CHAPTER X. 



PRIMITIVE IDEAS OP RELIGION : THE INSTINCT OP 

 IMMORTALITY. 



As we prefaced the discussion of the Idea of God with 

 an extract from Cartier, giving the creed of the an- 

 cient Stadaconians, we may in like manner introduce 

 that of the doctrine of a future state with an extract 

 from Carver, who visited the tribes of the great plains 

 at the head of the Missouri in 1766 to 1768. He thus 

 states the creed of one of the tribes of Dakotas or 

 Sioux, a people then altogether unacquainted with any 

 foreign religion. " They acknowledge one Supreme 

 Being or giver of life, who presides over all things. 

 The Chippewas call this being Manitou or Kitchi 

 Manitai ; the Nundowessies Wakon or Tongo-wakon,* 

 that is, the Great Spirit ; and they look upon him as 

 the source of good, from whom no evil can proceed. 

 They also believe in a bad spirit, to whom they ascribe 

 great power, and suppose that through his means all 

 the evils which befall mankind are inflicted. They 

 hold also that there are good spirits of a lesser degree, 

 who have their particular departments, in which they 

 are constantly contributing to the happiness of mortals. 



* Wakon or Augha is the same with the Canadian Oki or 

 Agni ; and the prefix Tongo may be compared with Mongolian 

 Tong and Tang, and Chinese Tien, the name of the Sky-God. 



