It hints at the additional fact that the Nishinams to this day set
great store by the moon, consider it their benefactor in a hundred
ways and observe its changes for a hundred purposes.
Another myth regarding cremation is given by Adam Johnston in
Schoolcraft[49] and relates to the Bonaks, or root-diggers:
The first Indians that lived were coyotes. When one of their number
died the body became full of little animals or spirits, as they
thought then. After crawling over the body for a time they took all
manner of shapes, some that of the deer, others the elk, antelope,
etc. It was discovered however, that great numbers were taking wings
and for a while they sailed about in the air, but eventually they
would fly off to the moon. The old coyotes or Indians, fearing the
earth might become depopulated in this way, concluded to stop it at
once and ordered that when one of their people died the body must be
burnt. Ever after they continued to burn the bodies of deceased
persons.
Ross Cox gives an account of the process as performed by the Tolkotins
of Oregon:[50]
The ceremonies attending the dead are very singular and quite
peculiar to this tribe. The body of the deceased is kept nine days
laid out in his lodge and on the tenth it is buried. For this
purpose a rising ground is selected, on which are laid a number of
sticks, about 7 feet long, of cypress, neatly split and in the
interstices, placed a quantity of gummy wood. During these
operations invitations are dispatched to the natives of the
neighboring villages requesting their attendance at the ceremony.
When the preparations are perfected, the corpse is placed on the
pile, which is immediately ignited and during the process of
burning, the bystanders appear to be in a high state of merriment.
If a stranger happen to be present they invariably plunder him, but
if that pleasure be denied them, they never separate without
quarreling among themselves. Whatever property the deceased
possessed is placed about the corpse, and if he happened to be a
person of consequence, his friends generally purchase a capote,
a shirt, a pair of trousers, &c, which articles are also laid around
the pile. If the doctor who attended him has escaped uninjured, he
is obliged to be present at the ceremony, and for the last time
tries his skill in restoring the defunct to animation. Failing in
this, he throws on the bo
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