“Its origin must have been in divine revelation;[43] for it is impossible to conceive that the mind can have attained to it by its own unassisted powers. But the thought, when once communicated, would in the shipwreck of dissolving nature, be clung to with the grasp of expiring hope. Hence no nation have yet been found, however rude and barbarous, who have not agreed in the great and general principle of retributive immortality. When, however, we descend to detail, and inquire into their peculiar notions with regard to this expected state, we find that their traditions are coloured by the nature of their earthly occupations, and the opinions they thence entertained on the subject of good and evil. “This remark is fully verified by the history of the American Indians. ‘The belief most firmly established among the American Savages,’ says Charlevoix, ‘is that of the immortality of the soul. They suppose that when separated from the body, it preserves the same inclinations which it had when both were united. For this reason, they bury with the dead all that they had in use when alive. Some imagine that all men have two souls, one of which never leaves the body, unless it be to inhabit another. This transmigration, however, is peculiar to the souls of those who die in infancy, and who therefore have the privilege of commencing a second life, because they enjoyed so little of the first. Hence children are buried along the highways, that the women as they pass may receive their souls. From this idea of their remaining with the body, arises the duty of placing food upon their graves;[44] and mothers have been seen to draw from their bosoms that nourishment which these little creatures loved when alive, and shed it upon the earth which covered their remains.’”[45] “When the time has arrived for the departure of those spirits which leave the body, they pass into a region which is destined to be their eternal abode, and which is therefore called the country of souls. This country is at a great distance towards the West, and to go thither costs them a journey of many months. They have many difficulties to surmount, and many perils to encounter. They speak of a stream in which many suffer shipwreck; of a dog from which they with difficulty defend themselves; of a place of suffering where they expiate their faults; of another in which the souls of those prisoners who have been tortured are again tormented, and who therefore linger on their course, to delay as long as possible the moment of their arrival. From this idea it proceeds that after the death of these unhappy victims, for fear their souls may remain around the huts of their tormentors from the thirst of vengeance, the latter are careful to strike every place around them with a staff, and to utter such terrible cries as may oblige them to depart.”[46]