319 
the name. It was intended to conjure away all future malign 
influences.* 
Bancroft also says that a ceremony akin to circumcision was 
practised by the Aztecs, Totonacks, and Mijes. It was done 
by the high priest and assistant, and mostly among the chil- 
dren of great men. 
Fasts were common among the Peruvians, Dakotas, and 
California Indians, so that, says Mr. Powers, of the latter, 
one is reminded of the ancient Israelites. 
Dancing, too, as a religious ceremony, was practised by the 
Peruvians, California and Puget Sound Indians, Dakotas, 
Pueblos, and a large number of other Indians. 
Among the Navajos, the person who touches or carries a 
dead person is unclean, and, after doing so, puts off his 
clothes, and washes himself with water, before mingling with 
the people.t 
TV.—Man’s Furure Asope. 
The happy hunting-grounds of the Indian are proverbial ; 
a belief in future punishment is not so widespread, yet some- 
what common. 
The name of the heaven of the Peruvians was “ Hanau- 
pacha,” or “upper world,” and that of the place of punish- 
ment “Ucu-pacha,” or ‘‘lower world,’ and sometimes 
** Supaya,” or “ devil’s house.” ¢ 
The Mexicans had more than one heaven for different 
classes of people, and their hell involved no more suffering 
than that it was a place of utter darkness.$ 
‘* Seh-un-yah ” was the name of the place where the Pueblo 
Indians came from, and to it they went when they died. It 
was under Great Salt Lake, and is a big Indian Pueblo.|| 
The Achomawi of California hold that the righteous reach 
the spirit-land quickly, but the wicked walk for ever and ever, 
and never reach it; a very fitting emblem to the lazy 
Californian of future punishment.§{ The Karoks, Yuroks, 
Tolowas, Keltas, Tatus, Kato-Pomos, Poam-Pomos, Senels, 
Ashochimis, Patwins, Wintuns, and Maidus, of California also 
have some ideas of a very happy place for the good, but they 
* Tschudi’s Peruvian Antiquities, p. 180. 
+ Introduction to Mortuary Customs, p. 14. 
{ Longeon, in N. Y. Tribune. 
§ Plato’s Immortality of the Soul, p. 170. 
|| Contributions to N. A. Ethnology, vol. iv. p. 152, 
+) VOL, iii. 
2a2 
