down of birds and another pouring on it the contents of a bladder of
oil. She is then at liberty to marry again or lead a life of single
blessedness; but few of them, I believe, wish to encounter the risk
attending a second widowhood.

"The men are condemned to a similar ordeal, but they do not bear it
with equal fortitude, and numbers fly to distant quarters to avoid the
brutal treatment which custom has established as a kind of religious
rite."

Perhaps a short review of some of the peculiar and salient points of
this narrative may be permitted. It is stated that the corpse is kept
nine days after death--certainly a long period of time, when it is
remembered that Indians as a rule endeavor to dispose of their dead as
soon as possible. This may be accounted for on the supposition that it
is to give the friends and relatives an opportunity of assembling,
verifying the death, and of making proper preparations for the
ceremony. With regard to the verification of the dead person, William
Sheldon [Footnote: Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc., 1820, vol. 1, p 377] gives
an account of a similar custom which was common among the Caraibs of
Jamaica, and which seems to throw some light upon the unusual
retention of deceased persons by the tribe in question, although it
must be admitted that this is mere hypothesis:

"They had some very extraordinary customs respecting deceased persons.
When one of them died, it was necessary that all his relations should
see him and examine the body in order to ascertain that he died a
natural death. They acted so rigidly on this principle, that if one
relative remained who had not seen the body all the others could not
convince that one that the death was natural. In such a case the