It often happens that a person makes the dying request to be buried with a knife or a tomahawk. The request is made for a reason. It is believed that the path to the spirit world leads past a place where dwells an old woman, Cracker-of-Skulls by name; that she sits by the wayside watching for ghosts journeying westward; that she seizes them but detains them only for a while, just long enough for her to crack open the top of their skulls and dig out a fingerful of brain from each. The knife and tomahawk are asked for that they may be means of defense against the old hag. It is seldom, however, that the request is granted, and the refusal likewise has for its basis a belief, which is to the effect that spirits of the dead can be present among us at all times and that they see and know all that we do; that sometimes by some act of ours whether intentional or not we commit infractions which bring down upon us the anger of the spirits, thus rendering ourselves liable to chastisement by them; and that when they inflict punishment it is likely to be with the very weapon placed with the body at burial. Hence, relatives are reluctant to have weapons like knives and tomahawks placed with the dead.²

²Jones, W.n/an/an/an/an/a, "Mortuary Observances and the Adoption Rites of the Algonkin Foxes of Iowa," , 265–266.