Texts of the North American Indian

Writings of E.S. Curtis
Excerpts from "The North American Indian" Set #254, Vol. 8

THE CHINOOKAN TRIBES (cont'd)

As daylight approached, the request of the ghost might grow insistent, and then the two men took a sprig of rose-bush and repeatedly struck the ground close beside the body. Then the insistence ceased, but later it might begin again, in which event the man at the head of the body rose and asked the people to stop singing. "We are having trouble," he would say. "This dead person is asking for something. Wait until I get through; I am going to sing." He then sang his own medicine-song, it being peculiarly appropriate in controlling the soul of the departed. "If we are not careful," he admonished the people, "some one who lives in this house will die." The man at the feet of the body then stood and sang one or two of his songs, and said: "It is true, what this man said. I know it, too. You may start again to sing, but be very careful." If there were any shadowy spot beside the body, it was believed that this space sheltered the spirit. The two men, after thus quieting the ghost, now sat down in the shadowy places, and if the complaint of the spirit came again, they struck these spots with sprigs of rose-bush. This continued until full daylight, when the body was laid in the centre of the house, and the relatives danced round it in a circle, not shoulder to shoulder, but single file, moving forward.

A short time after sunrise this ceased, and preparations were made for carrying out the body. If it were very heavy, two more iyáhihhlihlih were engaged. The corpse was carried out head foremost, the friends and relatives following, and was taken to the river's edge, where it was placed in a canoe, in which the two attendants embarked. Their destination was the island of the dead some three miles up the river, and as the paddles struck the water, the wailing of the mourners rent the air. When the canoe reached the shore, the iyáhihhlihlih carried the body into the house, placed it on top of the remains of those previously deposited there, barred the slab door into position and bound it with twisted hazel-brush, and returned to their canoe.

In former times the house of the dead was on the bluff back of the village, but about the year 1840, because the bodies were being stripped of valuables by the Wishham themselves, a house was erected on the island, where since that time the dead have been laid away. The killing of slaves at funerals was not unknown to the Wishham. When such a sacrifice was to be made, the hands of the victim were bound behind his back and a fellow slave stabbed him in the presence of the assembled people. The body was deposited at the foot of the bluff.

For ten days the relatives mourned, crying aloud from shortly before sunrise until the middle of the morning, ceasing then for about an hour, and wailing again until mid-afternoon, when they washed their faces and ate. The immediate relatives continued mourning in this way for five days after the customary ten, and about a month passed before they resumed their normal demeanor. Even in the case of a still-born child the family mourned five days. A widow remained in the house concealed behind a screen for about twenty-five days, coming out only at night. Either before the body was taken to the burial house or after the return of the party, her hair was tied close to the head at each side, and cut close to the thongs that bound it. Self-torture was not practised, and no food was placed with the body.

A widow or widower gave away to relatives, friends, and all others who attended the burial ceremony, gifts varying in value according to the closeness of the relationship or the friendship, and somewhat according to the apparent sincerity of their grief. What remained was distributed by a relative of the deceased among the surviving members of his immediate family. A year, or possibly less, after the burial a man was hired to gather the bones, wrap them up in a skin, and leave them in the burial house; and again friends and relatives were invited to the house, and each received a present. The collecting of the bones was never omitted; but sometimes the remains of two or more relatives were wrapped together in a single bundle. The following song was used on such an occasion by a certain man possessing the right to act in this capacity.

EDWARD S. CURTIS