32 
they may admit the existence of “ deputy ” manidos , but attach to the 
notion little or no significance. If the doctrine developed in the first place 
merely as a generalization from certain rituals, as seems quite probable, 
it would naturally have little interest except for the few speculative indi- 
viduals who look beyond those rituals. At all events, the ordinary Indian 
who blows smoke to the four quarters and asks for help does not address 
his prayer to any specific “ deputy ” manidos in those quarters, but to 
the general hosts of manidos, without considering their number or their 
powers. 
Sun and Moon 
Nevertheless, even the- lay Indian believes in specially powerful 
manidos operating in certain spheres, whom he reverences or dreads 
according to their supposed beneficence or malevolence. They are the 
personifications of nature’s mightiest forces, the sun and the moon, thunder, 
the storm winds, the awful power that lurks in water, particularly in 
the water of the great lakes, and the beneficent power of grandmother 
earth working silently, but influencing everything that dwells upon its 
surface. Grandmother earth and the water manido , perhaps, too, the sun 
and the moon, have many lesser inanidos at their command; but thunder 
and the storm winds operate single-handed. Some Parry Islanders hold 
that thunder (and perhaps the wind) is not an ordinary manido, but a 
company or brotherhood of 7nanidos equal in number to the various forms 
or phases of a thunderstorm. One may gather, indeed, many statements 
about these supernatural powers that seem to contradict one another, 
for there are no fixed doctrines to which all the people have given their 
assent. 1 Each Indian, therefore, interprets only his own traditions and 
experiences, and takes no heed whether that interpretation agrees or 
conflicts with the interpretations of his neighbours. 
The sun manido travels west across the sky and passes under the 
earth to the east again. Without him the earth would have no daylight 
and no warmth; man’s life would be wretched in the extreme. A night 
manido follows him across the sky, bringing peace and quietness during 
the hours that are not illumined by the sun. The moon manido, sister of 
the sun manido over whom she rules, exercises special influence on women; 
but both manidos were honoured together in a yearly ceremony, generally 
held some time in the autumn, when the Ojibwa sacrificed to them a white 
dog and offered up thanks for their care of the people during the past 
year. 
“ Wabinokkwe and her brother, the moon and the sun, eat white dogs at their 
meals. In their honour, therefore, the Indians bound a white dog and laid it on 
a pyTe. A wabeno 2 then struck it on the head and set fire to the woodl As it 
burned he threw a little tobacco into the flames, and offered up thanks to the sun 
and moon for their care of the people. If a man were very ill, and all remedies 
had failed to heal him, the wabeno might place him beside the fire before the 
cermony, and the manidos would occasionally restore him to health. But only a 
wabeno possessed this privilege; if others ventured to place the patient there on 
their own responsibility the manidos might be offended, rob them of their souls, 
and kill them" (Jim Nanibush). 
1 Members of the Midewiwin , however, had fixed doctrines about certain manidos. 
2 The medicine-men called Wabeno are discussed on pp. 62, 63. 
