ng water furnished against the
incursions of animals, and coffin islands may be found at different
points around the coast. In Victoria harbor and the Arm both Coffin
Island and Deadman's Island were used for this purpose within the
memory of such old-time residents as Mr. R. T. Williams and Mr. Edgar
Fawcett. Mr. Williams, whose memory goes back to the fifties,
when he went to school from a shack on Yates Street opposite the site
of the present King Edward Hotel, believes Colville Island may also
have been used for this purpose as well, but distinctly remembers the
trees and scrub on Deadman's Island and the fire on it described in
the following account, which is kindly furnished by Mr. Fawcett. Mr.
Fawcett writes:

"Like the Egyptians of old, the Indians of this country had
professional mourners, that is, they acted as they did in Bible days.
The mourners, usually friends or members of the same tribe, assembled
as soon as the death was announced, and either inside or outside the
house they (mostly women, and old women at that) kept up a monotonous
howl for hours, others taking their places when they got tired. In
the early sixties an execution of four young Indians took place on
Bastion Square for a murder committed on the West Coast. All day and
night before the execution took place the women of the tribe squatted
on the ground in front of the jail, keeping up the monotonous howl or
chant, even up to the time the hangman completed his task. After
hanging the prescribed time, the murderers were cut down and handed
to their friends, who took them away in their canoes for burial. In
the earliest days, I don't think they used the regular coffin; the
common practice was to use boxes, and especially trunks. Of course
for a man or woman a trunk would be a problem to an undertaker, but
the Indian solved the problem easily, as they doubled the body up and
made it fit the trunk. For larger bodies a box was made of plank, but
I do not remember seeing one made the regulation length of six feet,
even for an adult, as they always doubled the knees under. A popular
coffin for small people was one of Sam Nesbitt's cracker boxes. He
was a well-known manufacturer of soda crackers and pilot bread, whose
place of business will be remembered by many old-timers at the corner
of Yates and Broad Streets.

"The Indians rarely dug graves for their dead, but hoisted them up in
trees, tying them to the branches, or merely laid them on the gro