longed to a bad or wicked person in this world, it will
fall off the pole into the stream, and the current will sweep it down to
the land of evil spirits, where it will forever remain in poverty and
misery. There is nothing very peculiar in the religious opinions of the
Sauks and Foxes, to distinguish them from the aborigines of this
country, generally. They believe in one Great and Good Spirit, who
controls and governs all things, and in supernatural agents who are
permitted to interfere in their concerns. They are of opinion that there
is also a bad spirit, subordinate, however, to the great Manito, who is
permitted to annoy and perplex the Indians, by means of bad medicines,
by poisonous reptiles, and by killing their horses and sinking their
canoes. All their misfortunes are attributed to the influence of this
bad spirit, but they have some vague idea that it is in part permitted
as a punishment for their bad deeds. They all believe in ghosts, and
when they fancy that they have seen one, the friends of the deceased
give a feast and hang up some clothing as an offering to appease the
troubled spirit. So far as the ceremonials are concerned, the Sauks and
Foxes may be called a religious people. They rarely pass any
extraordinary cave, rock, hill or other object, with out leaving behind
them some tobacco for the use of the spirit who they suppose lives
there. They have some kind of prayers, consisting of words which they
sing over in the evening and at sunrise in the morning.

Their tradition in regard to the creation of the world, the deluge and
the re-peopling of the earth, is a singular mixture of truth and
fiction. If anterior in its origin, to the arrival of the whites on this
continent, it presents matter of curious speculation. The following
account of it, entitled the Cosmogony of the Saukee and Musquakee
Indians, is taken from Doctor Galland's Chronicles of the North American
Savages.

"In the beginning the Gods created every living being which was intended
to have life upon the face of the whole earth; and then were formed
every species of living animal. After this the gods also formed man,
whom they perceived to be both cruel and foolish: they then put into man
the heart of the best beast they had created; but they beheld that man
still continued cruel and foolish. After this it came to pass that the
Almighty took a piece of himself, of which he made a heart for the man;
and when the man received it, he imm