OF THB ODAHWAH INDIANS. 305 



lookers, began to revive, and the bystanders could plainly hear the 

 squeaking of the hawk and the whistling of the otter. The medawahg 

 sometimes put small bones in the mouths of their animals, and shot 

 them into the mouth of one of their brothers, or into that of some 

 spectator. These and other performances were looked upon as great 

 wonders by the uninitiated. 



But, unfortunately for the brotherhood, in course of time, the un- 

 conquerable industry of the curious succeeded in discovering the 

 secret which caused the animals to revive and sing. This was none 

 other than a small whistle, so fixed in the stuffed animal as to send 

 forth noise through the mouth when pressed between the fingers and 

 the thumb. But the trick of making bones fly in any required 

 direction, though seemingly more simple, was never fully detected. 

 Some pretended it was done by the influence of a powerful medicinal 

 root, perhaps mineral, which possessed the property of driving out 

 with force any small substance when brought into contact with it. It 

 was reported that when the medawahg of a particular section got rid 

 of a personal enemy, one of them visited the grave on the eighth 

 night, disguised as a wolf or bear, dug up the body, cut off one of the 

 little toes, the little fingers, and the tongue, and also took out the 

 heart. At their next meeting the tongue was divided into eight shares, 

 and eaten by the brothers. The other parts they made use of in pre- 

 paring their medicine and deleterious drugs. The practice of muti- 

 lating their victims has been proved by examining the body, when 

 there were strong grounds of suspicion of foul play, and by relatives 

 occasionally inflicting a deadly wound upon the Meda, whilst in the 

 very act of mutilating the dead. It has been noted as somewhat 

 strange that he always managed to get home before he expired. 



Notwithstanding their imperfect idea about the future world, the 

 Indians believed in the existence of the soul, and there are words in 

 their language signifying "resurrection" from the dead. They also 

 believed that there was a place in the west, — a place of delightful 

 climate, having beautiful trees, flowery meadows, limpid streams, and 

 rich hunting grounds, where the virtuous people went after death to 

 enjoy the good things of the land. There they had nothing to do but 

 to amuse themselves in the midst of plenty. From this region the 

 wicked were excluded. They had to wander about this world in 

 poverty and misery ; but, in order to gratify their unrelenting malig- 

 nity, they were sometimes transformed into mosquitoes, or other 

 noxious insects, that they might annoy the living, as it was their 



