Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1883 — A Dead Indian Baby for a Pillow. [ARTICLE]

A Dead Indian Baby for a Pillow.

The Ojibbewa Indians sometimes wrap their dead bodies, enveloped in birch bark, in wrappers made of hay ropes. This practice gave rise to a rather grim practical joke upon a gentleman traveling through Manitoba not long ago. The snow was thick upon the ground and when night overtook him he found himself compelled to roll up in his blankets and sleep beside his dog train “under the stars” in a sharp winter’s night. He had plenty of covering, but no pillow, and in looking around he saw what he supposed to be a bundle of hay hanging among the branches of a tree. This was just what he wanted for a pillow and with some effort he managed to secure the prize. He found that it was compact and tightly rolled, which made it suit his purpose all the better. He wrapped it in his overcoat and it made an excellent pillow, and he enjoyed a good night’s rest. What was his dismay, however, in the morning when he discovered that through the solemn hours of that long winter night his head had been pillowed upon the earthly remains of a defunct Indian baby. —Toronto Globe.