Identifier: britishnorthamer00hill (find matches)
Title: British North America: I. The far West, the home of the Salish and Déné
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Hill-Tout, Charles, 1858-1944
Subjects: Salishan Indians Tinne Indians
Publisher: Toronto, Copp Clark Co.
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
rpse which they have been watching, to dresstheir hair, put on their beads and other ornaments, andgenerally to make themselves attractive in view offuture husbands. Those who take part in the cere-mony of burning the bones are paid handsomely fortheir services. Four men, as a rule, are engaged forthis purpose. These men have to live apart from therest for two moons after the cremation, because oftheir contact with the corpse. In some tribes the corpse was placed in a coffin-boxwhich was supported upon a staging of boughs, anda knife, bow and arrows, a flint fastened to a stick,a stone to strike it on to make fire, a piece of the fungusthat grows on the bark of the birch-tree for tinder,and some touchwood were placed with the body.These were for the use of the ghost of the dead man. Among the Carriers a roof-like shelter of barkcovered the corpse, by the side of which the widowwould erect for herself and children a small hut ofsimilar form and material. From the moment of her Plate 2!
Text Appearing After Image:
PAoo 6j C. VV, Matheri, Vancouver, B.C. To face page 196 SOCIAL CUSTOMS 197 husbands death till the last course of the ceremoniesheld in honour of his memory, two to three years later,she was virtually the slave of her brothers-in-law, oneof whom would at once cut her hair to the roots, andtake care that the operation was renewed wheneverneeded, as a badge and sign of the abject condition ofher widowhood. She was also obliged to wear raggedclothes, and, if she was young and likely to re-marrywhen her period of mourning was over, she was con-strained to besmear her features with pitch and dirtlest her guardians should suspect her of thoughtsand desires unbefitting her present condition. A funeral pyre was built for the cremation feast bymen of some other clan than that of the dead man onthe outskirts of the village. When the corpse wasplaced upon this and the flames kindled, custom de-manded that the widow should attempt to embraceand throw herself upon it, and though she was notpermit

Note About Images