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16 the Red Man's pagan soul. It is to these missionary priests that we owe most of our knowledge of the Indian's native beliefs—at least, for the earlier period. They entered the wilderness to convert the savage, and accordingly it became their immediate interest to discover what religious ideas this child of nature already possessed. In their letters on the language, institutions, and ideas of the Indians, written for the enlightenment of those intending to enter the mission field, we have the first reliable accounts of Indian myth and religion.

To be sure, the Fathers did not immediately understand the aborigines. In one of the earliest of the Relations Père Lalemant wrote, of the Montagnais: "They have no form of divine worship nor any kind of prayers"; but such expressions mean simply that the missionaries found among the Indians nothing similar to their own religious practices. In the Relation of 1647-48 Père Raguenau said, writing of the Huron: "To speak truly, all the nations of these countries have received from their ancestors no knowledge of a God; and, before we set foot here, all that was related about the creation of the world consisted of nothing but myths. Nevertheless, though they were barbarians, there remained in their hearts a secret idea of the Divinity and of a first Principle, the author of all things, whom they invoked without knowing him. In the forests and during the chase, on the waters, and when in danger of shipwreck, they name him Aireskouy Soutanditenr, and call him to their aid. In war, and in the midst of their battles, they give him the name of Ondoutaete and believe that he alone awards the victory. Very frequently they address themselves to the Sky, paying it homage; and they call upon the Sun to be witness of their courage, of their misery, or of their innocence. But, above all, in treaties of peace and alliance with foreign Nations they invoke, as witnesses of their sincerity, the Sun and the Sky, which see into the depths of their hearts, and will wreak vengeance on the treachery of those who betray their trust and do not keep their word. So true is what