sooner after death than white persons do, generally as soon as they can obtain a coffin.  I know of no other native funeral ceremonies.  Occasionally before being taken to the grave, I have held Christian funeral ceremonies over them, and these services increase from year to year.  One reason which has rendered them somewhat backward about having these funeral services is, that they are quite superstitions about going near the dead, fearing that the evil spirit which killed the deceased will enter the living and kill them also.  Especially are they afraid of having children go near, being much more fearful of the effect of the evil spirit on them than on older persons.

     MOURNING OBSERVANCES.

They have no regular period, so far as I know, for mourning, but often continue it after the burial, though I do not know that they often visit the grave.  If they feel the loss very much, sometimes they will mourn nearly every day for several weeks; especially is this true when they meet an old friend who has not been seen since the funeral, or when they see an article owned by the deceased which they have not seen for a long time.  The only other thing of which I think, which bears on this subject, is an idea they have, that before a person dies—­it may be but a short time or it may be several months—­a spirit from the spirit land comes and carries off the spirit of the individual to that place.  There are those who profess to discover when this is done, and if by any of their incantations they can compel that spirit to return, the person will not die, but if they are not able, then the person will become dead at heart and in time die, though it may not be for six months or even twelve.  You will also find a little on this subject in a pamphlet which I wrote on the Twana Indians and which has recently been published by the Department of the Interior, under Prof.  F.V.  Hayden, United States Geologist.

George Gibbs[81] gives a most interesting account of the burial ceremonies of the Indians of Oregon and Washington Territory, which is here reproduced in its entirety, although it contains examples of other modes of burial besides that in canoes; but to separate the narrative would destroy the thread of the story: 

The common mode of disposing of the dead among the fishing tribes was in canoes.  These were generally drawn into the woods at some prominent point a short distance from the village, and sometimes placed between the forks of trees or raised from the ground on posts.  Upon the Columbia River the Tsinuk had in particular two very noted cemeteries, a high isolated bluff about three miles below the mouth of the Cowlitz, called Mount Coffin, and one some distance above, called Coffin Rock.  The former would appear not to have been very ancient.  Mr. Broughton, one of Vancouver’s lieutenants, who explored the river, makes mention only of several canoes at this place; and Lewis and Clarke, who noticed the