re
stated, their relatives chose at once to leave for some other place.
This objection to living in a lodge where a person has died is the
reason why their sick slaves are invariably carried out into the
woods, where they remain either to recover or die. There is,
however, no disputing the fact that an immense mortality has
occurred among these people, and they are now reduced to a mere
handful.

The great superstitious dread these Indians have for a dead person,
and their horror of touching a corpse, oftentimes give rise to a
difficulty as to who shall perform the funeral ceremonies; for any
person who handles a dead body must not eat of salmon or sturgeon
for thirty days. Sometimes, in cases of small-pox, I have known them
leave the corpse in the lodge, and all remove elsewhere; and in two
instances that came to my knowledge, the whites had to burn the
lodges, with the bodies in them, to prevent infection.

So, in the instances I have before mentioned, where we had buried
Indians, not one of their friends or relatives could be seen. All
kept in their lodges, singing and drumming to keep away the spirits
of the dead.

According to Bancroft[107]--

The Tlascaltecs supposed that the common people were after death
transformed into beetles and disgusting objects, while the nobler
became stars and beautiful birds.

The Mosquito Indians of Central America studiously and superstitiously
avoid mentioning the name of the dead, in this regard resembling those
of our own country.

Enough of illustrative examples have now been given, it is thought, to
enable observers to thoroughly comprehend the scope of the proposed
final volume on the mortuary customs of North American Indians, and
while much more might have been added from the stored-up material on
hand, it has not been deemed advisable at this time to yield to a desire
for amplification. The reader will notice, as in the previous paper,
that discussion has been avoided as foreign to the present purpose of
the volume, which is intended, as has been already stated, simply to
induce further investigation and contribution from careful and
conscientious observers. From a perusal of the excerpts from books and
correspondence given will be seen what facts are useful and needed; in
short, most of them may serve as copies for preparation of similar
material.

To assist observers, the queries published in the former volume are also