MooNEV] NOTES AND PARALLELS 437 



that tlial i)erson went to iiiisiTv. Anotlu-r traiiilidii .«ays that soon after the creation 

 a young woman wac bitten hy a serpent ami died, and her spirit went to a certain 

 place, and tlie people were told that if they would get her spirit hack to her hody 

 tliat the body would live again, and they would prevent the general mortality of the 

 lioiiy. Some young men therefore started with a box to ciitch tlie spirit. They 

 went to a place and saw it diiucing about, and at length cauglit it in the box and 

 .shut the lid, so as to confine it, and started back. But the spirit kept c-onstantly 

 ]>lea(ling with them to open the box, so as to afford a little light, but they hurried 

 on until they arrived near the place where the body was, and then, on account of her 

 peculiar urgency, they removed tht' lid a very little, and out flew the spirit and was 

 gone, and with it all their hope.s of immortality." 



In a variant noted by Hagar the messengers cany four sta\es ami are se\'en days 

 traveling to the ghost country. "They found her dancing in the land of spirits. 

 They struck her with the first 'stick,' it produced no effect — with the second, ami she 

 ceased to dance — with the third, and she looked around — with the fourth, and she 

 came to them. They made a box and j)laced her in it." He was told by one 

 informant: "Only one man ever returned from the land of souls. He went there in 

 a dream after a snake had struck him in the forehead. He, Turkey-head, came l>ack 

 seven days after and described it all. The dead go eastward at first, then westward 

 to the Land of Twilight. It is in the west in the sky. but not amongst the stars" 

 (Stellar Legends of the Cherokee, MS, 1898). 



In a Shawano myth a girl dies, and, after grieving long for her, her brother seta 

 out to bring her back from the land of shadows. He travels «est until he reaches 

 the jjlace where the earth and sky meet; then he goes through and t'limbs up on the 

 other side until he comes to the house of a great beneficent spirit, who is desigiuited, 

 according to the Indian system of respect, as grandfatlier. On learning his errand 

 this helper gives him "medicine" by which he will be able to enter the sj)irit 

 world, and instructs him how and in what direction to proceed to find his sister. 

 " He said she would be at a dance, and when she rose to join in the movement he 

 must seize and ensconce her in the hollow of a reed with which he was furnished, 

 and cover the orifice with the end of his finger." He does as directed, secures his 

 sister, and returns to the house of hi.s instructor, who transforms both iutf) material 

 beings again, and, after giving them sacred rituals to take back to their tribe, dis- 

 nus-ses them by a shorter route through a trapdoor in the sky.' 



In an Algonquian myth of Xew Brunswick a bereaved father seeks his son's soul in 

 the spirit domain of Papkootpawut, the Indian I'luto, who gives it to him in the .shape 

 of a nut, wliicli he is told to insert in his son's body, when the boy will come to 

 life. He jiuls it into a pouch, an<l returns with tlie friends who Iiad accom])anied 

 him. Preparations are made for a dance of rejoicing. "The father, wishing to take 

 jiart in it, gave liis son's soul to the keeping of a squaw who stood by. Being curiou.s 

 to see it, she opened tlie bag, on which it escaped at once and took its Hight for the 

 realms of PapkQotpawut."^ In a myth from British Columhia two brothers go ujion 

 a similar errand to bring liack their mother's soul. After crossing over a great lake 

 they approach the shore of the spirit world and hear the sound of singing and danc- 

 ing in the distance, but an' stopjied at the landing by a sentinel, who tells them: 

 " Your mother is here, but you cannot enter alive to see her, neither can you take 

 her away." One of them .said, " 1 must see her!" Then the man took his body or 

 mortal )iart away from him and lie entered. Tlie other brother came back.^ 



'Josiali GregR. Tlif Comiiifiif nf ilir prairies, or The Juuriiul <if ii .Saiitii Fu Triidcr During Eiglit 

 Expeditions across the Great Western I'rairie.s and a Kusidenee of Ncurl.v Nine Years in Northern 

 Mexico; vol. II. pp. 239-240; New York and J>ondon, ls-i4. 



-Francis Parkman. The .le.snit.s in Norlli ,\nieriea in the Seventeenth t'entury. second eililion. p. 

 Ixxxiii (quoting Le Cleret: Boston, IstiT. 



=*Teil, Thompson River Traditions, p. sr). 



