Native American Fairies are Spirit Guides to the Afterlife

The Illinois and Miami name is Pa-i'-sa, plural Pa-i'-sa-ki, which is the name of a race of "little men" corresponding to the elves and ko-bolds. They are rather friendly to men and will not injure you unless you intrude on their preserves. They live under the water usually and are the same people who were said to make arrowheads for Indians in the preceding chapter. When an Indian dies, two of them come to guide his spirit over the Milky Way, which is the path of departed spirits to the "happy hunting grounds". The monster represented is Len'-ni- pm'-ja, or Mi'-ci-bi'-sl, and his picture was probably believed to have been placed there as warning of the Len'-ni-pm'-ja-ka'-mi, which Marquette found at the mouth of the Missouri, five miles farther down. It is probable that the stories of a race of dwarfs in this country originated in Indian legends of the Pa-i'-sa-ki, just as the report of griffons came from their Mi'-ci-bi'-si stories.