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.
FOOTNOTES:
[64] Told by White-Owl.
64. THE COYOTE WHO SPOKE TO THE EAGLE HUNTERS.[65]
One time there was a prominent warrior who made up his mind that he would take a company of boys up into the hills to catch eagles. He led them out into the hills, and there he had many holes dug for the young men. They dug a big cave in the bank of the Missouri River, and this they made their permanent home.
One night, while they were sitting around in a circle telling Coyote stories, telling things a little bit in excess of what the Coyote had done, they were startled by the bark of a Coyote just outside of their den. Presently the Coyote walked into their den and said: “You people tell things about me that are not true, but then, it is all right.” He jumped out of the den and went off. All the young men, and even the leader, were scattered, on account of this Coyote’s coming into the den. They left their den and returned to their village. They thought that it was a bad sign for the Coyote to talk, but the other people thought that it was wrong for them to be scared. They thought that the Coyote had brought a good message to them, and they should have stayed and should have caught many eagles.
FOOTNOTES:
[65] Told by Many-Fox.