200 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
In this land of souls all are treated according to their merits. Those who have been 
good men are free from pain; they have no duties to perform, their time is spent in 
dancing and singing, and they feed upon mushrooms, which are very abundant. The 
souls of bad men are haunted by the phantom of the persons or things that they have 
injured ; thus, if a man has destroyed much property the phantoms of the wrecks of 
this property obstruct his passage wherever he goes; if he has been cruel to his dogs 
or horses they also torment him after death. The ghosts of those whom during his 
lifetime he wronged are there permitted to avenge their injuries. They think that 
when a soul has crossed the stream it cannot return to its body, yet they believe in 
apparitions, and entertain the opinion that the spirits of the departed will frequently 
revisit the abodes of their friends in order to invite them to the other world, and to 
forewarn them of their approaching dissolution. 
Stephen Powers, in his valuable work so often quoted, gives a num- 
ber of examples of superstitions regarding the dead, of which the follow- 
ing relates to the Karok of California : 
How well and truly the Karok reverence the memory of the dead is shown by the 
fact that the highest crime one can cominit is the pet-chi-é-ri, the mere mention of the 
dead relative’s name. Itis a deadly insult to the survivors, and can be atoned for 
only by the same amount of blood-money paid for willful murder. In default of that 
they will have the villain’s blood. * * * At the mention of his name the moulder- 
ing skeleton turns in his graye and groans. They do not like stragglers even to in- 
spect the burial place. * * * They believe that the soul of a good Karok goes to 
the ‘‘ happy western land” beyond the great ocean. That they have a well-grounded 
assurance of an immortality beyond the graye is proven, if not otherwise, by their 
beautiful and poetical custom of whispering a message in the ear of the dead. * * 
* Believe that dancing will liberate some relative’s soul from bonds of death, and re- 
store him to earth. 
According to the same author, when a Kelta dies a little bird flies 
away with his soul to the spirit land. If he was a bad Indian a hawk 
will catch the little bird and eat him up, soul and feathers, but if he was 
good he will reach the spirit land. Mr. Powers also states that— 
The Tolowa share in the superstitious observance for the memory of the dead which 
is common to the Northern Californian tribes. When I asked the chief Tahhokolli to 
tell me the Indian words for ‘‘father” and ‘‘mother” and certain others similar, he 
shook his head mournfully and said, ‘All dead,” ‘‘All dead,” ‘No good.” They are 
forbidden to mention the name of the dead, as it is a deadly insult to the rela- 
tives, * * * and that the Mat-t6al hold that the good depart to a happy region 
somewhere southward in the great ocean, but the soul of a bad Indian transmigrates 
into a grizzly bear, which they consider, of all animals, the cousin-german of sin. 
The same author who has been so freely quoted states as follows re- 
garding some of the superstitions and beliefs of the Modoes : 
* * * It has always been one of the most passionate desires among the Modok, as 
well as their neighbors, the Shastika, to live, die, and be buried where they were born. 
Some of their usages in regard to the dead and their burial may be gathered from an 
incident that occurred while the captives of 1873 were on their way from the Lava 
Beds to Fort Klamath, as it was described by an eye-witness. Curly-headed Jack, a 
prominent warrior, committed suicide with a pistol. His mother and female friends 
gathered about him and set up a dismal wailing ; they besmeared themselves with his 
blood and endeayored by other Indian customs to restore his life. The mother took 
his head in her lap and scooped the blood from his ear, another old woman placed 
her hand upon his heart, and a third blew in his face. The sight of the group—these 
poor old women, whose grief was unfeigned, and the dying man—was terrible in its sad- 
