"The mourning customs of the Dakotas, though few of them appear to be
of universal observance, cover considerable ground. The hair, never
cut under other circumstances, is cropped off even with the neck, and
the top of the head and forehead, and sometimes nearly the whole body,
are smeared with a species of white earth resembling chalk, moistened
with water. The lodge, teepee, and all the family possessions except
the few shabby articles of apparel worn by the mourners, are given
away and the family left destitute. Thus far the custom is universal
or nearly so. The wives, mother, and sisters of a deceased man, on the
first, second, or third day after the funeral, frequently throw off
their moccasins and leggins and gash their legs with their butcher-
knives, and march through the camp and to the place of burial with
bare and bleeding extremities, while they chant or wail their dismal
songs of mourning. The men likewise often gash themselves in many
places, and usually seek the solitude of the higher point on the
distant prairie, where they remain fasting, smoking, and wailing out
their lamentations for two or three days. A chief who had lost a
brother once came to me after three or four days of mourning in
solitude almost exhausted from hunger and bodily anguish. He had
gashed the outer side of both lower extremities at intervals of a few
inches all the way from the ankles to the top of the hips. His wounds
had inflamed from exposure, and were suppurating freely. He assured me
that he had not slept for several days or nights. I dressed his wounds
with a soothing ointment, and gave him a full dose of an effective
anodyne, after which he slept long and refreshingly, and awoke to
express his gratitude and shake my hand in a very cordial and sincere
manner. When these harsher inflictions are not resorted to, the
mourners usually repair daily for a few days to the place of burial,
toward the hour of sunset, and chant their grief until apparently
assuaged by its own expression. This is rarely kept up for more than