IXX INTRODUCTION. 



which appear under various forms, grotesque and horri- 

 ble, in the Indian fireside legends.^ There are local 

 nianitous of streams, rocks, mountains, cataracts, and 

 forests. The conception of these beings betrays, for the 

 most part, a striking poverty of imagination. In nearly 

 every case, when they reveal themselves to mortal sight, 

 they bear the semblance of beasts, reptiles, or birds, in 

 shapes unusual or distorted.^ There are other manitous 

 witliout local habitation, some good, some evil, countless 

 in number and indefinite in attributes. They fill the 

 world, and control the destinies of men, — that is to say, 

 of Indians : for the primitive Indian holds that the white 

 man lives under a spiritual rule distinct from that which 

 governs his own fate. These beings, also, appear for 

 the most part in the shape of animals. Sometimes, 

 however, they assume human proportions ; but more 

 frequently they take the form of stones, which, being 

 broken, are found full of living blood and flesh. 



Each primitive Indian has his guardian manitou, to 

 whom he looks for counsel, guidance, and protection. 

 These spiritual allies are gained by the following pro- 

 cess. At the age of fourteen or fifteen, the Indian boy 

 blackens his face, retires to some solitary place, and 

 remains for days without food. Superstitious, expec- 

 tancy and the exhaustion of abstinence rarely fail of their 

 results. His sleep is haunted by visions, and the form 

 which first or most often appears is that of his guardian 



1 Many tribes have tales of diminutive beings, which, in the absence 

 of a better word, may be called fairies. In the Travels of Lewis and 

 Clarke, there is mention of a hill on the Missouri, supposed to be haunted 

 by them. These Western fairies correspond to the Puck Wudj Ininee 

 of Ojibwa tradition. As an example of the monsters alluded to, see the 

 Saginaw story of the Weendigoes, in Schoolcraft, Algic Researches, II. 105. 



2 The figure of a large bird is perhaps the most common, — as, for 

 example, the good spirit of Rock Island : " He was white, with wings 

 like a swan, but ten times larger." — Autobiography of Blackhawk, 70. 



