The Eskimos do not as a rule bury their dead, but double the body up and place it on the side in a plank box which is elevated three or four feet from the ground and supported by four posts.  The grave-box is often covered with painted figures of birds, fishes and animals.  Sometimes it is wrapped in skins placed upon an elevated frame and covered with planks or trunks of trees so as to protect it from wild beasts.  Upon the frame, or in the grave box are deposited the arms, clothing, and sometimes the domestic utensils of the deceased.  Frequent mention is made by travelers of burial places where the bodies lie exposed with their heads placed towards the north.

Frederic Whymper[64] describes the burial boxes of the Kalosh of that Territory.

Their grave boxes or tombs are interesting.  They contain only the ashes of the dead.  These people invariably burn the deceased.  On one of the boxes I saw a number of faces painted, long tresses of human hair depending therefrom.  Each head represented a victim of the (happily) deceased one’s ferocity.  In his day he was doubtless more esteemed than if he had never harmed a fly.  All their graves are much ornamented with carved and painted faces and other devices.

W.H.  Dall,[65] well known as one of the most experienced and careful of American Ethnologic observers, describes the burial boxes of the Innuits of Unalaklik, Innuits of Yuka, and Ingaliks of Ulukuk as follows:  Figs. 13 and 14 are after his illustrations in the volume noted.

[Illustration:  FIG 13—­Innuit Grave]

     INNUIT OF UNALAKLIK

The usual fashion is to place the body doubled up on its side in a box of plank hewed out of spruce logs and about four feet long.  This is elevated several feet above the ground on four posts which project above the coffin or box.  The sides are often painted with red chalk in figures of fur animals, birds, and fishes.  According to the wealth of the dead man, a number of articles which belonged to him are attached to the coffin or strewed around it; some of them have kyaks, bows and arrows, hunting implements, snow-shoes, or even kettles, around the grave or fastened to it; and almost invariably the wooden dish, or “kantag,” from which the deceased was accustomed to eat, is hung on one of the posts.

     INNUIT OF YUKON.

The dead are enclosed above ground in a box in the manner previously described.  The annexed sketch shows the form of the sarcophagus, which, in this case, is ornamented with snow-shoes, a reel for seal-lines, a fishing-rod, and a wooden dish or kantag.  The latter is found with every grave, and usually one is placed in the box with the body.  Sometimes a part of the property of the dead person is placed in the coffin or about it; occasionally the whole is thus disposed of.  Generally the furs, possessions, and clothing (except such as has been worn) are divided among the