64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Iroquois and Hurons believed in a country for the souls of 

 the dead, which they called the " country of ancestors." This is 

 to the west, from which direction their traditions told that they 

 had migrated. Spirits must go there after death by a very long 

 and painful journey, past many rivers, and at the end of a narrow 

 bridge fight with a dog like Cerberus, and some may fall into 

 the water and be carried away over precipices. This road is all 

 on the earth ; but several of the Indian tribes consider the Milky 

 Way to be the path of souls, those of human beings forming the 

 main body of the stars, and their dogs, which also have souls, run- 

 ning on the sides. In their next world the Indians do the same 

 as they customarily do here, but without life's troubles. 



The Israelites believed in a doubling of the person by a shadow, 

 a pale figure, which after death descended under the earth and 

 there led a sad and gloomy existence. The abode of these poor 

 beings was called Sheol. There was no recompense, no punish- 

 ment. The greatest comfort was to be among ancestors and rest- 

 ing with them. There were some very virtuous men whom God 

 carried up that they might be with him. Apart from these elect, 

 dead men went into torpor. Man's good fortune was to be accord- 

 ed a long term of years, with children to perpetuate his family 

 and respect for his memory after death. 



The Indians did not believe in existence after death in a posi- 

 tive and independent state. The spirit does not wholly leave the 

 body and the body is not resurrected. Perhaps a good commen- 

 tary upon their belief is furnished by a tribe of Oregon Indians 

 who, hearing missionaries preach on the resurrection, imme- 

 diately repaired to an old battle-field and built great heaps of 

 stones on the graves of their fallen foes to prevent their coming 

 up again. They did not want any of that. 



Among the Israelites the resurrection of the body was a for- 

 eign idea imbibed during the captivities in Assyria and Babylo- 

 nia. Perhaps the first reference made to it is in the prophet Dan- 

 iel. It was not fully believed in so late as the procuratorship of 

 Pontius Pilate. 



Among the Indians privation of burial and funeral ceremonies 

 was a disgraceful stigma and cruel punishment. There was trouble 

 about children who died shortly after their birth, and also about 

 those whose corpses were lost, as in the snow or in the waters. In 

 ordinary cases of death the neglect of full and elaborate ceremo- 

 nies caused misfortune to the tribe. 



The story of the " happy hunting-ground " among the Indians 

 has not been generally apprehended. As regards what we now 

 consider to be moral conduct there was no criterion. A good In- 

 dian was one who was useful to his clan and family, and at the 

 time of his death was not under charges of violating the clan rules , 



