" This may partly
explain the custom observed by other savages of bringing game in
certain cases into their huts, not by the door, but by the window,
the smoke-hole, or by a special opening at the back of the hut.
With some savages a special reason for respecting the bones of game,
and generally of the animals which they eat, is a belief that, if
the bones are preserved, they will in course of time be reclothed
with flesh, and thus the animal will come to life again. It is,
therefore, clearly for the interest of the hunter to leave the bones
intact since to destroy them would be to diminish the future supply
of game. Many of the Minnetaree Indians "believe that the bones of
those bisons which they have slain and divested of flesh rise again
clothed with renewed flesh, and quickened with life, and become fat,
and fit for slaughter the succeeding June." Hence on the western
prairies of America, the skulls of buffaloes may be seen arranged in
circles and symmetrical piles, awaiting the resurrection. After
feasting on a dog, the Dacotas carefully collect the bones, scrape,
wash, and bury them, "partly, as it is said, to testify to the
dog-species, that in feasting upon one of their number no disrespect
was meant to the species itself, and partly also from a belief that
the bones of the animal will rise and reproduce another.
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