180 THE SIOUAN INDIANS [eth. ann. 13 



are rejjardeil in fear or awe by reason of their strength and ferocity, 

 and this regard grows into an incipient worship in the form of sacrifice 

 or other cereuKiniid ; meanwhile, inanimate things, and m due season 

 rare and uninipdrtant animals, are neglected, and a half dozen, a dozen, 

 or a score of the well-known animals are exalted into a hierarchy of 

 petty gods, headed l)y the strongest like the bear, the swiftest like the 

 deei', the most majestic, like the eagle, the most canning like the fox 

 or coyote, or the most deadly like the rattlesnake. Commonly the 

 arts and the skill of the mystical huntsman im])rove from youth to 

 adolescence and from generation to generation, so that the later ani- 

 mals appear to be easier snared or slain tlian tlie earlier; moreoxer, the 

 accounts of conflicts between men and animals grow by repetition 

 and are gilded by imagination as memory grows dim; and for these 

 and other reasons the notion grows u]) that the ancient animals were 

 stronger, swifter, slier, statelier, deadlier than their modern representa- 

 tives, and the hierarchy of petty gods is exalted into an omnipotent 

 thearchy. Eventually, in the most highly develoi)ed zootheistic sys- 

 tems, the leading beast-god is regarded as the cr< ator of the lesser 

 deities of the earth, sun, and sky, of the mythic under-world and its 

 real counterpart the ground or mid-world, as well as the visionary 

 upper-world, of men, and of the ignoble animals; sometimes the most ex- 

 alted beast-god is worshiped especially by the great man or leading class 

 and incidentally by all, while other men and groui)s choose the lesser 

 beast-gods, according to their rank, for special worshi]). In liecasto- 

 theism the potencies revered or worshiped are polymorphic, while their 

 attributes reflect the mental operations of the believers; in zootheism 

 the deities worshiped are zoomorpliic, and their attributes continue to 

 reflect the human mind. 



Physitheism, in its turn, springs from zootheism. Through contem- 

 I)lation of the strong the idea of strength arises, and a means is found 

 for bringing the bear into analogy with thunder, with the sun, or with 

 the avalanche-bearing mountain ; through contemjjlation of the swift the 

 concept of swiftness is engendered, and comparison of the deer with 

 the wind or rushing river is made easy; through contem]>lation of the 

 deadly stroke of the rattlesnake the notion of death-dealing j)ower 

 assumes shape, and comparison of the snake bite and the lightning 

 stroke is made possible; and in every case it is inevitably perceived 

 that the agency is stronger, swifter, deadlier than the animal. At 

 first the agency is not abstracted or dissociated from the parent 

 zootheistic concei)t, and the sun is the mightiest animal as among many 

 peoi)les, the thunder is the voice of the bear as among difl'erent wood- 

 land tribes or the flapping of the wings of the great ancient eagle as 

 among the Dakota and (^'egiha, while lightning is the great serpent of 

 the sky as among the Zuni. Subsequently the zoic concept fades, and 

 the constant association of human intellectual qualities engenders an 

 anthropic concept, when the sun bec^omes an anthroi)omorphic deity 

 (perhaps bearing a dazzling mask, as among the Zuiii), and thunder is 



