nd with the humming of bees and the music of
birds, and are shaded from the summer sun by the ever-blooming tree with
great white flowers. Some of the tents are pitched upon hills, some in
valleys, some to meet the whispering breezes of the Month of Buds, and
some the strengthening winds of the Harvest-Moon. While, from the top of
the mountain they are absorbed in contemplation of this delightful
scene, the inhabitants of the happy land discover them, and come singing
and dancing along, clothed in new skins, to meet them, with the blanket
of friendship widely spread to the winds (1). Those Indians who have led
good lives approach with that fearless step and eye which the
recollection of good deeds always inspires, and are received with every
demonstration of joy common among Indians; but those who have embrued
their hands in the blood of their countrymen, and betray, by their pale
cheeks and trembling steps, that they expect and deserve punishment, and
those whose foreheads have been in any way blackened by the smoke of the
breath of the Spirit of Evil, are told to return whence they came, and
without more words are pitched down the sides of the mountain. Women,
whose hard hearts have made their feeble hands take the life to which
they had given birth, quenching the little spark struck out from the
half-burnt brand, never reach the mountain at all, but are compelled by
the Master of all to hover around the seats of their crimes, with
branches of the mountain pine tied to their legs. The melancholy sounds
heard in the still summer evenings, and which ignorant white men think
the screams of the goat-sucker, or the groans of the owl, are the
moanings of these wicked and unhappy mothers, lamenting the unnatural
murder of their helpless little ones. They are trying to recall them to
life, that their doom may be revoked, and that they may be permitted to
approach the mountain.

In the Blackfoot land of souls, all are treated according as the deeds
they have done have been good or evil in their intent or their
consequences. If they have truly and faithfully performed those things
for which they were sent upon the earth, if they have been good sons,
good husbands, good fathers, good friends; if they have fought bravely,
hunted well, told no lies, nor spoken evil of the Great Spirit, nor made
laugh at his priests, they know neither pain nor sorrow, their time is
spent in singing and dancing, and they feed upon mushrooms, which ar