erched upon his shoulders, and thus
addressed the listening Knisteneaux:

"I am one of the souls of the Fawn's Foot, who died of the labour of
nature, in the Moon of Buds, and the little dove at my side is the
spirit of my child. It is an old tradition of our fathers, and will not
therefore surprise you, that every person is gifted by the Great Master
of Life with two souls. One of these souls, which is the breath, never
leaves the body, but to go into another, which nevertheless seldom
happens, save to that of children, which, having enjoyed but little
life, is allowed to begin a new one, and live out a second and more
protracted term of existence. When the breath departs from the body, the
other soul goes to the region which is appointed to be the everlasting
abode of the Knisteneaux. It is situated very far towards the setting
sun, so far, that even those souls which are pardoned are many moons
reaching it. Many dangers are to be encountered before the souls bound
thither arrive. They first come to the place of torment, appointed for
the souls of those who have been taken prisoners and burnt. They pass a
river where many have been wrecked, and at length come to another, at
the hither edge of which lies a dog of immense proportions, which
attacks indiscriminately every one that attempts to cross. The souls
whose good deeds outweigh the bad are assisted by the Good Spirit to
overcome the dog, while the bad, conquered by him in the conflict, are
incessantly worried by him thereafter. The next place of danger and
dread, is the country where the spirits of the beasts, birds, fishes,
&c.--all animate nature which is not man--is found. Here are the spirits
of bears, and wolves, and snakes, all that is cruel, or bloody, or
hideous. And these are sure to give battle to the shades of the human
beings, as they cross the lands and waters where they dwell. The
punishment they inflict consists alone in the terror they excite, for
the jaws, so thickly studded with teeth, are but a shadow, and the claws
could only retain in their grasp a shade. The dwelling place of the
souls of the brutes has its enjoyments and pleasures suited to their
tastes. The snail, that delights to crawl in slime, will have full
permission to do so; the tortoise, and the prairie dog, and the mole,
may still creep into the earth if they choose, and the squirrel still
suspend himself by his tail from the bough of the tree. If the bear
choose to suck his claws,