96 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE. [Vol. III. 



to appease the soul of the warrior. As soon as one layer was fin- 

 ished, the people passed over it singing, and tramped it down smooth 

 with their feet. Then the medicine men added another layer, until 

 a bed of many colors had been heaped up for the great chief. 



"On this bed they laid him, and piled great heaps of wood all 

 about him. On this they placed his robes and weapons. The med- 

 icine men lighted torches, and threw them into the midst of the 

 piles of wood, and soon a great fire was leaping through the forest. 

 The people ran round the fire singing, but the voice of the flame 

 was so great that I could not hear what they said. I could see 

 them casting their digging tools and burden baskets into the fire, 

 and the black-faced mourners throwing in bundles of wealth and 

 slashing their faces as they passed the body of their chief. It was 

 a strange sight, grandfather. 



"Suddenly someone stumbled and fell against the flaming pyre. 

 Thus he profaned the sacred spot. The people stopped their danc- 

 ing, and raised a cry so loud that I heard it above the voice of the 

 flames. The medicine men waved their arms, and every one fled to 

 his canoe, and paddled away so fast that when I looked again the 

 spot was silent and deserted. 



"Then I felt myself coming up through deep waters, and awoke 

 in the lodge of the great serpent spirit. 



"After many days spent with the great serpent spirit I was 

 deemed strong enough to take the second medicine. Again my 

 spirit fled back through the years, but the trail was not so long- 

 as before. 



"Again I stood on the point, but not so much a stranger, for 

 the scene looked much as it does today, grandfather. The broad 

 river was filled with canoes, and all appeared to be headed for the 

 spot where I stood. As they drew nearer, I saw that the canoes 

 were filled with bundles. These were the bones of their dead which 

 they had taken down from the trees. 



"Soon the point where I stood was thronged with people. They 

 passed all around me and even through me, grandfather, but did 

 not know that I was there. They, too, spoke a strange tongue, 

 that I could not understand. 



"They started digging under my very feet, and soon had a deep 

 hole made, as large as your wigwam, grandfather. Into this their 

 medicine men cast the sacred earth, but they had forgotten many of 



