

The Indians of North America. 81 
Indian takes his place. Hot stones have been placed beneath the 
platform and upon them water is thrown. The water is converted 
into steam, and the Indian, carefully closed up in the hut, can 
enjoy a profuse perspiration. This bath is often used to cure sick- 
ness as well as for gratification. 
Among some tribes the highest value is placed upon virtue, but 
generally the women are free to act as they please, until the 
authority of the husband is asserted. 
Polygamy prevails everywhere. ‘The number of wives is limited 
only by the means of the man. They all recognize certain degrees 
of relationship within which marriage is unallowable. The hus- 
band fishes, hunts and fights. The wife makes the hut, the imple- 
ments of housewifery, attends to domestic affairs, and cultivates 
the ground. ‘The lower class of European women are not treated 
any better than the Indian squaws. 
The women gather in the fuel and the food. They generally 
outlive the men. 
Religion instructs man in his duty to God and his duty to his 
neighbor. It teaches the distinction between right and wrong, and 
enforces the laws of correct moral conduct. The moral duties are 
feebly performed, if not grossly violated, by those who acknowledge 
not the force of religion. Every tribe in our land have some sort 
of belief. The Sioux worship numerous spirits, who, they think, 
preside over lakes, rivers and mountains. 
The Six Nations worshiped the Great Spirit and numerous 
other gods, and an infinite number of Geni, or Wakondas. 
The tribes of Virginia believed there were tutelary deities who 
presided over every town. 
McKenzie gives an account of an Indian who told him that a 
disease he was ailing from was sent as a punishment for an act of 
unnecessary cruelty in burying alive a she wolf and her whelps. 
The Aztecs believed in a future state, and ina system of rewards 
and punishments corresponding to the acts done in this life. 
All had certain sacrifices, devotions and ceremonies used for 
divine worship. 
The Pawnees offered up human sacrifices, cutting up the flesh of 
the victim as an offering to the planet Venus, the Great Star, and 
squeezing the blood on the tops of the hills of corn in order to 
obtain abundant crops. 
Petalasharon once performed a daring deed by rescuing an 
