ter, we
perceive that He is no respecter of persons, but that in every nation he
that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him.

CHARLES A. EASTMAN (OHIYESA)

CONTENTS

I. THE GREAT MYSTERY 1

II. THE FAMILY ALTAR 25

III. CEREMONIAL AND SYMBOLIC WORSHIP 51

IV. BARBARISM AND THE MORAL CODE 85

V. THE UNWRITTEN SCRIPTURES 117

VI. ON THE BORDER-LAND OF SPIRITS 147

I. THE GREAT MYSTERY

Solitary Worship. The Savage Philosopher. The Dual Mind.
Spiritual Gifts versus Material Progress. The Paradox of
"Christian Civilization."

The original attitude of the American Indian toward the Eternal, the
"Great Mystery" that surrounds and embraces us, was as simple as it
was exalted. To him it was the supreme conception, bringing with it the
fullest measure of joy and satisfaction possible in this life.

The worship of the "Great Mystery" was silent, solitary, free from all
self-seeking. It was silent, because all speech is of necessity feeble
and imperfect; therefore the souls of my ancestors ascended to God in
wordless adoration. It was solitary, because they believed that He is
nearer to us in solitude, and there were no priests authorized to come
between a man and his Maker. None might exhort or confess or in any way
meddle with the religious experience of another. Among us all men were
created sons of God and stood erect, as conscious of their divinity. Our
faith might not be formulated in creeds, nor forced upon any who were
unwilling to receive it; hence there was no preaching, proselyting, nor
persecution, neither were there any scoffers or atheists.

There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature. Being
a natural man, the Indian was intensely poetical. He would deem it
sacrilege to build a house for Him who may be met face to face in the
mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or on the sunlit
bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy spires and pinnacles of naked rock,
and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night sky! He who enrobes Himself
in filmy veils of cloud, there on the rim of the visible world where our
Great-Grandfather Sun kindles his evening camp-fire, He who rides
upon the rigorous wind of the north, or breathes forth His spirit upon
aromatic southern airs, whose war-canoe is launched upon majestic rivers
and inland seas--He needs no lesser cathedral!

That solitary communion w