fe he was sullen and took
no interest in things. The St. Louis Exposition was held after he had
adopted the Christian religion and had begun to try to understand our
civilization.

CHAPTER XXII

RELIGION

In our primitive worship only our relations to Usen and the members of
our tribe were considered as appertaining to our religious
responsibilities. As to the future state, the teachings of our tribe
were not specific, that is, we had no definite idea of our relations and
surroundings in after life. We believed that there is a life after this
one, but no one ever told me as to what part of man lived after death. I
have seen many men die; I have seen many human bodies decayed, but I
have never seen that part which is called the spirit; I do not know what
it is; nor have I yet been able to understand that part of the Christian
religion.

We held that the discharge of one's duty would make his future life more
pleasant, but whether that future life was worse than this life or
better, we did not know, and no one was able to tell us. We hoped that
in the future life family and tribal relations would be resumed. In a
way we believed this, but we did not know it.

Once when living in San Carlos Reservation an Indian told me that while
lying unconscious on the battlefield he had actually been dead, and had
passed into the spirit land.

First he came to a mulberry tree growing out from a cave in the ground.
Before this cave a guard was stationed, but when he approached without
fear the guard let him pass. He descended into the cave, and a little
way back the path widened and terminated in a perpendicular rock many
hundreds of feet wide and equal in height. There was not much light, but
by peering directly beneath him he discovered a pile of sand reaching
from the depths below to within twenty feet of the top of the rock where
he stood. Holding to a bush, he swung off from the edge of the rock and
dropped onto the sand, sliding rapidly down its steep side into the
darkness. He landed in a narrow passage running due westward through a
canon which gradually grew lighter and lighter until he could see as
well as if it had been daylight; but there was no sun. Finally he came
to a section of this passage that was wider for a short distance, and
then closing abruptly continued in a narrow path; just where this
section narrowed two huge serpents were coiled, and rearing their heads,
hissed at him as he approached, but he