446 Proceedings of Societies. [July, 
Major Powell spoke on the philosophy of the North American In- 
dians. The speaker called attention to the fundamental difference in 
modes of thought which characterize the savage and the civilized man, 
and illustrated it by numerous examples. 
e must, if we would fully understand Indian philosophy, leave that 
realm of thought where the sun isa great orb swinging in circles through 
the heavens, where the winds drift in obedience to cosmic laws, where 
falling stars reveal the constitution of the heavenly spheres, and pass to 
a lower realm where the sun is regarded as a little beast cowed by the 
heroic mien of a rabbit, and in very fear compelled to travel on an 
appointed trail through the firmament, where the wind is but breath, 
foul or fair, ejected from the belly of a monster, and where the falling 
star is but the dung of dirty little star-gods. 
The savage philosopher believes in a system of worlds (not globes, 
but localities of existence), the world of this life and the world or region 
to-which he will proceed hereafter. Among the lower tribes these 
worlds are arranged horizontally or topographically: the world of the 
hereafter is beyond some river, sea, cafion, chasm, or mountain range, 
and there is no world of the past, the progenitors of man having come 
out of the sea or from burrows in the ground. Their hereafter-land is 
reached by a bridge, a ferry, or a dangerous mountain pass. 
Among the higher tribes the worlds are arranged vertically, a world 
or worlds below and others above. In this stage there is also a past 
world, that is, humanity came to existence from another land, situated 
sometimes above, sometimes below; but the righteous always goes in an 
opposite direction from that by which he came. These worlds commu- 
nicate by magical ladders. The sun and moon are always personages ; 
meteorological phenomena, acts of persons or of personified animals. Al 
geographic phenomena, remarkable facts of nature; and the habits and 
customs of savage man, — the origin of all is known, and there is noth- 
ing that is not explained in their philosophy. 
The theology or system of gods of the North American Indians is not 
fetichism, though there are many survivals from the fetichistic stage of 
thought. The gods of all the nomadic tribes are animals, for in all snr 
mal nature the nomad sees things too wonderful for him, and from admira- 
tion hé grows to superstitious reverence, and the animals become his gods. 
His veneration for the past, so highly developed in the savage, modifies 
this theology, for it is not the animals of to-day that he reveres, but their 
ancient prototypes, a god for every race or species of animal. Man is not 
sharply separated by this system from other animals, but the heroes of 
the past are the hero-gods of to-day, while the race of man is partly su- 
perior, partly inferior to the animal races. Places have their genii Or 
-~ daimons, and all have unlimited power of self-transformation. The g& 
_neric term for god in most Indian languages is ancient. Individuals, 
