afflicted, her benevolence to the stranger. The child, in
giving birth to which she had died, was buried, according to the custom
of our nation, by the side of the public footpath, or highway, that,
having enjoyed but little life, merely seen the light of the sun to have
its eye pained by its beams, some woman as she passed by might receive
its little soul, and thus it might be born again, and still enjoy its
share of existence. With these rites were the wife and child of the
great chief of the Knisteneaux laid in the earth from whence they
sprung.

It was many suns after the decease of the beloved Fawn's Foot, that two
doves, one of which was of the size of a full grown dove, and the other
a very little one, were seen sitting upon a spray by the side of the
warrior's lodge. Our people, who recollected the tradition of our
fathers, that the souls of the good, after their entrance upon the land
of never-ceasing happiness, were transformed into doves, and that not
always were little children appointed to be received into the bosom of a
second mother[A], and to re-enter into another stage of existence,
immediately conjectured that they were the spirits of the mother and the
child returned to the land of their bodies, on some errand yet to be
learned. They knew by the tradition of their fathers, that they had
entered on the Land of Souls, for the Festival of the Dead[B] had been
celebrated, and all the rites duly observed which release the soul from
its compelled attendance on the body, until the baked meats have been
eaten, and the howling and the piercing of flesh, and the tearing of
hair, and the weeping in secret, have taken place. "They have come! they
have come! The Fawn's Foot and her child have returned from the Land of
Souls," was shouted through the village. "The beautiful Fawn's Foot and
her child, that disdained to be born again, but clung to its first
mother, have returned to visit us, and tell us the secrets of the land
of departed souls. Now we shall hear from our fathers, mothers,
children, sisters, brothers, lovers, and friends. We shall be told the
length of the journey to the _Cheke Checkecame_, and whether the
traveller thither must take him stores of provisions, and go armed. We
shall know if the soul of the Little Serpent, who was taken prisoner by
the Coppermines, and burnt at the stake, is yet subjected to the pinches
and goadings of the bad spirits in the place of torment prepared for
those who die