TRAITS OF NORTHWESTERN INDIANS. 825 



were the property of the grown-up male children, as well as of 

 the father, and could be gambled away by any one of them. The 

 lodge seems to have been secured to the widow and children on 

 the death of the father. The women inherited the kettles and 

 other utensils, besides their saddles, blankets, " parfleshes," etc. 

 The horses, canoes, weapons, etc., went to the male children if 

 they were of age. In early times the dead man's relatives would 

 swoop down upon the lodge soon after his death and appropriate 

 the property substantially at their will. If the dead man left no 

 relatives, the "strong man" of the tribe took possession of his 

 property. 



The Kootenays paid a worship to the sun, and they believed 

 in the existence of spirits in everything animate and inanimate ; 

 even little stones, bits of rag, shavings of wood, have their spirits. 

 These spirits can go anywhere, through glass, wood, or any sub- 

 stance, as through air. The touch of them causes death and dis- 

 ease. At the death of Indians their spirits may enter into fishes, 

 bears, trees, etc.; in fact, into anything animate or inanimate. 

 When a man is alive his spirit may exist in the form of a tomtit, 

 a jay, a bear, a flower, etc. The spirits of the dead can return 

 and visit their friends. In olden times sacrifices appear to have 

 been made to the spirits of the mountains and of the forests to 

 secure success in hunting, and to appease them when they were 

 angered. Their language is supposed to differ from the ordinary 

 Kootenay. A great or strong man has many spirits. The spirits 

 were supposed to come often at the prayer of the medicine men, 

 in the form of birds or the like. A tree is pointed out in the 

 Kootenay region, in northern Idaho, from which Indians have 

 jumped off on two successive occasions, in obedience to the prom- 

 ise of the medicine men that they should be able to fly like birds 

 if they did so. Certain death, of course, awaited them. The 

 shamans treated the sick by pressure upon various parts of the 

 body, by pinching, etc. ; practiced bloodletting, and pretended to 

 extract the cause of the malady by suction with the mouth. 



In the astronomy of the Kootenays the moon is regarded as a 

 man and the sun as a woman. There was no sun in the begin- 

 ning, and, after the Indians had vainly endeavored to discover it, 

 the coyote was successful in making it rise above the mountains. 

 Another version makes the chicken hawk cause the sun to rise. 

 The coyote, getting angry, shoots an arrow at the sun, but misses, 

 sets the prairie on fire, and has to run for dear life. The moon is 

 said to have been found by the chicken hawk. A legend about 

 the man in the moon may be of European origin. The stars are 

 mostly Indians, who from time to time have got up into the sky. 

 The Great Bear was an Indian woman, who sometimes was very 

 angry ; and the stars in her tail are Indians whom she has seized. 



