TRANSFORMATION 185 



and they tell the same story of many large stones and 

 some stars. 1 



The Moquis of North America " are firm believers 

 in metempsychosis, and say when they die they will 

 dissolve into their original forms and become bears 

 deer, &c., again." 2 "Sorcerers will occasionally 

 leave their graves in the form of bull snakes. Bull 

 snakes are often seen coming out of certain graves 

 still wound in the yucca-leaves with which a corpse 

 was tied up when laid away. If such a bull snake 

 in which a sorcerer is supposed to have entered 

 happens to be killed the soul of the sorcerer living 

 in it is set free and then goes to the Skeleton House," 

 that is to say, the abode of the dead. 3 In California 

 the Tachi Yokuts believe that the dead dwell on an 

 island in a river. The island is joined to the mainland 

 by " a rising and falling bridge," over which it it 

 necessary to pass. In doing so the dead are liable 

 to be frightened by a large bird ; then they fall off 

 the bridge and are changed into fish. Every two 

 days the island becomes full. Then the chief of the 

 dead gathers the people and tells them to bathe. In 

 the course of bathing the bird frightens them, and 

 some turn to fish, others to ducks, only a few coming 

 out of the water again in their proper shape. In this 

 way room is made when the island is too full. 4 

 Among the Gallinomero bad men were thought to 

 return in the shape of coyotes, just as the Buddhist 



1 Taplin, Narrinyeri, 45, 46, 43. 



2 McLennan, Studies, ii. 357, quoting Schoolcraft. The beliaf 

 seems here as in several other of the cases cited to be connected 

 with totemism, but the question cannot be discussed now. 



3 Voth, Field Columb. Mus. Pub. Anthrop. viii. 109 (cf. 114). 



4 A. L. Kroeber, Univ. Cat. Pub. Amer. Arch. iv. 217, 218. 



