Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/258

] place where the sun rises. The East Land is separated from the land of the living by the chasm called Tcʼwt Hiʼketany, Earth Crack. When one of the writer's interpreters had gone to school at Hampton, Va., her associates said that she had gone to the abode of spirits. All is rejoicing and gladness in that other world. There they will feast and dance, consequently when one dies his best clothing must be put on and his hair must be dressed with care, as is the custom in preparing for an earthly ceremony. No idea of spiritual reward or punishment for conduct in this life exists.

Again, the souls of the dead are supposed to hang about and perform unpleasant pranks with the living. They are liable to present themselves before the living if they catch the right person alone at night. The ghost never speaks at such times, nor may any but medicine-men speak to them. If one be made sick by thus seeing a ghost, he must have the medicine-man go to the grave of the offending soul and tell it to be quiet, "and they always do as they are bid." Old Kisatc, of Santan, thought that the soul continued to reside in the body as that was "its house." During his youth he had accompanied a medicine-man and a few friends to the grave of aman who had been killed near Picacho, about 40 miles southeast of Sacaton. The medicine-man addressed the grave in a long speech, in which he expressed the sorrow and regret of the relatives and friends that the corpse should thus be buried so far from home. Kisatc avers that the spirit within the grave replied to the speech by saying that he did not stay there all the time, but that he oecasionally went over to hang about the villages, and that he felt unhappy in the state in which he found himself. Of course the medicine-men claim to be in communication with the spirits of the departed as well as with supernatural beings capable of imparting magic power.

Dreams are variously regarded as the result of evil doing, as a natural and normal means of communication with the spirit world, and as being caused by Darkness or Night. During the dream the soul wanders away and passes through adventures as in the waking hours. The young men never slept in the council ki for fear of bad dreams.

To dream of the dead causes sickness in the dreamer and if he dream of the dead for several nights in succession he will die. Dreams are not consulted for information concerning future action except in