OF THE POLAR SEA. 



77 



correct description. Several Indians, who lay on the outside of the 

 sweating-house as spectators, seemed to regard the proceedings with 

 very little awe, and were extremely free in the remarks and jokes 

 they passed upon the condition of the sweaters, and even of Kepoo- 

 chikawn himself. One of them made a remark, that the shawl 

 would have been much better bestowed upon himself than upon 

 Kepoochikawn, but the same fellow afterwards stripped and joined 

 in the ceremony. 



I did not learn that the Indians worship any other god by a 

 specific name. They often refer, however, to the Keetchee-Maneeto, 

 or Great Master of Life ; and to an evil spirit, or Maatche-Maneeto. 

 They also speak of Weettako, a kind of vampyre or devil, into which 

 those who have fed on human flesh are transformed. 



Whilst at Carlton, I took an opportunity of asking a communi- 

 cative old Indian, of the Blackfoot nation, his opinion of a future 

 state ; he replied, that they had heard from their fathers, that the 

 souls of the departed have to scramble with great labour up the 

 sides of a steep mountain, upon attaining the summit of which they 

 are rewarded with the prospect of an extensive plain, interspersed 

 here and there with new tents, pitched in agreeable situations, and 

 abounding in all sorts of game. Whilst they are absorbed in the 

 contemplation of this delightful scene, they are descried by the in- 

 habitants of the happy land, who, clothed in new skins, approach 

 and welcome with every demonstration of kindness those Indians 

 who have led good lives ; but the bad Indians, who have imbrued 

 their hands in the blood of their countrymen, are told to return 

 from whence they came, and without more ceremony precipitated 

 down the steep sides of the mountain. 



Women, who have been guilty of infanticide, never reach the 

 mountain at all, but are compelled to hover round the seats of their 

 crimes, with branches of trees tied to their legs. The melancholy 

 sounds, which are heard in the still summer evenings, and which 



