r than it now is, and that then the spirits of the
dead will return to the bones in the bone mounds, flesh will knit
together their loose joints, and they shall again inhabit their ancient
territory.[261-1]

There was also a similar belief among the Eskimos. They said that in the
course of time the waters would overwhelm the land, purify it of the
blood of the dead, melt the icebergs, and wash away the steep rocks. A
wind would then drive off the waters, and the new land would be peopled
by reindeers and young seals. Then would He above blow once on the bones
of the men and twice on those of the women, whereupon they would at once
start into life, and lead thereafter a joyous existence.[261-2]

But though there is nothing in these narratives alien to the course of
thought in the native mind, yet as the date of the first is recent
(1820), as they are not supported (so far as I know) by similar
traditions elsewhere, and as they may have arisen from Christian
doctrines of a millennium, I leave them for future investigation.

What strikes us the most in this analysis of the opinions entertained by
the red race on a future life is the clear and positive hope of a
hereafter, in such strong contrast to the feeble and vague notions of
the ancient Israelites, Greeks, and Romans, and yet the entire inertness
of this hope in leading them to a purer moral life. It offers another
proof that the fulfilment of duty is in its nature nowise connected with
or derived from a consideration of ultimate personal consequences. It is
another evidence that the religious is wholly distinct from the moral
sentiment, and that the origin of ethics is not to be sought in
connection with the ideas of divinity and responsibility.

FOOTNOTES:

[233-1] _Journal Historique_, p. 351: Paris, 1740.

[234-1] _Rep. of the Commissioner of Ind. Affairs_, 1854, pp. 211, 212.
The old woman is once more a personification of the water and the moon.

[234-2] Baegert, _Acc. of the Aborig. Tribes of the Californian
Peninsula_, translated by Chas. Rau, in Ann. Rep. Smithson. Inst., 1866,
p. 387.

[235-1] Of the Nicaraguans Oviedo says: "Ce n'est pas leur coeur qui va
en haut, mais ce qui les faisait vivre; c'est-a-dire, le souffle qui leur
sort par la bouche, et que l'on nomme _Julio_" (_Hist. du Nicaragua_, p.
36). The word should be _yulia_, kindred with _yoli_, to live.
(Buschmann, _Uber die Aztekischen Ortsnamen_, p. 765.) In the Aztec and
cognate langua