§ 283. _The man who shot a ghost._--In the olden time a man was traveling alone, and in a forest he killed several rabbits. After sunset he was in the midst of the forest, so he made a fire, as he had to spend the night there. He thought thus: “Should I encounter any danger by and by, I have this gun, and I am a man who ought not to regard anything.” He cooked a rabbit and satisfied his hunger. Just then he heard many voices, and they were talking about their own affairs, but the man could see nobody. So he thought, “It seems that now at length I have encountered ghosts.” Then he went and lay under a fallen tree, which was at a great distance from the fire. He loaded his gun with powder only, as he knew by this time that they were really ghosts. They came round about him and whistled, “Hyu, hyu, hyu!” “He has gone yonder,” said one of the ghosts. They came and stood around the man, just as people do when they hunt rabbits. The man lay flat beneath the fallen tree, and one ghost came and climbed on the trunk of that tree. Suddenly the ghost gave the cry uttered on hitting an enemy, “Aⁿ-he!” and he kicked the man on the back. But before the ghost could get away, the man shot at him and wounded him in the legs; so the ghost gave the male cry of pain, “Au! au! au!” And finally he went off crying as females do, “Yuŋ! yuŋ! yuŋ!” And the other ghosts said to him; “Where did he shoot?” And the wounded one said: “He shot me through the head and I have come apart.” Then the other ghosts were wailing on the hillside. The man decided to go to the place where they were wailing. So, as the day had come, he went thither, and found some graves, one of which a wolf had dug into so that the bones were visible, and there was a wound in the skull. ASSINNIBOIN BELIEFS ABOUT GHOSTS. § 284. Smet says:[202] The belief in ghosts is very profound, and common to all these tribes. Indians have often told me that they have met, seen, and conversed with them, and that they may be heard almost every night in the places where the dead are interred. They say that they speak in a kind of whistling tone. Sometimes they contract the face [of a human being whom they meet] like that of a person in an epileptic fit.[201] The Assinniboines never pronounce the name of Tchatka [i.e., Ćatka, or, Left Hand, a former chief] but with respect. They believe that his shade guards the sacred tree; that he has power to procure them abundance of buffalo and other animals, or to drive the animals from the country. Hence, whenever they pass they offer sacrifices; they present the calumet to the tutelary spirits and manes of Tchatka. He is, according to their calendar, the Wah-kon-tangka par excellence, the greatest man or genius that ever visited their nation.[202] PRAYERS TO THE DEAD, INCLUDING ANCESTORS.