104 BRITISH COLUMBIA.

METHODS OF DISPOSING OF THE DEAD.

These were numerous; indeed so diversified were the burial customs among
these various peoples that no generalization is possible. Among the Haida,
Kwakiutl, and Nootka, it was usual to fold the body in a chest with the knees
drawn up to the chin, and to place this chest high up in a tree made inaccessible
by the removal of the lower branches. But the Haida frequently enclosed this
chest in the hollowed lower portion of a big hewn cedar, the aperture being closed
with a board usually carved with the crest of the deceased person. In other cases
a platform might be erected, supported by heavy posts, which could accommodate
the coffins of several members of the family. Or a house built on the same plan
as a dwelling, wherein were disposed the bodies of a Chief and his near relatives;
the pole at the entrance being elaborately carved with his crests. (Plate Xe)

The Tsimshians cremated a Chief or a shaman, after placing the body in a
chest from which the bottom was removed before it was laid on the funeral pyre.
The heart was also withdrawn before the body was entirely consumed, otherwise
it was believed that all the relatives of the deceased would soon die. Commoners
were buried in the ground, as nearer to the regions below, which were their fate;
and the bodies of slaves were usually thrown into the sea. ‘Their owners treated
them merely as chattels to sacrifice or otherwise dispose of as they willed.
Families of high rank were at liberty to kill a slave at the decease of one of its
members; more rarely a favourite might be given his freedom.

The complicated burial customs of the Kwakiutl combined those employed by
their neighbours on either side and included burning food for the dead and also
their personal possessions, which were believed by this means to become available
for their use in the unknown life to which they passed; this custom was followed
by the Bella Coola and Coast Salish. Grave-posts or crest-poles were also erected
to the memory of the deceased person.

It was a Coast custom to display the body of a Chief or very wealthy person
after death dressed in his ceremonial robes and surrounded with his household
utensils, personal property, and other evidences of his wealth. Spectators’ from
far and near were admitted to see the body and all the inmates of the house fasted
meanwhile. Burial did not take place until evidences of decomposition set in,
prior to which a shaman conducted many ceremonies.

The Coast Salish and Bella Coola used grave-boxes, raising them on grave-
posts or in trees; and the latter carved the crest of the dead on a memorial pole.
This method of burial was also customary among that portion of the Lillooet
tribe most influenced by Coast customs. Their grave-boxes were made of cedar
planks raised on four corner posts, above which was a cedar-bark roof. A me-
morial pole was often erected near the grave-box, in front of which rows of
wooden figures, carved and painted to resemble the dead man, were often placed.

The Lower Lillooet, on the contrary, merely tied the body in a sitting posture
and covered it with stones, graded in size from very large to quite small. The
‘Thompson tied their dead chin to the knees, rolling them in skin robes or in
mats, and burying the body in a shallow circular hole, previously swept out to
remove evil influences and then lined with birch bark. The personal possessions
of the dead were buried with them; stones or a conical hut being placed over the
grave. The horses and dogs of their late owner were strangled and hung near
his grave. Sometimes, however, several bodies would be thrown into a large
box or merely raised from the ground on a staging.

The Kootenay were careless in their methods of burial, merely placing their
dead with their personal ornaments in shallow holes roughly covered with rocks