The following extract from Schoolcraft (Hist. Indian Tribes of the United States, 1851, Vol. I, p. 356, Fig. 46) relates to the burial posts used by the Sioux and Chippewas. Plate LXXXIII is after the illustration given by this author in connection with the account quoted:
Among the Sioux and Western Chippewas, after the body has been wrapped in its best clothes and ornaments, it is then placed on a scafford, or in a tree, where it remains until the flesh is entirely decayed; after which the bones are buried, and the grave-posts fixed. At the head of the grave a tabular piece of cedar, or other wood, called the adjedatig, is set. This grave-board contains the symbolic or representative figure which records, if it be a warrior, his totem; that is to say, the symbol of his family, or surname, and such arithmetical or other devices as serve to denote how many times the deceased has been in war parties, and how many scalps he had taken from the enemy; two facts from which his reputation is essentially to be derived. It is seldom that more is attempted in the way of inscription. Often, however, distinguished chiefs have their war-flag, or, in modern days, a small ensign of American fabric, displayed on a standard at the head of their graves, which is left to fly over the deceased till it is wasted by the elements. Scalps of their enemies, feathers of the bald and black eagle, the swallow-tailed falcon, or some carnivorous bird, are also placed, in such instances, on the adjedatig, or suspended, with offerings of various kinds, on a separate staff. But the latter are super-additions of a religious character, and belong to the class of the ke-ke-wa-o-win-an-tig. The building of a funeral fire on recent graves, is also a rite which belongs to the consideration of their religious faith.
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXXXIII
The following quotations and illustrations are taken from Dr. Ferdinand von Hochstetter’s New Zealand, before cited. That author says on page 437 _et seq._:
The carved Maori-figures, which are met with on the road, are the memorials of chiefs, who, while journeying to the restorative baths of Rotorua, succumbed to their ills on the road. Some of the figures are decked out with pieces of clothing or kerchiefs; and the most remarkable feature in them is the close imitation of the tattooing of the deceased, by which the Maoris are able to recognize for whom the monument has been erected. Certain lines are peculiar to the tribe, others to the family, and again others to the individual. A close imitation of the tattooing of the face, therefore, is to the Maori the same as to us a photographic likeness; it does not require any description of name.