FOOTNOTES:
[63] Told by Antelope.
63. THE DEAD MAN’S COUNTRY.[64]
Six or seven years ago I was out upon the hills after my ponies. On my way back towards the camp I fainted, and lay upon the ground for a long time. Finally I felt better. I rose and walked towards home. I entered my tipi and lay down, and when I lay down I died.
As soon as I had died I saw a path leading east. There seemed to be a kind of inclosure. There was a little hole. I looked in that hole and saw lots of people in the village. I wanted to see the people and get acquainted with them. I went through this little hole. When I had gone through the hole I was in the dead man’s country. Before I entered the village a man with a robe and anointed with red ointment came in, and said: “Young man, you must not go into this village. Go on, and at the south side of the entrance you will see a lodge where you will stop. You must not enter that lodge, for it is the lodge of the dead people.” I went to the lodge, and I saw many people looking in. I stood on the south side of the entrance to the lodge. I saw that whenever a person who had died came, he entered inside the lodge and took his seat among the people in the lodge. The ground all over the lodge was covered with white clay, and it looked like ashes. There were many people in the lodge. I looked, and there the drums were resting in the east. The drums were black. The men were painted red. As they began to sing one old man came and stood out; then another man, younger than the first; then another, younger than the second; then another, until there were seven who came in this fashion. The last one to come was a little boy, whom they were about to paint. Now the drummers began to sing in a low voice. The dancers had dried willow sticks, which were representatives of their relatives who were still living upon earth. Each of the men was calling his people to the dead, so that they could come and be with them. The dry willows were used because the dead people wanted their living relatives in the world to become sick—as, for example, with consumption—and to dry up like the dry willows. When one of these dancers had to leave this place and go up to their village in the west, another man of his age would go out and take his place, and so on around. They wanted me to go into the lodge, but the man behind me said, “Do not go into the lodge.” Every time they got to a certain part of the songs they would take the willow sticks, then move them towards themselves. Then the man that was watching me said, “Come, you must not stay here; you must be going to your country.”
Now I woke up, but I remember the story well.