In the early days of the settlement of California, it seemed to
be the universal custom of the Indians along the foothills of the
Sierra Nevada range of mountains to burn the bodies of their
dead.
A suitable pile of readily combustible wood was prepared. The
body was taken charge of by persons chosen to perform the last
sacred rites, and firmly bound in skins or blankets, and then
placed upon the funeral pyre, with all the personal effects of
the deceased, together with numerous votive offerings from
friends and relatives. The chief mourners of the occasion seemed
to take but little active part in the ceremonies. When all was
ready, one of the assistants would light the fire, and the
terrible, wailing, mournful cry would commence, and the
professional chanters, with peculiar sidling movements and
frantic gestures, would circle round and round about the burning
pile. Occasionally, on arriving at the northwest corner of the
pile, they would stop, and, pointing to the West, would end a
crying refrain by exclaiming "_Him-i-la´-ha!_" When these
became exhausted, others would step in and take their places, and
thus keep up the mournful ceremony until the whole pile was
consumed.
After the pile had cooled, the charred bones and ashes were
gathered up, a few pieces of bone selected, and the remainder
buried. Of the pieces retained, some would be sent to distant
relatives, and the others pounded to a fine powder, then mixed
with pine pitch and plastered on the faces of the nearest female
relatives as a badge of mourning, to be kept there until it
naturally wore off. Every Indian camp used to have some of these
hideous looking old women in it in the "early days."
One principal reason for burning the bodies of the dead was the
belief that there is an evil spirit, waiting and watching for the
animating spirit or soul to leave the body, that he may get it to
take to his own world of darkness and misery. By burning the
perishable body they thought that the immortal soul would be more
quickly released and set free to speed to the happy spirit world
in the _El-o´-win_, or far distant West, while with their loud,
wailing cries the evil spirit was kept away.
The young women take great care of their long, shiny, black hair,
of which they all feel very proud, as adding much to their
personal beauty, and they seldom have it cut before marriage. But
upon the death of a husband the wife has her hair all cut off and
burned with his body, so that he may still have it in his future
spirit home, to love and caress as a memento of his living
earth-wife.
[Illustration: _Photograph by Boysen_.
OLD KALAPINE.
One of the oldest Indians in the Valley. The short hair is a
badge of widowhood.]
These Indians believe that everything on earth, both natural and
artificial, is endowed with an immortal spirit, which is
indestructible, and that whatever personal property or precious
gifts are burned, either with the body or in later years for the
departed friend's benefit, will be received and made use of in
the spirit world. In recent years the Yosemites and other
remnants of tribes closely associated with them, have adopted the
custom of the white people, and bury their dead. The fine,
expensive blankets, and most beautifully worked baskets, which
have been kept sacredly in hiding for many years, to be buried
with the owner, are now cut into small fragments before being
deposited in the ground, for fear some white person will
desecrate the grave by digging them up and carrying them away.
There are no people in the world who more reverence for their
dead, or hold memory more sacred, than these so-called "Digger"
Indians. After being released from the reservations they kept
themselves in abject poverty for many sacrificing their best
blankets, baskets and clothing in the devouring flames of a fire
kindled for that purpose, when holding their annual mourning
festivals in memory of their dead friends.