SECT. III.] LIFE OP PRIMITIVE PEOPLES. 335 



entangle them in various wars for the possession of fresh lands 

 all which obstruct civilization. Sometimes it is but one 

 beast upon which the existence of such hunting tribes de- 

 pends. Thus, in the immense prairies between the Rocky 

 Mountains and the Mississippi, it is the buffalo. It pro- 

 vides the Sioux with aliment, clothing, sinews for their bows, 

 thread, strings, harness and saddles, water-vessels, boats, 

 glue, and skins, etc., 1 just as in many tropical countries 

 the palm tree provides most of the necessities of the natives. 

 Wherever the game is not fit to supply these wants, the animal 

 and the mineral kingdom must yield their quota. Wood, stones, 

 and bones are used as weapons until some happy accident leads 

 to the use of metals a decided step towards a superior material 

 culture when it rests upon invention, but much less so when 

 the introduction of the metals depends on a stranger, because 

 of their fabrication being unknown to the natives. 



The chief characteristics of the hunter result from his mode 

 of life ; he becomes familiar with danger ; accustomed to hard- 

 ships, he grows bold and energetic. A feeling of independence 

 is developed, in the wars with his neighbours he is never en- 

 tirely subjected and reduced to slavery, as his steeled elastic 

 organism still retains something of the original impulse for 

 liberty. As a warrior, hatred and revenge stimulate him to 

 bold deeds; but there is also cunning, treachery, and cruelty 

 in his character, for a certain savageness is the almost unavoid- 

 able concomitant of the habit of killing and the excitement 

 attendant on hunting ; the cunning it requires, the mode of slay- 

 ing the game, lead to a corresponding treatment of human be- 

 ings who meet him as enemies. Wild animals are the benefactors 

 of the huntsman, as his subsistence depends on them, but often 

 his life is endangered by them ; hence his religious ideas are 

 shaped accordingly, the animal world is for him a spiritual 

 world, a realm of mythological beings. 8 



1 Perrin du Lac, " Reise in d. beiden Louisianen," ii, p. 27, Leipz., 1807. 



2 It is a mistaken idea of Muller's (" Gesch. der Am. TJrrelig," p. 60, 1855), 

 that the primitive man beholds in the animal a manifestation of the general 

 power of nature, and not a being with individual consciousness. On the 

 contrary, the primitive man looks upon all phenomena as individual pheno- 

 mena; the idea of a universal power of nature is beyond his conception. 



