DOBSEY] GOOD AND BAD GHOSTS. 489 



aside bis arms and engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with a foe; this 

 is shown by the human hand. The horse-tracks indicate that he ran off 

 with so many liorscs. If his name was Black Hawk, for instance, a 

 black hawk was painted in the middle of his shield. 



All these things are arranged before they open the bag containing 

 the hair. Then they enter the lodge, and there they open all the things 

 that they have brought. The kindred of the deceased are the only ones 

 to enter the lodge, and when they see the hair taken from the sack they 

 scream suddenly for a minute or two. It is at this time that they dis- 

 tribute the gifts. Food has been boiled in many kettles, and is now 

 divided among the people not the kindred of the deceased, who are scat- 

 tered around the ghost lodge, and some food is usually given to the 

 young men of the order to which the deceased belonged. 



A woman who attends to collecting the food, calico, bags, clothing, 

 etc., turns to the four posts of the scaffold in succession, and utters one 

 of the following sayings or prayers at each post: "If the ghosts eat 

 this, may I live long!" or "May the ghosts eat this, and I obtain many 

 horses !" or " If my nephew (or niece) eats this, may some one give me 

 many presents ! " This woman is careful to put the best part of the 

 food on the bowl or dish under the scaffold near the head of the corpse.' 

 Should any one eat before the food has been put aside for the ghost, all 

 the ghosts become angry with him, and they are sure to punish him ; 

 they will make him drop his food just before it reaches his mouth, or 

 they will spill the water when he tries to drink, and sometimes they 

 cause a man to gash himself with a knife. 



GOOD AND BAD GHOSTS. 



§ 211. Some ghosts are beneficent, but most of them are maleficent. 

 They know all things, even the thoughts of living people. They are 

 glad when the wind blows. Bushotter's younger brother was crazy at 

 one time, and a doctor or pezuta wi(jasa said that the sickness had been 

 caused by a ghost. 



INTERCOURSE WITH GHOSTS. 



5 278. Lyud says : The belief in the powers of some Dakotas to call up and con- 

 verse with the spirits of the dead is strong in some, thongh not general. They fre- 

 quently make feasts to those spirits and elicit information from them of distant 

 friends and relatives. Assembling at night in a lodge, they smoke, put out the lire, 

 and then, drawing their blankets over their heads, remain singing in unison in a 

 low key until the spirit gives them a picture. This they pretend the spirit does; 

 and many a hair-erecting tale is told of the spirit's power to re\eal. and the after 

 confirmation.'' 



GHOST STORIES. 



A few ghost stories of the Teton collection will now be given. 



'Id one uf his papers Bushotter says that it is the mother of the deceased person who de])08its the 

 food under the scatfold and utters the prayers. John Bruyier, a liulf^ood Tetcni from (;heyenne 

 River Agency, South Daliota, never heard the petition ahout theborses, for if parents ohtaiuedhorses 

 after tlie death of their son, they gave them away. 

 "Minn. Uist. Soc. Coll., vol. ii, pt. 2, p. 09. 



