receive the soul of her who had just expired, to present it at the throne of the Most High, when one of those kneeling beside him, ran out crying: " Sighouin, good Sighouin is dead! " The cry was taken up and echoed in the valley and in the foot of the high mountains which encircle the residence of the Sacred Heart. The Indians ran up in crowds around the lodge of the departed. In their impatience to gratify their desire of gazing once more on the pious woman, the lodge was invaded, but it was too small to hold them all, the mats were torn from the poles; the lodge thus opened on all sides, enabled the crowd of spectators to satisfy their pious wish, and they gazed in admiring silence on the last sleep of Louise.
It is a custom of the Indians for the relatives and friends of a deceased person to assemble in his lodge after his death. When the missionary, after reciting the prayers of the Church, leaves the lodge, he says: " Pray, my children, for the repose of his soul," and adds some words suited to the circumstances. Then, on a signal from one of the nearest relatives of the deceased, all present burst into tears and groans, either real or feigned, or rather they begin lamentations, often forced, and extorted rather by the usual ceremony, than by a real sorrow caused by the loss of the deceased. On Louise's death the scene of mourning was far different: it was doubtless sincere. Father Gazzoli thus relates it: " I was an eye-witness, moved to tears by all that passed. My emotion kept increasing, especially when, even before the end of the prayers, universal cries and tears, interrupted by sobs, announced clearly that no ceremony was enacting here, but, on the contrary, they had assembled to pay a just tribute of gratitude and admiration to Louise's virtues, and to relieve the lively grief caused by her loss."
It must not be imagined that sunset, on this as on other occasions, put an end to these demonstrations of sorrow, regret, veneration and love, displayed over the mortal remains of good Louise : they rather increased. The Indians 74