492 A STUDY OF SIOUAN CULTS. 



hands, which pained tlie man, but this mattered not. He tried to push 

 oil' the ghost, whose legs were very powerful. When the ghost was 

 brought near the fire, he became weak, but when he managed to pull the 

 man towards the darkness, hebecame very strong. As tlie firegot low 

 the strength of the ghost increased. Just as the man began to grow 

 weary the day broke. Then the struggle was renewed. As they drew 

 near the fire the man made a desperate effort, and with his foot he 

 pushed a firebrand suddenly into the fire. As the fire blazed again, 

 the ghost fell just as if he was coming to pieces. So the man won, and 

 the ghost's i^rophecy was fulfilled; he subsequently killed a foe, and 

 stole some horses. For that reason people have believed whatever the 

 ghosts have said. 



§ 283. The man who sliof a ghost. — In the olden time a man was travel- 

 ing alone, and in a forest he killed several rabbits. After sunset he was 

 in the midst of the forest, so he made a fire, as he had to spend the 

 night there. He thought thus: "Should I encounter any danger by 

 and by, I have this gun, and I am a man who ought not to regard any- 

 thing." He cooked a rabbit and satisfied his hunger. Just then he 

 heard many voices, and they were talking about their own affairs, but 

 the man could see nobody. So he thought, "It seems that now at 

 length I have encountered ghosts." Then he went and lay under a 

 fallen tree, which was at a great distance fi'om the fire. He loaded his 

 gun with powder only, as he knew by this time that they were really 

 ghosts. They came round about him and whistled, "Hyu, hyu, hyu!" 

 He has gone yond jr," said one of the ghosts. They came and stood 

 around the man, just as people do wheii they hunt rabbits. The man 

 lay flat beneath the fallen tree, and one ghost came and climbed on the 

 trunk of that tree. Suddenly the ghost gave the cry uttered on hitting 

 an enemy, "A^-he!" and he kicked the man on the back. But before 

 the ghost could get away, the man shot at him and wounded him in 

 the legs; so the ghost gave the male cry of pain, " An ! an ! an !" And 

 finally he went off crying as females do, " Yuij ! yuij ! ynij !" And the 

 other ghosts said to him; " Where did he shoot?" And the wounded 

 one said : "He shot me througii the head and I have come apart." Then 

 the other ghosts were wailing on the hillside. The man decided to go 

 to the place where they were wailing. So, as the day had come, he 

 went thither, and found some gTaves, one of which a wolf had dug into 

 so that the bones were visible, and there was a wound in the skull. 



ASSINNIBOIN BELIEFS ABOtT OIIOSTS. 



§284. Smet says:'' 



The belief in ghosts is very profound, and common to all these tribes. Indians 

 have often told me that they have met, seen, and conversed with them, and that they 

 may be heard almost every night in the places where the dead are interred. They 

 say that they speak in a kind of whistling tone. Sometimes they contract the face 

 [of a human being whom they meet] like that of a person in an epileptic fit.' 



' Western Missions and Missionaries, p. 140. 



