ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT LIII 



by saying that he painted his face and body with bands of 

 black and white in response to an injunction received in a vision, 

 is a typical Indian hypothesis, and the hypothesis that the head 

 of the catfish was flattened by the trampling of a mythical 

 moose is also typical. It is by the invention of such hypoth- 

 eses, by perpetuating them in tradition and arranging them in 

 myths, that primitive philosophy is developed. 



One of the consequences of primitive reasoning is abnormal 

 credulity; for where there is no experiential test of probability 

 the improbable is accepted no less readily than the probable. 

 This weakness in primitive mental operation gives origin to 

 sorcery ; for ever is credulity the soil whence deception springs 

 and feeds. There is a certain symmetry in the crude philoso- 

 phy of the Menomini Indians. By reason of limited experience 

 their hypotheses appeal to the unknown; through habitual 

 appeal to the unknown they have organized a system of mys- 

 teries which is in a measure a counterpart of the actual objects, 

 forces, and sequences of the real world. By reason of the 

 absence of tests for truth, in conjunction with the habit of 

 appealing to the unknown they are credulous as children, and 

 by reason of their credulity, in conjunction with their mystical 

 philosophy, they have come to be ridden by sorcery and priest- 

 craft. Thus the dominant intellectual characteristics of the 

 people are due to the interaction and cumulative development 

 of certain intellectual tendencies which are measurably com- 

 mon to all primitive peoples. 



On considering the sorcery and related customs of the 

 Indians, it is not to be supposed that the tribes consist of 

 dupes and knaves, or that there is any wide- intellectual and 

 moral difference between the active sorcerers and their passive 

 coadjutors; nor is it to be supposed that any considerable part 

 of the thaumaturgic ceremonial represents intentional or even 

 self-conscious deception. It should be remembered that the 

 whole intellectual fabric of the primitive thinker is affected by 

 his habitual modes of thought, that the real and the unreal 

 are constantly and invariably confused, and that mystical 

 influences are believed to dominate every action of self and 

 others, particularly in the ceremonial where such influences 



