SOURCE OP ST. PETERS RIVER. HI 



(he soul, and of a future state of reward and punishment, is 

 generally entertained by them, and that it probably preex- 

 isted to their intercourse with white men. Our opinion 

 does not merely rest upon the general prevalence of this 

 belief among all those who have made the least advance 

 above the lowest state of barbarism, but upon the uni- 

 form opinion on this subject, expressed to us by those 

 who were most conversant with Indian manners, and who 

 had enjoyed the best opportunities of becoming acquainted 

 with them. From Mr. Barron we heard that they gene- 

 rally admitted the existence of a future life, of which, how- 

 ever, they entertained very confused ideas, believing for 

 the most part that the spirits of those who had lived a good 

 life, went to a country where they could pursue without 

 fatigue their favourite occupation of hunting, where animals 

 would be plenty and fat. Not so with the spirits of the 

 bad ; theirs would be a country barren and nearly destitute 

 of animals, where the chase would become a painful and 

 unprofitable occupation. At any rate, they hold that their 

 existence is at the disposal of the Great Master of Life. Many, 

 however, when asked where their spirits went after death, 

 carelessly replied that they knew not what became of them, 

 they saw them not leaving the body. One of the strongest 

 facts in corroboration of their entertaining a belief in futu- 

 rity, and the immortality of the soul or spirit, is, that they 

 all believe in ghosts or phantoms. " Once," said Mr. Bar- 

 ron, " on approaching in the night a village of Ottawas, I 

 found all the inhabitants in confusion ; they were all busily 

 engaged in raising noises of the loudest and most inhar- 

 monious kind. Upon inquiry, I found that a battle had 

 been lately fought between the Ottawas and the Kickapoos, 

 and that the object of all this noise was to prevent the 

 ghosts of the departed combatants from entering the village." 



