siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

184 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 103
or presents so powerful temptations to those who are somewhat disposed to
give up to dissipation. It is connected with their mourning for the dead.
When a Choctaw dies, his friends set up a number of poles around the grave,
on which they hang hoops, wreaths, &c., for the spirit to ascend upon. Around
these poles the survivors of the family gather each day, at sunrise, noon, and
sunset, and there prostrating themselves, and uttering convulsive cries, mourn
for the deceased. This is continued during 30 or 40 days: then all the neighboring
people assemble, the poles are pulled up, and the mourning is ended
with feasting, drinking, and great disorder."
Christian opposition to this institution took form in the western
district in July of the same year in a public enactment by which the
custom was abolished " by a unanimous vote." ^° But it did not
come to an end even after the removal of the Choctaw west of the
Mississippi, as is shown by Gregg, who says
In burials, the civilized Choctaws follow the customs of the whites, but the
ruder classes still preserve their aborignial usages. According to these, a
painted pole with a flag is stuck up at the grave, which usually remains three
months. During this period they have regular mourning exercises every morn-
ing and evening ; and are always prompt to avail themselves, at any hour of the
day, of the assistance of any friend who may visit them to help them to weep.
At the end of the prescribed term, the friends of the bereft family attend a feast
at their house, and, after dancing all night, the next morning visit the grave
and pull down the pole ; which is called " the pole-pulling." After this all
mourning ceases, and the family is permitted to join in the usual amusements
and festivities of the tribe, which was not allowable before."
Henry C. Benson, a Methodist missionary, who was in the Choctaw
country between 1843 and 1845, gives the following " brief account "
of the burial rites at that period.
When the husband dies the friends assemble, prepare the grave, and place
the corpse in it, but do not fill it up. The gun, bow and arrows, hatchet and
knife are deposited in the grave. Poles are planted at the head and the foot,
upon which flags are placed ; the grave is then inclosed by pickets driven in the
ground. The funeral ceremonies now begin, the widow being the chief mourner.
At night and morning she will go to the grave, and pour forth the most piteous
cries and wailings. It is not important that any other member of the family
should take any very active part in the "cry," though they do participate to
some extent.
The widow wholly neglects her toilet, while she daily goes to the grave to
weep during one entire moon from the date when the death occurred. On the
evening of the last day of the moon the friends all assemble at the cabin of the
disconsolate widow, bring provisions for a sumptuous feast, which consists of
corn and jerked-beef boiled together in a kettle. While the supper is preparing
the bereaved wife goes to the grave, and pours out, with unusual vehemence,
her bitter wailings and lamentations. When the food is thoroughly cooked the
kettle is taken from the fire and placed in the center of the cabin, and the
friends gather around it, passing the buffalo horn-spoon from hand to hand
"^Miss. Herald, Dec, 1828 (vol. xxiv. No. 12), p. 381.
"Ibid., p. 153.
" Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, in Early Western Travels, ed. R. G. Thwaites, vol.
20. pp. 313-315.