Note 330 — Chapter XXV · ACCOUNT OF THE MANDAN INDIANS (continued 2)

The belief in the plurality of souls appears to have been widespread among Dakotan tribes. Matthews (Hidatsa, p. 50) says that the Minitaree believe in four for each person, and that he has heard this faith disputed with the Assiniboin, who believe in but one. The Teton Sioux think one spirit is of the body and dies with it; the second remaining with or near the body—hence the offering of food to the deceased; the third goes to the spirit home in the south; and the fourth abides with the lock of hair cut from the head of the corpse—if this is thrown into an enemy's camp, the ghost harasses the hostiles in time of war. See Dorsey, "Siouan Cults," p. 484. The belief in a home of spirits is indefinite and ill-defined—most Dakotan people think of an ancestral home to which spirits return, but the distinction between abodes for the good and the wicked appears imported, not indigenous.—See Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, v, p. 347.—Ed.