Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
The election is a very unofiicial affair, the members generally being
volunteers. The foreman, and if necessary one of the two members,
if there are no volunteers, are nominated, and usually, ipso facto,
elected. The chief of this company at the time of my stay was
yo-'ni;G9''ski ("bear coming out of the water"). (PI. 10, b.)
The coffin is made of roughly hewn boards or planks and its shape
shows unmistakable traces of white influence; it is sometimes covered
with black cloth, nailed down by tacks.
The office of "coffin maker" seems to be on the verge of extinction,
as I have known cases where they did not display any activity what-
ever. No particular cause could be indicated for this abstention, the
reason being merely that a half-blood member of the tribe had volunteered
for the job, and as he was a good carpenter, and did not
charge anything, his services were readily accepted by all concerned.
Burial
As soon as it is known that someone has died, the head man of the
"grave-digging company" is notified; he, in turn, gives notice to his
helpers, and the same day or the next day the grave is dug.
The gravediggers are a company of six volunteers acting under a
chief; the latter office at the time of my stay being held by one
Gi;la"'ci. They also are appointed for a year, and are elected in the
same manner as the coffin makers (cf. supra).
A medicine man should never serve as a member of either of these
companies, nor should he ever give assistance in anything pertaining
to the laying out or burying of a corpse; he should not wash it, nor
help to carry it to the grave, nor help to dig the grave.
Were he to disregard any of these injunctions he would never
again be able to cure or to exert any of his other activities.
If the wife of a member of the coffin-making or of the grave-digging
squad is wdth child he should desist from helping his fellows, as other-
wise his child would be stillborn. Nor should any one help to pre-
pare the coffin or the grave of a deceased member of his own family,
as already stated (p. 134).
The cemetery is usually situated along the slope of a hill. No
other reason for this custom is given but this one: That it prevents
the soil and the people buried in it from being washed away, or becom-
ing swamped, as would be the case if biirial places were chosen in
the lowlands. There is no preference, when choosing the site for a
new graveyard, for either the "dark" or the "sunny" side of the
mountain, which play so prominent a role in the Cherokee sacred
literature.
The burial usually takes place between midday and "when the
sun roosts on the mountain" (about 4 p. m.), i. e., about 2 p. m.