Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 10 (North American).djvu/73

Rh of peace, raised heavenward by the hand of a savage, present ing it to the Master of Life imploring his pity on all his children on earth and begging him to confirm the good resolutions which they had made." This is a comment of Father De Smet, who spent many years among many different tribes, and it is he who preserves for us the Delaware story of the gift of the Calumet to man: The peoples of the North had resolved upon a war of extermination against the Delaware, when, in the midst of their council, a dazzling white bird appeared among them and poised with outspread wings above the head of the only daughter of the head chief. The girl heard a voice speaking within her, which said: "Call all the warriors together; make known to them that the heart of the Great Spirit is sad, is covered with a dark and heavy cloud, because they seek to drink the blood of his first-born children, the Lenni-Lennapi, the eldest of all the tribes on earth. To appease the anger of the Master of Life, and to bring back happiness to his heart, all the warriors must wash their hands in the blood of a young fawn; then, loaded with presents, and the Hobowakan [calumet] in their hands, they must go all together and present themselves to their elder brothers; they must distribute their gifts, and smoke together the great calumet of peace and brotherhood, which is to make them one forever."

Herodotus said of the Persians: "It is their wont to per form sacrifices to Zeus, going up to the most lofty of the mountains; and the whole circle of the heavens they call Zeus; and they sacrifice to the Sun and the Moon and the Earth, to Fire and to Water and to the Winds; these are the only gods to whom they have sacrificed ever from the first." The ritual of the calumet indicates identically the same conception of the world-powers among the American Indians. "On all great occasions," says De Smet, "in their religious and