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180 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 103
nessed the scene and heard the wailing thereof. Oft, in .the calm still hours of a
starry night, have I heard the dubious tones of a distant Choctaw Indian cry,
and as the disconnected sounds, borne upon the night breeze, floated by in
undulating tones, now plainly audible, then dying away in the distance, I must
confess there was a strange sadness awakened in my breast, unfelt and unknown
before or since. It must be heard to be comprehended. When the time
for the cry had expired, the mourning was exchanged for a previously prepared
feast; after the enjoyments afforded in the participation of whicli, all joined
in a jolly dance ; thus happily restoring the equilibrium so long physically and
mentally disturbed. Then each to his home returned, while the name of the
departed was recorded among the archives of the past—to be mentioned no more.
The relatives of the deceased, who lived at too great a distance to con-
veniently [come] to cry over the grave of the dead set up a post a short dis-
tance from the house, around which they gathered and cried alternately during
a period of twelve months."
Elsewhere he adds:
No people on earth paid more respect to their dead, than the Choctaws did
and still do ; or preserved with more affectionate veneration the graves of their
ancestors. They were to them as holy relics, the only pledges of their history
hence, accursed was he who should despoil the dead."
We find the following regarding the observances in the subsequent
period of mourning, on the authority of the Rev. Israel Folsom
Previous to a spirit winging its flight to the happy hunting ground, or the
land of briers and blasted foliage, it was supposed to hover around the place
where its tabernacle lay for several days—four at least. They believed that
the happy hunting ground was at a distance of many days journey. When a
person died, provision was prepared for the journey under the supposition
that the departed spirit still possessed hunger. Upon the death of a man, his
dog was killed, that its spirit might accompany that of its master. Ponies,
after they were introduced, were also killed, that the spirit might ride. They
believed that all animals had spirits. During four days a fire was kept
kindled a few steps in front of the wigwam of the deceased, whether the
weather was cold or hot. They imagine^], that if the spirit found no fire
kindled in that manner for his benefit, it would become exceedingly distressed
and angry, especially when the night was cold, dark and stormy. A bereaved
mother, on the loss of her child, would kindle up a fire and sit by it all night.
The wife on the loss of a husband performed the same vigil. In either case
a rest in sleep was denied. For six months or more, in case of the death of
a chief, the sorrowing and mourning relations indicated their grief in many
ways. The men, in the early part of their time of mourning, remained silent
and subdued, ate very sparingly, and abstained from all kinds of amusements,
and from decking themselves out in their usual manner ; the women did the
same, with this difference, that they remained at home prostrated with grief
their hair streaming over their shoulders, unoiled and undressed, being seated
on skins close to the place of burial or sacred fire. They not unfrequently
broke the silence of sadness by heart piercing exclamations expressive of
their grief. For a long time they would continue to visit the grave regularly
morning and evening to mourn and weep.""
« Cushman, Hist. Iiuls., pp. 20;i-204.
*^Ibid., p. 246.
* Ibid., pp. 363-364. Consult also the notes on burial in Lincecum's migration
legend, p. 20.