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Show 176 SUPERSTITION OF THE CROWS. endeavours to kill the animal, but leaves it untouched, and then says to the sun, " Take her; she is yours." They never use the skin of these white buffalo cows, as the Mandans do, of which I shall, by-and-by, speak at length. The most sacred objects in the eyes of this people are the sun, the moon, and tobacco, that is, the leaves of the genuine tobacco {Nicotiana) ; and, therefore, all their children wear a small portion of this herb, well wrapped up, round their necks, by way of amulet. They do not bury their dead in the ground, but, like the Mandans, Manitaries, Sioux, and Assiniboins, lay them on stages in the prairie. (See the woodcut, p. 173.) A Crow woman, who was on the point of death, was very apprehensive and uneasy in her mind lest she should be interred in the ground, according to the custom of the Whites. This was her sole concern, though she did not otherwise express any fear of death; as soon as she was made easy on this point, she died perfectly satisfied. |