64 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



against frozen beaches, and by the banks of the rivers flowing ever in 

 solenan mystery — each in its own temple of illumined space — and lis- 

 tened to the story of its own supreme gods, the ancients of time. 



Religion, in this stage of theism, is sorcery. Incantation, dancing, 

 fasting, bodily torture, and ecstacism are practiced. Every tribe has 

 its potion or vegetable drug, by which the ecstatic state is produced, 

 and their venerable medicine-men see visions and dream dreams. No 

 enterprise is undertaken without consulting the gods, and no evil 

 impends but they seek to propitiate the gods. All daily life, to the 

 minutest particular, is religious. This stage of religion is character- 

 ized by fetichism. Every Indian is provided with his charm or fetich, 

 revealed to him in some awful hour of ecstasy produced by fasting, 

 or feasting, or drunkenness, and that fetich he carries with him to 

 bring good luck, in love or in combat, in the hunt or on the journey. 

 He carries a fetich suspended to his neck, he ties a fetich to his bow, 

 he buries a fetich under his tent, he places a fetich under his pillow of 

 wild-cat skins, he prays to his fetich, he praises it, or chides it ; if 

 successful, his fetich receives the glory; if he fail, his fetich is disgraced. 

 These fetiches may be fragments of bone or shell, the tips of the tails 

 of animals, the claws of birds or beasts, perhaps dried hearts of little 

 warblers, shards of beetles, leaves powdered and held in bags, or crys- 

 tals from the rocks — anything curious may become a fetich. Fetich- 

 ism, then, is a religious means, not a philosophic or mythologic state. 

 Such are the supreme gods of the savage, and such the institutions 

 which belong to their theism. But they have many other inferior 

 gods. Mountains, hills, valleys, and great rocks have their own spe- 

 cial deities — invisible spirits — and lakes, rivers, and springs are the 

 homes of spirits. But all these have animal forms when in proper 

 persons. Yet some of the medicine-spirits can transform themselves, 

 and work magic as do medicine-men. The heavenly bodies are either 

 created personages or ancient men or animals translated to the sky. 

 And, last, we find that ancestors are worshiped as gods. 



Among all the tribes of North America, with which we are ac- 

 quainted, tutelarism prevails. Every tribe and every clan has its own 

 protecting god, and every individual has his " my god." It is a curi- 

 ous fact that every Indian seeks to conceal the knowledge of his " my 

 god " from all other persons, for he fears that, if his enemy should 

 know of his tutelar deity, he might by extraordinary magic succeed in 

 estranging him, and be able to compass his destruction through his 

 own god. 



In this summary characterization of zootheism, I have necessarily 

 systematized my statements. This, of course, could not be done by 

 the savage himself. He could give you its particulars, but could not 

 group those particulars in any logical way. He does not recognize 

 any system, but talks indiscriminately, now of one, now of another 

 god, and with him the whole theory as a system is vague and shad- 



