nimals cannot reach them.[M]

FOOTNOTE:

[M] At the present day, the Teton gives three reasons for not burying
in the ground: animals or persons might walk over the graves; the dead
might lie in mud and water after rain or snow; wolves might trouble
the bodies.

[Illustration: INDIAN SCAFFOLD CEMETERY ON THE MISSOURI RIVER

(From Schoolcraft)

_Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution_]

[Illustration: AN OMAHA VILLAGE, SHOWING EARTH LODGE AND CONICAL
TEPEES

_Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution_]

THE GHOST'S RESENTMENT

_Dakota_

Long, long ago, a Dakota died and his parents made a death lodge for
him on the bluff. In the lodge they made a grave scaffold, on which
they laid the body of their son.

Now in that same village of Dakotas lived a young married man. His
father lived with him, and there were two old men who used to visit
the father and smoke with him, and talk with him about many things.

One night the father of the young man said, "My friends, let us go to
the death scaffold and cut off summer robes for ourselves from the
tent skins."

The young man said, "No! Do not do so. It was a pity the young man
died, and as his parents had nothing else to give up for him they made
the death lodge and left it there."

"What use can he get from the tent?" asked the father. "We have no
robes, so we wish to use part of the tent skins for ourselves."

"Well, then," said the young man. "Go as you have said and we shall
see what will happen."

The old men arose without saying a word and went to the lodge on the
bluff. As soon as they were gone, the young man said, "Oh, wife, get
my piece of white clay. I must scare one of those old men nearly to
death."

But the woman was unwilling, saying, "Let them alone. They have no
robes. Let them cut off robes for themselves."

But as the husband would not stop talking about it, the wife got the
piece of white clay for him. He whitened his whole body and his face
and hands. Then he went to the lodge in a course parallel to that
taken by the old men. He went very quickly and reached there before
they did.

He climbed the scaffold and lay on it, thrusting his head out through
the tent skins just above the doorway.

At last the old men approached, ascending the hill, and talking
together in a low tone. The young man lay still, listening to them.
When they reached the lodge, they sat down.

The leader said, "Fill your pipe, friends. We must