mooney] DISSEMINATION OF THE DOCTRINE Ii75 



matter from an ethnologic point of view. Our information is derived 

 chiefly from military officers, who knew these things only as vague 

 rumors of Indian unrest fomented by British agents; from the state- 

 ments of a few illiterate interpreters or captives among the savages, 

 and from the misty recollections of old men long after the excitement 

 had passed away. Of the dances which are a part of every important 

 Indian ceremony, the songs which they chanted, the peculiar dress or 

 adornments which probably distinguished the believers — of all these 

 we know nothing; but we may well surmise that the whole elaborate 

 system of Indian mythology and ceremonial was brought into play to 

 give weight to the words of the prophet, and enough is known to show 

 that in its leading features the movement closely resembled the modern 

 Ghost dance. 



It is impossible to know how far the prophet was responsible lor the 

 final shaping of the doctrine. Like all such movements, it undoubtedly 

 gr&H and took more definite form under the hands of the apostles who 

 went out from the presence of its originator to preach to the various 

 tribes. A religion which found adherents alike in the everglades of 

 Florida and on the plains of the Saskatchewan must necessarily have 

 undergone local modifications. From a comparison of the various 

 accounts we can arrive at a general statement of the belief. 



The prophet was held to be an incarnation of Manabozho, the great 

 "first doer" of the Algonquian system. His words were believed to be 

 the direct utterances of a deity. Manabozho had taught his people 

 certain modes of living best suited to their condition and capacity. A 

 new race had come upon them, and the Indians had thrown aside their 

 primitive purity of life and adopted the innovations of the whites, which 

 had now brought them to degradation and misery and threatened them 

 with swift and entire destruction. To punish them for their disobe- 

 dience and bring them to a sense of their duty. Manabozho had called 

 the game from the forests and shut it up under the earth, so that the 

 tribes were now on the verge, of starvation and obliged to eat the flesh 

 of filthy hogs. They had also lost their old love for one another and 

 become addicted to the secret practices of the poisoner and the wizard, 

 together with the abominable ceremonies of the calumet dance. They 

 must now put aside all these things, throw away the weapons and the 

 dress of the white man, pluck out their hair as in ancient times, wear 

 the eagle feather on their heads, and clothe themselves again with the 

 breechcloth and the skins of animals slain with the bows and arrows 

 which Manabozho had given them. (Kendall, 1.) They must have done 

 with the white man's flint-and-steel, and cook their food over a fire 

 made by rubbing together two sticks, and this fire must always be kept 

 burning in their lodges, as it was a symbol of the eternal life, and their 

 care for it was an evidence of their heed to the divine commands. The 

 firewater must forever be put away, together with the medicine bags 

 and poisons and the wicked juggleries which had corrupted the ancient 



