P aoT>. 



THE PRIMITIVE IDEA OF GOD. 265 



bearing of the person. It was pictured on his shield 

 and other weapons ; it was tattooed on his body ; it 

 became his designation; to it he made vows in cir- 

 cumstances of doubt and difficulty,, and offered sac- 

 rifices of such things as he valued. (Fig. 37.) It 

 is scarcely necessary to add that the idea of certain 

 animals and plants being sacred to or emblematic of 

 particular gods is not confined to America. It exists 

 and has existed alike among the most rude and refined 

 of the nations of the Old World. / OF THB 



^ #- 



Fig. 37. TOTEMS OF CHIEFS OF THE PENOBSCOT INDIANS, appended to a treaty 

 made with the English at Caeco Bay, 1727. (From ihe Archives of Nova Scotia.) 



This subordinate worship of the manitous necessarily 

 formed a large part of the practical religion of the in- 

 dividual, and obscured the perception of the Supreme 

 God. Its resemblance to the beliefs in seraphim, 

 genii, and guardian spirits, saints and angels, must 

 occur to every one, and need not be followed in detail. 

 Nor need we doubt that the same faith existed among 

 the primitive men whose bones are found in the caves 

 of Europe. The fishes, reindeer, and mammoths 



