held that departed spirits pursued their journey through the sky, along
the Milky Way, while the souls of dogs took another route, by certain
constellations, known as the "Way of the Dogs." [ Sagard, Voyage des
Hurons, 233. ]

At intervals of ten or twelve years, the Hurons, the Neutrals, and other
kindred tribes, were accustomed to collect the bones of their dead,
and deposit them, with great ceremony, in a common place of burial.
The whole nation was sometimes assembled at this solemnity; and hundreds
of corpses, brought from their temporary resting-places, were inhumed in
one capacious pit. From this hour the immortality of their souls began.
They took wing, as some affirmed, in the shape of pigeons; while the
greater number declared that they journeyed on foot, and in their own
likeness, to the land of shades, bearing with them the ghosts of the
wampum-belts, beaver-skins, bows, arrows, pipes, kettles, beads, and
rings buried with them in the common grave. [ The practice of burying
treasures with the dead is not peculiar to the North American aborigines.
Thus, the London Times of Oct. 25, 1885, describing the funeral rites of
Lord Palmerston, says: "And as the words, 'Dust to dust, ashes to ashes,'
were pronounced, the chief mourner, as a last precious offering to the
dead, threw into the grave several diamond and gold rings." ] But as the
spirits of the old and of children are too feeble for the march, they are
forced to stay behind, lingering near their earthly villages, where the
living often hear the shutting of their invisible cabin-doors, and the
weak voices of the disembodied children driving birds from their
corn-fields. [ Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 99 (Cramoisy). ]
An endless variety of incoherent fancies is connected with the Indian
idea of a future life. They commonly owe their origin to dreams, often
to the dreams of those in extreme sickness, who, on awaking, supposed
that they had visited the other world, and related to the wondering