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their hunting' grounds. Land and sea appear to be open to all with whom 

 they are not at war. Their local attachments are very strong, as might he 

 inferred with regard to a race having fixed abodes, and they part from their 

 favorite grounds and burial-places with the utmost reluctance. 



As regards the right of property in houses or goods, their ideas are 

 naturally clearer. The maker of anything is its necessary owner until ho 

 voluntarily parts with its possession. So also the captor of fish or game, 

 the one who digs roots or raises vegetables ; biit it is not probable that they 

 have ever speculated upon the origin of this right, nor would their minds 

 comprehend any abstract reasoning upon the subject. They have customs, 

 however, in some respects peculiar to themselves. Not only do the luen own 

 property distinct from their wives, but (which is a consequence following on 

 polygamy) their wives own each her private effects, separate from her 

 husband as well as from the others. He has his own blankets, she her 

 mats and baskets and generally speaking her earnings belong to her, except 

 those arising from prostitution, which are her husband's. On the decease of 

 a man, liis property is immediately taken possession of by his relatives, and 

 what is not destroyed or displayed at his grave is divided among them, his 

 sons if grown up taking a part ; his wives get nothing whatever, nor young 

 children, but unless appropriated by the men, return to their own people, 

 taking the latter with them. Another custom in respect to property is that 

 the seller of a horse, slave, or woman guarantees life and safety for a time. 

 If they escape or die within perhaps a month or two, the purchaser can 

 demand back the price. As a general thing, they do not dispose of property 

 before death. Instances happen of course when they express the wish that 

 individuals should have particular articles, but is not always regarded. 

 Judge Ford informed me that one day the Indians announced to him the 

 death of a man near by. The next they told him that he was alive again, 

 and that he said he had not disposed of his horses to suit him, and had 

 come back for that purpose, that he had now done so and was going to die 

 again, which he accordingly did during the day, and that time in earnest. 

 This sort of coma preceding death, it should be remarked in explanation, 

 seems to be not uncommon. 



