XLIV REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



system of Ijeliefs, but also the commouly elaborate system of 

 rites and ceremonials directly connected with and clustering 

 about that belief; for, to the primitive mind, all systems of phi- 

 losophy find a tangible basis in the material objects of every- 

 day observation, and these objects thus come to play a more 

 important role in the system than is the case in civilization; 

 primitive religion involves a philosophy in which mystical 

 meanings are ascribed to common things, and thereby the phil- 

 osophic importance of the things is magnitied. Thus the prim- 

 itive cult is real and concrete, rather than ideal and abstract, 

 and impinges not only on rules of conduct but on the nmlti- 

 plicity of objects and experiences pertaining to daily life. This 

 materialism of the primitive cult is an essential feature in the 

 life of our aborigines, and is constantly to be borne in mind 

 in dealing with their myths. 



The term Siouan has never been used in any form of liter- 

 ation or pronunciation by the tribes to which it is now applied. 

 It was adopted by reason of considerations explained in the 

 Seventli Annual Report of this Bureau. The Siouan stock or 

 family was one of the most extensive of the continent; tribes 

 belonging to it spread over a large area in the interior, stretch- 

 ing from the Rocky mountains to the Mississippi and even to 

 Lake Michigan, and nearly from the Saskatchewan to the Red 

 River of the South. The Siouan peoples were, par excellence, 

 the Indians of the northern plains, whose early habits and 

 habitat were made known by many writers. 



The treatise presented herewith relates to the religious 

 beliefs of the several divisions of the great Siouan family, and 

 to the rites and ceremonies connected with these beliefs. 

 These have a setting in the form of such descrijjtions of civic 

 and other institutions, habits, customs, language, and pictog- 

 raphy, designed partly to elucidate the relations of tlie cults 

 more fully than is possible by abstract statement; and it is 

 believed that the setting will be found not Avithout ixse in 

 shadowing forth the environment under whicli the cults were' 

 developed. 



Wliile certain of the materials were obtained from other 

 authorities, as duly indicated in each case, the greater i)art 



