The deceased is buried with his arms and ornaments, and a supply of provisions for his long journey; the face is painted, and the body arrayed in the richest robes that can be obtained; it is then laid in the grave in an upright posture, and skins are carefully placed around, that it may not touch the earth. At stated intervals of eight, ten, or twelve years, the Indians celebrate the singular ceremony of the Festival of the Dead; till this has been performed, the souls of the deceased are supposed still to hover round their earthly remains. At this solemn festival, the people march in procession to the burial-ground, open the tombs, and continue for a time gazing on the moldering relics in mournful silence. Then, while the women raise a loud wailing, the bones of the dead are carefully collected, wrapped in fresh and valuable robes, and conveyed to the family cabin.[265] A feast is then held for several days, with dances, games, and prize combats. The relics are next carried to the council-house of the nation, where they are publicly displayed, with the presents destined to be interred with them. Sometimes the remains are even carried on bearers from village to village. At length they are laid in a deep pit, lined with rich furs; tears and lamentations are again renewed, and for some time fresh provisions are daily laid, by this simple people, upon the graves of their departed friends. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 238: "At night the savages direct their course by the polar star; they call it the _motionless star_. It is a curious coincidence that the constellation of the Bear should be called by the savages the Bear. This is certainly a very ancient name among them, and given long before any Europeans visited the country. They turn into ridicule the large imaginary tail which astronomers have given to an animal that has scarcely any such appendage, and they call the three stars that compose the tail of the Bear, three hunters who are in pursuit of it. The second of these stars has a very small one very close to it. This, they say, is the kettle of the second hunter, who is the bearer of the baggage and the provision belonging to all three.[239] The savages also call the Pleiades 'the Dancers,' and Hygin tells us that they were thus called by the ancients, because they seem, from the arrangement of their stars, to be engaged in a circular dance."--Lafitau, vol. ii., p. 236. Hygin., lib. ii., art. Taurus.] [Footnote 239: "Even at the present time" (1720), Lafitau writes, "these three stars are called in Italy, _i tre cavalli_"--the three knights--on the celestial globe of Caronelli.] [Footnote 240: See Appendix, No. L. (see Vol II)] [Footnote 241: Charlevoix says that the eloquence of the savages was such as the Greeks admired in the barbarians, "strong, stern, sententious, pointed, perfectly undisguised."