1 6 King, Folk-lore of the North American Indiafts. 



which I offer thee, guard us, defend us, give us good 

 trade." Similarly, according to Miss Kingsley, the Bantus 

 pile up stones in homage at the foot of some big rock or 

 tree, or cast a leaf from the canoe in passing some pro- 

 montory. 



Let us return to the human soul. Father Le Jeune 

 was told that after death souls eat and drink, (vi., 177.) 

 Hence when anyone dies the souls are given food. The 

 souls go to a large village towards the setting sun. On the 

 way they eat bark and old wood. The Milky Way is the 

 path of the souls. When the souls get to their destination, 

 they sit all day, elbows on knees — head between hands — 

 in the position in which they are buried. At night they 

 can see — they go and come, work and hunt. They hunt 

 the souls of the dead beaver, porcupine, moose, &c., and 

 walk about on the ghosts of snow shoes. What happens, 

 asked the Jesuit, if the soul of a dead Indian kills the soul 

 of a dead beaver with the ghost of a spear ? Have I been 

 there, and do I know, was the answer. 



This is the general picture of existence after death. 

 It is a shadow of life before death. The shadow world is 

 like the present in all ways, but dimmer. One day in this 

 world is worth a year in the under world, or, to quote 

 Achilles from Homer, " I had rather be a serf on the land 

 of a poor man than reign among the dead."* The blood 

 which was the life has gone. 



The corpse of the dead was borne out of the cabin 

 through that part of it towards which the sick person 

 was turned when he expired, (i., 261, &c.) The bark of 

 the hut is raised for the purpose. " The common door is 

 the door of the living not of the dead." The ghost of the 

 dead was to have no right of way. The old Norsemen 

 took the body of the dead through the wall of the house 

 * Od., xi., 490. 



