ORIGIN



OF THE



several
demotn.
make ar
and then
one afte-
sacrifice
elevated
warri orn



hours, as if rejoicing for appeasing the angry
Before they go to battle, they never fail to
i offering. Then all their villages are assembled
{ form a kind of procession. rphe women walk
r another, till they arrive at the spot where the
is to be offered. This place is generally some
o'round, at some distance from the village. The
; march in full uniform, with their faces painted.



Before the dog is committed to the flames, they whisper
something in his ear, telling him., as I have been told, to
obtain for them the assistance of the great or benevolent
spirit in battle, and prevent the evil or mischievous one
from punishing them."
  Santini says that the Coriaks and Kamschadales offer
sacrifices of the same kind, and in the same manllner.
Elphinstone observed sacrifices among other Siberian.
tribes. La Roche, in describing the religion of certain
tribes in Tartary, says, that dogs, bears, and sometimes
sheep are offered by them to their Great Spirit.



FUNERAL RITES



AMONG THE NORTH
   INDIANS.



AMERI CAN



  "As soon as the sick person dies," says the Bishop of
Meaux, "the place is filled with mournful. cries; arid
this lasts as long as the family is able to defray the ex-
pense, for they must keep an open table all this time.
The dead body, dressed in the finest robe, with the lace
painted, the arms and all that belonged to the deceased
by his side, is exposed at the door of the cabin in the
posture it is to be laid in the tomb  and this posture is
the same in many places, as that of the child in the
mother's womb. The custom of some nations is for the
relations of the deceased to fast to the end of the funeral;
and all this interval is passed in tears and cries, in treat-
ing their visiters, in praising the dead, and in mutual



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