The men blacken their
faces, and widows or bereaved parents sometimes gash their arms and
legs till they are covered with blood. Giving themselves up wholly
to their grief, they are no longer concerned about any earthly
possession, and often give away all that they have to the
first comers, even to their beds and their home. Finally, the
wailing for the dead is continued night and day to the point of
utter voicelessness; a musical, weird, and heart-piercing sound,
which has been compared to the, "keening" of the Celtic mourner.
The old-time burial of the Plains Indians was upon a scaffold
of poles, or a platform among the boughs of a tree--their only
means of placing the body out of reach of wild beasts, as they had
no implements with which to dig a suitable grave. It was prepared
by dressing in the finest clothes, together with some personal
possessions and ornaments, wrapped in several robes, and
finally in a secure covering of raw-hide. As a special mark of
respect, the body of a young woman or a warrior was sometimes laid
out in state in a new teepee, with the usual household articles and
even with a dish of food left beside it, not that they supposed the
spirit could use the implements or eat the food but merely as a
last tribute. Then the whole people would break camp and depart to
a distance, leaving the dead alone in an honorable solitude.
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