Gymnastic exercises, dignified with this name, upon the occasion of a
death or funeral, were common to many tribes. It is thus described by
Morgan: [Footnote: League of the Iroquois, 1851, p. 297.]
"An occasional and very singular figure was called the 'dance for the
dead' It was known as the O-he-wa. It was danced by the women alone.
The music was entirely vocal, a select band of singers being stationed
in the center of the room. To the songs for the dead which they sang
the dancers joined in chorus. It was plaintive and mournful music.
This dance was usually separate from all councils and the only dance
of the occasion. It commenced at dusk or soon after and continued
until towards morning, when the shades of the dead who were believed
to be present and participate in the dance were supposed to disappear.
This dance was had whenever a family which had lost a member called
for it, which was usually a year after the event. In the spring and
fall it was often given for all the dead indiscriminately, who were
believed then to revisit the earth and join in the dance."
The interesting account which now follows is by Stephen Powers,
[Footnote: Cont. to North American Ethnol., 1878, iv, p. 164.] and
relates to the Yo-kai-a of California, containing other matters of
importance pertaining to burial.
"I paid a visit to their camp four miles below Ukiah, and finding
there a unique kind of assembly-house, desired to enter and examine
it, but was not allowed to do so until I had gained the confidence of
the old sexton by a few friendly words and the tender of a silver half
dollar. The pit of it was about 50 feet in diameter and 4 or 5 feet
deep, and it was so heavily roofed with earth that the interior was
damp and somber as a tomb. It looked like a low tumulus, and was
provided with a tunnel-like entrance about 10 feet long and 4 feet
high, and leading down to a level with the floor of the pit. The mouth
of the tunnel was closed with brush, and the venerable sexton would
not remove it until he had slowly and devoutly paced several times to
and fro before the entrance.
"Passing in I found the massive roof supported by a number of peeled
poles painted white and ringed with black and ornamented with rude
devices. The floor was covered thick and green with sprouting wheat,
which had been scattered to feed the spirit of the captain of the
tribe, lately deceased. Not long afterward a deputation of the Senel
came up to condole with the Yo-kai-a on the loss of their chief, and a
dance or series of dances was held which lasted three days. During
this time of course the Senel were the guests of the Yo-kai-a, and the
latter were subjected to a considerable expense. I was prevented by
other engagements from being present, and shall be obliged to depend
on the description of an eye-witness, Mr. John Tenney, whose account
is here given with a few changes.
"There are four officials connected with the building, who are
probably chosen to preserve order and to allow no intruders. They are
the assistants of the chief. The invitation to attend was from one of
them, and admission was given by the same. These four wore black vests
trimmed with red flannel and shell ornaments. The chief made no
special display on the occasion. In addition to these four, who were
officers of the assembly-chamber, there was an old man and a young
woman, who seemed to be priest and priestess. The young woman was
dressed differently from any other, the rest dressing in plain calico
dresses. Her dress was white covered with spots of red flannel, cut in
neat figures, ornamented with shells. It looked gorgeous and denoted
some office, the name of which I could not ascertain. Before the
visitors were ready to enter, the older men of the tribe were
reclining around the fire smoking and chatting. As the ceremonies were
about to commence, the old man and young woman were summoned, and,
standing at the end opposite the entrance, they inaugurated the
exercises by a brief service, which seemed to be a dedication of the
house to the exercises about to commence. Each of them spoke a few
words, joined in a brief chant, and the house was thrown open for
their visitors. They staid at their post until the visitors entered
and were seated on one side of the room. After the visitors then
others were seated, making about 200 in all, though there was plenty
of room in the center for the dancing.
"Before the dance commenced the chief of the visiting tribe made a
brief speech, in which he no doubt referred to the death of the chief
of the Yo-kai-a, and offered the sympathy of his tribe in this loss.
As he spoke, some of the women scarcely refrained from crying out, and
with difficulty they suppressed their sobs. I presume that he proposed
a few moments of mourning, for when he stopped the whole assemblage
burst forth into a bitter wailing, some screaming as if in agony. The
whole thing created such a din that I was compelled to stop my ears.
The air was rent and pierced with their cries. This wailing and
shedding of tears lasted about three or five minutes, though it seemed
to last a half hour. At a given signal they ceased, wiped their eyes,
and quieted down.
"Then preparations were made for the dance. One end of the room was
set aside for the dressing-room. The chief actors were five men, who
were muscular and agile. They were profusely decorated with paint and
feathers, while white and dark stripes covered their bodies. They were
girt about the middle with cloth of bright colors, sometimes with
variegated shawls. A feather mantle hung from the shoulder, reaching
below the knee; strings of shells ornamented the neck, while their
heads were covered with a crown of eagle feathers. They had whistles
in their mouths as they danced, swaying their heads, bending and
whirling their bodies; every muscle seemed to be exercised, and the
feather ornaments quivered with light. They were agile and graceful as
they bounded about in the sinuous course of the dance.
"The five men were assisted by a semicircle of twenty women, who only
marked time by stepping up and down with short step; they always took
their places first and disappeared first, the men making their exit
gracefully one by one. The dresses of the women were suitable for the
occasion. They were white dresses trimmed heavily with black velvet. The
stripes were about three inches wide, some plain and others edged like
saw-teeth. This was an indication of their mourning for the dead chief
in whose honor they had prepared that style of dancing. Strings of
haliotis and pachydesma shell beads encircled their necks, and around
their waists were belts heavily loaded with the same material. Their
head-dresses were more showy than those of the men. The head was
encircled with a bandeau of otters' or beavers' fur, to which were
attached short wires standing out in all directions, with glass or shell
beads strung on them, and at the tips little feather flags and quail
plumes. Surmounting all was a pyramidal plume of feathers, black, gray,
and scarlet, the top generally being a bright scarlet bunch, waving and
tossing very beautifully. All these combined gave their heads a very
brilliant and spangled appearance.
"The first day the dance was slow and funereal, in honor of the Yo-
kai-a chief who died a short time before. The music was mournful and
simple being a monotonous chant in which only two tones were used,
accompanied with a rattling of split sticks and stamping on a hollow
slab. The second day the dance was more lively on the part of the men,
the music was better, employing airs which had a greater range of tune
and the women generally joined in the chorus. The dress of the women
was not so beautiful as they appeared in ordinary calico. The third
day if observed in accordance with Indian custom the dancing was still
more lively and the proceedings more gay just as the coming home from
a Christian funeral is apt to be much more jolly than the going out."
A Yo-kai-a widow's style of mourning is peculiar. In addition to the
usual evidences of grief she mingles the ashes of her dead husband
with pitch making a white tar or unguent, with which she smears a band
about two inches wide all around the edge of the hair (which is
previously cut off close to the head) so that at a little distance she
appears to be wearing a white chaplet.
It is their custom to feed the spirits of the dead for the space of
one year by going daily to places which they were accustomed to
frequent while living, where they sprinkle pinole upon the ground. A
Yo-kai-a mother who has lost her babe goes every day for a year to
some place where her little one played when alive or to the spot where
the body was burned and milks her breasts into the air. This is
accompanied by plaintive mourning and weeping and piteous calling upon
her little one to return and sometimes she sings a hoarse and
melancholy chant and dances with a wild ecstatic swaying of her body.