§ 69. Gahige, the late chief of the Iñke-sabĕ (a buffalo gens), told the author about the address made to a member of his gens, when dying. According to him, the person was addressed thus: “You are going to the animals (the buffalos). You are going to your ancestors. Ánita dúbaha hné (which may be rendered, You are going to the four living ones, if not, the four winds). Wackañ´-gă (Be strong).” Gahige was understood to speak of four spirits or souls to each person, but Joseph La Flèche and Two Crows said that the Omaha did not believe that a person had more than one spirit. Two Crows gave the following as the address to a dying member of his gens, the Hañga, another buffalo gens:
| “Waníʇa | etáʇaⁿ | ȼatí. | Gaⁿ | ĕʇa | ȼagȼé | taté | hă. | Gaⁿ | dúduȼagaqȼajĭ | te | hă. | Hné tĕʇa | caⁿ´caⁿ |
| Quadruped | from | you have come | And | thither | you go | shall | . | And | you do not face this way | will (please) | . | you go to the | always |
| maⁿȼiñ´-gă | há,” | i.e., “You came hither from the animals. And you are going back thither.Do not |
| walk thou | ! |
face this way again. When you go, continue walking.” The last sentence is a petition to the departing spirit not to return to this earth to worry or injure the survivors. That the dead are referred to as still existing, and as having some knowledge of what is happening here, may be seen from the address to a Ponka chief at his installation: “Ȼiádi gáhi, ȼijiⁿ´ȼĕ gáhi, ȼiʇígaⁿ gáhi, ámustáqti ȼidaⁿ´be maⁿ´ȼiⁿ tai;” i.e., “Your father was a chief, your elder brother (i.e., his potential elder brother, Ubiskă, a former head chief of the Ponka) was a chief, and your grandfather was a chief; may they continue to look directly down on you!”[78]
§ 70. Those who boil sacred food, as for the warpath, pour some of the soup outside the lodge, as an offering to the ghosts. (Omaha custom.)
There has been no belief in the resurrection of the body, but simply one in the continued existence of the ghost or spirit. While some of the Iowas expressed to Mr. Hamilton a belief in the transmigration of spirits, that doctrine has not been found among the Omaha and Ponka, nor has the author heard of it among other Siouan tribes.
Not all ghosts are visible to the living. They may be heard without being seen. One Omaha woman, the mother of Two Crows, told how she had been in a lodge with many persons, who were invisible from the knees upward.[79]
KANSA BELIEFS RESPECTING DEATH AND A FUTURE LIFE.
§ 71. When the author was at Kaw Agency, Indian Territory, in the winter of 1882-’83, a man named Ho-sa-sa-ge died. After the representatives of all the gentes had assembled at the house, Wakanda (named after the Thunder-being), the father-in-law of the deceased, removed the lock of hair called the “ghost,” and took it to his own house, weeping as he departed.
When Mr. Say was among the Kansa[80] he obtained the following information about their beliefs concerning death and the future life: