305 
although less powerful than the Great Spirit, is occasionally 
employed to do his services. The Hvil Spirit of the Newettee 
Indians has hoofs and horns, while the Nez Percés and F'lat-. 
heads also believe in a similar being.* 
In Washington Territory the belief in these spirits is just 
as plain as that we see a medicine man perform his incanta- 
tions, for the reason of it is that they believe an Evil Spirit in 
the form of some treacherous animal has been sent into the 
heart of the sick person, and it is the business of the good 
Indian doctor to remove it. So, too, they generally tear down 
or leave the houses in which a person has died, for the Evil 
Spirit which killed the deceased is still supposed to remain 
there, ready to attack others, especially children. 
The sum and substance of the Dakota religion is demon 
worship. ‘These demons are ever ready to pounce on the 
unwary ; spirits of darkness, spirits of light, spirits of earth, 
air, fire, and water surround the Indian on every side, with 
but one object in view, the misery and destruction of the 
human race.t 
According to the Iroquois, there was a Good and a Bad 
Mind who fought with each other for two days, when the 
Good Mind conquered, and drove the Hyil Mind to the world 
of despair and darkness.f 
In New England, the people stood in greater fear of the 
devil than they did of the Supreme Being, and worshipped 
him from a principle of fear.§ 
In the preceding section on Good Spirits, reference is also 
made to a belief in Hvil Spirits among the Brazilian tribes, the 
Indians of the northern part of South America, West Vir- 
ginia, and Canada, the Caribs, Algonquins, and Hskimo. 
Yet, on the other hand, Long, in 1819-20, says of the 
Omahas that they have no idea of a devil.|| Whether more 
recent investigations have confirmed or contradicted this, I do 
not know. 
Dr. Brinton has, indeed, said that an American Indian has 
no idea of a devil. If by this he means such a one as Milton 
describes, it is so; but they certainly do have one or many, 
only as much less than ours as an Indian’s imagination is less 
than that of Milton. 
* Dunn, On Oregon Territory, pp. 90, 173, 213. 
t Gospel Among the Dakotas, pp. 93, 94. 
t Schoolcraft’s Notes on the Iroquois. 
§ Hayward’s Book of All Religions, p. 212. 
|| Long’s Hapedition, vol. i. 
| Contributions to N, A. Ethnology, vol. 1, p. 414. 
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