Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical SketchDenig, Edwin Thompson
History
Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch
Denig, Edwin Thompson
Assiniboine Indians; Indians of North America -- Missouri River Valley
This sack is made of raw buffalo hide (dried), the hair scraped off and
painted and fringed in various ways. It is well tied up, not pried into
by anyone, and mostly suspended to a pole outside the lodge in camp or
carried on the back of some woman when traveling. When the owner dies
it is buried with him. This is the arcanum of the medicine sack, and it
possesses none of the features of an ark, either inside or out.
IMMORTALITY
That the soul lives after death is the general assent, and that this
is a final state, but by pursuing the inquiry we do not arrive at any
certain idea of their occupation there, as they will always say they
do not know. This much, however, some acknowledged, that when they
die their soul is taken to the south to a warm country, though this
place does not appear to be either on the earth or in the heavens.
Here is a state of pleasure and happiness, free from all disease,
trouble, want, war, or accident. Some are more comfortably situated
than others, particularly those who have been great warriors and those
who have been attentive to their sacrifices and other ceremonies. No
punishment for offenses is apprehended, though rewards are granted. If
still questioned they will describe a counterpart or nearly so of the
Mohammedan paradise, or a shadowy image of this life, abstracting the
evil. There is no resurrection of the body, though they are presumed to
have other bodies furnished them in the future state, that present the
same features as in this life, yet are not subject to its vicissitudes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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