Slaves were killed in proportion to the rank and wealth of the deceased.  In some instances they were starved to death, or even tied to the dead body and left to perish thus horribly.  At present this practice has been almost entirely given up, but till within a very few years it was not uncommon.  A case which occurred in 1850 has been already mentioned.  Still later, in 1853, Toke, a Tsinuk chief living at Shoalwater Bay, undertook to kill a slave girl belonging to his daughter, who, in dying, had requested that this might be done.  The woman fled, and was found by some citizens in the woods half starved.  Her master attempted to reclaim her, but was soundly thrashed and warned against another attempt.

It was usual in the case of chiefs to renew or repair for a considerable length of time the materials and ornaments of the burial-place.  With the common class of persons family pride or domestic affection was satisfied with the gathering together of the bones after the flesh had decayed and wrapping them in a new mat.  The violation of the grave was always regarded as an offense of the first magnitude and provoked severe revenge.  Captain Belcher remarks:  “Great secrecy is observed in all their burial ceremonies, partly from fear of Europeans, and as among themselves they will instantly punish by death any violation of the tomb or wage war if perpetrated by another tribe, so they are inveterate and tenaceously bent on revenge should they discover that any act of the kind has been perpetrated by a white man.  It is on record that part of the crew of a vessel on her return to this port (the Columbia) suffered because a person who belonged to her (but not then in her) was known to have taken a skull, which, from the process of flattening, had become an object of curiosity.”  He adds, however, that at the period of his visit to the river “the skulls and skeletons were scattered about in all directions; and as I was on most of their positions unnoticed by the natives, I suspect the feeling does not extend much beyond their relatives, and then only till decay has destroyed body, goods, and chattels.  The chiefs, no doubt, are watched, as their canoes are repainted, decorated, and greater care taken by placing them in sequestered spots.”

The motive for sacrificing or destroying property on occasion of death will be referred to in treating of their religious ideas.  Wailing for the dead is continued for a long time, and it seems to be rather a ceremonial performance than an act of spontaneous grief.  The duty, of course, belongs to the woman, and the early morning is usually chosen for the purpose.  They go out alone to some place a little distant from the lodge or camp and in a loud, sobbing voice repeat a sort of stereotyped formula; as, for instance,