66G THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [eth.ann. H 



manuscript was a Frenchman, it is more probable that we have here 

 set forth only the well-known preference of the wild tribes. The 

 occupancy of a region by the English always meant the speedy expul- 

 sion of the natives. The French, on the contrary, lived side by side 

 with the red men, joining in their dances and simple amusements, and 

 entering with fullest sympathy into their wild life, so that they were 

 regarded rather as brethren of an allied tribe than as intruders of an 

 alien race. This feeling is well indicated in the prophet's narrative, 

 where the Indians, while urged to discard everything that they have 

 adopted from the whites, are yet to allow the French to remain among 

 them, though exhorted to relentless war on the English. The differ- 

 ence received tragic exemplification at Michilimackinac a year later, 

 when a handful of French traders looked on unarmed and unhurt 

 while a crew of maddened savages were butchering, scalping, and 

 drinking the blood of British soldiers. The introduction of the trivial 

 incident of the hat is characteristically Indian, and the confounding 

 of dreams and visious with actual happenings is a frequent result of 

 mental exaltation of common occurrence in the history of religious 

 enthusiasts. The Delaware prophet regards the whole experience as 

 an actual fact instead of a distempered vision induced by long fasts 

 and vigils, and the hieroglyphic prayer — undoubtedly graven by him- 

 self while under the ecstasy — is to him a real gift from heaven. The 

 whole story is a striking parallel of the miraculous experiences 

 recounted by the modern apostles of the Ghost dance. The prayer-stick 

 also and the heavenly map, later described and illustrated, reappear in 

 the account of Kiinakuk, the Kickapoo prophet, seventy years after- 

 ward, showing in a striking manner the continuity of aboriginal ideas 

 and methods. 



The celebrated missionary, Heckewelder, who spent fifty years 

 among the Delawares, was personally acquainted with tins prophet 

 and gives a detailed account of his teachings and of his symbolic 

 parchments. lie says: 



In the year 1762 there was a ramous preacher of the Delaware nation, who resided 

 at Cayahaga, near Lake Erie, and travelled about the country, among the Indians, 

 endeavouring to persuade them that he. had been appointed by the Great Spirit to 

 instruct them in those things that were agreeable to him, and point out to them the 

 offences by which I hey hail drawn his displeasure on themselves, and the means by 

 which they might recover his favour for the future. He had drawn, as he pretended, 

 by the direction of the (treat Spirit, a kind of map on a piece of deerskin, some- 

 whal dressed like parchment, which he called "the great Book or Writing." This, 

 he said, he had been ordered to shew to the Indians, that they might see the 

 situation in which the Mannitto had originally placed them, the misery which they 

 had brought upon themselves by neglecting their duty, and the only way that was 

 now left them to regain what they had lost. This map he held before him while 

 preaching, frequently pointing to particular marks ami spots upon it. and giving 

 explanations as In- went along. 



The size of this map was about fifteen inches square, or, perhaps, something more. 

 An inside square was formed by lines drawn within it, of about eight inches each 

 way ; two of these lines, however, were not closed by about half an inch at the corners. 



