INCASEMENT or' THE CORPSE. The receptacles for the dead body are of many sorts. Among the ancient Aleuts the oirpsc was doubled up and fully clothed. it was then crated, hung on the wall of a cave, or set in a safe place on the floor. The Eskimo employ tough walrus hide as a case for the dead. The Pacific tribes, wherever the giant cedar grows, make boxes or hollow logs for the corpse. The Plains Indians crated the bodies of the (lead and all their belongings be fore placing them on the platforms, and the old cave people of Utah packed them in burden baskets.
The Southern Indians made hurdles of cane and rolled them about the corpse. Farther south no coffin was needed. for the bodies were exposed in (pi inhogons or dead houses until the flesh was gone, after \Odell the bones were buried in the earth or in jars. Some of the ancient mound builders made a stone box or coflin in the grave for the bones.
A common motive among primitive tribes in using the coffin was to hold the bones together for burial. Custom demanded it, and the ever watchful mold jealous ghost required it. Again, the coffin or its substitute guarded the corpse from ravenous beasts and birds of prey, and it may also be possible that among some tribes the dead boxed up to prevent them from escaping or tieing spirited away by unfriendly ghosts. In many tribes the habitation motive prevails; the coffin or tomb is regarded as the house of the dead.
WATcnixo Tut: Fletween loath and burial the spirit or double of the dead hovers around the body, and expects the most rigid ad herence to custom. This belief is the origin of
the widespread custom of lykewake. or wateh ing the corpse. Among many primitive tribes, the lead not hurried to burial, but the monies of mourning begin around the corpse, The Polynesians placed the body of the dead on a bier-like frame covered with white tapa, which was decorated with flowers, or urion a bed of fragrant leaves. Ifelatives sat around lamenting and mating themselves with teeth. Vigils the dead are widespread among the white races. The folklore of the civilized abounds in customs during• the day or two that intervene between death tied burial. The watch feast, or wake, has dwindled to a company of a few friends. Salt is placed on tIm' breast of the dead, a candle burns night and day A the bead of the coffin. The sin-cater hikes broad and publicly devours it (or the misdeeds of the deceased.
IlEmoviNG THE CoRpSE TO THE PLACE lN'rt•:NDED FM! IT. The funeral proper is one of the most solemn of rites the world over. Among many tribes the corpse must be taken out of the dwell ing through the roof or by some roundabout way, in order that the ghost may get bewildered and not return. The procession to the grave, among savages, has changed little in the course of cen turies. Usually, mutilations of a more or less cruel character are then observed by certain persons, while among other tribes only a small number carry the dead away and are thereafter unclean.