Note 317.2 — Chapter XIII · FUNERAL RITES.

The skull and various other bones are yet more frequently kept in the dwelling.317.2 The instances to which reference is given in the note are, with the exceptions of the Issedones in antiquity and the Krumen of the Grain Coast and the Andaman Islanders among modern savages, confined to the islanders of the Pacific Ocean, and certain tribes of North America, Honduras, and the northern parts of South America. Where the circumstances permit, as in the case of the Ichthyophagi and other ancient Ethiopian tribes, the old Egyptians, the Chinese, the Solomon Islanders, the Banks’ Islanders, the islanders of Ambrym in the New Hebrides, and the Yorubas of the Slave Coast, the corpse is kept either permanently, or for a lengthened period in the house unburied.318.1 And after burning, the ashes are similarly kept by several of the aboriginal peoples of Bengal and Assam, until the time arrives when they can be solemnly committed to the river or put into the family grave.318.2 The Wakonda burn the corpse; and the ashes, collected into a jar are preserved by the family.318.3 Along the Skeena River in British Columbia the natives cremated their dead, and sometimes hung the ashes in boxes to the family totem-pole.318.4 Like certain Tibetan tribes, and perhaps the Issedones, some of the native Australians used the skull for a drinking-cup.319.1