uooney] THE DOCTRINE OF THE DANCE 785 



end of this time I was sent back to try to teach them. My father told me the 

 earth was getting old and worn out and the people getting bad, and that I was to 

 renew everything as it used to be and make it better. 



lie also told us that all our dead were to be resurrected; that they were all to 

 come back to earth, and that, as the earth was too small for them and us, he would 

 do away with heaven and make the earth itself large enough to contain us all; that 

 we must tell all the people we met about these things. He spoke to us about light- 

 ing, and said that was bad and we must keep from it; that the earth was to be all 

 good hereafter, and we must all be friends with one. another. He said that ill the 

 fall of the year the youth of all good people would be renewed, so that nobody 

 would be more than forty years old, and that if they behaved themselves well after 

 this the youth of everyone would be renewed in the spring. He said if we were all 

 good he would send people among us who could heal all our wounds and sickness 

 by mere touch and that we would live forever. He told us not to quarrel or light 

 or strike each other, or shoot one another; that the whites and Indians were to be 

 all one people. He said if any man disobeyed what he ordered his tribe would be 

 wiped from the face of the earth; that we must believe everything he said, and 

 we must not doubt him or say he lied; that if we did, he would know it; that he 

 would know our thoughts and actions in no matter what part of the world we 

 might be. (&. D., 5.) 



Here we have the statement that both races are to live together as 

 one. We have also the doctrine of healing by touch. Whether or 

 not this is an essential part of the system is questionable, but it is cer- 

 taiu that the faithful believe that great physical good comes to tliem, 

 t<> their children, and to the sick from the imposition of hands by the 

 priests of the dance, apart from the ability thus conferred to see the 

 things of the spiritual world. 



Another idea here presented, namely, that the earth becomes old and 

 decrepit, and requires that its youth be renewed at the end of certain 

 great cycles, is common to a number of tribes, and has an important 

 place in the oldest religious of the world. As an Arapaho who spoke 

 English expressed it, " This earth too old, grass too old, trees too old, 

 our lives too old. Then all be new again." Captain H. L. Scott also 

 found among the southern plains tribes the same belief that the rivers, 

 the mountains, and the earth itself are worn out and must be renewed, 

 together with an indefinite idea that both races alike must die at the 

 same time, to be resurrected in new but separate worlds. 



The Washo, Pit River, Bannock, and other tribes adjoining the 

 Paiute on the north and west hold the. doctrine substantially as taught 

 by the messiah himself. We have but little light in regard to the 

 belief as held by the Walapai, Cohonino, Mohave, and Xavaho to the 

 southward, beyond the general fact that the resurrection and return of 

 the dead formed the principal tenet. As these tribes received their 

 knowledge of the new religion directly from Paiute apostles, it is quite 

 probable that they made but few changes in or additions to the original 

 gospel. 



A witness of the dance among the Walapai in 1801 obtained from tin- 

 leaders of the ceremony about the same statement of doctrine already 

 mentioned as held by the Paiute, from whom also the Walapai had 

 adopted many of the songs and ceremonial words used in connection 



