210 EXrjiDITION TO THE 



token of what he had seen. To one disposed to indulge in 

 the sublime views of Plato, on the immortality of the soul, 

 (Cic. de Senec. Cap. 21,) it would have appeared as if 

 there floated in Wennebea's mind, at that time, an indis- 

 tinct recollection of what had once been familiar to him. 

 His mind seemed to have received a deep impression from 

 the contemplation of the heavens, but it still remains ques- 

 tionable with us, whether his feelings were produced by 

 the wonderful grandeur of the planets which he had be- 

 held, and by the associations with which he connected 

 them, or by the ingenuity of white men, who with a sort of 

 talisman, had brought, within the sphere of his vision, objects 

 which were previously unknown to him, and imparted to 

 him thereby, as it were, a new sense. It seemed as if his 

 mind was overflowing; and he very willingly answered 

 the questions which were put to him, concerning his ideas 

 of the objects he had been beholding. He believed the 

 sun to be the residence of a male Deity, who looks placidly 

 upon the earth, and who being propitious to man, exposes to 

 his view the wild beasts and serpents which cross his path. 

 He thought, that immediately after death, the soul quits its 

 mortal residence, and journeys towards the setting sun, 

 where, if its life had been spent in a manner agreeable to 

 the Deity, it finds no difficulty in stepping over the agi- 

 tated log which stretches across the gulf. It then be- 

 comes an eternal inhabitant of the " Village of the Dead," 

 situated in a prairie, that abounds in all the pleasures which 

 the simple imagination of the Indian can covet. The 

 moon, on the contrary, he held to be inhabited by an ad- 

 verse female Deity, whose delight is to cross man in all his 

 pursuits. If during their sleep, this Deity should present 

 herself to them in their dreams, the Indians consider it as 

 enjoined upon them by duty, to become cinsedi; they ever 



