noRsEY.] DEATH AND BURIAL LOBE. 485 



is immortal — they have no idea, nor do they appear to have any partic- 

 ular care as to what may become of them after death. It may be 

 remarked, that the happy huutiug grounds, supposed to belong to 

 every Indian's future, are no part of the Dakota creed — though indi- 

 vidual Dakota may have learned something like it from the white men 

 among them. 



ASSINNIBOIN BELIEFS ABOUT THE DEAD. 



§ 269. The Assinniboin " believe that the dead migrate toward the 

 south,' where the climate is mild, the game abundant, and the rivers well 

 stocked with iish. Their hell is tlie reverse of this picture; its unfor- 

 tunate inmates dwell in perpetual snow and ice and in the complete 

 deprivation of all things. There are, however, many among them who 

 think that death is the cessation of life and action and that there is 

 naught beyond it.^ 



" The Assiuniboine believe that their dead go to a country in the 

 south, where the good and brave find women and buffaloes, while the 

 wicked or cowardly arc confined on an island, where they are destitute 

 of all the pleasures of life. The corpses of brave men are not deposited 

 in trees, but on the ground, as they will help themselves, and they are 

 covered with wood and stones to protect them trom the wolves."^ 



GHOSTS NOT ALWAYS VISIBLE. 



§ 270. The ghosts of the departed are not always visible to the living. 

 Sometimes they are heard but not seen, though in the lodge with a 

 mortal. Occasionally they become materialized, taking living hus- 

 bands or wives, eating, drinking, and smoking, just as if they were 

 ordinary human beings. 



DEATH AND BURIAL LORE. 



§ 271. As ghosts visit the sick at night it is customary to drive them 

 away by making a smoke from cedar wood, or else cedar is laid outside 

 the lodge. Sometimes a piece of cedar is fastened up at the smoke- 

 hole. (See § 42.) One Teton story shows how a female ghost disliked 

 a bad odor and fled from it. When they hear a ghost whistling, some 

 one leaves the lodge and fires a gun. Before death the lodge is sur- 

 rounded by ghosts of decea.sed kindred that are visible to the dying 

 person. 



All the dead man's possessions are buried with him; his body is 

 dressed in good clothing. The ftivorite horse is decorated and saddled, 

 and to this day various articles belouging to the deceased are fastened 

 to him. The horse is shot and part of his tail is cut ott' and laid near 

 the head of the burial scaffold, as it is thought that in such a case the 



*A similar belief has been held by the Athapascans now on the Siletz reservation, Oregon. This 



has been published bj- the author in The Araeric;iu Anthropologist for .January, 1889, p. 60. 

 '•'Smet, Wi'sTt^ni Missions and Missionaries, p. 142. 

 ^Maximilian. Travels iu North America, p. 197. 



