siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

194 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BtJLL.103
the pole-pullers respond with their exclamations in both cases, the same
number as at first.
All this is repeated by both parties the third time, and then the fourth and
last time. The pole-pullers now perform their office. They take up the poles,
bear them erect for some distance, then lower them to a horizontal position and
deposit them in a thicket or behind a log. As the pole-pullers start off from
the grave nearly all the prostrate crowd arise to their feet, their tears cease to
flow, and their wailing comes to an end. The mourning family, however, from
a sense of propriety, still remain for some minutes longer weeping over the
grave. Finally, they, too, arise and the crowd gradually scatter over the ground.
After a while, an old woman of the iksa opposite to that of the dead comes
forward with a pair of scissors in her hand, and cuts off a single lock of hair
from the heads of the women of the mourning family. An old man, likewise of
the opposite iksa, in the same manner, approaches the males of the mourning
family and trims off their long hair. These are the last ceremonies in the
funeral obsequies of the Choctaws. The time of mourning has now passed. All
now gradually leave the ground. The mourners on their return home can
resume their usual dress and ornaments and take up again their free and easy
Indian life. The custom of clipping a single lock of hair from the heads of the
mourning women and girls still prevails to some extent, but trimming the hair
of the men and boys became obsolete about twenty years ago (i. e., about 1880).
Strictly speaking, about the same time, the custom of the men's letting their
hair remain unshorn and the women going barefoot during the period of mourning
became obsolete. Also, to a great extent, the disuse of ornaments during
the mourning season. As stated, the cry over, all return to their homes. There
was no breakfast on the ground at the cries of many years ago, but the modern
innovation requires that all must leave the funeral ground with a full stomach.
Such is the manner, from beginning to end, in which the Choctaws of Missis-
lippi are wont to perform the funeral obsequies over their dead. But, to be
rary accurate in these matters, it is best to say that, excepting the barbecued
"snlson feature, the above is a correct description of the Choctaw funeral ceremonies
in nearly all the Choctaw communities down to about 1883. Since that
year the introduction of Christianity and education have wrought a great revolution
in tlie ideas and usages of the Choctaws. One custom after another has
gradually passed out of use. The last pole-pulling that occurred in the Moka-
lusha clan was in February, 1885. The custom lingered some years longer
among the Bogue Chito Indians, but perhaps now has passed out of use everywhere.
In some localities poles with streamers attached are still planted
around the grave, but there is no pole-pulling. The cry with some of the old
ceremonies still prevails to some extent, especially in the non-Christianized
communities, notably among the Bogue Chito Indians, who, of all our Missis-
sippi Indians, most closely resemble the old-time Choctaws. In the Christianized
communities there are graveyards near their churches, where they bury their
dead, or try to bury them, after the manner of white people. Many Choctaws
of the Christianized element are very averse to any usage that, to their view,
savors of their old time heatheni.sm. The revolution still goes onward.'^
RELIGION AND MEDICINE
Supernatural Bei^^gs
Some early writers, and in later times Cushman and Bushnell,
report that the Choctaw believed in a great good spirit and a great
«»Halbert in Pubs. Miss. Hist. Soc, iii, pp. 353-.S66, 1900.