THE INSTINCT OP IMMORTALITY. 285 



to surmount these difficulties, or might be punished 

 for their sins before entering the Elysian fields. 



The happy land was usually in the far west, because 

 thither the orbs of heaven went for their rest, and 

 because the sunset sky daily opened up the glories 

 of heaven's portal, to delight the eyes of men and to 

 beckon them to immortality. Among the Americans, 

 as among the Greeks, there were stories of adventu- 

 rous men who had voluntarily descended into Hades 

 to rescue the souls of their friends. Charlevoix found 

 one of these stories, which he compares to that of 

 Orpheus and Eurydice, and Schoolcraft has preserved 

 two of them, which, as products of imagination, are 

 not unworthy of a place beside classical stories of 

 this type, themselves probably older than the times 

 of Greek civilization. 



The belief in future happiness beyond the grave 

 was not a shadowy imagination, but a firm and practi- 

 cal conviction. The early Jesuit missionaries record 

 with wonder the stoicism and stern joy with which 

 the savage met death, and his certain assurance of a 

 blessed hereafter. If the dying man was the head of 

 a family, he chanted in advance his funeral song or 

 oration, giving parting advice to his children and 

 sorrowing friends, as in that wonderful death-song 

 of Jacob preserved to us in Genesis. It may be well 

 to remark here that the gifts of oratory and song were 

 not rare among the Americans, nor are they rare 

 among other rude tribes. Though without a written 

 language, they had already entered on the path of 



