It was the custom with the Sioux, whenever the head of the household died, for the women to mourn for a year. One of their chiefs had died a few years before I was at Mendota, and Faribault, who had known him intimately, went to the settlement to see the widow. He found her engaged in the occupation of cutting deep gashes in her arms and legs. She had, in her hand a rounded scalping knife and with this weapon she was striking herself and inflicting wounds from which blood was flowing. All the furniture and mats had been removed from the tepee or tent, and she was sitting upon the earth. At the conclusion of the time of mourning it is usual for the women to go to their friends or join some other household, and the old tepee is then thrown down and left in a heap upon the ground. At the time that Faribault was speaking about these customs, there were present several Sioux, who had come from their encampment, and were listening to him. When he had finished his narrative, I took the opportunity of asking these men some questions about the belief of the Sioux, with respect to lightning and thunder, as I had heard that the Dakotas held some especial opinions upon these manifestations of supernatural power. One of the beliefs attributed to them was that lightning was a stone, and it was difficult to understand what could be their reason for holding such a strange belief. They said, in answer to my question, that lightning was certainly a stone, and that they knew it was so because they had seen it, and it was very hard and like a rock. Possibly the Indians had seen the fall of some aerolites, or they may have observed the effects of lightning after it had struck the earth. They state, that sometimes a small hot stone is found near the roots of a tree that has been injured by a flash of lightning. I asked Faribault, whether any of the tribes with whom he had lived, appeared to have any belief in one supreme Great Spirit. He replied, that, as far as he had been able to judge of this matter, the Sioux held this belief vaguely, but, that it did not influence their actions. The Dakotas have a Pagan custom of investing animals, hills, mountains, and all remarkable natural manifestations of unknown powers with especial spirits of good or evil influence, each demanding different forms of worship and propitiation. They have also—under certain conditions—a belief in the transmigration of souls into animals. They consider that this takes place when an Indian has been guilty of some act of cowardice or treachery. In such a case, his spirit is supposed, after death, to go into some animal or to take its form, and then it is sometimes believed that it haunts the neighbourhood of the camp. The superstitious nature of the Sioux is often strangely affected by traditions respecting these wandering spirits, and when under this influence, it is said by the half-breeds living amongst them, that they seem to possess the power of seeing supernatural things.