hoffman] MACCAULEY ON THE DREAMERS 161 



These things are not necessary, I know, and by and by we may drop them. We do 

 not take the young men from their work. We dance the dance only six times in the 

 year. You ask me who we are. I will tell you the truth. Not many years ago, in 

 the West, when some Indians were at war, while they were fighting, a woman fled 

 from them to save her life. As she ran she lost her way and fell into the water of a 

 river. But she did not die. She lay in the water asleep many days — eight days and 

 nights. All this time she dreamed and saw wonderful sights of beauty and peace. 

 At the end of eight days she heard a voice calling to her to rise up; then some power 

 lifted her out of the water and made her well and strong. She knew that the Great 

 Spirit had brought her back to the world. And this the Great Spirit told her: 'Go 

 at once to your people and tell them to stop their war and to become friends with 

 one another and with the white man. They will hear you and will believe you, and 

 you and they must spread my words among all Indians. Do you see the sky, how it 

 is round?' continued the divine voice. 'Go, then, and tell your people to makr a 

 circle on the ground just like the round sky. Call that holy ground. Go there, and 

 with a big drum in the center, sing and dance and pray to me, and speak my words. 

 And when you speak, say always these things : " You are all children of one Father, 

 and are brothers. You must live in peace with one another. You must not drink 

 intoxicating drink. You must always speak the truth. If you are struck, you must 

 count the blow as nothing aud not strike back again." Do these things and all 

 Indians and white men will soon be prosperous and at peace and happy. You will 

 all have one heart.' Now, that is what our dance is for. We teach these words of the 

 Great Spirit. You saw a sick girl carried into our holy place. She was carried there 

 that there we might pray to the Great Spirit to make her well. We have no medi- 

 cine dance. We hope with our dance to break up by and by the old medicine dance, 

 and all such things. So we teach. You saw the flag above us. That is to show that 

 we are friends of the Great Father. You saw some men dancing and acting as though 

 they were firing off guns, hunting, and running hard. They show that some of us 

 helped the Great Father in the big war, and are ready to help him again. . . . 

 We lifted our hands to the sky ; that was for prayer. We held out our hands, palms 

 upward; that was to receive the answers to our prayers. We scattered from our 

 hands to the ground; that was to show that we give what we receive. You saw us 

 all give presents to one another; that was to show that we are brothers, and that 

 brothers must help brothers. . . . But that ground is holy while we are there 

 with the Great Spirit, and the dog is not clean. He may not live if he comes onto 

 the ground. We have three watchmen to keep all away, but sometimes they will 

 get in, and then there is no help for them. If our friend could only have understood 

 our speeches he would know that we are trying to do well. We do not take the 

 young men from their work. We try to help them to work better. If I had a flag 

 of my own I should want to have painted on it a picture of a plow and over that 

 my totem, the eagle. This flag I should like to see always waving over our dance. 

 I want all my children to go to school to learn just what white men know. . . 

 We are doing the best we can. I am sorry that there are some here who wish to do 

 us harm and would make trouble for us if they could.'' 



. . . My general conclusion, however, is that the Dreamers, if the Menomiui 

 branch of the league may be accepted as representative, are religious enthusiasts, 

 somewhat fanatic in their enthusiasm, devoted to a strange admixture of pagan 

 ritual, monolatory, or degenerate Christian theology aud Christian ethics. 



MYTHOLOGY 



FORMER CONDITION OF THE MYTHS 



The following inyths were obtained from Shu'nien and Nw'pet, two of 

 the better informed men of the tribe. The subjects pertain to the 

 exploits and adventures of Ma'nabush, but do not come within the 

 14 eth 11 



