ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT LIX 



nology, Mr James Mooney, was already engaged in researches 

 concerning some of the tribes affected by the fantasy, and he 

 was commissioned to make detailed inquiries concerning its 

 rise, spread, and decadence. The accompanying memoir com- 

 prises the results of these inquiries. 



Perhaps the most striking feature of the ghost religion is the 

 rapidity with which it extended from tribe to tribe and from 

 stock to stock over an area including nearly one-third of the 

 United States; and this feature appears the more striking 

 when it is considered that the cult was propagated through 

 personal contact among representatives of a primitive race 

 traveling in primitive ways and little more rapidly than they 

 might have traveled before the advent of white men. Another 

 striking feature of the cult was its potent influence on character 

 and conduct of its devotees; individuals were seized with 

 ecstasy so complete as to suspend normal mental processes and 

 dominate bodily functions for hours and days; docile and con- 

 tented Indians became morose, suspicious, bloodthirsty; peace- 

 ful tribes plunged into conspiracy and open rebellion against 

 the guardian nation — indeed the influence of partially acquired 

 culture, of partially recognized and habitually obeyed law, of 

 hereditary association with the superior race was swept away 

 and temporarily forgotten, and thousands of tribesmen reverted 

 to a primitive condition save that it was made worse and lower 

 by reason of the increased capacity of its victims. The record 

 of this curious evanescent cult, which seems rather a travesty 

 on religion than an expression of the most exalted concepts 

 within human grasp, is a dark chapter in the history of the 

 aborigines. 



The rapid spread and potent influence of the ghost cult 

 indicate a remarkable receptivity on the part of the Indians 

 who became its devotees; the reason for this receptivity is to 

 be found in the peculiar mode of thought characteristic of the 

 Indian mind, as already set forth. Habitual appeal to the 

 unknown for the explanation of simple facts ; habitual assump- 

 tion of ill-defined mysterious doubles of all real things; habit- 

 ual materialization of natural forces in strained imagination: 

 habitual peopling of the air, the earth, and the waters with 



