soldiers,
and unscrupulous traders.

The Miamis of Lake Michigan held the symbol of the cross in great
respect. A young Frenchman who was trading with them got into a
passion and drew his sword to avenge himself for a theft committed on
his goods. The Miama chieftain, to appease him, showed him the cross,
which was planted in the ground at the end of his lodge, and said to
him: "Behold the tree of the Black Gown; he teaches us to pray and not
to lose our temper,"--of course, referring to the missionary in the
black gown who had been amongst them. Before the cross was planted
here these Miamis kept in their houses one or more bogies, to which
they appealed in times of distress or sickness. One of these was the
skull of the bison with its horns. Another was the skin of the bear
raised on a pole in the middle of the hut and retaining the head,
which was usually painted green. The women sometimes died of terror
from the stories told them by the men about these idols, and the
Jesuits did a great deal of good by getting them abolished in many
places.

The Supreme Being of the Eskimos was a goddess rather than a god: a
mother of all things who lived under the sea. On the other hand, most
of the Amerindian tribes believed in one great God of the Sky--Manito,
as He was called by the peoples of Algonkin stock, Nainubushan by the
Siou and their kindred. This Being was usually kindly disposed towards
man; but they also (in most cases) believed in a _bad_ Manito, who was
responsible for most of the harm in the world. But sometimes the Great
Manito was capricious, or apparently made many mistakes which he had
afterwards to rectify. Thus the Siou tribes of Assiniboia believed
that the Supreme Being (whom they called Eth-tom-e) first created
mankind and all living things, and then, through some oversight or
mistake, caused a great flood to cover the earth's surface. So in a
hurry he was obliged to make a very large canoe of twigs and
branches, and into this he put a pair of every kind of bird and beast,
besides a family of human beings, who were thus saved from drowning,
and began the world afresh when the waters subsided. This legend was
something like the story of Noah's ark, but seems in some form or
another to have existed in the mind of all the North-American peoples
before the arrival of Christian missionaries. Much the same story was
told by the Ojibwes about the Great Hare-God, Nainiboju.

The Siou and the Ojibwe (and othe