20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



the other hand drove Hume to speak of " that little purturbation of 

 the brain which we call thought." In France, as a reaction, came, 

 among many, La Mettrie, with his clever and vivacious work on 

 "Man a Machine," in which an attempt was made to explain the 

 workings of the human mind on principles similar to those involved 

 in the mechanism of clock-work. And in Germany, where transcen- 

 dentalism soared to its loftiest heights, materialism fell the lowest, 

 30 that Hartmann can calmly say that " Man is what he eats." 



But these positions have been extremes. Between them there 

 have been the many who recognize that materialism cannot be 

 ignored, and that the mind and body must be studied together that 

 either may be perfectly known. And where formerly the teaching 

 of philosophy began with the abstract consideration of the mental 

 " faculties,^' or powers, the basis is now laid in a knowledge of those 

 physiological conditions which render all knowledge possible, and 

 which fui-nish the material of all we know. 



Some writer has well characterized the later tendencies in this 

 direction in the statement, that while the problems which presented 

 themselves to Hartley and Priestly, to Berkeley and Hume, are the 

 same which present themselves to Bain and Calderwood, to Darwin 

 and Spencer, yet they present themselves to the latter in the light of 

 an advanced physiology. 



The President, on behalf of Rev. John McLean, B.A., Fort 

 McLeod, Alberta, N.W.T., read the following paper on 



THE MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF THE BLACKFEET 

 INDIANS. 



The Blackfoot Confederacy comprises three tribes, Bloods, Piegans 

 and Blackfeet proper. Though now separated by means of different 

 reservations, their customs and language are the same, the latter 

 having a few dialectic differences. By studying the mortuary cus- 

 toms of one tribe, we leai'n those belonging to the confederacy, but 

 in order to secure uniformity, our studies must have reference to the 



time preceding the ovei-powering influences of the civilization of the 



white man. 



Three modes of burial have been practised by these Indians : 



platform or ti-ee burial, lodge or house mode, and underground. 



