in than can be collected from
tradition, manners, and customs. From my knowledge of the Indians, I
believe them, if not more religious, most certainly to be more
conscientious, than most Christians. They all believe in one God--
Manitou, the author of good, and worship him as such; but believing that
human nature is too gross to communicate with the Arbitrator of all
things, they pray generally through the intervention of the elements or
even of certain animals, in the same manner that the Catholics address
themselves to their saints.

The great Manitou is universal among this family and indeed among all
the savage tribes of North America. The interceding spirit alone
varies, not with the tribe and nation, but according to individual
selection. Children are taught to know "Kishe Manito" (the Almighty),
but no more. When the boy is verging upon manhood, he selects his own
personal deity, or household god, which is made known to him in his
dreams. When he states his intention of seeking the spirit, the parents
of the young man order him to fast for three days; then they take away
his bow and arrows, and send him far into the woods, the mountains, or
the prairies, to wait for the visitation.

An empty stomach and inaction in the lone wilderness are certain to
produce reveries and waking dreams. If the young man is thirsty, he
thinks of water; of fire or sunshine, if he feels cold; of buffalo or
fish, if he is hungry. Sometimes he meets with some reptile, and upon
any one of these or other natural causes or productions, his imagination
will work, until it becomes wholly engrossed by it.

Thus fire and water, the sun or the moon, a star, a buffalo, or a
snake--any one of them, will become the subject of his thoughts, and
when he sleeps, he naturally dreams of that object which he has been
brooding over.

He then returns home, engraves upon a stone, a piece of wood, or a skin,
the form of this "spirit" which his dream has selected for him, wears it
constantly on his person, and addresses it, not as a god, but as an
intercessor, through which his vows, must pass before they can reach the
fearful Lord of all things.

Some men among the Indians acquire, by their virtues and the regularity
of their lives, the privilege of addressing the Creator without any
intervention, and are admitted into the band, headed by the masters of
ceremonies and the presidents of the sacred lodges, who receive
neophytes and confer dignit