Among the Mexicans, the praises sung to a wife dying in giving birth to her child make reference to the dawn:

O woman, strong and toil-enduring! O child,- beloved, beautiful, tender dove, thou hast conquered! Up with thee! Break from sleep! Already the morning shoots through the clouds! Hie thee to the house of thy father; let thy sisters, the celestial women, carry thee.

By others the place of the departed spirits is believed to be in the south, and this also was called the sun's place.

There were tribes of Indians who believed the meridian heavens to be their future dwelling-place. It was the same Indians who called the Milky Way a Pathway of the Dead; and it was their custom to light fires upon the grave of their dead, which were kept burning for four days, during which time spirits of the deceased were supposed to have arrived safely in the Land of Spirits, a practice not dissimilar to that of the California Indians, who kept watch over the graves of their dead three days after decease, to keep away the evil. spirits.

The Winnebagoes had a similar fear of the disturbbance of the evil spirits; for they swept the grass about the grave in a circle from six to twenty feet in diameter, over which they believed the evil spirits could not pass.

The burial of their dead was accompanied with a great variety of superstitious rites. In describing the ceremony of burial, Mr. Johnston said he noticed one who gave utterance to his sorrow by loud and broken wails, while he drew lines upon the sand, accompany

ing the act with these words, addressed to a group of Indians near him: "We are like these lines,-to-day we are here, and can be seen; but death takes one away, then another, as the wind wipes out these lines in the sand, until all are gone."

Then, stooping, the speaker passed his hand over the lines: "They are all gone, even now," said he; "like them we shall vanish, and shall be seen no more."

On carrying the body of a distinguished chief to its place of interment at Prairie du Chien, in 1825, a requiem was chanted by a band of one hundred warriors. The chant is translated in the following words; of its accuracy Mr. Tanner makes no doubt:

Grieve not, our brother; the path thou art walking

Is that in which we and all men must follow.

The same intonations, the same words, were continued until the body was deposited in the grave.

The burial of an Omaha chief is thus described:

Upon a promontory, on the banks of the Missouri River, upwards of four hundred feet high, is an Indian mound. In this mound, which overlooks a large area of country and is seen several miles distant along the river, was buried the celebrated chieftain, Blackbird, in the following manner.

His corpse was robed in the richest furs that he possessed; his head was decorated with the feathers of the war-eagle, and in his hand was fixed the tomahawk which had seen brave service in the war-path; after which the chief was placed astride his war-steed, which was alive, and loaded with all the trappings belonging to an Indian warrior. A mound then was raised over them, on the summit of the hill. On top of the mound a staff was erected, from which hung the scalps the chief had taken.

There are some features in this description that are similar to that of Saxo Grammaticus, as given in a work by Sir Walter Scott. This relates the manner of burial of the two Norse chiefs, Assuit and Asmund :—

These warriors were buried in a mound that was formed after the ancient custom, in what was called the Age of Hills; that is, when it was the custom to bury persons of distinguished merit or rank on some conspicuous spot which was crowned with a mound. And with them were placed the war-horses of the two champions, and these horses were buried alive.

There are two manittos who are conspicuous in the Land of the Departed; one of whom is called Chibiabos, who, like the Egyptian god Osiris, and the Hindoo judge of the dead, Yama, was master over the realms of the dead, and was believed to take charge of the soul on its entrance into this region. It was thought that sometimes he would not allow the soul a resting-place with him, but would send it adrift in space; and it was often a question eagerly asked by the relatives of the deceased, if Chibiabos allowed the departed soul to enter and dwell with him in the realms of the dead.

The other manitto conspicuous in the Land of the Departed was called Pauguk, who was represented as a hunter of men, bearing with him an invisible bow and

arrow.

The person of this manitto was pictured in the form of a man. Among other superstitions respecting the dead, there is a belief in a funereal phantom which hovers over damp and swampy places, and is, in their belief, the unlaid manes of some departed friend.

In the poem, "Yamoiden, a Tale of the Wars of King

Philip," published in 1820,1 the following reference is made to this phantom:

Oh, saw ye that gleaming unearthly light,
Where it winds o'er the moor from our sight?

'Tis the soul of a warrior who sleeps with the slain.

This soul is believed to await a sacrifice to be made to him, such as placing upon his grave some coveted article of personal property retained by his friends at his decease.

This reminds us of a belief of the Hindoos, who hold that departed souls are dependent on the good offices of those who survive them. Sacrifices are therefore performed for the souls of the deceased. Water, with pre

scribed prayers, is their daily offering. It is supposed that these abridge the term of their punishment for sins committed in the body; if neglected, the desolate spirit may be left to hover about its buried form.

It appears to have been believed that it was possible to enter the eternal realms in search of souls. This belief is not common to all races, as is the belief in future existence. Its most illustrious example may be that of the Greek myth of Orpheus seeking Eurydice, to which the following legend bears some resemblance; or that tale to which the quaint Chaucer refers, in his description of the friendship between Perithous and Theseus: That when one was dead, sothly to telle,

This felaw wente and sought him down in helle.

1 For this work the author is indebted to Dr. Cyrus Briggs, formerly a resident of Rhode Island, where the scene of the poem is laid.

SAYADIO, AND THE MAGIC CUP.

Very sad was the heart of Sayadio, for his sister had departed to the Land of Souls, to the Isle of the Blessed. With his head covered and bent to the ground in the deepest dejection, he spent many hours in mournful reflection. On a certain night, when thus meditating on his loss, Sayadio received intimation from his manitto that it was permitted him to go to the Land of Souls, and once more greet his beloved sister. He made preparations with haste and started on his journey, resolving to bring her back on his return. His path was long and tedious, and he had nearly given up his purpose in despair, when he met an old man, who gave him a magic cup, with which he might dip up the spirit of his sister, should he succeed in finding her, and he went on with a buoyant step; but when he had reached the Land of Souls he was astonished to find that the spirits all fled from him. As his sister was among them, he persisted in calling her name over and over again, although there was no response. At this time, according to the custom of the isle, the inhabitants began to gather for a dance; and Ta-ren-ya-wa-go,1 the master of ceremonies, seeing the perplexity of the young man, kindly offered to aid him by furnishing him with a mystical rattle of great power. Very soon the deep-sounding tawaiegun, or spirit-drum, was beaten for a choral dance, Tarenyawago accompanying with the music of the Indian flute. The effect was instantaneous: the spirits commenced a strange and bewildering dance, in circles as vast as the spirit-land. Sayadio saw his sister among the dancers, and, making a sudden sweep with his cup, dipped up the entranced spirit, securely fasten

1 Ta-ren-ya-wa-go, Holder of the Heavens; who, according to David Cusick, the Indian historian, visited his people in the early days of their existence, and "talked with them face to face," but on their becoming corrupt, his visits ceased.