360 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



South, Gentral and North America, of which we have any knowledge that is 

 more than superficial. Among them may be mentioned the Botchika of the 

 Muisca people, U. S. ©f Columbia, the Viracocha or " water-foam " and the Inti 

 of the Peruvians, the Tezcatlipoca or the " shining mirror" of the Aztecs of Mex 

 ico, the Amotkan of the Selish, of Washington Territory and British Columbia, 

 the Manibozko among the Ojibbeways. These gods were all found to be solar 

 gods, while other deities of the same nations appearing in their mythology as 

 rivals to the sun-gods or lunar-gods, the most conspicuous of them being Quetzal- 

 coatl of the Aztecs. In looking over the large number of native American sun 

 myths, investigators are induced to prove the opinion of the Jesuit Father Lafitau, 

 who wrote in 1724 : — " The sun is the divinity of the nations of America, without 

 excepting any of those with whom we are acquainted. The more tribes we ex- 

 plore, the more we increase the number of men known to be sun worshipers, 

 but through this inquiry another important result may be gathered with the majori- 

 ty of all tribes worshiping the sun, regarding the sun deity as their chief deity." 



This the author of the paper claims to be the principal and highly important 

 conclusion derived from his researches on the subject, and it is only the imperfect 

 state in which tribal mythology is generally brought to our knowledge that hinders 

 us from pushing on our enquiries in this direction. The only mode of getting at 

 the real meaning ofTndian myths, is to take them down from the myth tellers in 

 their Indian language, and obtain a careful translation of their texts. 



Discussion of the paper was adjourned until after the reading of the paper 

 by Mrs. Erminnie Smith, of New Jersey. 



BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS OF THE IROQUOIS INDIANS. 



Who can say that the first religious lesson (in embryo) received by primitive 

 man may not have been received from the stern teacher. Death, and that a life- 

 less body did not first force upon him the conception of a spirit and spirits. 



If so, the road must have been a long and painful one, from this first form- 

 less antecedent of a religious conviction to the complex system of the religions of 

 civilized man. 



But even a belief in spirits does not necessarily imply a worship of spirits or 

 a conviction of their everlasting existence. 



What stage in religious evolution had the Iroquois attained when first found 

 \ipon this continent, and what is their religious state to-day. 



Strange as it may appear, it is perhaps easier at this distance in time, with 

 the accumulation of experiences, the better knowledge of their language and 

 methods of thought, and the light gained through their folk-lore and traditions to 

 judge of their past condition than it was for the pioneer who labored under the 

 disadvantages and immense difficulties of deciphering a language so diff'erent 

 from any written tongue, with all the invaluable scientific aids of comparative 

 mythology and philology, contributed as they are to-day by every civilized nation. 

 upon the globe. 



