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35 Mourning. On the death of a person the Cherokees mourned four days + the females in the house immediately set up a most dole ful wailing, repeating the relative name of the deceased adding a note of lamentation, as, if a son, tge tsi, thi, Ari Ari Ari hi te? as long as they can hold their breath, and then after a moments pause go over the same again, and again,

    During the four days none must be angry, nor speak in a light or trifling manner, nor eat any thing but the lightest kind of food as bread, or thin drink or homany. The women tore the bands from their hair, let it hang loose, and paid no particular attention to their dress.  
    Every thing in the house became unclean- all the people, all clothing, all provision, all furniture as gourds pails, pots, etc, all became unclean, What belonged to the deceased was either buried with him, or burnt, so also the provision as corn, potatoes etc  was destroyed furniture etc all thrown away or broken. The fire, ashes & wood also became impure, A priest was therefore immediately sent for to cleanse the house. On  his arrival, the corpse having been taken away and buried, he destroyed all articles in the house, of such a nature as to be affected and then took the wood, ashes & fire from the fire place and carried them away. He then made unclear fire, and kindled on the hearth; and put on his pot of medicine for purifications. He boiled a certain weed and gave the tea to the family to drink and to wash themselves all over with. He also sprinkled the inside of the house with the same liquid. He then made a fire in the middle of the house with cedar boughs and a certain weed, and in this manner smoked all the inside of the house. During this time no one was in the house but the priest. On concluding the above ceremonies, the priest took all the persons who had been defiled to a river or creek, and on the bank prayed for them and then ordered them to wash. This they did by wading in the water and standing with the face toward the east, plunged entirely in the water, and on arising turned to the west, and plunged as before, & thus alternately east & west, seven times. The old clothes they had on, they let loose to swim away, & put on clean clothes on coming out of the water or put away their polluted clothes before goinging into the river, and put on new ones on coming out, so that on returning to the house all were in clean apparel. 
    On the morning of the fifth day, the priest took a bird which had been killed with an arrow, plucked off the feathers, and cut a small piece of meat from the right side of the breast, and after praying, put it on the fire. Now if the meat popped once, twice, or thrice, etc. throwing