Chapter XII: Future State (1)

ABORIGINAL IDEAS OF FUTURE -- GENERAL CONCEPTIONS OF SOUL --
FUTURE STATE OF THE ALEUTS, CHEPEWYANS, NATIVES AT MILBANK
SOUND, AND OKANAGANS -- HAPPY LAND OF THE SALISH AND CHINOOKS
-- CONCEPTIONS OF HEAVEN AND HELL OF THE NEZ PERCÉS, FLATHEADS,
AND HAIDAHS -- THE REALMS OF QUAWTEAHT AND CHAYHER -- BELIEFS
OF THE SONGHIES, CLALLAMS, AND PEND D'OREILLES -- THE FUTURE
STATE OF THE CALIFORNIAN AND NEVADA TRIBES, COMANCHES, PUEBLOS,
NAVAJOS, APACHES, MOQUIS, MARICOPAS, YUMAS, AND OTHERS -- THE
SUN HOUSE OF THE MEXICANS -- TLALOCAN AND MICTLAN -- CONDITION
OF THE DEAD -- JOURNEY OF THE DEAD -- FUTURE OF THE TLASCALTECS
AND OTHER NATIONS.

The hope, or at least the expectation of immortality, is universal among men. The mind instinctively shrinks from the thought of utter annihilation, and ever clings to the hope of a future which shall be better than the present. But as man's ideal of supreme happiness depends upon his culture, tastes, and condition in this life, we find among different people widely differing conceptions of a future. The intellectual Greek looked forward to the enjoyment of less gross and more varied pleasures in his Elysian Fields, than the sensual Mussulman, whose paradise was merely a place where bright-eyed houris could administer to his every want, or the fierce Viking whose Valhalla was a scene of continual gluttony and strife, of alternate hewing in pieces and swilling of mead.

[Sidenote: IDEAS OF FUTURE.]

It has been supposed by some that the idea of future punishment and reward was unknown to the Americans.[XII-1] This is certainly an error, for some of the Pacific Coast tribes had very definite ideas of future retribution, and almost all, in supposing that the manner of death influenced the future state of the deceased, implied a belief in future reward, at least. The slave, too, who was sacrificed on the grave of his master, was thought to earn by his devotion, enforced though it might be, a passport to the realms of eternal joy; had there been no less blissful bourne this prospective reward for fidelity would have been manifestly superfluous.

The future life of these people was sharply defined, and was of the earth, earthy. In its most common forms it was merely earth-life, more or less free from mortal ills. The soul was subject to the same wants as the body, and must be supplied by the same means. In fact, the pagan's conception of heaven was much more clearly defined than the Christian's, and the former must have anticipated a removal thither with a far less wondering and troubled mind than the latter.

In the Mexican heaven there were various degrees of happiness, and each was appointed to his place according to his rank and deserts in this life. The high-born warrior who fell gloriously in battle did not meet on equal terms the base-born rustic who died in his bed. Even in the House of the Sun, the most blissful abode of the brave, the ordinary avocations of life were not entirely dispensed with, and after their singing and dancing, the man took up his bow again, and the woman her spindle. The lower heavens possessed a less degree of splendor and happiness until the abode of the great mass of those who had lived an obscure life and died a natural death was reached. These pursued their avocations by twilight, or passed their time in a dreamy condition, or state of torpor. As slaves were often sacrificed over their master's grave that they might serve in the next world, we must suppose that differences of rank were maintained there. The Tlascaltecs supposed that the common people were after death transformed into beetles and disgusting objects, while the nobler became stars and beautiful birds. But this condition was also influenced by the acts and conduct of friends of the deceased.

Sir John Lubbock[XII-2] does not believe with Wilson and other archæologists that the burial of implements with the dead was because of any belief that they would be of use to the deceased in a future state; but solely as a tribute of affection, an outburst of that spirit of sacrifice and offering so noticeable in all, from the most savage to the most civilized, in the presence of lost brotherhood, friendship, or love. In the first place the outfit in a great majority of cases is wholly unfit and inadequate, viewed in any rational scale of utility; they are not such as the dead warrior would procure, if by any means he were again restored to earth and to his friends. In the second place it was and is usual to so effectually mutilate the devoted arms and utensils, as to render them a mere mockery if they are intended for the future use of the dead. It is easy to classify this phenomenon in the same category with the deserting or destroying of the house of the deceased, the refusal to mention his name, and all the other rude contrivances by which the memory of their sorrow may be buried out of their sight.

This subject may be viewed in another light, however, by considering that these Indians sometimes impute spirits even to inanimate objects, and when the wife or the slave is slain, their spirits meet the chief in the future land. Do they not also break the bow and the spear that the ghostly weapons may seek above the hands of their sometime owner, not leaving him defenceless among the awful shades. The mutilation of the articles may perhaps be regarded as a symbolic killing, to release the soul of the object; the inadequacy of the supply may indicate that they were to be used only during the journey, or preparatory state, more perfect articles being given to the soul, or prepared by it, on entering the heaven proper.

The slaves sacrificed at the grave by the Aztecs and Tarascos were selected from various trades and professions and took with them the most cherished articles of the master, and the implements of their trade, wherewith to supply his wants. Passports were given for the different points along the road, and a dog as guide. Thus the souls of animals are shown to have entered heaven with man, and this is also implied by the belief that men were there transformed into birds and insects, and that they followed the chase. Another instance which seems to indicate that the souls of these earthly objects were used merely during the preparatory state, was the yearly feast given to departed souls during the period that this condition endured. After that they were left to oblivion. The Miztecs had the custom of inviting the spirits to enter and partake of the repast spread for them, and this food, the essence of which had been consumed by the unseen visitors, was regarded as sacred.[XII-3]

[Sidenote: THE ROAD TO HEAVEN.]

The road to paradise was represented to be full of dangers--an idea probably suggested to them by the awful mystery of death. In the idea of this perilous journey, this road beset with many dangers--storms, monsters, deep waters, and whirlpools--we may trace a belief in future retribution, for though the majority of travelers manage to reach their destination having only suffered more or less maltreatment by the way, yet many a solitary, ill-provided wanderer is overwhelmed and prevented from doing so. In exceptional cases, the perils of this valley of the shadow of death are avoided by the intervention of a friendly deity who, Hermes-like, bears the weary soul straight to its rest. Among the Mexicans Teoyaomique, the consort of the war-god, performed this good office for the fallen warrior.

With the alternative of this not very attractive future before them, it is natural that the theory of metempsychosis should have found wide and ready acceptance, for with these people it did not mean purification from sin, as among the Brahmans; it was simply the return of the soul to the world, to live once more the old life, although at times in a different and superior sphere. The human form was, therefore, assumed more often than that of animals. The soul generally entered the body of a female relative to form the soul of the unborn infant; the likeness of the child to a deceased friend in features or peculiarities lent great weight to this belief. This reëmbodiment was not limited to individuals; the Nootkas, for instance, accounted for the existence of a distant tribe, speaking the same language as themselves, by declaring them to be the incarnated spirits of their dead. The preservation of the bones of the dead, seems in some cases to be connected with a belief in a resurrection of the body. The opinion underlying the various customs of preservation of remains, says Brinton, "was, that a part of the soul, or one of the souls, dwelt in the bones; that these were the seeds which, planted in the earth, or preserved unbroken in safe places, would, in time, put on once again a garb of flesh, and germinate into living human beings."[XII-4] Indeed, a Mexican creation-myth relates that man sprang from dead bones,[XII-5] and in Goatzacoalco the bones were actually deposited in a convenient place, that the soul might resume them.

[Sidenote: IDEAS OF SOUL.]

The most general idea of a soul seems to have been that of a double self, possessing all the essence and attributes of the individual, except the carnal embodiment, and independent of the body in so far as it was able to leave it, and revel in other scenes or spheres. It would accordingly appear to another person, by day or night, as a phantom, with recognizable form and features, and leave the impression of its visits in ideas, remembrances, or dreams. Every misty outline, every rustle, was liable to be regarded by the undiscriminating aborigine as a soul on its wanderings, and the ideas of air, wind, breath, shadow, soul, were often represented by the same word. The Eskimo word _silla_, signifies air, wind, and conveys the idea of world, mind; _tarnak_, means soul, shadow. The Yakima word for wind and life contains the same root; the Aztec _ehecatl_ signifies wind, air, life, soul, shadow; in Quiché the soul bears the name of _natub_, shadow; the Nicaraguans think that it is _yulia_, the breath, which goes to heaven.[XII-6] Some hold that man has several souls, one of which goes to heaven, the others remain with the body, and hover about their former home. The Mexicans and Quichés received a soul after death from a stone placed between the lips for that purpose, which also served for heart, the seat of the soul;[XII-7] this was buried with the remains. The custom of eating the flesh of brave enemies in order to inherit their virtues, points to a belief in the existence of another soul or vital quality in the corpse. Some Oregon tribes gave a soul to every member of the body. A plurality of souls is also implied by the belief in soul-wandering during sleep, for is not the body animate though the soul be separated from it? Yet the soul proper could not remain away from the body beyond a certain time, lest the weaker soul that remained should fail to sustain life.

With the many contradictions and vague statements before us, it must be admitted that the phrase "immortality of the soul" is often misleading. Tylor even considers it doubtful "how far the lower psychology entertains at all an absolute conception of immortality, for past and future fade soon into utter vagueness as the savage mind quits the present to explore them."[XII-8]

[Sidenote: METEMPSYCHOSIS.]

Some tribes among the Hyperboreans actually disbelieved in a future existence, while others held the doctrine of a future reward and punishment. The conceptions of a soul were well defined however; the Thlinkeets supposed it to enter the spirit-world, among the yeks, on being released from the body. The braves who had fallen in battle, or had been murdered, became _keeyeks_, 'upper ones,' and went to dwell in the north, where the aurora borealis, omen of war, flashes in reflection from the lights which illuminate their dances; so at least the Eskimos regard it.[XII-9] Those who died a natural death became _tákeeyeks_, land-spirits, and _tékeeyeks_, sea-spirits, and dwelt in _takankon_, doubtless situated in the centre of the earth,[XII-10] the road to which was watered, and made smooth by the tears of relatives, but if too much crying was indulged in, it became swampy and difficult to travel. The tákeeyeks and tékeeyeks appear to have attached themselves as guardian spirits to the living, and were under the control of the shamáns, before whom they came in the form of land and sea animals, to do their bidding and reveal the past and future.[XII-11] The keeyeks were evidently above the conjuration of the sorcerers. The comforts of heaven, like the road to it, depended on earthly conditions; thus, the body was burned in order that it might be warm in its new home. Slaves, however, who were buried, were condemned to freeze, but the shamáns whose bodies were also left to moulder, had doubtless power to avoid such misery. All lived in heaven as on earth, earning their living in the same manner, to which end the implements and other articles burnt with them were brought into use; wealthy people appointed two slaves to be sacrificed at the pyre, upon whom devolved the duty of attending to their wants. The slaves carried their long-pending doom very philosophically, it is said.[XII-12] It appears, however, that the soul had the option of returning to this life, and as I have said, generally entered the body of a female relative to form the soul of a coming infant. If the child resembled a deceased friend or relation, this reëmbodiment was at once recognized, and the name of the dead person was given to it. Metempsychosis does not appear to have been restricted to relatives only, for the Thlinkeets were often heard to express a desire to be born again into families distinguished for wealth and position, and even to wish to die soon in order to attain this bliss the earlier.[XII-13] This belief in the transmigration of souls was widely spread, and accounts to some extent for the fearlessness with which the Hyperboreans contemplated death.[XII-14] The Tacullies and Sicannis asked the deceased whether he would return to life or not, and the shamán who put the question decided the matter by looking at the naked breast of the body through his fingers; he then raised his hand toward heaven, and blew the soul, which had apparently entered his fingers, into the air, that it might seek a body to take possession of; or the shamán placed his hands upon the head of one of the mourners and sent the spirit into him, to be embodied in his next offspring. The relative thus favored added the name of the deceased to his own. If these things were not done the deceased was supposed to depart to the centre of the earth to enjoy happiness, according to their estimate of it. The Kenai supposed that a soft twilight reigned perpetually in this place, and that its inhabitants pursued their avocations; while the living slept they worked. The soul did not, however, attain perfect rest until a feast had been given in its honor, attended by a distribution of skins.[XII-15]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE COLUMBIAN TRIBES.]

Dall, in speaking of the Tinnehs, to which family the Tacullies and Kenai belong, states that he found few who believed in the immortality of the soul, and none in future reward and punishment; any contrary assertion he characterizes as proceeding from ignorance or exaggeration. Other authors, however, in treating of tribes situated both in the extreme north, and in the center of this family, as the Loucheux and Chepewyans, declare that good and wicked were treated according to their deserts, the poor and rich often changing lots in the other life. Terrible punishment was sometimes inflicted upon the wicked in this world; thus, in Stickeen River stand several stone pillars, which are said to be the remains of an evil-doing chief and his family, whom divine anger placed there as a warning to others. According to Kennicott, the soul, whether good or bad, was received by Chutsain, the spirit of death, who was, for this reason probably, called the bad spirit.[XII-16] The Eskimos seem to have believed in a future state, for Richardson relates that a dying man whom he saw at Cumberland Inlet declared his joy at the prospect of meeting his children in the other world and there living in bliss. It is also a suggestive fact that implements and clothes were buried with the body, care being taken that nothing should press heavily upon it. The large destruction of property practiced by some Rocky Mountain tribes was for the purpose of obliterating the memory of the deceased.[XII-17] The Aleuts believed that the spirits of their relatives attended them as good genii, and invoked them on all trying occasions, especially in cases of _vendetta_.[XII-18] The Chepewyan story relates that the soul arrives after death at a river upon which floats a stone canoe. In this it embarks and is borne by the gentle current to an extensive lake in the midst of which is an enchanted island. While the soul is drifting toward it, the actions of its life are examined, and if the good predominate, the canoe lands it on the shore, where the senses revel in never-ending pleasures. But if the evil of its past life out-weigh the good, the stone canoe sinks, leaving the spirit-occupant immersed up to the chin, there eternally to float and struggle, ever beholding but never realizing the happiness of the good.[XII-19] This pronounced belief in a future reward and punishment obtained among several of the Columbian tribes. The natives of Millbank Sound picture it as two rivers guarded by huge gates, and flowing out of a dark lake--the gloom of death. The good enter the stream to the right, which sparkles in constant sunshine, and supplies them with an abundance of salmon and berries; the wicked pass in to the left and suffer cold and starvation on its bleak, snow-clad banks.[XII-20] The Okanagans call paradise, or the abode of the good spirit, _elemehumkillanwaist_, and hell, where those who kill and steal go, _kishtsamah_. The torments of the latter place are increased by an evil spirit in human form, but with tail and ears like a horse, who jumps about from tree to tree with a stick in his hand and belabors the condemned.[XII-21]

Some among the Salish and Chinooks describe the happy state as a bright land, called _tamath_ by the latter, evidently situated in the direction of the sunny south, and abounding in all good things. Here the soul can revel in enjoyments, which, however, depend on its own exertions; the wealthy, therefore, take slaves with them to perform the menial duties. The wicked on the other hand are consigned to a desolate region under the control of an evil spirit, known as the Black Chief, there to be constantly tantalized by the sight of game, water and fire, which they can never reach. Some held that tamath was gained by a difficult road called _otuihuti_, which lay along the Milky Way, while others believed that a canoe took the soul across the water that was supposed to separate it from the land of the living.[XII-22]

The Nez Percés, Flatheads, and some of the Haidah tribes believed that the wicked, after expiating their crimes by a longer or shorter sojourn in the land of desolation, were admitted to the abode of bliss. The Haidahs called the latter place _keewuck_, 'above,' within which seems to have been a still brighter spot termed _keewuckkow_, 'life above,' the abode of perennial youth, whither the spirit of the fallen brave took its flight. Those who died a natural death were consigned with the wicked to _seewukkow_, the purgatorial department, situated in the forest, there to be purified before entering the happy keewuck.[XII-23] The Queen Charlotte Islanders termed paradise 'the happy hunting-ground,' a rather strange idea when we consider that their almost sole avocation was fishing.[XII-24] The Nez Percés believed also in a purgatory for the living, and that the beavers were men condemned to atone their sins before they could resume the human form.[XII-25] It seems to have been undecided whether the wives and young children shared the fate of the head of the family; the Flatheads expressed a belief in reunion, but that may have been after one or all had been purified in the intermediate state. Those who sacrificed slaves on the grave, sent them alike with the master that died gloriously on the battle-field, or obscurely in his bed.

[Sidenote: QUAWTEAHT AND CHAYHER.]

The Ahts hold that the soul inhabits at once the heart and the head of man. Some say that after death it will return to the animal form from which its owner can trace his descent; others that, according to rank, disembodied souls will go to live with Quawteaht or with Chayher. Quawteaht inhabits a beautiful country somewhere up in the heavens, though not directly over the earth; a goodly land flowing with all manner of Indian milk and honey; no storms there, no snow nor frost to bind the rivers, but only warmth and sunshine and abundant game and fish. Here the chiefs live in the very mansion of Quawteaht, and the slain in battle live in a neighboring lodge, enjoying also in their degree, all the amenities of the place. And these are the only doors to this Valhalla of the Ahts; only lofty birth or a glorious death in battle can confer the right of entry here. The souls of those that die a woman's death, in their bed, go down to the land of Chayher. Chayher is a figure of flesh without bones--thus reversing our pictorial idea of the grisly king of terrors--who is in the form of an old gray-bearded man. He wanders about in the night stealing men's souls, when, unless the doctors can recover the soul, the man dies. The country of Chayher is also called chayher. It resembles a subterranean earth but is every way an inferior country: there are no salmon there and the deer are wretchedly small, while the blankets are so thin and narrow as to be almost useless for either warmth or decoration. This is why people burn blankets when burying their friends; they cannot bear that their friend be sent shivering to the world below. The dead Aht seems to have been allowed in some cases to roam about on earth in the form of a person or animal, doing both good and evil, a belief which induced many to make conciliatory offerings of food to the deceased. Some Chinook tribes were afraid to pronounce the names of their dead lest they should be attracted and carry off souls. This was especially feared at the sick-bed, and the medicine-man had to be constantly on guard with his familiars to frustrate such attempts.[XII-26] The Aht sorcerer even sent his own soul down to chayher to recover the truant, in which he generally succeeded, unless the spirit of the sick man had entered a house.[XII-27] Some among the tribes believed that the soul issued from animals, especially sea-gulls and partridges, and would return to its original form. The Songhies said the hunter was transformed into a deer, the fisherman into a fish; and the Nootkas, that the spirit could reassume a human form if the celestial abode were not to its taste.[XII-28]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF THE CALIFORNIANS.]

In striking contrast to the preceding beliefs in futurity, and to that of the Clallams, who with universalistic feeling believe that the good spirit will receive all, without exception, in his happy hunting-ground, we are told that the Pend d'Oreilles had no conceptions whatever of soul or immortality, so that the missionaries found it difficult to explain these matters to them. It is certainly strange that a tribe surrounded by and in constant contact with others who held these ideas should have remained uninfluenced by them, especially as they were extremely superstitious and believed in guardian spirits and dreams.[XII-29] Disbelief in a future state is assigned to many tribes, which upon closer examination are shown to possess ideas of a life after this; such statements must, therefore, be accepted with caution. Among the Californians who are said to identify death with annihilation, are the Meewocs and the tribes of the Sacramento Valley, yet the latter are afraid to pronounce the name of a deceased person, lest he should rise from dark oblivion.[XII-30] But these may be regarded as exceptions, the remainder had pretty definite ideas of futurity, heaven being generally placed in the west, whither the glorious sun speeds to rest. The Northern Californian regarded it as a great camping-ground, under the charge of the good spirit, where all meet after death, to enjoy a life free from want. But there were dangers upon the road which led to this bliss; for Omahá, the evil spirit, hovered near the dying man, ready to snatch and carry off the soul as soon as it should leave its earthly tenement. To prevent such a calamity, the friends who attended the burning of the body shouted and gesticulated to distract the Evil One's attention and enable the heart, in which the soul resided, to leap out of the flames and escape to heaven. If the body was interred, they thought the devil would have more chance of capturing the heart, which would then be sent back to earth to annoy the living.[XII-31] The natives near the mouth of Russian River burned their dead to prevent their becoming grizzlies, while those about Clear Lake supposed that the wicked alone were thus metamorphosed, or condemned to wander as spirits.[XII-32] Others, however, who adhered to interment, sought to complete the ceremony before night, when the coyote, in which form the evil spirit probably appeared, begins to howl, and for three days they kept up noisy demonstrations and fires at the graves; after that the fate of the soul was no longer doubtful. If captured, the good spirit could redeem it with a big knife. It was the belief in some parts that the deceased remained in the grave during the three days, and then proceeded to heaven, where earth and sky meet, to become stars, chiefs assuming the most brilliant forms.[XII-33]

The bright rivers, sunny slopes, and green forests of the Euroc paradise are separated from the earth by a deep chasm, which good and wicked alike must cross on a thin, slippery pole. The former soon reach the goal, aided, doubtless, by the good spirit, as well as by the fire lighted on the grave by mourning friends, but the wicked man has to falter unaided along the shivering bridge; and many are the nights that pass before his friends venture to dispense with the beacon, lest the soul miss the path, and fall into the dark abyss. Nor does retribution end with the peril and anxiety of the passage, for many are liable to return to the earth as birds, beasts, and insects. When a Kailta dies, a little bird carries the soul to spirit-land, but its flight is impeded by the sins of the wicked, which enables a watching hawk to overtake and devour the soul.[XII-34]

The Cahrocs have a more distinct conception of future reward and punishment, and suppose that the spirit on its journey comes to two roads, one strewn with flowers and leading to the bright western land beyond the great waters, across which good Chareya doubtless aids it; the other, bristling with thorns and briars, leading to a place full of deadly serpents, where the wicked must wander for ever.[XII-35] The Tolewahs place heaven behind the sun, wherever that is, and picture hell as a dark place where souls shiver for ever before the cold winds, and are harassed by fiends.[XII-36] The Modocs believe in a spirit-land, evidently situated in the air above the earthly home, where souls hover about inciting the living to good or evil. Merit appears to be measured by bodily stature, for contemptible woman becomes so small here that the warrior, whose stature is in proportion to his powers, requires quite a number of females to supply his wants.[XII-37]

The Ukiahs, Sanéls, and others sprinkle food about the favorite haunts of the dead. The mother, for instance, while chanting her mournful ditty over the grave of her dead babe sprinkles the nourishing milk in the air.[XII-38]

Many of the Nevada tribes thought that several heavens await the soul, each with a degree of bliss in proportion to the merits of the dead person; but this belief was not well defined; nor was that of the Snakes, who killed the favorite horse, and even wife, for the deceased, that he might not be lonely.[XII-39] The Allequas supposed that before the soul could enter the ever-green prairies to live its second life, free from want and sorrow, it had expiated its sins in the form of some animal, weak, or strong, bad or good, often passing from a lower to a higher grade, according to the earthly conduct of the deceased. By eating prairie-dogs and other game, some sought to gather souls, apparently with a view to increase the purity of their own and shorten the preparatory term.[XII-40] The San Diego tribes, on the other hand, who considered large game as the embodied spirits of certain generations, abstained from their flesh, evidently fearing that such fare would hasten their metamorphosis; but old men, whose term of life was nearly run, were not deterred by these fears.

[Sidenote: METEMPSYCHOSIS IN CALIFORNIA.]

Ideas of metempsychosis also appear in one of the songs of a Southern Californian tribe, which runs: As the moon dies to be reborn, so the soul of man will be renewed. Yet this people professed no belief in a future reward, or punishment. It is doubtless the same people, living near Monterey, of whom Marmier says, they supposed that the dead retired to certain verdant isles in the sea, while awaiting the birth of the infants whose souls they were to form. Others regarded these islands as paradise, and placed hell in a mountain chasm.[XII-41]

Among the Acagchemems we meet with a peculiar pantheistic notion. Death was regarded as an invisible entity constituting the air, which also formed the soul of man, or his breath, whose particular seat was the heart. As man became decrepit, his soul was gradually absorbed in the element which had originated it, until it finally became merged and lost therein. But this was the belief of some only among the tribe. Others supposed that they would go to _tolmec_, the abode of the great Chinigchinich, situated below the earth, abounding in sensual pleasures, unembittered by sorrow, and where food and other wants were supplied without labor. Still others held that Chinigchinich sent the soul, or the heart, as they expressed it, to different places, according to the station in life and manner of death of the deceased. Thus, chiefs and medicine-men, whom Tacu, the eater of human flesh, honored by devouring, became heavenly bodies, while those who died by drowning, or in captivity, and could not be eaten by Tacu, went elsewhere. Souls of common people were consigned to some undefined, though evidently happy, place, since they were obliged to pass a probationary term on the borders of the sea, on mountains, in valleys, or forests, whence they came to commune with, or among, their widows or relatives, who often burned or razed the house to be saved from such visits.[XII-42]

The Mojaves have more liberal ideas and admit all to share the joys of heaven. With the smoke curling upwards from the pyre, the soul rises and floats eastward to the regions of the rising sun, whither Matevil has gone before, and where a second earth-life awaits it, free from want and sorrow. But if its purity be sullied by crime, or stained with human blood, the soul is transformed into a rat and must remain for four days in a rat-hole to be purified before Matevil can receive it. According to some, Matevil dwells in a certain lofty mountain lying in the Mojave territory.[XII-43]

[Sidenote: FUTURE OF MARICOPAS, YUMAS, APACHES, MOQUIS.]

The Pimas also believe that the soul[XII-44] goes to the east, to the sun-house perhaps, there to live with Sehuiab, the son of the creator, but this Elysium is not perfect, for a devil called Chiawat is admitted there, and he greatly plagues the inmates.[XII-45] The Maricopas are stated in one account to believe in a future state exactly similar to the life on earth, with all its social distinctions and wants, so that in order to enable the soul to assume its proper position among the spirits, all the property of the deceased, as well as a great part of that of his relatives, is offered up at the grave. But according to Bartlett they think the dead will return to their ancient home on the banks of the Colorado, and live on the sand hills. Here the different parts of the body will be transformed into animals, the head, for instance, becoming an owl, the hands, bats, the feet, wolves, and in these forms continue their ancient feuds with the Yumas, who expelled them from that country.[XII-46] The Yumas, however, do not conform to these views, but expect that the good soul will leave worldly strife for a pleasant valley hidden in one of the cañons of the Colorado, and that the wicked will be shut up in a dark cavern to be tantalized by the view of the bliss beyond their reach.[XII-47]

The Apaches believe in metempsychosis and consider the rattlesnake as the form to be assumed by the wicked after death. The owl, the eagle, and perfectly white birds, were regarded as possessing souls of divine origin, and the bear was not less sacred in their estimation, for the very daughter of Montezuma, whom it had carried off from her father's home, was the mother of its race.[XII-48] The Moquis, went so far as to suppose that they would return to the primeval condition of animals, plants, and inanimate objects.[XII-49] The faith of the other Pueblo tribes in New Mexico was more in accordance with their cultured condition, namely, that the soul would be judged immediately after death according to its deeds. Food was placed with the dead, and stones were thrown upon the body to drive out the evil spirit. On a certain night, in August it seems, the soul haunted the hills near its former home to receive the tributes of food and drink which affectionate friends hastened to offer. Scoffers connected the disappearance of the choice viands with the rotund form of the priests.[XII-50]

The Navajos expected to return to their place whence they originated, below the earth, where all kinds of fruits and cereals, germinated from the seeds lost above, grow in unrivaled luxuriance. Released from their earthly bonds the spirits proceed to an extensive marsh in which many a soul is bemired through relying too much on its own efforts, and failing to ask the aid of the great spirit; or, perhaps the outfit of live stock and implements offered at the grave has been inadequate to the journey. After wandering about for four days the more fortunate souls come to a ladder conducting to the under world; this they descend and are gladdened by the sight of two great spirits, male and female, who sit combing their hair. After looking on for a few suns imbibing lessons of cleanliness, perhaps, they climb up to the swamp again to be purified, and then return to the abode of the spirits to live in peace and plenty for ever. Some believe that the bad become coyotes, and that women turn into fishes, and then into other forms.[XII-51]

Among the Comanches we find the orthodox American paradise, in its full glory. In the direction of the setting sun lie the happy prairies, where the buffalo lead the hunter in the glorious chase, and where the horse of the pale-face aids those who have excelled in scalping and horse-stealing, to attain supreme felicity. At night they are permitted to revisit the earth, but must return before the break of day.[XII-52] In striking contrast to this idea stands the curious belief said to have been held by the Pericúis of Lower California. Their great spirit Niparaya hated war, and to deter his people from engaging therein, consigned all those slain in battle to Tuparan or Wac, a spirit who rising in rebellion against the peace-loving Niparaya was deprived of all luxuries, and imprisoned in a cave by the sea, guarded by whales. Yet a number openly professed themselves adherents of this personage. The Cochimís, who appear to have had nearly the same belief, declare that it was the bad spirits who sought to secure the soul and hold it captive in the cave. Whatever may be the correct version, their belief in a future state, says Baegert, is evident from the custom of putting sandals on the feet of the dead.[XII-53]

[Sidenote: THE REALM OF MUCCHITA.]

The souls of the Sonora Indians dwell in the caves and among the rocks of the cliffs, and the echoes heard there are their clamoring voices.[XII-54] Ribas declares that in one part of Sinaloa a future state was ignored, yet he says that they acknowledged a supreme mother and her son, who was the first man.[XII-55] In Nayarit we come upon the Mexican idea of different heavens, determined by the mode of death. Thus, children and those who were carried off by disease went to one place; those who died a violent death, to the air regions, where they became shooting stars. The others went to _mucchita_, placed somewhere in the district of Rosario, where they lived under the care of men with shaven heads. During the day they were allowed to consort with the living, in the form of flies, to seek food; but at night they returned to the mucchita to assume the human form and pass the time in dancing. At one time they could be released from this abode, but owing to the imprudence of one man, this privilege was lost. This person one day made a trip to the coast to procure salt, leaving his wife to take care of the house. After a short absence he returned, in time only to see her disappear in the mucchita, whither the spirits had beckoned her. His sorrow was boundless, for he loved his wife dearly. At last his tears and sighs touched the heart of the keeper of the souls, who told him to watch for his wife one night when she appeared in the dance, and wound her with an arrow: she would then recognize him and return home; but he warned him not to speak a loud word, or she would disappear forever. The man did as he was told, wounded his wife on the leg, and had the joy to see her return home. Musicians and singers were called in, and a grand feast was held to celebrate the event; but, overcome with excitement, the husband gave vent to a shout of joy. The next moment the warning of the keeper was verified--a ghastly corpse had taken the place of the wife. Since then no other soul has been allowed to rejoin the living.[XII-56] It is curious to note in how many countries the doctrine of a future life has been connected with the legend of some hero who has died, descended into the under-world, and again risen to life. How closely does this American legend resemble the old story of Orpheus and Eurydice; the death and resurrection of the Egyptian Osiris; the Mithraic Mysteries of Persia, in which the initiated, in dumb show, died and rose again from the coffin; the Indian Mahadeva searching for the lifeless Sita, and made glad by his resuscitation; the recovery of Atys by Cybele among the Phrygians; the return of Kore to Demeter for half of every year in the Elusinian Mysteries; the mock murder and new birth of the impersonated Zagreus, in the Bacchic Mysteries; the Metamorphoses in the Celtic and Druidic Mysteries practiced in Gaul and Britain; all are different forms of but one idea.

[Sidenote: EICUT AND YOÁTOTOWEE.]

An equally devoted husband was the Neeshenam whose story is told by Mr Powers in the following legend:--"First of all things existed the moon. The moon created man, some say in the form of a stone, others say in the form of a simple, straight, hairless, limbless mass of flesh, like an enormous earth-worm, from which he gradually developed into his present shape. The first man thus created was called Eicut; his wife, Yoátotowee. In process of time Yoátotowee fell sick, and though Eicut nursed her tenderly, she gradually faded away before his eyes and died. He loved her with a love passing the love of brothers, and now his heart was broken with grief. He dug a grave for her close beside his camp-fire (for the Neeshenams did not burn the dead then), that he might daily and hourly weep above her silent dust. His grief knew no bounds. His life became a burden to him; all the light was gone out of his eyes, and all this world was black and dreary. He wished to die, that he might follow his beloved Yoátotowee. In the greatness of his grief he fell into a trance, there was a rumbling in the ground, and the spirit of the dead Yoátotowee arose out of her grave and came and stood beside him. When he awoke out of his trance and beheld his wife, he would have spoken to her, but she forbade him, for in what moment an Indian speaks to a ghost he dies. She turned away and set out to seek the spirit-land (_oóshwooshe koom_, literally, 'the dance-house of ghosts.') Eicut followed her, but the ghost turned and said, 'why do you follow me? you are not dead.' They journeyed on through a great country and a darksome--a land that no man has seen and returned to report--until they came to a river that separated them from the spirit-land. Over this river there was a bridge of one small rope, so very narrow that a spider could hardly cross over it. Here the spirit of Yoátotowee must bid farewell to her husband and go over alone into the spirit-land. But the great unspeakable grief of Eicut at beholding his wife leaving him forever overcame his love of life, and he called aloud after her. In that self-same instant he died--for no Indian can speak to a ghost and live--and together they entered the land of spirits. Thus Eicut passed away from the realm of earth, and in the invisible world became a good and quiet spirit, who constantly watches over and befriends his posterity still living on earth. But he and his wife left behind them two children, a brother and a sister; and to prevent incest the moon created another pair and from these two pairs are descended all the Neeshenams of to-day."[XII-57]

[Sidenote: THE SUN HOUSE AND TLALOCAN.]

The future abode of the Mexicans had three divisions to which the dead were admitted according to their rank in life and manner of death. Glorious as was the fate of the warrior who died in the cause of his country, on the battle-field, or in the hands of the enemy's priests, still more glorious was the destiny that awaited his soul. The fallen Viking was carried by radiant Valkyries to Valhalla, but the Aztec hero was borne in the arms of Teoyaomique herself, the consort of Huitzilopochtli, to the bright plains of the sun-house, in the eastern part of the heavens, where shady groves, trees loaded with luscious fruit, and flowers steeped in honey, vied with the attractions of vast hunting-parks, to make his time pass happily. Here also awaited him the presents sent by affectionate friends below. Every morning when the sun set out upon his journey, these bright strong warriors seized their weapons[XII-58] and marched before him, shouting and fighting sham battles. This continued until they reached the zenith, where the sun was transferred to the charge of the Celestial Women, after which the warriors dispersed to the chase or the shady grove. The members of the new escort were women who had died in war or child-bed, and lived in the western part of the Sun House. Dressed like the warriors in martial accoutrement,[XII-59] they conducted the sun to his home, some carrying the litter of quetzal feathers in which he reclined, while others went in front shouting and fighting gaily. Arrived at the extreme west they transferred the sun to the dead of Mictlan, and went in quest of their spindles, shuttles, baskets, and other implements necessary for weaving or household work.[XII-60] The only other persons who are mentioned as being admitted to the Sun House, were merchants who died on their journey. After four years of this life the souls of the warriors pass into birds of beautiful plumage, which live on the honey of flowers growing in the celestial gardens or seek their sustenance on earth.[XII-61]

The second place of bliss was Tlalocan, the abode of Tlaloc, a terrestrial paradise, the source of the rivers and all the nourishment of the earth, where joy reigns and sorrow is unknown,[XII-62] where every imaginable product of the field and garden grows in profusion beneath a perpetual summer sky. This paradise appears to have been erected on the ideal reminiscences of the happy Tollan, the cradle of the race, where their fathers reveled in riches and splendor. To this place went those who had been killed by lightning, the drowned, those suffering from itch, gout, tumors, dropsy, leprosy and other incurable diseases. Children also, at least those who were sacrificed to the Tlalocs, played about in its gardens, and once a year they descended among the living in an invisible form to join in their festivals.[XII-63] It is doubtful, however, whether this paradise was perpetual, for according to some authors the diseased stayed here but a short time, and then passed on to Mictlan; while the children, balked of their life by death or sacrifice, were allowed to essay it again.[XII-64]

[Sidenote: MICTLAN.]

The third destination of the dead, provided for those who died of ordinary diseases or old age, and, accordingly, for the great majority, was Mictlan, 'the place of the dead,' which is described as a vast, pathless place, a land of darkness and desolation, where the dead after their time of probation are sunk in a sleep that knows no waking. In addressing the corpse they spoke of this place of Mictlan as a 'most obscure land, where light cometh not, and whence none can ever return.'[XII-65] There are several points, however, given by Sahagun, as well as other writers, which tend to modify this aspect of Mictlan. The lords and nobles seem even here to have kept up the barriers which separated them from the contaminating touch of inferiors, and doubtless the good and respectable were classed apart from low miscreants and criminals, for there were nine divisions in Mictlan, of which Chicohnahuimictlan or Ninth-Mictlan, was the abode of the Aztec Pluto and his Proserpine. This name seems also to have been applied to the whole region, meaning then the nine Mictlans.[XII-66] The different idol-mantles in which the dead person was attired, determined by his profession and by his manner of death, would imply that different gods had control of these divisions.[XII-67] Whatever distinction there may have been was kept up by the humbler or richer offerings of food, clothing, implements, and slaves, made at the time of the burial, at the end of eighty days, and on the first, second third, and fourth anniversary of the death; all of which went before Mictlantecutli before being turned over to the use of the person for whom they were destined.[XII-68] In one place Sahagun states that four years were passed in traveling before the soul reached Mictlan, and on another page he distinctly implies that this term was passed within that region, when he says that the dead awoke from their sleep as the sun reached the western horizon, and rose to escort it through their land; Torquemada says that four days were occupied in the journey.[XII-69] The only way to reconcile these statements is by supposing that the soul passed from one division to another, until it finally, at the end of the four years, reached Mictlan proper, or Ninth-Mictlan, and attained repose. Their duties during this term consisting in escorting the sun, and working like their happier brethren in the Sun House, besides passing a certain time in sleep. The fact that the people besought the dead to visit them during the festival in their honor, implies that they were within Mictlan, though their liberty there, at that season, at least, was not so very restricted. 'As they helped to escort the sun, we must suppose that they also enjoyed the blessings of sunshine while terrestrial beings slept, and the expression of Tezozomoc, a place where none knows whether it be night or day, a place of eternal rest,' must refer to those only who have passed the time of probation, and lapsed into the final sleep. It may be however, that the sun was lustreless at night, for Camargo states that it slept after its journey.[XII-70] If so, the dim twilight noticed among the northern people, or the moon, the deity of the night, must have replaced the obscured brightness of the sun, if lights indeed were needed, for the escort and the workers could scarcely have used artificial illumination. The route of the sun further indicates that Mictlan was situated in the antipodean regions, or rather in the centre of the earth, to which the term 'dark and pathless regions' also applies. This is the supposition of Clavigero, who bases it on the fact that Tlalxicco, the name of Mictlantecutli's temple, signifies center or bowels of the earth.[XII-71] But Sahagun and others place it in the north, and support this assertion by showing that _Mictlampa_ signified north.[XII-72] The fact that the people turned the face to the north when calling upon the dead,[XII-73] is strongly in favor of this theory; the north is also the dark quarter. These apparently contradictory statements may be reconciled by supposing that Mictlan was situated in the northern part of the subterranean regions, as the home of the heroes was in the eastern part of the heavens.

As the warrior in the Sun House passes after four years of perfect enjoyment into a seemingly less happy state, so the Mictlan probationer appears to have abandoned his work for a condition of everlasting repose.[XII-74] This condition is already indicated by the very signification of the name Mictlan, 'place of the dead,' and by the preceding statements; it also implied by the myth of the creation of man, wherein the god-heroes say to Xolotl: Go beg of Mictlantecutli, Lord of Hades, that he may give thee a bone or some ashes of the dead that are with him.[XII-75]

[Sidenote: THE JOURNEY OF THE DEAD.]