THE LOST TIMBER SPIRITS. 65 
where he was kept for six days and nights. At’the end of the sixth 
day some old woman washed him, and then they let him go, and he 
became a real person again. 
When a person dies they dig a hole in the ground about four or five 
feet long and about three or four feet wide—according to the size of 
the person—and the body is laid head toward the west and feet toward 
the east. One of the family builds a fire at the feet of the person, and 
this fire should be kept up for six days and nights. Very often the 
person forgets to keep up the fire and lets it go out before the end of 
the sixth day, and when this happens they find that the grave is open 
and tracks are seen leading toward the east. ‘They follow the tracks 
sometimes and overtake the dead person, but generally he gets away 
from them when they do overtake him. They build the fire all around 
the dead person; the wood for that purpose is cedar and mulberry trees, 
and the sparks from the fire get on the person. At first the dead person 
pays no attention, but the people keep on building up the fire until the 
dead person begins to look around and tries to escape the sparks from 
the fire. Then they know the dead person is coming to life again, for 
he is beginning to feel, and then they take hold of him and bring him 
back home, where he is kept for six days and nights. At the sixth 
day, in the early evening, some one of the family would bathe him, 
and then he would live again. When the dead person is not caught he 
becomes something like a very large monkey, and lives in the thickets 
and timber. Whenever the people meet a dead person he talks to them, 
and so the people think that dead people are crazy people. They do 
not know where their homes are or who their relatives are, and so they 
go off and stay in the woods or among the wild animals. That is the 
reason that large monkeys are called ‘‘the last people in the thickets.’’ 
When any one or two people go out to hunt in the thickets or woods 
they always meet these monkeys, and monkeys always ask for a wrest- 
ling match. They are very strong little men, and if the people do not 
pay any attention to them, they bother them all night long. These 
creatures are still living, but they do not talk as they did when the 
world was new. 
38. THE MAN WHO TURNED INTO A SNAKE.* 
One time two boys who were close friends went out hunting. They 
met a large snake, and one of the boys killed it and cooked it. The 
other boy begged him not to eat it, but to eat the buffalo meat that he 
had prepared ; but the boy would not listen to him and ate the snake 
meat. That was in the evening. ‘The next morning the boy who had 

* Told by Wing. 
