THE JOURNEY OF THE DEAD. Ixxxi 



the shades of animals, with the shades of bows and 

 arrows, among the shades of trees and rocks : for all 

 things, animate and inanimate, were alike immortal, and 

 all passed together to the gloomy country of the dead. 



The belief respecting the land of souls varied greatly 

 in different tribes and different individuals. Among the 

 Hurons there were those who held that departed spirits 

 pursued their journey through the sky, along the Milky 

 Way, while the souls of dogs took another route, by cer- 

 tain constellations, known as the " Way of the Dogs."^ 



At intervals of ten or twelve years, the Hurons, the 

 Neutrals, and other kindred tribes, were accustomed to 

 collect the bones of their dead, and deposit them, with 

 great ceremony, in a common place of burial. The whole 

 nation was sometimes assembled at this solemnity ; and 

 hundreds of corpses, brought from their temporary rest- 

 ing-places, were inhumed in one capacious pit. From 

 this hour the immortality of their souls began. They 

 took wing, as some affirmed, in the shape of pigeons ; 

 while the greater number declared that they journeyed 

 on foot, and in their own likeness, to the land of shades, 

 bearing with them the ghosts of the wampum-belts, bea- 

 ver-skins, bows, arrows, pipes, kettles, beads, and rings 

 buried with them in the common grave.^ But as the 

 spirits of the old and of children are too feeble for the 

 march, they are forced to stay behind, lingering near 

 their earthly villages, where the living often hear the 

 shutting of their invisible cabin-doors, and the weak 



1 Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, 233. 



2 The practice of burying treasures with the dead is not peculiar to 

 the North American aborigines. Thus, the London Times of Oct. 28, 

 1865, describing the funeral rites of Lord Palmerston, says : " And as 

 the words, 'Dust to dust, ashes to ashes,' were pronounced, the chief 

 mourner, as a last precious offering to the dead, threw into the grave 

 several diamond and gold rings." 



