ject considered sacred and consecrated by care and ceremony to whosesoever business it is in the realms beyond to superintend these matters. Uneducated and unenlightened as they are, obliged mentally to grasp at protection from supernatural evil in every shape and form, from the great luminary the sun, as the most powerful, to the smallest atoms that might possibly be of some aid, they, through these portions of creation, endeavor by sacrifices, invocations, personal inflictions and fastings, to excite the interest and protection of a great invisible power, to whose approach no certain way in the Indian's belief presents itself. It would appear that in this respect they are not far behind some Christian whites of every country in superstition, who also have their chance, their luck, their fortunes told, and other ideas fully as repugnant to the belief of an all-wise and overruling Providence as the faith of the Indians presents. The very universality of the practice of this sort of idolatry by the Indians proves it to be their true belief, and appears, in fact, an acknowledgment of the existence of an overruling Providence. In accordance with this belief, their prayers and sacrifices are all directed to obtain only temporal and not spiritual welfare. They pray not for what they do not feel to want.
If no moral sense of right and wrong is found amongst them, it must follow that personal advantages are all that is left worth praying or fasting for. If they pray and sacrifice to the sun and thunder, it is in their idea to acknowledge the power of the Creator in these great portions of his work. Great evil, great good is evaded or invoked through these great apparent mediums; smaller evils or benefits are avoided or sought through the medium of charms; yet even these are not expected through the power of the material of the charm, but the consequences attendant on its sacred character as rendered so by constant care, prayers and sacrifices through it to supernatural agencies.
Having shown what is their idea of the Great Spirit and analyzed the nature of their worship, we will next consider