284 INDIANS. 



beasts ; for the spirits or phantoms of all animals, reptiles, 

 birds, insects, and fishes go also to the Happy Hunting 

 Grounds. In short, the next world is to be simply an 

 intensified continuation of this death alone overcome. 



How an unhappy disposition here can be happy 

 there, he does not try to explain. He has no concep- 

 tion of, or belief in, any special divinity presiding over 

 the future state ; consequently he cannot conceive of a 

 special miracle in each case fitted to the necessities of the 

 beneficiary. 



The conception of the abolition of death in the future 

 state seems to be attended with a doubt or modification. 

 He expects to kill and eat all the game he wishes ; to 

 clothe himself with the skins of animals ; to fight with, and 

 even to take the scalps of, his enemies ; but what becomes 

 of the slain phantoms of animals, or the spirits of scalped 

 ghosts of men, is a problem which he wisely leaves for 

 future solution. 



From what has been said it will be truly inferred that 

 not only animals but inanimate nature is represented in the 

 future state. All things which the Indian can make for 

 himself in this life he can make in the next ; consequently 

 there is no need to take that class of things along with 

 him. He can there procure skins for his clothing and 

 for his lodge, robes for his bed, &c. But articles be- 

 yond his skill in manufacture gun, powder, lead, caps, 

 knife, blankets, and an iron pot for cooking must all be 

 carried into the next world by the dead man, who is, 

 moreover, buried in shirt, pants, and coat of civilised 

 manufacture (or as many of those articles as the owner 

 possessed during life). 



The Indian understands perfectly well that the dead 

 does not actually take with him into the next world the 

 material articles buried with him in this, for some of 

 them are hung round the burial place exposed to view. 

 He believes, however, that, if the articles are allowed to 

 remain with or near the body until decomposition is com- 



