EELS 301 
According to the personal knowledge of the writer, the 
Clallam, Twana, Chemakum, Skokomish, Skagit, Chehalis, 
Puyallup, Makah, Nisqually, Spokane, and Cayuse Indians 
make this the practical part of their religion. When a boy 
has grown to be a young man, he goes off to the woods by 
himself, and remains there from ten to fourteen days without 
eating, but often bathing himself, when his guardian spirit 
reveals itself to him in some animal; not that the animal is a 
spirit, but his guardian spirit dwells in the animal. 
Mr. Swan gives a similar description of this practice among 
the Makahs.* The Nass Indians around Fort Simpson, 
British Columbia, carry the images of their gods in a box, 
which is sacred and hardly ever seen by the common people.t+ 
The Innuits of Alaska have a similar belief,t and the Eskimos, 
while they are said to have no belief in a Supreme Deity, yet 
have an indefinite number of supernatural beings of various 
names, as do also the 'Tinnehs.§ 
The Dakotas have their Armour God as the deity of each 
young man, the Spirit of the Medicine Sack for those who 
belong to the secret order of the Medicine Dance, and house- 
hold gods in the form of small images. || 
In Canada, the Indians hold to an infinite number of Spirits, 
both good and evil; the Knistenaux, around Hudson’s Bay, 
have private feasts, when various articles are brought out in 
the medicine-bag, the principal of which is a household god, 
a curiously-carved image about eight inches long ;** and Rev. 
S. D. Peet, the editor of the American Antiquarian, is well 
satisfied, from the idols discovered, that the Mound Builders 
had their tutelar divinities.++ 
Thus we see that this belief is widespread, if not universal. 
(c) Evil Spirits —The belief in an Kvil Spir it of great power, 
and also in a large number of imps of less power, is also very 
common. 
The natives of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego believe in 
a multiplicity of evil spirits as well as good ones;{f{ those of 
Guiana thought the Great Spirit too high to notice them, and 
hence had the most abject fear of the evil principle, and 
sought to propitiate the devil, and evil spirits called the 
* Makah Indians, p. 61. + Dunn, On Oregon Territory, p. 188. 
i + Ds all’s Alaska, p. 145. § Baneroft’s Native Races of the Pacific. 
i Gospel Among the Dakotas, pp. 69, 70. 
“| Hayward’s Book of All Religions. 
** Dunn, On Oregon Territory, p: 72. 
i American Antiquarian, vol. iii. p. 101. 
t Bradford’s American Antiquities. 
TOR: XIX. . Z 
