fact that when
Richard McNemar, the Shaker, visited him in 1807, at Greenville, Ohio,
he found a temple of worship one hundred fifty feet in length,
surrounded by wigwams and cottages, and the Indians then told McNemar
that they all believed implicitly in the Prophet and that he could
"dream to God." The Prophet had at that time also gone so far as to
institute the confessional, and all sinful disclosures were made to
himself and four accompanying chiefs. The question was asked: "Do they
confess all the bad things they ever did?" Answer: "All from seven years
old. And cry and tremble when they come to confess." A sort of nature or
sun worship had already been introduced. McNemar thus describes a
salutation to the lord of the day: "Next morning, as soon as it was day,
one of their speakers mounted a log, near the southeast corner of the
village, and began the morning service with a loud voice, in
thanksgiving to the Great Spirit. He continued his address for near an
hour. The people were all in their tents, some at the distance of
fifteen or twenty rods; yet they could all distinctly hear, and gave a
solemn and loud assent, which sounded from tent to tent, at every pause.
While we stood in his view, at the end of the meeting house, on rising
ground, from which we had a prospect of the surrounding wigwams, and the
vast open plain or prairie, to the south and east, and which looked over
the big fort, toward the north, for the distance of two miles, we felt
as if we were among the tribes of Israel, on their march to Canaan."

By weird incantations, symbolic ceremonies, and practice of the black
art, the Prophet had gone far. He was now regarded as invulnerable, and
his person sacred. But that which gave point to his oracles, and
authority to his imposture, was his Shawnee hatred of the pale face. To
incite their growing jealousy and malice, he told his dupes, that the
white man had poisoned all their land, and prevented it from producing
such things as they found necessary to their subsistence. The growing
scarcity of game, the disappearance of the deer and buffalo before the
white settlements, were indisputable proofs of his assertions. Says
Harrison: "The game which was formerly so abundant, is now so scarce as
barely to afford subsistence to the most active hunters. The greater
part of each tribe are half the year in a state of starvation, and
astonishing as it may seem, these remote savages have felt their full
share of