There are a variety of beliefs concerning the immediate action of the spirit upon its withdrawal from the body. Some think that the soul at once starts upon its journey to the spirit land; others, that it hovers about the grave as if reluctant to depart. Because of this latter belief, food and water are placed at the head of the grave for several days after the burial. The spirit is supposed to partake of this food. No Indian would touch any article of food thus exposed; if he did, the ghost would snatch away the food and paralyze the mouth of the thief, and twist his face out of shape for the rest of his life; or else he would be pursued by the ghost, and food would lose its taste, and hunger ever after haunt the offender. There is a belief in the tribe that before the spirits finally depart from men who died of wounds or their results, they float toward a cliff overhanging the Missouri, not far from the present Santee Agency, in Nebraska, and cut upon the rocks a picture showing forth their manner of death. A line in the picture indicates the spot where the disease or wound was located which caused the death. After this record is complete, the spirit flies off to the land of the hereafter. It is said that these pictures are easily recognized by the relatives and friends of the deceased. This place is known as Iñ-gȼaⁿ´-xe ʞi-ʞá-xai ȼaⁿ,[76] or, Where the spirits make pictures of themselves. A suicide ceases to exist; for him there is no hereafter. A man struck by lightning is buried where he fell, and in the position in which he died. His grave is filled with earth, and no mound is raised over one who is thus taken from life. In 1873 some of the Ponka said they had the following beliefs concerning a murderer: (1) The ghosts surround him and keep up a constant whistling; (2) he can never satisfy his hunger, though he eat much food; (3) he must not be allowed to roam at large lest high winds arise. It is important to compare this whole section with the Dakota beliefs found in §§ 266-278. The author was told by the Omaha that when a man was killed by lightning, he ought to be buried face downwards, and the soles of his feet had to be slit. When this was done, the spirit went at once to the spirit land, without giving further trouble to the living. In one case (that of a Wejiⁿcte man, Jadegi, according to George Miller and Frank Le Flèche)[77] this was not done, so it was said that the ghost _walked_, and he did not rest in peace till another person (his brother) was slain by lightning and laid beside him. When Joseph La Flèche and Two Crows heard what Frank had told about the Milky Way, etc., they remarked, “We have never been to the spirit land, so we can not tell what is done there. No one has ever come back and told us.” All that they had ever heard was the old story about the forked road.