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CHAPTER XII 
RELIGION 
Europeans, realizing; the brevity of man’s earthly career, regard it 
as a training-school for another life to come, and seek in religion a 
guide to the thought and conduct that offer apparently the best 
jireparation for the hereafter. Christianity teaches them to weigh 
all earthly gains and losses, all seeming good and ill, in the balance 
of eternity, and to forego many things that appear desirable here 
and now for a greater good beyond the grave. The Indians pinned 
little hope to the uncertain hereafter. They sought from religion 
help and guidance in this present life alone, and with full conscious- 
ness of the limitations in theii' own knowledge and power, they sum- 
moned to their aid the mysterious forces surrounding them in order 
to obtain during their mortal span all the blessings that their hearts 
desired. Long life and health, success in hunting and in war, medicine 
power, prosperity, fame, happiness, and the gift of happy children — ■ 
these were the things for which the Indians prayed, these the blessings 
that they demanded from their religion. They realized, neverthe- 
less, that this life also is uncertain, that no religion could release them 
from all its trials and perils, and, like mortals everywhere, they sub- 
mitted in blind resignation to the misfortunes that inevitably cross 
man’s path. 
Of the many phenomena that affected their w’elfare the majority 
lay beyond both their understanding and their control. The sun that 
rose daily in the east, gladdening all the earth with its rays, set again 
in the west without their volition. Its movements, so vital for human 
existence, stood apart from all human activities. The seasons came 
and went, and land and water changed to their rhythm, bringing now 
abundance, now want, to tlie various tribes of men. The wind blew 
as it listed, often imperilling their canoes, and the clouds that 
gathered on the mountains without apparent cause hurled bolts of 
lightning upon their tents. The animal, the bird, anrl the fish, each 
had a power and an intelligence resembling and yet unlike those of 
the hunter who sought them for his daily food. If superior cunning 
enabled him to circumvent the swift-footed deer, he in turn was cir- 
.S6<J59— 12 
