140 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



united in one place, so they would live together in the same unity and 

 harmony (C 162; S 213-214). 



THE AFTERLIFE 



The Huron believed in the immortality of the soul (cf. C 163) 

 which they thought to be corporeal ; this soul was a body as large as 

 that which it animated and was divisible (JR 8:121; 10:141-143). 

 Further, they felt that dogs, deer, fish, and other animals had immor- 

 tal and reasonable souls ( JE. 8 : 121) . 



The Huron believed that souls entered other bodies after death 

 (JR 15:183). After the Feast of the Dead, one of the two souls 

 of the deceased person remained in the pit and did not leave it unless a 

 woman bore it agam as a child. A proof of this rebirth was the re- 

 semblance of some living' persons to dead ones. This idea indicates 

 why the bones of the dead were called atishen^ 'the souls' ( JR 10 : 141, 

 287). The soul separated from the body was denoted eshen (JR 10: 



141).«2 



The Huron believed that the other of the two souls of an individual 

 left the cemetery at the Feast of the Dead.'''' Some said that these 

 souls changed into turtledoves which later were hunted with bow 

 and arrow in the woods and then broiled and eaten ( JR 10 : 143, 

 287; cf. C 163 — some believed in the immortality of the soul while 

 others said that after death they would go to a place where they would 

 sing like crows) .^* The most common belief, however, was that after 

 the ceremony they, covered with the robes and collars which had 

 been put into the grave for them, went to a great village in the west 

 ( JR 10 : 143, 287 [ahahabreti onaskenonteta, the place where the 

 souls of the dead went ( JR 13 : 251) ]. It was also said that the souls, 

 which were immortal, left the body and went at once to louskeha and 

 his grandmother Aataentsio [see below], by way of the Milky Way, 

 which they designated atishein andahatey, 'the path of the souls.' ^^ 

 The souls of dogs always went by the way of certain stars near the 

 souls' path, called gagnenon andahatey^ 'the path of the dogs' (S 

 172). 



^Compare eskanane, 'land of the souls' (Beauchamp 1922: 158). This and the other 

 ■words for soul given in Appendix 3 are discussed by Hewitt (1902: 44-45; see also 

 Hewitt 1895 b : 112-115 ; Shimony 1961 a : 229). 



*' The Iroquois also believe that the ghost spirit remains around Avhile the main soul 

 goes to the land of the dead in the west (Speck 1949: 120; Fenton and Kurath 1951: 

 144-145), although this belief is not well formalized (Shimony 1961 a: 229). The soul 

 does not leave until after the 10-day feast (Shimony 1961 a: 236-237; Parker 1913: 

 61 n.). 



"^ Compare Morgan's (1901(1) : 168) statement that in ancient times, a captured bird 

 was freed over the grave after burial to bear away the spirit. 



*' The Iroquois also believe that the souls travel along the Milky Way to the land of 

 the dead (Morgan 1901(2) : 253 ; Parker 1913: 62 n. ; Shimony 1961 a: 229). 



