Ixxxii INTRODUCTION 



voices of the disembodied children driving birds from 

 their corn-fields.^ An endless variety of incoherent fan- 

 cies is connected with the Indian idea of a future life. 

 The J commonly owe their origin to dreams, often to the 

 dreams of those in extreme sickness, who, on awaking, 

 supposed that they had visited the other world, and relatr 

 ed to the wondering bystanders what they had seen. 



The Indian land of souls is not always a region of 

 shadows and gloom. The Hurons sometimes represented 

 the souls of their dead — those of their dogs included — 

 as danchig joyously in the presence of Ataentsic and 

 Jouskeha. According to some Algonquin traditions, 

 heaven was a scene of endless festivity, the ghosts dan- 

 cing to the sound of the rattle and the drum, and greet- 

 ing with hospitable welcome the occasional visitor from 

 the living world : for tkj spirit-land was not far off, 

 and roving hunters sometimes passed its confines un- 

 awares. 



Most of the traditions agree, however, that the spirits, 

 on their journey heavenward, were beset with difficulties 

 and perils. There was a swift river which must be 

 crossed on a log that shook beneath their feet, while a 

 ferocious dog opposed their passage, and drove many into 

 the abyss. This river was full of sturgeon and other 

 fish, which the ghosts speared for their subsistence. Be- 

 yond was a narrow path between moving rocks, which 

 each instant crashed together, grinding to atoms the less 

 nimble of the pilgrims who essayed to pass. The Hurons 

 believed that a personage named Oscotarach, or the Head- 

 Piercer, dwelt in a bark house beside the path, and tliat 

 it was his office to remove the brains from the heads of 

 all who went by, as a necessary preparation for immor- 



1 Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 99 (Cramoisy). 



