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Show DIGGER INDIANS. Ceremonies at the Funeral of a Medicine Man. SHAKING HANDS WITH THE CORPSE. , A Wasteful Religious Duty The i "Preacher's" S-.rinon. When all were gathered at tho hut of mourning the services seemed to consist of a concert of wails, carried on principally princi-pally by tho women. The corpse, wrapped m a gray blanket, on a rude bier, was placed at a distance from the hut, and some of tho "big men" of the tribe made a bundle of the personal effects of the deceased, de-ceased, and proceeded to burn his hut, his wagon and all his household furnishings. Thero seemed to be a great deal of altercation alter-cation accompanying tho performance of this wasteful religious duty. When tho excitement was over the women went on wailing, while the young bucks went off to have a good time, shooting at marks and performing various feats of strength. It is the custom of the Indians to bury their dead at sunset, and the funeral procession started from the Big Spring only ln timo to reach the burying ground at that time. There was no discernible order to the cortege as it passed along the road for six miles, group after group going by us in mucu tne same lasnion as in me morning. There was no separate conveyance convey-ance for tho corpse; it was put in the bottom bot-tom of a wagon, even tipped up a little on one side to make room for tho mahala, who squatted besido it, wailing and swaying sway-ing her body back and forth. The Indian burial ground is a mound on the lower end of tho valley called Big Meadows, on the north fork of the Feather river. It covers buan-tly & " ground, and juts out abruptly into the valley, with a background of wooded mountain, and before It green stretches of the meadow land, with its winding i river. Here thoir dead have been buried j over since, the first habitation of the country, and although tho land is private property it will probably always be left to tho undisturbed possession of the Indians. ! Here a very deep ana long grave had. been dng, much largor than would be made for a white man, for it was to contain con-tain not only the corpse, but all of the personal effects which had not been burned. He was a medicine man, and was considered worthy of a coffin, and when the funeral procession arrived at the grave a well made pino coffin, manufactured manu-factured by a local carpenter, arrived from an opposite direction. The body was placed in it without removing the gray blanket covering the face. But the right hand was extricated from its covering cover-ing and all the men passed by it in lino and shook hands with the medicine man. Some gave the cold hand a hearty grip, but the touch of others was noticeably gingerly. Then the hand was covered again, and a young fellow dressed in a very stylish custom made suit of black took his place at tho foot of the coffin, solemnly wound a Bmall nickel plated alarm clock, set the alarm and placed it within tha coffin at the dead man's feet. The lid was closed, and the women gathered gath-ered around, rapping the coffin with their knuckles, passing their hands up and down over it, howling and moaning all the time. The grave was lined with new rush baskets, split up the sides and spread out flat, and upon this carpet the cothn, with much difficulty and many experiments, was safely deposited. Then the wails grew louder, and always the voices of the women wore heard above the rest. It Is impossible to describe that wailing. It was not concerted; every one seemed to be acting independently of the others; there was no attempt at tune, but every now and then the musical voice of a young girl, clear and high pitched, would lead in a sort of cadence, and the heavier voices joined in an incoherent dull cry. Tho women swayed their bodies from side to side, waving in the air little tufts of cedar which they tossed into the grave. smile and simper and duck their heads if they met tho gaze of any of tho white bystanders. Only ono of the women Bhed any tears, and she was the sister of the medicine man, quite an old woman, who stood at the head of the grave really cry-inc cry-inc behind a bic white handkerchief. There stood beside her an old buck, a most comical looking object, whose long locks were surmounted by a jaunty white straw hat, and whose bony figure was radiant in a red flannel miner's shirt and a pair of ragged gray trousers. He was "a kind of a preacher," one of the Indians said, and his loud vociferation and violent gestures were the only eulogies which were to console tho mourners and do honor to the virtues of the deceased. For he was the only medicine man in this part of California, and his death left the tribe unprotected against the ravages of rheumatism rheu-matism and consumption. We could not understand the Indian language, but a sturdy farmer's son by our side who has flicked up some of their vocabulary transited trans-ited for us what the preacher was saying: say-ing: "Injln doctor gono now; all Injins die. Sick here, here, here (pointing to head, lungs and heart). Die, die, never get well. Baby sick, no medicine, no got any better, pretty soon die." Then the mahalas, with their papooses on their backs, wailed louder, and the babies joined in the cry, aud tried in vain to fight awav the flies with their little fists. The preacher talked ou at intervals, describing the destitution of the tribe, and the skill and goodness of the departed doctor. Two blind mahalas stood on the edge of the grave, and every now and then had to be ! held back from slipping into the hole. Finally the preacher laid the dead man's ; bow and arrows on the coffin. Then a j roll of blankets was thrown in at the foot i of the coffin, and two large fur robes. Some mistake was evidently made in the selection of articles, for a loud voice of vituperation broke out from tho monotonous mon-otonous wailing, and a bed quilt, lined with turkey red calico, was hurled by that fierce old mahala with the short skirts, over the heads of the crowd back to the pile from which it had been taken. The old boots, a leather hunting bag and a pair of spring scales were laid in, and then all was ready for the earlh to bo shoveled in. The crowd did not disperse until nearly nightfall, and as long as wq oould see in the twilight there were still several black figures standing like sentinels sen-tinels at the grave. Cor. San Francisco Chronicle. |