them, that they have no religion--that all their zeal
in their worship of the Great Spirit was but the foolish excess of
ignorant superstition--that their humble devotions and supplications
to the sun and the moon, where many of them suppose that the
Great Spirit resides, were but the absurd rantings of idolatry. To
such opinions as these I never yet gave answer, nor drew other
instant inferences from them, than that, from the bottom of my
heart, I pitied the persons who gave them." [227] Mr. Catlin
undoubtedly was right, as the Apostle Paul was right, when he
acknowledged that the Athenians worshipped the true God, albeit in
ignorance. At the same time, though idolatry is in numberless
instances nothing more than the use of media and mediators, in
seeking the One, Invisible, Absolute Spirit, it is so naturally abused
by sensuous beings who rest in the concrete, that no image
worshipper is free from the propensity to worship the creature more
than the Creator, and to forget the Essence in familiarity with the
form. The perfection of worship, we conceive, is pure theism; but
how few are capable of breathing in such a supersensuous air! Men
must have their "means of grace," their visible symbols, their holy
waters and consecrated wafers, their crucifixes and talismans, their
silver shrines and golden calves. "These be thy gods, O Israel."

"The Ahts undoubtedly worship the sun and the moon, particularly
the full moon, and the sun while ascending to the zenith. Like the
Teutons, they regard the moon as the husband, and the sun as the
wife; hence their prayers are more generally addressed to the moon,
as being the superior deity. The moon is the highest of all the
objects of their worship; and they describe the moon--I quote the
words of my Indian informant--as looking down upon the earth in
answer to prayer, and as seeing everybody." [228] Of the Indians of
Vancouver Island, another writer says: "The moon is among all the
heavenly bodies the highest object of veneration. When working at
the settlement at Alberni in gangs by moonlight, individuals have
been observed to look up to the moon, blow a breath, and utter
quickly the word, '_Teech! teech!_' (health, or life). Life! life! this is
the great prayer of these people's hearts." [229] "Among the
Comanches of Texas, the sun, moon, and earth are the principal
objects of worship." The Kaniagmioutes consider the moon and sun
to be brother and sister. [230]

Meztli was the