THE HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS OF THE INDIAN. 285 



pleted, the spirit of the dead man will have in the next 

 world the use of the phantoms of those articles. 



The most touching trait of Indian character is the 

 universal desire that the dead shall enter the Happy 

 Hunting Grounds with as complete an outfit as possible. 

 Any article supposed necessary in a future state which 

 the dead man did not possess in life, is at once supplied 

 by relatives or friends, often at considerable sacrifice. 

 Whatever the absolute needs of an Indian life, there is 

 no known instance of his despoiling, to satisfy them, the 

 grave or burial place of another Indian of his own tribe. 

 He will go hungry from lack of means to kill game, 

 though he knows a dozen trees containing graves in each 

 of which are gun, powder, and lead. 



The personal misfortunes and peculiarities which an 

 Indian has in life stick to him beyond the grave. A one- 

 legged man in life is one-legged to all eternity. One 

 who loses his sight here gropes blind through the Happy 

 Hunting Grounds. Time is no more. There is no 

 growing older there, consequently every one remains for 

 ever at exactly the age at which he entered the new life. 

 The puling infant, the decrepid hag, the young virgin, or 

 the stalwart warrior, as each dies, so shall he or she re- 

 main to all eternity. A body emaciated and distorted 

 by pain and disease sends on the long journey a soul 

 which shall suffer in the same way. 



As the surroundings of the final scene of this life 

 make their impress on the whole future of the soul, it 

 is but natural in the Indian to desire to be taken off the 

 stage as suddenly as possible, and while in the full power 

 and vigour of man or womanhood. 



I have heard a story connected with the death of 

 Major Elliott, a gallant officer of cavalry, who three years 

 ago fell in an encounter with the plains Indians. It 

 smacks too much of sentiment to be genuine ; but I give 

 it for what it is worth, premising, however, that, if true, 

 it is the solitary instance I have ever known of an Indian 



