CHAPTER VII.
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS.
Primitive superstitions - The theory of Wakan or medicine - The creation legend - Sacrifice to avert evil - Dread of the unknown - Charms and amulets -The Creator approached through his works - Murder and vengeance - Robbery not wrong in itself - Ideas of a future state.
St. Louis University, Sept., 1866.
Reverend Dear Father:
HIS is a copy of a letter sent to Reverend Father Weld, V~ at his own request, for his Home Journal, should it meet with his approbation. I made a promise to Reverend Father Terwecoren to send him the same little production for his Precis Historiques, in which most of my letters have appeared. It was written during my leisure hours on the steamer Ontario, during my late long mission and trip to the Rocky Mountains. I take the liberty of sending it to your Reverence such as it was originally written. I will acknowledge to you that I have somewhat an interested motive in doing so, however; our old acquaintance and friendship gives me some little title, together with your thorough knowledge of the English and French languages. Should you find time to glance over it and should you think it worthy of being published, it would afford me great honor and pleasure, if your Reverence were willing to undertake its translation.
I have chosen for my subject the moral code and religious ideas of the western Indian nations who inhabit the upper plains watered by the Missouri river and its numerous tributaries. I am well aware that the task is rather a difficult one. I have made careful researches on the subject and have sought and obtained valuable information from intelli[ioCrnl