930 THE GHOST-DAN'CE RELIGION [etii.ann. u 



come unto thee in a thiek cloud." and thereafter whenever Moses went 

 up the mountain or entered into the tabernacle to receive revelations 

 "the Lord descended upon it in a cloudy pillar." Job also tells us that 

 "thick clouds are a covering to him," and Isaiah says thai lie "rideth 

 upon a swift cloud," which reminds us of the Ghost song of the Arapaho 

 representing the Indian redeemer as coining upon the whirlwind. Moses 

 goes up into a mountain to receive, inspiration likeWovoka of the L'aiute 

 and Bi'afik'i of the Kiowa. As Wovoka claims to bring rain or snow at 

 will, so Elijah declares that " there shall not be dew nor rain these years, 

 but according to my word," while of the Jewish Messiah himself his 

 wondering disciples say that even the winds and the sea obey him. 



Fasting and solitary contemplation in lonely places were as powerful 

 auxiliaries to the trance condition in Bible days as now among the 

 tribes of the. plains. When Daniel hail his great vision by the river 

 Iliddekel, he tells us that he had been mourning for three full weeks, 

 during which time he -'ate uo pleasant bread, neither came flesh inn- 

 wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all." When the vision 

 comes, all the strength and breath leave his body and he falls down, 

 and '-then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the 

 ground." Six hundred years later. Christ is "led by the spirit into the 

 wilderness, being forty days tempted by the devil, and in those days he 

 did eat nothing." Another instance occurs at his baptism, when, as he 

 was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens opened and the spirit 

 like a dove, and heard a voice, and immediately was driven by the 

 spirit into the wilderness. In the transfiguration on the mountain, 

 when '-his face did shine as the sun," and in the agony of Gethsemane, 

 with its mental anguish and bloody sweat, we see the same phenomena 

 that appear in the lives of religious enthusiasts from Mohammed and 

 Joan of Arc down to George Fox and the prophets of the Ghost dance. 



Dancing, which forms so important a part of primitive rituals, had a 

 place among the forms of the ancient Hebrew and of their neighbors, 

 although there are but few direct references to it in the Bible. The 

 best example occurs in the account of the transfer of the ark to Zion, 

 where there were processions and sacrifices, and King David himself 

 "danced before the Lord with all his might." 



MOHAMMEDANISM 



Six hundred years after the birth of Christianity another great reli 

 gion. which numbers its adherents by the hundred million, had its ori- 

 gin in the same region and among a kindred Semitic race. Its prophet 

 and high priest was the cataleptic Mohammed, who was born about 

 the year 570 and died in 642. In infancy and all through life he was 

 afflicted with epileptic attacks and fainting fits, during which he would 

 lose all appearance of life without always losing inner consciousness. 

 It was while in this condition that he received the visions and revela- 

 tions on which he built his religious system. Frequently at such 

 ti - it was necessary to wrap him up to preserve life in his body, and 



