DOBSEY] OMAHA AND PONKA BELIEF AS TO A FUTURE LIFE. 419 



liaud acts. He also swallowetl "mahi°-tu," a kind of green grass about ,i 

 foot long and as thick as a pencil. Before swallowing this, he warmed 

 it at a fire. He rubbed himself on his chest after swallowing it, saying, 

 " Let all look at me !" Then he called to him a man to act as his assistant. 

 He coughed and in the assistant's hand there was a snake, which he 

 took around the circle of spectators, showing it to every one, though 

 no one handled it. On his returning the snake to Mai5ge-zi, the latter 

 swallowed it and coughed up the long grass. 



Nixiidje-yinge said that there were eight objects used by tlie sha- 

 mans for " shooting," the needle; flint ( ?) arrow head; beaver teeth; the 

 half of a knife blade, i. e., that part next to the point; the lish-fau, 

 made of ''huqtci" or "real flsh;" the red medicine; the hiy:idad:ixe or 

 medicine bag that was caused to fly; and the tuhnaiige, or otter skin 

 bag. (See §§ 292-295, 307.) 



OMAHA AND PONKA BELIEF AS TO A FUTURE LIFE. 



§ 67. They have a very (trude belief. Each person is taught to have a 

 wanaxe or spirit, which does not perish at death. According to Joseph 

 La Fleche and Two Orows, the old men used to say to the people, 

 "(^'iuda" :>[!, wanaxe uda°-ma4a ci tate. (/^ipiaji j[T, wanaxe piaji-ma:>a 

 ci tate, " i. e., " If you are good, you will go to the good ghosts. If you 

 are bad, you will go to the bad ghosts. Nothing was ever said of go- 

 ing to dwell with Wakanda, or with demons.' 



Rev. William Hamilton found a belief that retribution is in this life, 

 and he says, "Their notions are exceedingly crude." 



§ 68. Frank La Fleche told the author before 1882 that he had heard 

 some old men relate a tradition that years ago a man came back to 

 life and told about the spirit land. He said that for four nights after 

 death the ghost had to travel a very dark road, but that after he 

 reached the Milky Way there was plenty of light. For this reason, 

 said he, the peojjle ought to aid their deceased friends by lighting tires 

 at the graves, and by keeping them burning for foiu' nights in each 

 case. After going along the Milky Way, the ghost came at last to a 

 jilace where the road forked; and there sat an aged man, clothed in a 

 buffalo robe with the hair outside. (See § 3.j9.J.) He said nothing, but 

 pointed to each inquirer the road for which he asked. One road was 

 a very short one, and he who followed it soon came to the place where 

 the good ghosts dwelt. The other road was an endless one, along 

 which the ghosts went crying. The spirits of suicides could not travel 

 either road; but they hovered over their graves. But Joseph La 

 Fleche and Two Crows (in 1882) said that the road of the ghosts was 

 not the Milky Way, and they regarded the account of the endless road 

 as a modern addition, which is very probable. The latest statements 



' Compare the Oregon story : Jfo Imliaus go after death to the upper world to dwell with Qawaneca. 

 Am. Anthropulojiist. Jan., 1889, p. 60. 



