ON THE NORTH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 91

him all the property he carries. The latter distributes this property
among the whole tribe according to the contributions everyone has
made. Then the young couple remove to the young man’s family, and
before leaving her father’s house the bride is fitted out with presents in
the same way as the young man was when he came to reside with her
family. This is a present to the young man’s father, who also distributes
it among the tribe. Marriages between cousins were not forbidden.

When a person died at the village the body was tied up in sitting
posture, the knees being bent to the chin, and the arms tied together.
A grave was dug, and its sides were rubbed with thorn bushes. Then
the body was buried, and a number of poles were erected over the grave
in the shape of a conical hut. The sand inside and around the hut was
carefully smoothed. If on one of the following days tracks were seen
in the hut, the being--animal or man—to whom they belonged would be
the next to die. If after a while the sand should be blown away, the
bones were buried again. Wherever they find human bones they clean
them and bury them thinking that others may do the same to their own
relatives. When a person died far from home, for instance on a hunting
expedition, the body was burnt, and the charred bones were carried home
to be buried at the native village of the deceased. The report that the
bones of the dead were washed regularly, which has been made by
several travellers, seems to rest on these facts. No carved figures were
placed over the graves, as was the custom on the Lower Thompson River.
At the burial or the burning of the body, slaves, hounds, and horses of
the deceased were killed. His favourite slaves were buried alive; the
horses were eaten by the mourners, to whom a feast was spread on the
grave. In some cases the uncle or nephew of the deceased would kill a
number of his own slaves at the grave. Winter provisions, prepared by
a woman before her death, were brrnt. The clothes of a dead person
must be washed before being used again.

A year after the death of a person his relatives collected a large
amount of food and clothes, and gave a new feast on the grave. This
was the end of the mourning period, and henceforth they tried to forget
the deceased. At this feast his son adopted his name.

The relatives of a dead person during the mourning period must. not
eat deer, salmon, or berries, as else the deer and salmon would be driven
away, and the berries would spoil. ‘Their diet is confined to dried veni-
son and fish. They cut their hair, and keep it short for one year, until
the final feast is given. They must avoid touching their heads except
with a stick or acomb. Names of deceased persons must not be men-
tioned during the mourning period. Men as well as women mast go
every morning to the river, wail, and bathe. When a man or a woman
dies, the widow or widower is kept asa captive in the house of a brother-
in-law. As soon as the mourning period, which in this case is particu-
larly strict, is at an end, the widower must marry a sister or the nearest
relative of his dead wife; the widow is married to her dead husband’s
brother, or to his nearest relative.!

Widows or widowers have to observe the following mourning regula-

1 The mourning ceremonies of the Shushwap are evidently greatly influenced by
those of their northern neighbours, the Carriers, which have been described by the
Rev, A. G. Morice in the Proceedings of the Canadian Institute, 1889. The strictness
of the levirate and the ceremonies celebrated at the grave are almost the same in
both cases.

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