ircle, no matter how
near it might be to one or other of the tribal circles.

We read of some tribes of Indians which believed that after death
the spirits of the departed went to a happy hunting ground where
game was always plenty and life was full of joy. The Blackfeet
knew no such place as this. When they died their spirits
were believed to go to a barren, sandy region south of the
Saskatchewan, which they called the Sand Hills. Here, as shadows,
the ghosts lived a life much like their existence before death,
but all was unreal--unsubstantial. Riding on shadow horses they
hunted shadow buffalo. They lived in shadow camps and when they
moved shadow dogs hauled their travois. There are stories which
tell that living people have seen these hunters, their houses, and
their implements of the camp, but when the people got close they
found that what they thought they had seen was something
different. It reminds us a little of the old ballad of Alice
Brand, where Urgan tells of the things seen in fairy-land:

"And gayly shines the Fairy-land--
But all is glistening show,
Like the idle gleam that December's beam
Can dart on ice and snow.

"And fading, like that varied gleam,
Is our inconstant shape,
Who now like knight and lady seem,
And now like dwarf and ape."

Books have been written about the Blackfeet Indians which tell much
more about how they lived than can be given here.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKFEET INDIAN STORIES***

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