onsecrated to the Great Spirit. The Ottawas seem to
have had a more complicated mythology than any other tribe: they held a
regular festival in honor of the sun; and, while rendering thanks for
past benefit, prayed that it might be continued to the future. They have
also been observed to erect an idol in their village, and offer it
sacrifice: this ceremony was, however, very rare. Many Western tribes
visit the spring whence they have been supplied with water during the
winter, at the breaking up of the ice, and there offer up their grateful
worship to the Great Spirit for having preserved them in health and
safety, and having supplied their wants. This pious homage is performed
with much ceremony and devotion.

Among this rude people, who were at one time supposed to have been
without any religion, habitual piety may be considered the most
remarkable characteristic: every action of their lives is connected with
some acknowledgment of a Superior Power. Many have imagined that the
severe fasts sometimes endured by the Indians were only for the purpose
of accustoming themselves to support hunger; but all the circumstances
connected with these voluntary privations leave no doubt that they were
solemn religious exercises. Dreams and visions during these fasts were
looked upon as oracular, and respected as the revelations of Heaven. The
Indian frequently propitiates the favor of the inferior spirits by vows;
when for some time unsuccessful in the chase, or suffering from want in
long journeys, he promises the genius of the spot to bestow upon one of
his chiefs, in its honor, a portion of the first fruits of his
success;[256] if the chief be too distant to receive the gift, it is
burned in sacrifice.

The belief of the Indian in a future state, although deeply cherished
and sincere, can scarcely be regarded as a defined idea of the
immortality of the soul.[257] There is little spiritual or exalted in
his conception. When he attempts to form a distinct notion of the
spirit, he is blinded by his senses; he calls it the shadow or image of
his body, but its acts and enjoyments are all the same as those of its
earthly existence. He only pictures to himself a continuation of present
pleasures. His Heaven is a delightful country, far away beyond the
unknown Western seas, where the skies are ever bright and serene, the
air genial, the spring eternal, and the forests abounding in game; no
war, disease, or torture are known in that hap