Jour. Anth. Inst.

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It was believed [by the Omaha] that the spirit of a murdered man was inclined to come back to his village to punish the people. To prevent a murdered man from haunting his village he was turned face downward, and to impede his steps the soles of his feet were slit lengthwise. The return of a spirit to haunt people was called wathide, "disturbance." Such a haunting spirit was supposed to bring famine. To avert this disaster, when a murdered man was buried, besides the precautions already mentioned, a piece of fat was put in his right hand, so that if he should come to the village he would bring plenty rather than famine, fat being the symbol of plenty. Even the relatives of the murdered man would treat the body of their kinsman in the manner described.3

Once [said Mr. Barron] on approaching in the night a village of Ottawas, I found all the inhabitants in confusion: they were all busily engaged in raising noises of the loudest and most inharmonious kind. Upon inquiry, I found that a battle had been lately fought between the Ottawas and the Kickapoos, and that the object of all this noise was to prevent the ghosts of the departed combatants from entering the village.1

3Fletcher, A.C.n/an/an/an/a, and F.n/aLa Fleschen/an/an/an/a, "The Omaha Tribe," Bur. Amer. Ethanol., Ann, Rept., 27: 215.

1 Keating, W. H., Narrative of the Expedition to the Source of St. Peter’s River, 1: 109.

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Chicago: "Jour. Anth. Inst.," Jour. Anth. Inst. in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed March 29, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=92DGCHWBNA6864C.

MLA: . "Jour. Anth. Inst." Jour. Anth. Inst., Vol. 27, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 29 Mar. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=92DGCHWBNA6864C.

Harvard: , 'Jour. Anth. Inst.' in Jour. Anth. Inst.. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 29 March 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=92DGCHWBNA6864C.