and do just so much wailing each day to drive off the evil spirits (on the occasion of her sister’s death), she took most comfort in doing as “white woman” do—­putting on a black dress.

The most interesting result of my talks with Jackson was the following ghost story, which he told me to show that Indians sometimes did live again after death.  His grandmother had told him the story and had heard it herself from the man to whom it had happened.  It is as follows:  “An Indian woman died, leaving a little child and her husband.  The latter spent the accustomed four days and nights watching at her grave without food or drink.  On the fourth night the grave suddenly opened and the woman stepped out before him.  ‘Give me my child,’ said she.  The man said not a word but went quickly and brought the little child.  The woman did not speak but took the child and suckled it.  Then holding it close in her arms, she began to walk slowly away.  The man followed her, but he did not speak.  On, on they went, through forest and meadow, up hill and down dale.

“By and by the man made a movement as though he would take hold of her to stop her.  But the woman warded him off with a wave of her hand.  ‘Touch me not,’ she said.  ’If you touch me, you must die too!’ She stood and suckled the child once more, then laid him gently in her husband’s arms.  ‘Go home,’ she said, and faded from his sight.

    “Home he went with the child, full of awe and fear.

    “A few days afterwards the child died, though there was
    nothing the matter with it.  The man, however, lived to be very
    old.”

    Jackson was not sure whether he believed this story or not. 
    But his manner of telling it indicated that it was very real
    to him.

Now and again near Tallac one may see one of the dances of the Washoes.  Though war is past with them they still occasionally indulge in their War Dance and its consequent Scalp Dance.  There are not more than ten or a dozen of the old warriors still living who actually engaged in warfare in the old days, and these are too old and feeble to dance.  But as the young men sing and throw their arms and limbs about in the growing frenzy of the arousing dance, and the tom-tom throbs its stimulating beat through the air, these old men’s eyes flash, and their quavering voices become steady and strong in the excitement, and they live in the conflicts of the past.

Another of the dances that is still kept up is the Puberty Dance.  Many white people have seen this, but not having any clew to its significance, it seemed absurd and frivolous.  When a girl enters the door of young womanhood the Washoe idea is to make this an occasion for developing wiriness, strength, and vigor.  Contrary to the method of the white race, she is made, for four consecutive days, to exert herself to the utmost.  She must walk and climb mountains, ride and run, and when night comes on the