CHIEF DEITIES IN AMERICAN RELIGION. 359 



ter. In the question touching the identity of peoples who have lived in the dif- 

 ferent ages, more than the evidence of archseology was required. What the peo- 

 ples were is shown by that which remains of them, the skeleton, jaws, and bones. 

 The Peruvian skull is distinct from the skull of the North American Indian, and 

 it seemed incredible that the two races represented should have been zoologically 

 the same. 



CHIEF DEITIES IN AMERICAN RELIGION. 



The first paper was read by Mr. A, S. Gatschet, the subject being the '* Chief 

 Deities in American Religion." He said, "The religions of all tribes discovered 

 in North and South America belong to the category of spirit worship mixed with 

 some lower or higher degree of anthropomorphism. Their deities are clearly 

 nature gods, their worship is not a cult intended for merely improving the wor- 

 shiper, but is propitiation, and propitiation is only another form of human 

 egotism. The majority of these gods are austere, cruel and remorseless for their 

 present objects and powers of nature, and like these they show no moral or sen- 

 timental aspects like monotheistic deities. At the time of their discovery, and a 

 long time after it, many American tribes, although possessed of religion, seem to 

 have had no priest,' no ceremonial rites, no religious festivals, sacrifices or tem- 

 ples, and this induced some travelers who were unable to communicate in their 

 own language and had not remained long enough to study their customs and 

 ideas with becoming thoroughness to deny the existence of any sort of religion 

 among them. Had they enquired for these burial customs they would at once 

 have detected a belief in a future life, and such a belief is inseparable from 

 religious ideas. A close examination of the initiation rights would have reveal- 

 ed the fact that most of these customs are of a religious character, the term re- 

 ligious to be understood, of course, in a more comprehensive sense than the one 

 the Christian attaches to it. 



The best term to depict the real essence or quality of American religion is 

 not that of polytheism, but the one of polydaimonism, which means the worship of 

 many spirits. In the motley crowd of ancient and new gods in American relig- 

 ions, a few only rise to general prominence, and among these few one is con- 

 sidered as the principal deity. The chief god is not always the most popular 

 deity among men, but he is regarded as the most powerful among the gods, many 

 of whom are found to be antagonistic to his rule. Chief deities represent a com- 

 bination of several powers of nature united into one body. In the mythic stories 

 of the people, this chief god is sometimes the most frequently spoken of; at other 

 times he is placed in the background by one or two more brilliant, and therefore 

 more popular creations of the aboriginal mind, and if his obnoxious or terrific 

 qualities make him less attractive to man, his irresistible power will leave him the 

 object of intense dread," The paper proceeded to investigate the chief duties of 



