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252 sleeping parents, an informant declared. Considering the manner in which the moon is supposed to have originated, it is strange that it should contain the figure of a coyote. No explanation of this belief was found.

The stars are living beings: Morning Star is the daughter of a magician; her name is Suʼmas Hoʼ-o, Visible Star. Polaris is the Not-walking Star, but is otherwise not distinguished from his fellows. Possibly this term has been adopted since the advent of the whites. Once a mule with a pack load of flour was going along in the sky, but he was fractious and not gentle, as is the horse. He bucked off the load of flour, which was spilled all along the trail. A part of it was eaten by Coyote, but some remains to form the Milky Way.

The soul is in the center of the breast. It makes us breathe, but it is not the breath. It is not known just what it is like, whether it is white or any other color.

The views of the Pimas concerning the destiny of the soul varied considerably. Some declared that at death the soul passed into the body of an owl. Should an owl happen to be hooting at the time of a death, it was believed that it was waiting for the soul. Referring to the diet of the owl, dying persons sometimes said, "I am going to eat rats." Owl feathers were always given to a dying person. They were kept in a long rectangular box or basket of maguey leaf. If the family had no owl feathers at hand, they sent to the medicine-man, who always kept them. If possible, the feathers were taken from a living bird when collected; the owl might then be set free or killed. If the short downy feathers of the owl fell upon a person, he would go blind. Even to-day the educated young people are very chary about entering an abandoned building tenanted by an owl.

By some it is said that after death souls go to the land of the dead in the east. All souls go to Siʼalĭk Rsân, Morning Base, or