ESKIMO BURIAL CUSTOMS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXII, Issue 9663, 27 April 1910, Page 7

ESKIMO BURIAL CUSTOMS.

The burial, recently reported in American papers, of the remains of twelve hundred doad Eskimos ia the Episuopal buryiug-ground at Point Barrow. Alaska", under the directiou ■of Bishop P. T. Kowe. inav, it is thought, bring about a change in bujAal customs in the extreme North •otHpLinerica. The methods of the .Eskimos are of the crudest, the dead bodies being simply taken to a hill-top and laid there, with no othflr covering than a walrus-skin shroud, to be devoured by wolves and wild dogs, or to rot amid the rigours of the Arctic weathor. Although the dead are disposed of in this crude way, it roust, not be thought, however, that there is no sorrow when death visits an Eskimo Tillage. There are no more affectionate people in the world, this is the testimony of everyone familiar with their ways; but they typify the childhood of the race. Their grief, like that of children, is acute, and is soon over. Mourning, as understood- by the European, continues for half-an-liour, after which tha sceue chauges. The igloo, or hut, is crowded with neighbours. Only the lit tie .corner in which the corpse lies is vacant. Outside there are people with dog sleds to which are harnessed the finest dogs in the village Soon the corpse is carried if a man, it is placed upon which was. and, according to Eskimo ethics, still is, his own. A small boy runs ahead with the cry, "Hak! Hak!" and tho funeral procession is instantly under way. A dozen dog sleds, with their ivory runners creaking in the cold, are iiyiug over the snow. On they go, some behind, some ahead, some abreast of the improvised hearse. There is no system, no precedence, no ceremony. It is too cold for ceremony, so on thwy fly, the sleds bumping ami bounding over the uneven surface of the suow. At the top of some ridge (says tho Victoria Daily Colonist), maybe a mile from the village, the cortege halts. The dead mau is lifted from the sled and laid upon the snow. His weapons, iiis sled, and all the personal property that the communistic society in which he lived allowed him to possess are lefc there beside him. Then and there all mourning ceases. A dog race follows, all the teams of the village taking part, and almost as soon as the bndy touches tho ground they are off. Across the tundra they fly. dogs, detached pups, men. wcelau, children, and chief mourners, and shouting frantically. The occasion is marked by confusion and wild hilarity.