286 TRAVELS THROUGH tfPPER CANADA : 
divert their ill intentions. Some distant tribes, 
it is said., have priests amongst them, but it 
does not appear that they have any regular 
s forms of worship. Each individual repeats a 
prayer, or makes an offering to the evil spirit, 
when his fears and apprehensions suggest the 
necessity of his so doing. 
The belief of a future state, in which they 
are to enjoy the same pleasures as they do in 
this world, but to be exempted from pain, and 
A 
from the trouble of procuring food, seems to 
be very general amongst them. Some of the 
tribes have much less devotion than others; 
the Shawnese, a warlike daring nation, have 
but very little fear of evil spirits, and conse¬ 
quently have scarcely any religion amongst 
them. None of this nation, that I could learn, 
have ever been converted to Christianity. 
It is a very singular and remarkable circum¬ 
stance, that notwithstanding the striking simi¬ 
larity which we find in the persons, manners, 
customs, dispositions, and religion of the dif¬ 
ferent tribes of Indians from one end of the 
continent of North America to the other, a 
similarity so great as hardly to leave a doubt 
on the mind but that they must all have had 
the same origin, the languages of the different 
tribes should yet be so materially different. 
No two tribes speak exactly the same lan¬ 
guage; and the languages of many of those. 
