INDIAN MORTUARY CUSTOMS. 23 



refinement, they are none tlie less intei'esting and worthy of study, 

 if we would understand the social customs and native religion of 

 these people. We learn something concerning the native religious 

 belief oi the Blackfeet from a proper study of their mortuary customs. 



Their home of the spirits is the sand hills. A dying Indian will 

 say : " Nitakitupo sputsikwi — I am going to die," literally " I am 

 going to the sand hills •" axad the bereaved will tell their friends : 

 " sputsikwi etujM — He is gone to the sand hills." They believe in 

 the communion of spirits with each other. Their animistic ideas 

 are very crude. Spirits dwell in trees, rapids, peculiar stones, and 

 many other strange things in nature. Dreams in which friends 

 appear are the visits of the souls of the departed. These ideas are 

 also transferred to the gifts of friends to the dead. In the grave are 

 placed pieces of bread, meat, nevvspapers, relics of the deceased, furs, 

 blankets, &c. 



Several visits have I made to dead lodges, which revealed to 

 me these ideas of object-souls. Entei'ing a lodge that had been 

 opened, I found the corpse lying as in life, wrapped in a buffalo 

 robe. Beside the bed were placed a tin cup, pipe and tobacco, and 

 some pieces of buffalo meat. There were also in the lodge a trunk 

 for travelling with, bow and arrows, an old gun, and numerous 

 Indian trinkets. Introducing this subject among the Indians, I 

 asked why they placed those things for the dead. " For their use," 

 they replied. " Yes, but I have gone months and years after they 

 were placed there, and they still remained." " My friend, you do 

 not understand the Indian's way of thinking. These are spirits, and 

 they live on the souls of these things ; we are material, and we live 

 on the matter of these things. "When one of our friends dies, we 

 place our gifts beside his body ; the spirit of our friend returns, and 

 he brings with him his friends from the spirit-world, and there they 

 feast together. They take with them the souls of these things for 

 their use." The friends of the dead take their own clothes, finger 

 rings, and ornaments and present them as gifts to the dead. In one 

 grave I found buried a saddle, some excellent furs, and many trinkets. 

 In others I have seen placed utensils of all descriptions, and the hair 

 of prized animals. Remonstrating with them at different times for 

 placing these things there and suffering in consequence themselves, 

 they have replied to my question as to why they did not keep them : 

 " What shall we do with them V " Take them home." " We dare 



