152 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



you," answered this woman, " and you are ungrateful regarding It ( Ui en es 

 ingrat)'!" "Evidently," he answered, "my life is dear to me. I am yet 

 young. It is well that I stay still on the earth without making any engagement 

 (sans dessein)." " Go, then," said she to him ; " it is not well that you die with 

 us by force. Go away." This unhappy man answered nothing, which led the 

 woman to say to him a second time, " Go." Then he disappeared like a flash, 

 leaving behind him a little sack filled with vermilion and red earth. 



At the same moment, having desired to light my pipe at a fire which was in 

 the cabin, a woman of the savages prevented me, saying to me : " This fire 

 is precious. It is fire from the temple. Come ! take of that which is outside." 

 8aying these words, she took my pipe and went outside of the cabin to light 

 it. I then noticed that this head servant of whom I have spoken gave some- 

 thing to the dead to smoke, and that on presenting it to him he said to him, 

 "Why do you smoke no more with us? Is it that our tobacco is rotted?" 

 However, the men and women who were going to die each took a calumet in 

 the left hand and the shell of a great river mussel in the right, with a feather 

 inside bound with red wool in six places. The wife of the dead man had besides 

 this in the same shell a little brush of the size of the finger made of a grass 

 closely resembling the maiden-hair. So provided they went out to dance. 



The Tattooed-serpent had married another woman, by whom he had had 

 no children. This one was not yet ready when the others went out to dance, 

 a fact which led the great chief of war, the old chief, and the Sun of the Flour 

 village to take her by herself into a cabin near that of the dead man, where 

 without doubt they persuaded her to die. In fact, as soon as she had come out, 

 she went to get ready and returned at once to place herself in the ranks of 

 the others. Then they set out to repair to the open place. Arrived within 

 sight of the temple they uttered the death cry " and stopped an instant, after 

 which they continued their march in this order. The two wives of the dead 

 marched first, followed by La Glorieuse, the head servant, the fix'st warrior 

 of the dead man, the mother of La Mizenne,'' the nurse of the deceased, the 

 wife of the head servant, and two other old women. Between them marched 

 those who were going to utter the death cry over each of them.*' When they 

 had arrived on the open space they separated into two bands, led by the two 

 wives of the dead man, and began to dance. They were followed by all their 

 relations, some among whom carried a jar and a mat for each person, male or 

 female, who was going to die. After this dance the principal guardian of the 

 temple came out and told them what he had learned from the Spirit. Immedi- 

 ately all howled three times, made a rapid whirl, passed the right hand over the 

 head, and returned in company opposite the cabin of the dead, where recom- 

 menced the same dances and the same ceremonies. Afterward the principal 

 wife of the Tattooed-serpent had her children called, with the chiefs of the 

 nation, and spoke to them in these terms : " Your father is dead. It is very 

 grievous. As for me I am going with him. He has gone to the country of the 

 spirits. I am no longer able to walk on the earth. For your part it is good 

 that you so walk without guile. I leave you 2,5 baskets of grain. Speak no 

 ill of the Frenchman. Walk with him. Walk as your father has walked, and 

 as I have always walked. Speak as he and as I have always spoken. Do no 

 harm to the Frenchman. When you are hungry, go to see the Frenchman. He 



"A kind of long howling which increases as it proceeds. — [Dumont.] 

 '' This Mizenne was a Noble woman of the Apple village, who had been given as 

 host.nge to the French until the savages had delivered to them the heads of some 

 quarrelsome persons which they had promised. As she should have died then, her 

 mother offered herself in her place. — TDtiMONT.! 



''Those that perform this office are always the nearest relations. — [Dumont.] 



