Ixxviii INTRODUCTION. 



counterpart is to be found in the traditions of the Peru- 

 vians, Mexicans, and other primitive nations.^ 



Close examination makes it evident that the primitive 

 Indian's idea of a Supreme Being was a conception no 

 higher than might have been expected. The moment he 

 began to contemplate this object of his faith, and sought 

 to clothe it with attributes, it became finite, and com- 

 monly ridiculous. The Creator of the World stood on 

 the level of a barbarous and degraded humanity, while 

 a natural tendency became apparent to look beyond him 

 to other powers sharing his dominion. The Indian 

 belief, if developed, would have developed into a system 

 of polytheism.^ 



In the primitive Indian's conception of a God the idea 

 of moral good has no part. His deity does not dispense 

 justice for this world or the next, but leaves mankind 

 under the power of subordinate spirits, who fill and 

 control the universe. Nor is the good and evil of these 

 inferior beings a moral good and evil. The good spirit 

 is the spirit that gives good luck, and ministers to the 

 necessities and desires of mankind: the evil spirit is 



1 For the tradition of Hiawatha, see Clark, History of Onondaga, I. 21. 

 It will also be found in Schoolcraft's Notes on the Iroquois, and in his His- 

 tory, Condition, and Prospects of Indian Tribes. 



The Iroquois name for God is Hawenniio, sometimes written 

 Owayneo ; but this use of the word is wholly due to the missionaries. 

 Hawenniio is an Iroquois verb, and means, he rules, he is master. There 

 is no Iroquois word which, in its primitive meaning, can be interpreted, 

 the Great Spirit, or God. On this subject, see Etudes Philologiques sur 

 quelques Langues Sauvages (Montreal, 1866), where will also be found a 

 curious exposure of a few of Schoolcraft's ridiculous blunders in this 

 connection. 



2 Some of the early writers could discover no trace of belief in a 

 supreme spirit of any kind. Perrot, after a life spent among the Indians, 

 ignores such an idea. Allouez emphatically denies that it existed among 

 the tribes of Lake Superior. {Relation, 1667, 11.) He adds, however, 

 that the Sacs and Foxes believed in a great g^nie, who lived not far from 

 the French settlements. — Ibid., 21. 



