55 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



Photo by Dr. Ehrenreicli] [Berlin. 



A CARIB OR ACKAWOI WOMAN (PROFILE), WITH 



SPIKES IN LOWER LIP AND EARS. 



With regard to the prevalence of witch- 

 craft, all that space allows us to say is that 

 there was a body of men, and sometimes 

 women also, who were known as medicine- 

 men, shamans, or priests, whose province it 

 was to control all religious ceremonies and 

 to act as diviners. Under their control lay 

 all ceremonies connected with war, hunting, 

 fishing, and gathering the fruits of the earth; 

 while it was likewise a part of their duty to 

 regulate the climate and to control the good 

 and evil destinies of the people under their 

 charge. The chief shamans are men; but 

 all the people are bonded together under 

 shamanistic societies. 



Unfortunately, space allows of only the 

 most cursory allusion to the so-called " ghost- 

 dance religion," which spread over the Western 

 United States between 1889 and 1892, and 

 was closely connected with the great Siouan 

 rebellion of that time. In the devotees of 

 this cult the normal mental processes were 

 suspended and the ordinary bodily functions 

 dominated for hours or days. Indians usually 

 docile and contented suddenly became morose 

 and bloodthirsty, while peaceful tribes on an 

 instant broke into rebellion against the para- 

 mount power. The peculiar mode of thought 



characteristic of Indians generally, their habitual appeal to the unknown for the explanation 

 of simple facts, together with their habit of peopling their natural surroundings with ghostly 

 imaginations, doubtless, as Mr. J. Mooney well remarks, rendered them peculiarly susceptible 

 to the advance of the new cult. In the curious and numerous ceremonies connected with 

 the ghost-dance hypnotism played no inconsiderable part. Between thirty and thirty-five 

 different tribes, numbering about 65,000 individuals, appear to have come under the influeno 

 of this strange cult, which died out as suddenly as it appeared. 



Turning to the religious belief of the tribes under consideration, it will be a shock 

 many of our readers to learn that the belief in an all-powerful "Great Spirit" is an utter 

 fallacy, due to a misapprehension on the part of the early students of Indian mytholo: 

 Among the Siouan tribes the creation and control of the world and its inhabitants we 

 ascribed to ivakanda, just as among the Algonquians it was attributed to manito the mighty. 

 "Yet," writes Mr. McGee, "inquiry shows that wakanda assumes various forms, and is rather a 

 quantity than a definite entity. Thus, among many of the tribes, the sun is wakanda not the 

 wakanda or a wakanda, but simply wakanda; and among the same tribes the moon is wakanda, 

 and so is thunder, lightning, the stars, the winds, the cedar, and various other things; even a 

 man, especially a shaman, might be wakanda or a wakanda. In addition, the term was applied 

 to mythic monsters of the earth, air, and waters; according to some of the sages the ground 

 or earth, the mythic under- world, the ideal upper- world, darkness, etc., were wakanda or 

 wakandas. So, too, the fetishes and the ceremonial objects and decorations were wakanda among 

 different tribes. Among some of the groups various animals and other trees besides the 

 specially wakanda cedar were regarded as wakandas; as already noted, the horse among the 

 prairie tribes was the wakanda dog. In like manner many natural objects and places of striking 

 character were considered wakanda. Thus the term was applied to all sorts of entities and 





