ad their duties to perform. In
conformity with a long-established custom, all the personal property
of the deceased is immediately destroyed. His horses and his cattle
are shot, and his wigwam, furniture, &c., burned. The performance of
this part of the ceremonies is assigned to the men; a duty quite in
accord with their taste and inclinations. Occasionally the
destruction of horses and other properly is of considerable
magnitude, but usually this is not the case, owing to a practice
existing with them of distributing their property among their
children while they are of a very tender age, retaining to
themselves only what is necessary to meet every-day requirements.

The widow "goes into mourning" by smearing her face with a substance
composed of pitch and charcoal. The application is made but once,
and is allowed to remain on until it wears off. This is the only
mourning observance of which I have any knowledge.

The ceremonies observed on the death of a female are the same as
those in the case of a male, except that no destruction of property
takes place, and of course no weapons are deposited with the corpse.
Should a youth die while under the superintendence of white men, the
Indians will not as a role have anything to do with the interment of
the body. In a case of the kind which occurred at this agency some
time ago, the squaws prepared the body in the usual manner; the men
of the tribe selected a spot for the burial, and the employee at the
agency, after digging a grave and depositing the corpse therein,
filled it up according to the fashion of civilized people, and then
at the request of the Indians rolled large fragments of rocks on
top. Great anxiety was exhibited by the Indians to have the employes
perform the service as expeditiously as possible.

Within the past year Ouray, the Ute chief living at the Los Pinos
agency, died and was buried, so far as could be ascertained, in a rock
fissure or cave 7 or 8 miles from the agency.

An interesting cave in Calaveras County, California, which had been used
for burial purposes, is thus described by Prof. J. D. Whitney:[27]

The following is an account of the cave from which the skulls, now
in the Smithsonian collection, were taken: It is near the Stanislaus
River, in Calaveras County, on a nameless creek, about two miles
from Abbey's Ferry, on the road to Vallicito, at the house of Mr.
Robinson. T