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Show igoo] INDIAN RELIGION 251 conception of a multiplicity of soul was also present in some of the tribes. iSach individual was believed to be animated by several spirits which had different functions after death. One, for example, would remain near the body, one would haunt the village, one would go to the land of the dead, the so- called 41 happy huntigg- groimds," etc. ^"" Methods of burial were many and various. Graves, stone- pits or cists, caves, or huts were used by many tribes. N ^ Mummification was practised in some regions, and cremation was also employed by certain groups. An interesting mode in fairly common use was the disposal of the corpse in a tree or on a scaffold, and in some cases the body was exposed to be devoured by beasts and birds. No matter what the method might be, it was carried out with rigid ceremony and the most religious care. \) ne of the most important practices, if not the fundamental religious custom of the Indian, was the acquisition of a personal protecting spirit or manitou by the individual. 1 The details of the methods by which this supernatural helper was obtained varied from tribe to tribe, but the essential features remained the same. NThe individual who thus put himself in an especially close relation with a spirit became a shaman or medicine- man, and the more powerful his protecting manitou the more powerful was the shaman. Among certain tribes, as in the northwest, almost any one could, with per- 1 See above, chap. viii. |