RELIGIOUS NOTIONS. 937 
Spirit, a Master of Life, who rules the desti- 
nies of the world. Though the different na- 
tions have not always typified their deity by 
the same objects, yet by far the greater num- 
ber seem to have fixed upon the sun as the 
fit object of their adoration. “ Next to Vira- 
chocha, or their supreme God,” says Father 
Acosta, speaking of the Indians of Peru, 
“that which most commonly they have and 
do adore amongst the Infidells is the Sunne.” 
Many of the Mexican tribes* professed the 
same faith, and particularly those of New 
Mexico, as has already been mentioned. 
This seems also the most current among the 
Comanches and other wild tribes of the Prai- 
ries: and the Choctaws and several other 
nations of the frontier appear at least to have 
held the sun in great veneration. 
But of all the Indian tribes, none appear to 
have ascribed to the ‘fountain of light? more 
of the proper attributes of deity than the 
Shawnees. They argue, with some plausi- 
bility, that the sun animates everything— 
therefore, he is clearly the Master of Life, or 
the Great Spirit; and that —— is pro- 
duced originally from the bosom of the eart 
—therefore, she is the mother of creation. 
The following anecdotet (as told to me by a 
gentleman of integrity), which transpired upon 
* Clavigero asserts of the Indians of Mexico, that their first hea- 
ven (that of the warriors, &c.) they called «la casa del sol” (the 
house of tet — which luminary they worshipped every morn- 
at su 
nef Lbs [ iT have pe met with the same,in substance, related by Mr. 
