Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/315

Rh pass this narrow bridge safely, and safely to reach those regions of the blessed. Such, however, as have not done so, cannot pass over this smooth tree-stem, but lose their footing and fall into the abyss.” This, for savages, is not so very bad an idea of retribution after death. The Indians' estimate, however, of good and evil is, in other respects, very imperfect and circumscribed; and their idea of reward and punishment after death is merely the reflex of their earthly joys and misfortunes.

They believe, as we do, in a Spirit of spirits, a supreme God, who rules over everything and all things, and the Indians of the north-west call him the “Great Manitou.” He appears to be a power without the peculiar moral attributes. They also believe in a number of lesser Manitous, or divinities, and it seems to me that, as regards their theology, they are rather Pantheists than Monotheists. They behold a transformed divinity in the forest, in stones, in animals, in everything which lives or which evinces an indwelling power. Manitou is in the bear and the beaver, in the stone which emits the spark of fire, but above all, in the forest which whispers and affords protection to man.

It seems to me worthy of observation that these Indians believe that every animal has a great original prototype or type from which it is descended; hence all beavers are descended from the great beaver, which lives somewhere for ever under the water; all blue-birds from the great blue-bird, which flies invisibly above the clouds in the immeasurable heights of space. The great beaver is the great brother of all beavers, the great blue-bird is the brother and protector of all blue birds.

They seek to propitiate Manitou by gifts and sacrifices, which are often bloody and cruel. The mediators between themselves and Manitou are their so-called medicine-men; men who by means of the knowledge of the mysteries of nature and the power of magic, are considered able