believe that his shade guards the sacred tree; that he has power to procure them abundance of buffalo and other animals, or to drive the animals from the country. Hence, whenever they pass, they offer sacrifices and oblations; they present the calumet to the tutelary spirits and manes of Tchatka. He is, according to their calendar, the Wah-konTangka fear excellence, the greatest man or genius that ever visited their nation.
The Assiniboins never bury their dead. They bind the bodies with thongs of rawhide between the branches of large trees, and more frequently place them on scaffolds, to protect them from the wolves and other wild animals. They are higher than a man can reach. The feet are always turned to the west. There they are left to decay. When the scaffolds or the trees to which the dead are attached fall, through old age, the relatives bury all the other bones, and place the skulls in a circle in the plain, with the faces turned toward the centre. They preserve these with care, and consider them objects of religious veneration. You will generally find there several bison skulls. In the centre stands the medicine pole, about twenty feet high, to which Wah-loons are hung, to guard and protect the sacred deposit. The Indians call the cemetery the village o f the dead. They visit it at certain seasons of the year, to converse affectionately with their deceased relatives and friends, and always leave some present.
The Assiniboins give their name to the Assiniboin River, the great tributary of the Red River of the North, in the English Hudson Bay Company's territory. The word As siniboin signifies stone-cooking people. This tribe had, in former times, for want of better utensils, the custom of boiling their meat in holes dug in the ground and lined with raw skins. The water and the meat were put together in these holes; then large red-hot stones were cast in until the meat was boiled. This custom is now almost obsolete, since they get pots from the whites. The original mode is
used, however, on great occasions or medicine-feasts. The