All these things are arranged before they open the bag containing the hair. Then they enter the lodge, and there they open all the things that they have brought. The kindred of the deceased are the only ones to enter the lodge, and when they see the hair taken from the sack they scream suddenly for a minute or two. It is at this time that they distribute the gifts. Food has been boiled in many kettles, and is now divided among the people not the kindred of the deceased, who are scattered around the ghost lodge, and some food is usually given to the young men of the order to which the deceased belonged. A woman who attends to collecting the food, calico, bags, clothing, etc., turns to the four posts of the scaffold in succession, and utters one of the following sayings or prayers at each post: “If the ghosts eat this, may I live long!” or “May the ghosts eat this, and I obtain many horses!” or “If my nephew (or niece) eats this, may someone give me many presents!” This woman is careful to put the best part of the food on the bowl or dish, under the scaffold near the head of the corpse.[199] Should any one eat before the food has been put aside for the ghost, all the ghosts become angry with him, and they are sure to punish him; they will make him drop his food just before it reaches his mouth, or they will spill the water when he tries to drink, and sometimes they cause a man to gash himself with a knife. GOOD AND BAD GHOSTS. § 277. Some ghosts are beneficent, but most of them are maleficent. They know all things, even the thoughts of living people. They are glad when the wind blows. Bushotter’s younger brother was crazy at one time, and a doctor or peźuta wićaśa said that the sickness had been caused by a ghost. INTERCOURSE WITH GHOSTS. § 278. Lynd says: The belief in the powers of some Dakotas to call up and converse with the spirits of the dead is strong in some, though not general. They frequently make feasts to those spirits and elicit information from them of distant friends and relatives. Assembling at night in a lodge, they smoke, put out the fire, and then, drawing their blankets over their heads, remain singing in unison in a low key until the spirit gives them a picture. This they pretend the spirit does; and many a hair-erecting tale is told of the spirit’s power to reveal, and the after confirmation.[200] GHOST STORIES. A few ghost stories of the Teton collection will now be given.