though a considerable number have been written down. The singular History
of the Five Nations, by the old Tuscarora Indian, Cusick, gives the
substance of some of them. Others will be found in Clark's History of
Onondaga. ]

It is obvious that the Indian mind has never seriously occupied itself
with any of the higher themes of thought. The beings of its belief are
not impersonations of the forces of Nature, the courses of human destiny,
or the movements of human intellect, will, and passion. In the midst of
Nature; the Indian knew nothing of her laws. His perpetual reference of
her phenomena to occult agencies forestalled inquiry and precluded
inductive reasoning. If the wind blew with violence, it was because the
water-lizard, which makes the wind, had crawled out of his pool; if the
lightning was sharp and frequent, it was because the young of the
thunder-bird were restless in their nest; if a blight fell upon the corn,
it was because the Corn Spirit was angry; and if the beavers were shy and
difficult to catch, it was because they had taken offence at seeing the
bones of one of their race thrown to a dog. Well, and even highly
developed, in a few instances,--I allude especially to the Iroquois,--
with respect to certain points of material concernment, the mind of the
Indian in other respects was and is almost hopelessly stagnant. The very
traits that raise him above the servile races are hostile to the kind and
degree of civilization which those races so easily attain. His
intractable spirit of independence, and the pride which forbids him to be
an imitator, reinforce but too strongly that savage lethargy of mind from
which it is so hard to rouse him. No race, perhaps, ever offered greater
difficulties to those laboring for its improvement.

To sum up the results of this examination, the primitive Indian was as
savage in his religion as in his life. He was divided between fetich-