The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1911-05-23

1900 EskimOs, Dead 1000
Years, Buried In Alaska,
HISTORIC CUSTOM DOOMED.

posed of Its Dead by Leaving the
Bodies on the Dry HiIItops-No
fearful Diraes and No Flowers.
The recently reported burial OF thu
skulls and bones of 1900 long GeaG
Eskimos in the Episcopal buryiRg
ground at Point Hope, Alaska, under
the direction of Bishop P. T. Rowe,
may bring about change lin burial
customs in the north. The skulls and
bones were picked up on the surface
of the ground just where they were
left, maybe a thousand years ago.
All along the shores of the Arctic
from Cape Prince of Wales to I4abra-
dor and far into the untraveled inte-
ricr this apparently heartless custom OF
leaving the dead as prey to wolves and
half wolf dogs has prevailed from time
immemorial There Is scarcely ridge
or headland in all the vast territory
over which the Eskimos have roamed
that has not somewhere upon 1t place
of skulls
There is nothing that more impresses
the arctic travellers than these ever
present skulls as they stare out from
their dark moss beds on the frozen
hills of the northland. Some Of them
have kept their long Vigils through
centuries and crumble at the touch like
chalk. Others are startlingly fresh
from the framework of the living.
Left to Keep Dry.
Tell your Eskimo guide that he
should bury his dead and he will tell
you that In summer water would come
into the grave Tell him that in civ
ilized lands they sometimes cremate
the dead and he will be Mortified.
As a matter of fact, the custom of
leaving the dead on the arctic hilltops
to be the food OF savage beasts is nat
uraI and unavoidable. The digging Of
a grave in the far north even In sum-
mer with the tools possessed by the
Eskimos is next to impossible, for
even in July the ground Immediately
beneath the moss that covers the sur
face everywhere is frozen as hard as
granite to an unknown depth. Even
where underground ice is found the
Eskimo would consider the making of
a grave a useless expenditure Of ener-
gy and at the same time cruel pro-
ceeding, for the thought of having to
lie in icy water is unbearable to an
Eskimo So the dead were left on the
dry h1lltops.
Although the dead are left on their
messy beds beneath the unprotecting
stars, it must not be thought that there
is no sorrow when death visits an Es-
kimo village. There are no more affec-
tomato people in the world. This Is
TIE testimony of every one familiar
with their ways. But they typify the
childhood of the race. Their grief. like
that of children, is acute and is soon
over with
Even Hasten Death.
Men, women and children sob when
the eye of the sick one no longer re-
spends to the peculiar death test, and
IN the old days their sorrow was dou-
bly, intense when at the request Of the
patient the end was FASTENED by a
friendly knife thrust and the helpless
sufferer was put out of pain forever.
For half an hour the weeping may con-
tinue
Then the scene changes. The igloo
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 harnessed
the finest dogs in the village. Soon the
corpse is carried out, and if man it
is placed upon the sled which was and.
according to Eskimo ethics, still is his
own A small boy runs ahead Of the
dead mans dog team with the cry
"Hak, hakrs and the funeral process
sion is instantly under way.
At the top OF some rude ridge maybe
d mile from the village the cortege
hats. The dead man is lifted from
the sled and laid upon the snow. Glad
in his everyday garments Of deerskin
and wrapped in a walrus skin shroud,
they leave him there with his friends
who have gone before His weapons,
his sled and all the personal property
that the communistic society in which
he lives allowed him to possess are left
there beside him. Right then and there
al mourning ceases.
In this way the arctic has disposed
of her dead for no one knows how
many generations. There are no tear
ful dirges, no flowers strewn upon new
made graves.