346 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the capacious habitation of many families. Utterly unlike both of 

 these was the original dwelling of the Dakota race, as seen among the 

 jMandans and Minnetarecs, a spacious semicircular structure, partly 

 sunk in the ground, strongly framed and roofed with timber, and cov- 

 ered thickly with earth. 



In their religious beliefs the Indians of the several stocks differed 

 as widely from one another as the Arabs differ from the Hindoos, or 

 the Malays from the Japanese. The principal divinity of the Algon- 

 kin tribes, known under various names, Glooskap among the Penob- 

 scots and Micmacs of the far east, Nanahush and Manabosho among 

 the Delawares and Ojibways, Ncqnu (the Old One) among the Black- 

 feet of the Northwestern plains, is everywhere the same, and is certainly 

 one of the strangest creations of any mythology — a sort of Jupiter- 

 Scapin, half god and half buffoon, who could only have originated 

 among a people in whom the sense of mirthfulness was stronger than 

 the spirit of reverence. Of a totally different character is the grand 

 tutelary deity of the grave Huron-Iroquois people, known as Taron- 

 hiaicar/on (Holder of the Heavens), or liaicenniyo (our Great Master) 

 — a deity nobler in character and attributes than any of the Aryan 

 divinities. Singularly unlike both the Algonkin and the Iroquois my- 

 thologies is that of the fanciful and intensely religious Dakotas, as we 

 find it described in the excellent work of the Rev. S. R. Riggs, " The 

 Bible among the Dakotas," No more remarkable set of deities, and 

 no more surprising contrast to those of their nearest neighbors, the 

 light-hearted Ojibways, could well be imagined than these extraor- 

 dinary beings — the Oon-Jctay-he, or gods of " vital energy " ; the Ta- 

 Jcoo-shlxin-shkan, or "moving god," who is '*too subtile to be perceived 

 by the senses," who "is everywhere present," who "exerts a control- 

 ling influence over instinct, intellect, and passion " ; and the Ila-yo-Jca, 

 or "anti- natural god," with whom all things work by the rule of 

 contrary — to whom joy seems grief, and misery brings joy — who shiv- 

 ers in summer and swelters in Avinter — to whom good is evil, and evil 

 is good. Equally evident to any close observer, but too numerous to 

 be now described, are the wide differences in modes of government, in 

 social systems, and in domestic habits among the Indian communities 

 belonging to the different stocks. Finally — or perhaps it should be 

 said, primarily — each stock has its own psychology, or special traits of 

 intellect and character, of which language, religion, government, and 

 social usages are the natural and necessary manifestations. 



"We conclude, then, that the true elements and bases of ethnological 

 science are found in linguistic stocks. The number of these is not yet 

 fully ascertained, but is probably not less than three hundred, of which 

 the greater portion belong to the Western Hemisphere. The origin 

 of these stocks is a much-disputed question ; but every theory which 

 has been proposed respecting it recognizes the fact that the tribe or 

 people who first spoke the mother-tongue of each stock must have had 



