The Dawn of the World: Beliefs concerning Ghosts and the ...
The Dawn of the World, by C. Hart Merriam, [1910]
The Southern Mewuk of the Mariposa region say:
If a person dies without a hole in his nose he will turn into a fish, but if the nose is perforated
for the kun-no-wah 25 he will not turn into a fish.
219:25 The kun-no-wah is a short white rod of shell or stone worn in the nose by both men and women of this tribe.