d four nights should the fires burn," &c.
In fulfillment of this sacred injunction, we find the midnight vigil
carefully kept by these Indians four days and four nights at the
graves of their departed. A small fire is kindled for the purpose
near the grave at sunset, where the nearest relatives convene and
maintain a continuous lamentation till the morning dawn. There was
an ancient tradition that at the expiration of this time the Indian
arose, and mounting his spirit pony, galloped off to the happy
hunting-ground beyond.

Happily, with the advancement of Christianity these superstitions
have faded, and the living sacrifices are partially continued only
from a belief that by parting with their most cherished and valuable
goods they propitiate the Great Spirit for the sins committed during
the life of the deceased. This, though at first revolting, we find
was the practice of our own forefathers, offering up as burnt
offerings the lamb or the ox; hence we cannot censure this people,
but, from a comparison of conditions, credit them with a more strict
observance of our Holy Book than pride and seductive fashions permit
of us.

From a careful review of the whole of their attendant ceremonies a
remarkable similarity can be marked. The arrangement of the corpse
preparatory to interment, the funeral feast, the local service by
the aged fathers, are all observances that have been noted among
whites, extending into times that are in the memory of those still
living.

The Pimas of Arizona, actuated by apparently the same motives that led
the more eastern tribes to endeavor to prevent contact of earth with the
corpse, adopted a plan which has been described by Capt. F. E.
Grossman,[5] and the account is corroborated by M. Alphonse Pinart[6]
and Bancroft.[7]

Captain Grossman's account follows:

The Pimas tie the bodies of their dead with ropes, passing the
latter around their neck and under the knees, and then drawing them
tight until the body is doubled up and forced into a sitting
position. They dig the graves from four to five feet deep and
perfectly round (about two feet in diameter), and then hollow out to
one side of the bottom of this grave a sort of vault large enough to
contain the body. Here the body is deposited, the grave is filled up
level with the ground, and poles, trees, or pieces of timber placed
upon the grave to protect the remains from co