pple upon
the surface of shining pool--his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is
the ideal attitude and conduct of life.

If you ask him: "What is silence?" he will answer: "It is the Great
Mystery!" "The holy silence is His voice!" If you ask: "What are the
fruits of silence?" he will say: "They are self-control, true courage or
endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone
of character."

"Guard your tongue in youth," said the old chief, Wabashaw, "and in age
you may mature a thought that will be of service to your people!"

The moment that man conceived of a perfect body, supple, symmetrical,
graceful, and enduring--in that moment he had laid the foundation of
a moral life! No man can hope to maintain such a temple of the spirit
beyond the period of adolescence, unless he is able to curb his
indulgence in the pleasures of the senses. Upon this truth the Indian
built a rigid system of physical training, a social and moral code that
was the law of his life.

There was aroused in him as a child a high ideal of manly strength and
beauty, the attainment of which must depend upon strict temperance in
eating and in the sexual relation, together with severe and persistent
exercise. He desired to be a worthy link in the generations, and that he
might not destroy by his weakness that vigor and purity of blood which
had been achieved at the cost of much self-denial by a long line of
ancestors.

He was required to fast from time to time for short periods, and to work
off his superfluous energy by means of hard running, swimming, and the
vapor-bath. The bodily fatigue thus induced, especially when coupled
with a reduced diet, is a reliable cure for undue sexual desires.

Personal modesty was early cultivated as a safeguard, together with a
strong self-respect and pride of family and race. This was accomplished
in part by keeping the child ever before the public eye, from his birth
onward. His entrance into the world, especially in the case of the
first-born, was often publicly announced by the herald, accompanied by
a distribution of presents to the old and needy. The same thing occurred
when he took his first step, when his ears were pierced, and when he
shot his first game, so that his childish exploits and progress were
known to the whole clan as to a larger family, and he grew into manhood
with the saving sense of a reputation to sustain.

The youth was encouraged to enlist early in the pub