142 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



themselves, and till the ground as they did while they were alive. In 

 order that the souls of their relatives would not remain poor in the 

 afterlife, they buried or enclosed bread, oil, skins, tomahawks, kettles, 

 and other utensils. They thought that the souls of these objects 

 departed to the next life to serve the souls of the dead (S 172) .^° The 

 only difference between this village of souls and a village of the living 

 ^\ as that the souls complained day and night ; behavior that the chiefs 

 from time to time tried to stop ( JR 10 : 147) . 



In one case, a woman went to the land of the dead and came back to 

 report, "I was dead and had already passed through the cemetery to 

 go directly to the village of the souls, when I came upon one of my 

 dead relatives, who asked me where I was going and what I intended 

 to do — saying that, if I did not change my mind, they would be lost, 

 that there would be no more relatives to prepare food for the souls 

 thereafter. That is what made me return and resolve to live" ( JR 13 : 

 153). 



In another instance, a dying man wanted to find his deceased half 

 sister who, he said, had been changed into a serpent ( JR 13 : 193) . 



On these trips to the land of the dead, the Huron had an opportmiity 

 to check on the Jesuits' account of the hereafter. For example, one 

 sick woman said that she did not wish to go to the heaven where the 

 Huron went after death, but rather to that where the French went; 

 she had just come from there and had seen a vast number of French- 

 men, wonderfully dressed, and some Indians of her acquaintance who 

 had been baptized, including her micle and sister. Her uncle said to 

 her, "Well, my niece, so you have come here." Her sister asked her 

 if the Father Superior had not given her something at her departure 

 to which she answered, "No." The sister replied, "As for me, here is 

 the bead bracelet that he gave me." The woman then resolved to 

 return and ask the Jesuits for the same. She came to and, after 

 having related her dream, lost consciousness and died (JR 13: 

 149-151). 



Not all reports of the land of the dead agreed with those of the 

 Jesuits. One sick man, for example, reported, after returning from 

 this land, that he had seen nothing of what the Jesuits talked about, 

 but had met some of his relatives who welcomed him and said that 

 they had been awaiting his arrival for a long time and would give him 

 many dances and feasts (JR 17: 151-153). Some Hurons did not 

 want to be baptized because they did not want to go to the French 

 land of the dead, but rather wished to join their relatives (JR 8: 

 137-139 ; 13 : 127, 151, 199 ; 14 : 15, 31 ; 15 : 71 ; 19 : 189) . On the other 



'<• Food and many of tbe smaller personal, ceremonial, or medicinal artifacts are still 

 buried witli the dead person (Shimony 1961 a: 242-243), and in the past the bow and 

 arrow, pipe and tobacco of the deceased, and food for the journey also were put in the 

 grave (Morgan 1901(1) : 168). 



