Almost all savage and barbarous peoples look upon death as due to bad
spirits, to witchcraft, or to violence. They cannot realize that men
should die of old age. Disease is generally thought to be due to bad
spirits or to the influence of some medicine man.
After a man dies there are many ways of treating the body. Usually the
face is painted almost as if the person were preparing for a feast or a
dance. The Otoes and many other tribes dress out the body in its choicest
clothing and finest ornaments.
Probably burial in the ground is the commonest way of disposing of the
dead body. The exact method varies. The grave may be deep, or it may be so
shallow as hardly to be a grave at all. The body may be laid in extended
to its full length, or it may be bent and folded together into the
smallest possible space, and tied securely in this way. Great attention is
frequently given to the direction toward which the face or the body is
turned. Among some tribes it makes no difference whether the earth touches
the body; in others the greatest care is taken to prevent this.
The Sacs and Foxes in Iowa have their graveyards on the side of a hill,
high above the surrounding country. The graves are shallow; the body,
wrapped in blankets, is laid out at full length; little, if any, earth is
thrown directly upon the body, but a little arched covering made of poles
laid side by side, lengthwise of the body, is built over it, and a little
earth may be thrown upon it. A pole is set at the head of the grave to the
top of which is hung a bit of rag or a little cloth, the flapping of
which, perhaps, keeps off bad spirits. Various objects are laid upon the
grave: for men, bottles, and perhaps knives; for women, buckets and pans,
such as are used in their daily work; for little children, the baby-boards
on which they used to lie, and the little toys of which they were fond.
Sometimes grave-boxes were made of slabs of stone. Such are known in
various parts of the United States, but are most common in Tennessee,
where ancient cemeteries, with hundreds of such graves, are known. (See
XV. Mounds and their Builders.) Sometimes the bodies of those lately dead
were buried in these, but sometimes there were placed in them the dry
bones of people long dead, who had been buried elsewhere, or whose bodies
had been exposed for a time on scaffolds or in dead-houses. Among several
northeastern tribes it was the custom to place the bodies for some time in
dead-houses, or temporary graves, and at certain times to collect together
all the bones, and bury them at once in some great trench or hole.
Most tribes buried objects with the dead. With a man were buried his bow
and arrows, war-club, and choicest treasures. The woman was accompanied by
her ornaments, tools, and utensils. Even the child had with it its little
toys and cradle, as we have seen in connection with the Sacs and Foxes.
The Indians believed that people have souls which live somewhere after the
men die. These souls hereafter delight to do the same things the men did
here. There they hunt, and fish, and war, work and play, eat and drink. So
weapons and tools, food and drink, were placed with the body in the grave.
They knew perfectly well that the _things_ do not go away; they believed,
however, that things have souls, as men do, and that it is the soul of the
things that goes with the soul of the man into the land of spirits. Among
tribes that are great horsemen, like the Comanches, a man’s ponies are
killed at his death. His favorite horse, decked out in all his trappings,
is killed at the grave, so that the master may go properly mounted. When a
little child among the Sacs and Foxes dies, a little dog is killed at the
grave to accompany the child soul, and help the poor little one to find
its way to the spirit world. Such destruction or burial of property may be
very nice for the dead man’s soul, but it is not nice for the man’s
survivors, who are sometimes quite beggared by it.
Sometimes the objects put into or upon a grave are broken, pierced, or
bent. The purpose in thus making the objects “dead” has sometimes been
said to be to set free the soul of the object; far more frequently, it is
likely that it is to prevent bad persons robbing the grave for its
treasures.
Cremation or burning the dead body was found among a number of Indian
tribes, particularly upon the Pacific Coast. The Senel in California and
some Oregon tribes are among these. So are the Tlingit of Alaska and their
near neighbors and kin, the Haida of Queen Charlotte Islands. Among the
last two tribes all but the Shamans were usually burned. The Shamans were
buried in boxes raised on tall posts. After a Tlingit or Haida body was
burned the ashes were usually gathered and placed in a little box-like
cavity excavated in an upright post near its base; at the top of this post
was a cross-board on which was carved or painted the _totem_ or crest of
the dead man.
Where there were great caves (as in Kentucky), and where the people dwelt
in caverns (as at one time in the Southwest), the dead were often laid
away in some corner of the cave. In almost all such cases the body was
folded into the smallest space, with the knees drawn up against the chin;
it was then wrapped up in blankets and robes and corded. Such bodies were
generally not buried, but simply stowed away. These dried bodies are
sometimes called “mummies,” but that name should only be used when
something has been done to the body with the definite purpose of
preserving it.
[Illustration.]