Another form of the Image mourning-ceremony was known to the Luiseños as having been in use among the Indians of the north; and, though never performed among the mountain Luiseños, it was celebrated at least once at San Luis Rey, for Lucario Cuevish remembers to have seen it there.
Salvador Cuevas, who never saw this form of the ceremony, gives the sacred basket pole as one of the children of the Earth-mother, sent by her to the north.
This ritual for the dead was called Notish 53 or Kutumit. 54 The chief feature of it was a tall painted pole called Kimul Chehenish, 55 made very smooth from the trunk of a pine or fir, which was hung with baskets at the top to be reached by climbing
103:53 Notush, ceremony when things are given away.—S.
103:54 Kutumit, pole erected at notush; objects are hung on it.—S. Kotumut, pole at San Fernando described by C. Hart Merriam (unpublished account).
103:55 Kimal, small house, diminutive of kicha, objective kish, house; chehenish, objects hung on kutumit; no doubt derived from chehe’i, to appear, show.—S.
104:56 The Notish ceremony is referred to below in the third of the myths given.
