ing for it.

"This," said Old Man, "will be the first time it has happened to the
people. You have seen the buffalo fall to the ground when struck with an
arrow. Their hearts stop beating, they do not breathe, and soon their
bodies become cold. They are then dead. Now, woman, it shall be for you to
decide whether death shall come to the people as well as to the other
animals, or whether they shall live forever. Come now with me to the
river."

When they reached the water's edge, Old Man picked up from the ground a dry
buffalo chip and a stone. "Now, woman," he said, "you will tell me which
one of these to throw into the water. If what I throw floats, your child
shall live; the people shall live forever. If it sinks, then your child
shall die, and all the people shall die, each one when his time comes."

The woman stood still a long time, looking from the stone to the buffalo
chip, and from the chip to the stone. At last she said, "Throw the stone."
Then Old Man tossed it into the river, and it sank to the bottom. "Woman,"
he cried, "go home; your child is dead." Thus, on account of a foolish
woman, we all must die.

The shadow of a person, the Blackfeet say, is his soul. Northeast of the
Sweet Grass Hills, near the international boundary line, is a bleak, sandy
country called the Sand Hills, and there all the shadows of the deceased
good Blackfeet are congregated. The shadows of those who in this world led
wicked lives are not allowed to go there. After death, these wicked persons
take the shape of ghosts _(Sta-au'_[1]), and are compelled ever after to
remain near the place where they died. Unhappy themselves, they envy those
who are happy, and continually prowl about the lodges of the living,
seeking to do them some injury. Sometimes they tap on the lodge skins and
whistle down the smoke hole, but if the fire is burning within they will
not enter.

[Footnote 1: The human skeleton is also called _Sta-au', i.e._
ghost. Compare Cheyenne _Mis-tai'_, ghost.]

Outside in the dark they do much harm, especially the ghosts of enemies who
have been killed in battle. These sometimes shoot invisible arrows into
persons, causing sickness and death. They have hit people on the head,
causing them to become crazy. They have paralyzed people's limbs, and drawn
their faces out of shape, and done much other harm. Ghosts walk above the
ground, not on it. An example of this peculiarity is seen in the case of
the young man who visited