By burning the perishable body they thought that the immortal soul would be more quickly released and set free to speed to the happy spirit world in the _El-o'-win_, or far distant West, while with their loud, wailing cries the evil spirit was kept away.
The young women take great care of their long, shiny, black hair, of which they all feel very proud, as adding much to their personal beauty, and they seldom have it cut before marriage.

But upon the death of a husband the wife has her hair all cut off and burned with his body, so that he may still have it in his future spirit home, to love and caress as a memento of his living earth-wife.
[Illustration: _Photograph by Boysen_.
OLD KALAPINE.
One of the oldest Indians in the Valley.

The short hair is a badge of widowhood.] These Indians believe that everything on earth, both natural and artificial, is endowed with an immortal spirit, which is indestructible, and that whatever personal property or precious gifts are burned, either with the body or in later years for the departed friend's benefit, will be received and made use of in the spirit world.

In recent years the Yosemites and other remnants of tribes closely associated with them, have adopted the custom of the white people, and bury their dead.

The fine, expensive blankets, and most beautifully worked baskets, which have been kept sacredly in hiding for many years, to be buried with the owner, are now cut into small fragments before being deposited in the ground, for fear some white person will desecrate the grave by digging them up and carrying them away.
There are no people in the world who more reverence for their dead, or hold memory more sacred, than these so-called "Digger" Indians.