Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/314

Rh And among the female names, these:—

Keep-the-fire; Spiritual-woman; Second-daughter-of-the-house; Blue-bird, and so on.

Feather-cloud must have looked especially towards heaven to find her guardian-angel. May it conduct her lightly along her earthly pilgrimage, and preserve her from the fate of Winnona and Ampota Sapa! Butthose deep eyes, full of the spirit of night, seem to me prophetic of the death-song.

The death-song consists of unmusical tones, almost devoid of melody, by which the Indians, male or female, relate the cause of their death, accuse their enemies or praise themselves.

They believe that the spirit after death still lingers for a time near those earthly precincts which they have just left, and that they continue to be still, in a certain manner akin to earth. Therefore are maize and other provisions placed at the foot of the corpse during the time that it lies on its elevated scaffold, exposed to the influence of light and air. The deceased has not, as yet, entered into the realm of spirits; but when the flesh is withered from the bones, these are buried with songs and dances. Then has the departed spirit arrived in the land of spirits.

“We believe,” said a celebrated Indian chief to one of my friends, “that when the soul leaves the body, it lingers for some time before it can be separated from its former circumstances, during which it wanders over vast plains in the clear, cold moonlight. Finally it arrives at a great chasm in the earth, on the other side of which lies the land of the blessed, where there is eternal spring, and rich hunting-grounds abundantly supplied with game. There is, however, no other means of crossing this gulf excepting by a barked pine-tree which is smooth and slippery. Over this the spirits must pass, if they would reach the land of bliss. Such spirits as have lived purely and well in this world are able to