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details concerning the afterlife, the notions of different Indians on the 
subject display minor divergencies. The two ex-members of the Grand 
Medicine Society, Jonas and Tom King, gave the most circumstantial 
account. 
11 The soul of a dead man reaches in one night the place where N ambush’ a 
brother dwells, the home of the dead. Carrying in its hand a little tobacco to pay 
for its passage over the river of death, it encounters first a dreadful watchdog, which 
devours it if in life the man tormented dogs. Escaping this danger it comes to a 
river spanned by two logs that move alternatively up and down. There it offers up 
its tobacco, and essays a passage when the logs draw together side by side; but if it 
slips and falls into the water it becomes one of the crayfish that swim in numbers 
beneath. From the river it journeys on until it reaches a barrier of fire, or rather of 
phosphorescent wood; if the man practised sorcery during his lifetime this blazes up 
and burns his soul as it attempts to leap across. Beyond the fire is a house from 
which emerges a man carrying a knife; he extracts the brain of the soul (the seat 
of the shadow) and stores it in his dwelling. Finally the soul reaches the wigwam 
of Nokomis, Grandmother Earth, grandmother of Nanibush and his brother Djibwea- 
buth; and, passing beyond it, enters the village Epanggishimuk, the home of the dead. 
The Indians learned all about the afterlife from a woman named Gizikkwedan- 
jiani, “Sky-woman loin cloth, 1 ” who followed her dead husband to the west. After he 
had ceased to breathe she pulled out one of the front poles of the wigwam and 
saw the path that his soul had followed westward. She called after it ‘Come back to 
your child’; but it answered, ‘Do you yourself go back and take care of the child/ 
The woman then planted the pole along the path the soul had taken, its end pointing 
to the west, told her child that she would soon return, and at night set out to overtake 
her husband. She met the dog with bloody mouth that devours the souls of those 
who have tormented dogs; it barked at her, but allowed her to pass unharmed. 
When she reached the river of death she placed a little tobacco on the water and 
the logs stood still for her to cross; underneath she saw many crayfish swimming in 
various directions, the souls of those who had Jacked tobacco to pay their passage. 
She tried to go round the phosphorescent logs, and, failing, leaped over them; had 
she been a witch they would have blazed up and burned her. When she arrived at 
the storehouse of brains its keeper approached her with his knife and said ‘What 
do you want here?’ ‘I have come for my husband’s soul,’ she answered. And he 
said ‘Go to Djibweabuth. If he grants you the soul I will restore you his brains/ 
She then continued on her way to the wigwam of Nokomis, who said to her ‘I 
followed my two daughters hither when they died, though Nanibush did not wish 
me to come. So now I live here, and my daughters are in the village yonder dancing 
with Djibweabuth, who is beating his water-drum and holding a danee.^ Come, I 
will guide you/ So the old woman, Nokomis, interceded for her with Djibweabuth, 
who placed the man’s soul in a little box and sent the woman home. The soul 
wished to remain with Djibweabuth and wept, but she said to it ‘Come back with 
me to your son.’ The man with the knife gave her the brains and sent her on her 
way. She did not see the fire or the dog again, and the river she crossed in safety after 
placing a little tobacco on the water. After an absence of one night only she re-entered 
her wigwam on earth. There she built a sweathouse, placed inside it her husband’s body 
with the two boxes containing his soul and his brains (shadow), poured water over the 
hot stones and waited outside. Within a few minutes her husband rose up alive 
and well.” 
The jumble of beliefs current among other Parry Islanders more or 
less accord with this version, but introduce a few variant ideas. Some 
natives hold that the soul travels to its destination along the Milky Way, 
First it encounters an old, old man, Mishomis, the sun- next an old, old 
woman, Nokomis or Wabenokkwe , the moon, for whose gratification the 
faces of the dead were daubed with paint. Both Mishomis and Nokomis, 
but principally the latter, direct the soul on its further course. It passes the 
dog, then the river, where frogs devour those who cannot pay the tribute 
