274 INDIANS. 



dear friend. Instances have occurred where many 

 Indians were killed in vain efforts to recover the bodies 

 of slain warriors. An Indian Homer might find an 

 Indian hero as worthy of immortal fame as Achilles for 

 his efforts to save the body of his friend ; and no Chris- 

 tian missionary ever evinced a more noble indifference to 

 danger than the savage displays in his efforts to save (as 

 he thinks) his friend's soul. Let the scalp be torn off, and 

 the body becomes mere carrion, not even worthy of a burial. 



The other method by which an Indian is cut off from 

 his heaven is by hanging. The Indian believes that the 

 soul escapes from the body by the mouth, which at the 

 moment of dissolution opens by itself to allow a free 

 passage. Should death ensue by hanging or strangula- 

 tion, the soul can never escape, but must always remain 

 with the body, even after complete decay. This death 

 has, therefore, more terrors than any other to an Indian, 

 and he will rather submit to a thousand deaths at the 

 stake, with all the tortures that ingenuity can devise, than 

 die by hanging. 



There is no hell or purgatory for the Indian. The 

 souls of all the dead reach the same place, except those 

 annihilated by scalping, or those condemned to live for 

 all time and eternity with the putrid or decomposed 

 bodies which die by strangulation. Believing that no 

 line of conduct of his own can avail him for good or 

 evil, feeling his helplessness and entire dependence, or 

 the relative powers of the two great beings who fight 

 continually for or against him, the Indian's first and most 

 important concern is to find some sure means of disco- 

 vering which of the gods has the ascendency for him at 

 any particular time. This is by divination. 



The word ' medicine ' is of universal application 

 among the Indians. Everything supposed lucky, or 

 healthful, or indicative in any way of the presence or 

 pleasure of the good god. is a ' good medicine.' Every- 

 thing the reverse, ' bad medicine.' 



