LX REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY 



shadowy images; habitual indulgence in visionary revery, 

 coupled with occasional, vision-producing fasts — in short, habit- 

 ual warping of imagination and weakening of judgment in a 

 variety of ways tended to produce liability to mental infection 

 of the kind displayed in connection with the ghost dance. 

 This memorable fantasy is a striking illustration of one of the 

 dangers attending mental development under primitive condi- 

 tions, and its testimony is in harmony with innumerable less 

 striking examples. 



One of Mr Mooney's chapters is devoted to other fantasies 

 and more definite religious movements of historical note. His 

 aim in preparing this chapter was to place before students the 

 data for detailed comparison; and so far as practicable the 

 original accounts are given verbatim, without comment. It 

 may be observed that caution should be exercised in comparing 

 or contrasting religious movements among civilized peoples 

 with such fantasies as that described in the memoir; for while 

 interesting and suggestive analogies may be found, the essential 

 features of the movements are not homologous. Most of the 

 primitive peoples of the earth, including the greater part' of 

 the American Indians, represent the prescriptorial stage of cul- 

 ture (some of the characteristics of which were set forth in the 

 last report), while white men represent the scriptorial stage. 

 Now, the passage from the earlier of these stages to the later, 

 albeit partially accomplished among different peoples, proba- 

 bly marks the most important transition in the development 

 of human culture or the history of the race; so that in mode 

 of thought and in coordination between thought and action, red 

 men and white men are separated by a chasm so broad and 

 deep that few representatives of either race are ever able clearly 

 to see its further side Again, there are several stages in 

 the development of religious belief which have been set forth 

 elsewhere; the earliest of these is hecastotheism, in which 

 ] lowers are imputed to animals, vegetals, and minerals; the 

 second is physitheism, in which the natural forces and agen- 

 cies are deified, and the third is psyehotheisni, in which the 

 spiritual concept is for the first time formulated; and the primi- 

 tive peoples of the earth, including the American Indians, are 



