barks, he counts the number with care; he remarks whether his voice is feeble or strong, and from what point of the compass it comes. These observations then become the sub
ject of discussion to the jugglers. What are the prognos
tics? Why, the " little medicine-wolf " announces to them that on the morrow they may expect a visit from a .friend
or from an enemy, or perhaps a herd of buffalo. The Indians frequently regulate their movements or marches by these indications; and if, as occasionally happens, they result according to the explanation of the barks, the little wolf is favored with the ceremony of a grand feast!
The belief in ghosts is very profound, and common in all these tribes. Indians have often told me, seriously, that they had met, seen anc conversed with them, and that they may be heard almost every night in the places where the dead are interred. They say they speak in a kind of whis
tling tone. Sometimes they contract the face like a person
in an epileptic fit. Nothing but the hope of gain could ever induce an Indian to go alone in a burying-ground at night. In such a case, love of gain might triumph over the fear of ghosts; but an Indian woman would never be induced, on any condition, to enter one.
The Assiniboins esteem greatly a religious custom of assembling once or twice in the year around the tombs of their immediate relatives. These sepulchres are raised on a species of scaffold, about seven or eight feet above the surface
of the soil. The Indians call the dead by their names, and offer them meats carefully dressed, which they place beside
them. They take care, however, to consume the best pieces themselves,- after the custom of the priests of the idols of old, who offered their false gods the heart, blood, entrails and indigestible parts, reserving to themselves the most delicate portions of the victim. The ceremony of burying the dead, among the Indians, is terminated by the tears, wailings, howlings and macerations of all present. They tear the hair, gash their legs, and at last the calumet is lighted,
for this is the Alpha and Omega of every rite. They offer