nature. Being a natural man, the Indian was intensely poetical.
He would deem it sacrilege to build a house for Him who may be met
face to face in the mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval
forest, or on the sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy
spires and pinnacles of naked rock, and yonder in the jeweled vault
of the night sky! He who enrobes Himself in filmy veils of cloud,
there on the rim of the visible world where our
Great-Grandfather Sun kindles his evening camp-fire, He who rides
upon the rigorous wind of the north, or breathes forth His spirit
upon aromatic southern airs, whose war-canoe is launched upon
majestic rivers and inland seas--He needs no lesser cathedral!

That solitary communion with the Unseen which was the highest
expression of our religious life is partly described in the word
bambeday, literally "mysterious feeling," which has been
variously translated "fasting" and "dreaming." It may better be
interpreted as "consciousness of the divine."

The first bambeday, or religious retreat, marked
an epoch in the life of the youth, which may be compared to that of
confirmation or conversion in Christian experience. Having first
prepared himself by means of the purifying vapor-bath, and cast off
as far as possible all human or fleshly influences, the young man
sought out the noblest height, the most commanding summit in all
the surrounding region. Knowing that God sets no value upon
material things, he took with him no offerings or sacrifices other
than symbolic objects, such as paints and tobacco. Wishing to
appear before Him in all humility, he wore no clothing save his
moccasins and breech-clout. At the solemn hour of sunrise or
sunset he took up his position, overlooking the glories of earth