XLVI REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



at the othei' extreme of development. Accordingly different 

 ethnologist.s have perceived the incongruity between the 

 hecastotheistic concepts of the Indian and the monotheistic 

 concept popularly ascribed to him through a curious series of 

 misapprehensions ; and some, notably Col. Garrit-k j\Iallery, 

 have denied the possibility of the existence of true mono- 

 theistic beliefs among the primitive peoples of this and other 

 countries. This conclusion runs counter to the prevailing 

 notion that the Indian recognizes a Great Spirit as a single 

 omnipotent power, a notion crystallized in the literature of 

 three centuries. The error involved in this notion with 

 respect to the American Indian is not without parallel else- 

 where ; indeed, similar errors have been made in the [)ioneer 

 study of primitive peo])les in nearly all parts of the world. 

 Commonly the misapprehension may be traced to two causes : 

 In the first place, the savage or barbarous belief, and the cere- 

 monial in which the belief finds both root and frait, are largely 

 esoteric, or taboo to all but initiates, so that they are concealed 

 with religious care from strangers ; and, in the second place, 

 the friendly savage or barbarian, stimulated by the desire to 

 conceal his most sacred things, and often aided by mimetic 

 faculty, seeks to ingratiate himself in the favor of the incpiirer 

 by making his answers conform to the unconsciously expressed 

 feelings and desires of his interlocutor. For these, and per- 

 haps other reasons, the pioneer student of primitive peoples, 

 not realizing the working of the primitive mind and tram- 

 meled by the diversity of tongues, freqiiently deludes himself 

 with the notion that he has discovered a primitive belief simi- 

 lar to that of civilized man, when in reality he has discovered 

 nothing but a reflection of the highly developed religion that 

 warms his own heart and vivifies his own being; and it 

 remains for later students, familiar with the language and 

 perhaps admitted to the esoteric ceremonials, to set forth the 

 actual character of the religious concepts held by the primi- 

 tive men. 



^Ir. Dorsey's conclusion with respect to the alleged belief 

 in the Great Spirit is of special significance in that it is con- 

 trary to his predilections and in that it extends to many tribes 



