Women who have been guilty of infanticide never reach the mountain at all but are compelled to hover round the seats of their crimes with branches of trees tied to their legs.  The melancholy sounds which are heard in the still summer evenings and which the ignorance of the white people considers as the screams of the goat-sucker are really, according to my informant, the moanings of these unhappy beings.

The Crees have somewhat similar notions but, as they inhabit a country widely different from the mountainous lands of the Blackfoot Indians, the difficulty of their journey lies in walking along a slender and slippery tree laid as a bridge across a rapid stream of stinking and muddy water.  The night owl is regarded by the Crees with the same dread that it has been viewed by other nations.  One small species, which is known to them by its melancholy nocturnal hootings (for as it never appears in the day few even of the hunters have ever seen it) is particularly ominous.  They call it the cheepai-peethees, or death bird, and never fail to whistle when they hear its note.  If it does not reply to the whistle by its hootings the speedy death of the inquirer is augured.

When a Cree dies that part of his property which he has not given away before his death is burned with him, and his relations take care to place near the grave little heaps of firewood, food, pieces of tobacco, and such things as he is likely to need in his journey.  Similar offerings are made when they revisit the grave, and as kettles and other articles of value are sometimes offered they are frequently carried off by passengers, yet the relations are not displeased provided sufficient respect has been shown to the dead by putting some other article, although of inferior value, in the place of that which has been taken away.

The Crees are wont to celebrate the returns of the seasons by religious festivals but we are unable to describe the ceremonial in use on these joyous occasions from personal observation.  The following brief notice of a feast which was given by an old Cree chief according to his annual custom on the first croaking of the frogs is drawn up from the information of one of the guests.  A large oblong tent or lodge was prepared for the important occasion by the men of the party, none of the women being suffered to interfere.  It faced the setting sun and great care was taken that everything about it should be as neat and clean as possible.  Three fireplaces were raised within it at equal distances and little holes were dug in the corners to contain the ashes of their pipes.  In a recess at its upper end one large image of Kepoochikawn and many smaller ones were ranged with their faces towards the door.  The food was prepared by the chief’s wife and consisted of marrow pemmican, berries boiled with fat, and various other delicacies that had been preserved for the occasion.

The preparations being completed and, a slave whom the chief had taken in war having warned the guests to the feast by the mysterious word peenasheway, they came, dressed out in their best garments, and ranged themselves according to their seniority, the elders seating themselves next the chief at the upper end and the young men near the door.