar north even in summer Wltn the so.0 tools possessed by the Eskimos was next to Impossible, Tor even n Suiy .the 1ro,,nd Immediately beneath the moss that covers the surface every where is frozen as hard as granite 70 an unknown depth. Even where un-s der@round ice is found the Eskimos would consider the making of. grave A useless expenditure of energy anu at the same time cruel proceeding. for the thought of having 10 He n Icy water is unbearabie 70 an EsAin,o. Sn their dead were left on the dry hill- tons where the sun of summer warmed strange Arctic flowers into life around ,hem while over them In winter the ghostlv aurora borealis played in all it's Arctic grandeur. The old social kindiiness of the North was thus at the bottom of the whole matter or the disposition of the dead.
 AItbourh the dead are left on their messy beds beneath the unprotecting stars 1t must not be thought that hearts do not melt with grief when death pays his sad visits to an Eskimo village. There are no more aHectloh- ate people in the world. This Is tne universal testimony of every one ia- .axn. &1~oNv- -xryoV V the childh ood of the race. Their sricI, like that of children. Is acute and ls soon over Their lamentations are sometimes pronounced but never pro longed. But they are not stoies. Men, women and children sob pitifuily when the eye of the sick one no longer re-
 sponds to the peculiar death test. and in the old days their sorrow was aouoly Intense when at the request of the pa- tient the end was hastened by friend iv knife thrust and the helpless suf- tered was put out of pain forever. Soon Forget Grief.
 For half an hour the weeping may continue. Then the scene changes
 The ieloo is crowded with neighbors
 only the little corner In which the corpse lies is vacant. Outside there are more people with dog sleds, to which are harnes ssed the finest dogs in | inc village Soon the corpse is car riad out. and. if man. 1t is placed mon inc sled which was and accord l ing to Eskimo ethics, still Is his own. A small boy runs ahead of the dead | man's dog team with the cry. "1ak! | Hak! and the strange funeral process
 sion is instantly under way. dozen | hod sleds with their ivory Runners | creakinR in the cold are flying over the snow On they go, some behind. some ahead. some abreast of the improvised ! hearse. There is no system. no prece- 1 dence. no ceremony. It is too cold for | ceremony, SO on they fly. the sleds pumping and bounding over the uneven 1 surface of the snow.
 At the top of some ridge maybe
 mile from the village the cortege halts 1 The dead man is lifted from the sled and laid upon the snow Clad in his | everyday garments of deerskin. and
 wrapped in a walrus skin shroud. they | leave him there with the friends wh 0 have gone before. His weapons, his
 sled. and all the little personal prop
 erty that the communistie society in
 which he lived allowed him to possess | are left there beside him. | Dog Race c Feature.
 1 Right then and there all mourning ' ceases. There Is not a dog Tn the Arc- 1 tic that does not know that a funeral without a dog race would be farce :.
 Every child. every gnalamoot pup in the
 village knows that the team that wins
 this funeral race will win fame and