DEATH AND THE SPIRIT LAND.
There is a large and silent river that flows through the shadowy vale
of death. On the banks of this awful and mysterious river dwells an
old woman, called Sye-elth, and she keeps at her side a large dog,
Chish-yah, (the common name for dog).
When an Indian dies, if he has led a dishonorable and wicked life, a
broad path leads his soul down to the banks of the river to the very
door where the old woman lives in her house. When the wandering soul
reaches her door, the Chish-yah tries to drive it back to the dead
body, but the old woman fights the dog off and if she is successful in
her efforts she takes charge of the miserable soul and sends it on to
the opposite side of the river, in the shadowy land of endless anguish.
If the dog is successful in fighting the soul back it returns to the
dead body where life is regained and the person lives again. This
seldom occurs, and only where the body lives in a state of coma and is
supposed to be dead, but after a few hours comes out of that state and
revives into life again. The Chish-yah is seldom successful, as a case
rarely occurs. This is why the Indian never likes to scold or treat the
dog badly.
The old Indians do not like to look at a photograph or to have their
photographs taken, because they say it is a reflection or a shadowy
image of the departed spirit, O-quirlth. They do not like to see
spirits, but they say they have often seen them. This is the reason
they turn their backs on the camera and object so strongly to having
their pictures taken. Often have my people been ridiculed for their
strange actions, but they have a reason for every one of them. If the
civilized man could only respect the reasons and simple ways of the
highest type of primitive man, as much as primitive man venerates his
civilization.
When the spirit comes back to the tired and weary body, and that body
lives again, that person is said to meet a very unfortunate existence.
It is said he is never satisfied with earthly things again. He is very
restless and unhappy as nothing can satisfy his longing soul, and
always meets death suddenly.
On the shore of this mysterious River of Death awaits a young man,
Pa-ga-rick, in his canoe; he is always ready to receive the soul from
the old woman as she hands it into his care. His canoe is similar in
shape and size to the earthly Indian canoes, with the exception that if
one may note carefully that all the canoes contain in the bow a knob in
the center, some three feet back from the bow, which is the heart, and
they say it is the life of the boat. Also the canoe the Indians use is
burned inside and out, and polished smooth. The canoe that Pa-ga-rick
uses for the crossing of the souls is neither burned or polished and
has no heart, therefore it is called the dead boat, merm-ma. In olden
times no Indian would venture out in a boat upon the water that did not
contain a heart, as they said it was lifeless and would be sure to sink
or some disaster befall it. We call our canoe here on earth, Yatch.
Sye-elth [TN: lives?] just on the bank of this dark River of Death,
Char-reck-quick-werroy, where she gets the souls away from the dog.
She takes it to the water’s edge and gives it to the man in the dead
boat. He takes the soul into his canoe, paddles it across those
silent waters, the awful stillness, the awful fear of death. When
the canoe, Merm-mo or Nee-girk, either name, touches the opposite
shore, Po-ga-rick, takes the soul, o-quirlth, and banishes it into
exile, exile without an end or example in story, and leaves it in a
wilderness. In this wilderness it is damp, a constant gloom is cast,
dark and fearful clouds forever flit, cold winds forever howl and
shriek the agonies of hell.
In this terrible wildness, the souls of the condemned men and women
sustain their misery up on bitter berries, bitter grasses and roots,
and cannot die. They had never lived but a wasted life upon earth,
therefore they can wait to die, as souls never die. These wretched
souls since Time began, and I think the time is sad and heavy through
all the weary ages, since they go wandering, hallowing, moaning,
weeping and wailing, grieving grief without an end and suffering pain,
intense pain that knows no ending. Thus, Wah-pec-wah-mow, the Great God
has seen fit to punish his disreputable children until the judgment day.
Sye-elth, this old woman, is the satan of my people, Chish-yah, the
dog, is our Guardian Angel. This old woman is our evil doer who is
always trying to influence the Indians away from the path of rectitude.
She hovers about them in life unseen, seeking out their weak points,
that she may lead them evil ways and vindicate her cruel wants upon
their death by taking their souls down the broad path to the wilderness
of anguish. Fearing her powers, fearing the Unhappy Land, the Indians
struggle to live simple and peaceful lives and never quarrel over their
religion.
The wretched souls banished into the wilderness of anguish do not
quarrel with one another, as they are too wretched in their own agony
to concern themselves about others.
The Indian seeing a vision of the unhappy land tries to live the simple
and honest life, near to nature, and their nature’s God. However, there
is not a tribe however well guarded but some and sometimes many stray
afar from the path of rectitude and are lead into the wilderness of
anguish by their cruel Satan, Sye-elth.
My people believe that there will sometime come a chance for them to
become regenerated, or reborn, so that many of them will be given the
opportunity to recompensate for the wickedness of their former lives
and given a chance to live good clean lives in their second birth. Thus
given the opportunity by God when they die again, they will be rewarded
in going to Heaven, Werse-on-now. However, if the ones given the
opportunity of being saved, do not live lives of integrity after their
second birth, they are cast off and destroyed forever.
The Indians who had always lived the life of integrity on earth when
they die their soul or spirit travels a narrow and winding trail which
takes the soul to north, to a land far away from their native haunts.
This far northern clime is said to be the old land of Cheek-cheek-alth,
where the spirit finds a ladder that reaches from earth into Heaven. As
the spirit climbs the ladder to Heaven it reaches God on that infinite
shore where it dwells forever in flowery fields of light, straying
together with the Master in peace and love, and joining the spirits of
those that have gone before them.
Can you of the Christian faith comprehend why we take so kindly to your
own belief? Yet we think that ours is the most perfect and yet you call
us savage. We love our God almost akin to sadness and are always ready
with a prayer-offering, be it midday hour or in the hours of the silent
night. The Indian in all his savagery, could never blaspheme the sacred
name of his Creator in man’s builded houses, or in his daily life as
he is a child of nature, akin to nature’s God, that the Divine Being
is the beacon light of his soul, showing him life beyond the grave and
into the flowery fields of light and love, on that infinite shore, into
the glories of Heaven.
The Indian through his long centuries of barbarism battled with the
environments of barbaric man. In his child-like nature he taught his
sons and daughters to be kind, courageous, self-denying, industrious
and above all have integrity that could not be questioned. Fathers,
brothers and cousins guarded the mothers, daughters and sisters, that
not one of them may stray into a life of shame by the passions of
designing men. Woman was manifestly the upholder of her race, loved
as the unassuming creature, who gave to the race clean limbed and
vigorous men. But ah, the sad knell, the approach of civilized man,
and his crushing hand of debauchery to the sorrow of our race, and our
laws have long since been demolished, and with it our true religion,
our life blood, our all. Out of the gloom of saddened years, rising in
scattered remnants, who like the children of Israel that have lived
without a country for many weary centuries, we are struggling to gain
our own once more. Freedom to worship God in our own way and to be
allowed to become citizens of this our own glorious country.
When a illegitimate child was born, mother and child lived in disgrace
and after death could never reach the kingdom of Heaven, but traveled
that broad road which leads to the wilderness, being forever lost.
During their life the mother is always addressed as Caw-haw, a name
that reminds her always of her disgrace every time she is spoken to,
and the child is always reminded of its unwedded mother. Sometimes the
unfortunate mother may marry, but she is always known as Caw-haw as
long as she lives and can not take the name of the man she marries.
Those who sought unscrupulous brawls were low and disgraced, all
traveled after death the broad road to Satan and are never given an
opportunity to go to Werse-on-now. There are many of the miserable
souls who lived a wasted life on earth, only to enter in the Spirit
Land, the wilderness of anguish.
In marriage the wife takes the husband’s name and the husband takes
the wife’s name, just as an exchange of names and the family names are
handed down from one generation to another. This is done by giving the
name to a daughter, son, cousin, etc., either the mother or father’s
name on both sides of the family. Sometimes the generation dies out
and there are none left of a near kindred, in this case they sometimes
give the name to a close friend and this custom is followed more by the
high families. As an example, some years ago an old man lived in the
Pec-wan village, his name was Ta-poo-sen. He died some thirty years
ago, and at this writing a middle aged man is living in the Cor-tep
village who adopted his name after his death, and he is known to every
one as Ta-poo-sen. There are quite a number of Indians living at the
present time who have taken the names of deceased relatives or friends.
The deceased has been laid at rest for at least one year before any one
takes his or her name.
The Klamath Indians are very much prejudiced against one taking their
own life. They look down on the act, and if one should take his own
life, which we call o-motch-ser-mer-yer, there is no chance for them to
be saved and they go down the broad road that leads to the old woman
and she gives them over to the man in the boat and he takes them over
and leaves them in the wilderness where they live in misery until the
judgement day and then are destroyed forever, there being no salvation
for them and the family will be looked down upon for many generations
to come and held back in taking part in any of their social functions.
The children will be shunned by their playmates. The Indian seldom
commits suicide and will avoid self-destruction by wishing that some
wild animal will take them while they sleep, and of such cases they
tell some very weird and touching tales. There was a girl taken by a
wild animal of which reference is made in another chapter. Another was
a young man of good family belonging to the Pec-wan village and he
wanted to marry a girl of the upper division. The young woman refused
him and this nearly broke his heart, so he went back into the mountains
all alone and there he busied himself by trapping and hunting until
he had accumulated great riches of valuable furs and other things
and was there for a number of years when he returned to his home. He
never married and lived to be an old man and all the children called
him grandpa. As he became old he also became blind but the children
all loved him and any of them were always ready to lead him wherever
he wanted to go, and he was always ready to give blessings to the
newly married couples and to newly born babies. He always wanted to
visit where there was a new born baby. This old man would sweep and
keep clean the village, even down to the creek and river, feeling and
sweeping the whole day long and when he was tired some of the children
would lead him home, and he thus lived to a good old age. So this is
the way it would go in accordance with their belief in the hereafter.
A Klamath Indian would never commit suicide if there was any way to
prevent it on account of the stigma it would place on the family.
The Klamath Indian grave is made about two and a half feet deep. They
take redwood or Douglas spruce boards which they place in the oblong
square as they never nail or fasten the boards together. Placing one
wide board in the bottom and boards on each side with short ones fitted
in across the ends, the coffin is made ready to receive the corpse.
At the time of death the body is washed with the branches of the
wormwood dipped into a basket of water and brushed over the entire
body, never allowing their hands to touch the body at any time if it
can be avoided. After the body has been bathed in this manner it is
clothed in the regular clothing and laid out for burial, wrapped in a
blanket and placed on a wide plank where it is left for twenty-four
hours. After it has been laid out friends and relatives gather around
it in prayer, and the director of the funeral is given a large bunch
of flag grasses, which he takes in his hand and holds over the blaze
of the fire to ignite and with flaming grasses he stands over the
body waving it back and forth sprinkling the falling ashes over the
body. This is the final blessing given with solemn prayer, the same as
anointing the body with holy water.
The Indians remove the corpse from the house (the reasons being
explained in another chapter) by making an opening in the wall on the
left hand side of the door by which they go out, as they never carry
a corpse through the door. The personal belongings and bedding, also
the dishes he has used during his illness are taken out through this
opening upon the removal of the body and everything is burned in a
large fire made outside of the house.
With great ceremony and mourning the corpse is carried out of the house
on the same plank it was laid out on. At the grave they unroll the
corpse from the blanket, the clothing being cut open down the front,
the body washed again, this time without the removal of the clothing.
This final bath is a solution of the Ho-mon-nah roots pounded fine as
powder and then put into a basket of water. This shrub or plant is
much different from the wormwood, and it is considered one of their
best herbs for fumigation and disinfecting purposes. After the bath is
completed the body is again wrapped in the blanket and laid carefully
down in the grave. The funeral director, as before, burns a bunch
of flag grasses over the body, allowing the ashes to fall over the
remains. Articles they wish to place in the grave with the body are
put into the grave and the plank that the body was carried out on is
fitted into the top of the coffin as the top covering. Three or four
persons take part as pall-bearers in taking the body to the grave. The
body is laid with the head directly to the west as they say when the
judgement day comes all the Indians will rise up out of their graves
facing the rising sun, and those who are worthy will rise in glory to
the splendors of glory to the Heavenly Father above.
In this grave things of little value are placed, things usually
belonging to the deceased. When things of value are placed in the grave
it is broken up which destroys the value of the article.
The coffin is covered over with earth, and after this being completed
they take two stones about eighteen inches long by twelve inches wide,
one is placed at the head and the other one at the foot of the grave.
On the top of the stones directly in the middle of the grave they place
another wide plank about six feet long and eighteen inches wide.
Stakes are driven on each side of this plank in the middle and with a
rope of Indian make they tie the board to the stakes so it can not be
removed without some difficulty. After this has been completed some dry
sand is sprinkled around the grave and covering it completely to the
sides of the wide board, this is done so the Indians can immediately
detect if any one has molested the grave. The reason why the Indians
always have their grave-yards near the village or dwelling places is to
keep the wild animals away from the grave. Sometimes the mourners place
large baskets on the grave, sometimes two and often many more, there is
no certain number to use. They are turned upside down, close up to the
sides of the plank and on the ground around the grave. These baskets
are made secure by driving a stake through the center of them and into
the ground. On top of the plank they lay basket plates, also acorn
baskets. Around the grave a picket fence is made by driving the pickets
into the ground, a strong hazel withe is tied around them about twelve
inches below the tops. At the middle of the head and the foot of the
grave a strong post is driven into the ground that stands much higher
than the tops of the pickets. To these posts a cross-beam is fastened
or tied and on this a number of deer skins are hung. These skins are
dressed whole with the hair left on and the body and head are stuffed
with weeds. The head is elevated almost perpendicular with the body and
the legs are left hanging straight down. Some of the clothes that have
been worn by the deceased are also hung on this cross-beam which makes
quite a display and would lead one to believe very strongly that many
valuables were also placed in the grave.
During and after the burial is completed all the close relatives of
the deceased weep and wail mournful songs, saying good-bye child,
or calling out whatever relationship they were to the deceased. The
mournful wail of an Indian mourner is so intensely sad that the
surrounding sky and earth seem weeping with the sorrowful ones.
After the burial rites have been completed those who had taken part in
the burial go into the family sweat-house where they wash their entire
bodies from the basket of water containing the ho-mon-nah solution and
sweat themselves in the sweat-house. After this they all go to the
river taking the basket of solution with them and bathe with it in
the river. Upon returning to the house they all change their clothes
except the one who dug the grave and he puts on the same clothing
and wears it for five days longer before he is free from the burial
rites. His duty now is to kindle a fire which he keeps burning about
a couple of hours each evening close by the foot of the grave. This
fire is made between the hours when the first long shadows are cast
and the twilight gathers into the darkness of the night. They say the
flickering of the fire-light keeps them from seeing the O’quirlth, the
spirit of the departed one, which is said to hover over the grave and
around the home for five days after death. After five days have elapsed
the spirit departs either to Heaven or to the wilderness, according to
what kind of life the deceased has lived. The friends and relatives
of the deceased will weep, wail and pray that his spirit will go the
narrow road, to the old land, Cheek-cheek-alth, where it will find the
ladder and climb to Werse-on-now (Heaven). Sometimes a bitter enemy of
the deceased will pray and hope the departed spirit will go the road to
Sye-elth where she hands him over to the man in the dead boat where he
takes the spirit across the river and banishes it into the wilderness.
The light of the fire keeps the Indians from seeing the spirit when it
leaves the grave as they never wish to behold spirits. However, they
claim, in spite of their caution, the spirit is sometimes seen by the
Indians. They say when it leaves the body it looks like a shadow image
of the person passing off. They claim a photograph resembles the spirit
of the dead and the old Indians never want to look at it as they never
wish to be reminded of the spirit.
The walls and the floor of the room which the person used is scrubbed
every day with the ho-mon-nah solution, also whatever furniture there
is in the room is gone over very carefully with the disinfecting
process and is kept up for five days until the spirit departs. The
family lives in the same room as usual, but Cah-ma-tow, the grave
digger has his own separate bed in the room. He fixes a small board
for himself on which his meals are served separate from the family
and dines by himself. The morning of the fifth day he arises earlier
than usual, making a broom of the boughs of the Douglas spruce and
sweeps the floor of the house nice and clean. He burns the roots of
the ho-mon-nah which fumigates the house and with solution made of the
same plant he scrubs the floor and goes over all the wood-work in the
house for the last time. After this is finished he gathers up all the
things he has used during the five days, the baskets of solution, his
small board table, etc., and takes them all to the sweat-house. Here
he takes the solution and washes his hands and entire body and after
he has finished bathing he takes the baskets and clothes he has worn
up the hill away from the river to a thicket and hangs them all up in
a small tree, where he leaves them to the elements to decay. He then
comes back and sweats himself thoroughly, afterwards plunging into the
river and comes out cleansed of any foul disease he may have contracted
in handling the dead body.
The Indians get or hire any one who is willing to do the burial as it
is not necessary to be a relative or even a well known friend of the
family.
During the five days the opening in the house where the dead body was
taken out is left open as the family and friends never use or go near
the regular door of the house during this period. After five days have
elapsed the opening in the wall is sealed up tightly leaving no trace
that an opening was ever made in the wall. They never leave the gap
for another case as the Indian never wants to be reminded that another
death may occur in his household.
It has often been expressed by the white man that when a funeral is
held every man, woman and child in the village attends the funeral,
this is far from being true, not any more than the funeral of a white
man. Near friends and relatives of the deceased may attend while a
great many others in the village will go about as usual, not even
pretending to know that a funeral is being held. Of recent years the
white man is allowed to help with the burial if he chooses. Valuable
articles of the dead are not buried with them as is generally believed
by the white theologist, instead only mere trifles of either little or
no value placed in and upon the grave.
When an Indian is very wealthy or rich, and has a family of several
children he sometimes divides his fortune equally among them, of course
always making provision for his wife as long she lives and remains
single. Sometimes he has a favorite son or daughter to whom he leaves
his entire fortune, disinheriting his other children. The Indian legacy
is bequeathed to whom he chooses and his will cannot be broken. In
some cases the wife’s wealth is just as great or even greater than her
husband’s. She divides her wealth among her children as she chooses,
the same as her husband.
When husband and wife have been wedded a number of years and have
reared a large family, upon the death of the husband the wife cuts her
hair close to her head and burns it. She keeps her hair cut close to
her head and is called Ca-win until some one proposes marriage to her
when she lets it grow out to its natural length again. If she refuses
the offer of marriage, after her hair has grown over two inches in
length, she is addressed as Care-rep. This name explains itself, that
she is a widow and has had an offer of marriage but has refused it. The
sisters and daughters of a deceased man sometimes cut off a part of
their hair during their period of mourning for him.