Religious soul was believed to be immortal; the dead lived on in the Hereafter in an earthly manner—the good, the warriors, etc. happily, the wicked and the cowards in a penitential condition. The Indians also believed that the spirits of the dead exercised an influence, generally an evil one, on the living; however, the souls of powerful ances tors (for which the stars were taken in some places) often became guardian spirits. These latter act a prominent part: they appear to the individual in his "dream of life," either as an animal or a. plant, which then becomes his totem. Accordingly, many animals are sacred to them, such as the rattlesnake (p1. 36, Jig. 5), the beaver, the bear, etc. The sun, the moon, stars, and fire were worshipped.
The belief in an evil being, which had to succumb to the good spirit, existed, and inferior spirits, fairies, ells, giants (pl. 3S, fig. 8), water sprites, etc., are not wanting. An example is shown ou Plate 36 (fig. 7). This Indian picture represents the spirit of a meteor running away because he imagines the woman who is eating roasted chestnuts to be a fire-eater. All the Americans possessed a deep religious feeling, and they often prayed to their gods in a sensible manner. They undertook nothing without religious preparation. But their religion had a dark side, for they were superstitious to a high degree.
were by no means common: the principal images seem to have been those of the guardian spirits, among which are to be classed the old earth-reliefs (pl. 39, figs. 6, 7, 8, to), although among them the famous snake monument, about seven hundred feet iu length, is prob ably a representation of the Great Spirit or of the Evil Spirit; and those of ancestors, whose images were worn as amulets (p1. 30, fig. 7; p1. 3S, fig. 5). Other idols occur throughout the continent, often of a grotesque shape. Barbarous images of the sun are found in South America fre quently in rock-sculpture (pl. 45, 7, at the bottom, to the left, and the strange figures in fig. 8, probably represent gods).
Temples were rare, and did not at all exist in the extreme north of America. But the priests—called angekok by the Eskimos, in North America, pioches by the Caribs and Tupis—possessed great influence. The priestly office was not easily attained, for candidates were obliged to submit to many, and often painful, trials. Among some tribes of North America supernatural power was attained only by the consump tion of human flesh, by xvhich, as it were, a second soul was acquired.
The priests were principally those \vim offered sacrifice, which consisted of animals, fruit, and also children, the latter especially in order to gain victory or a rich harvest; but generally they were only magicians, fortune-tellers, conjurers of ghosts, and healers of the sick in an absurd or immoral manner. Among the Patagonians, for instance, they wore female attire. They performed their jiigglings in special huts, the medi eine-huts of the North Americans serving the latter as temples.
All disease was held to be the result of demoniacal possession, and was therefore to be cured by exorcisms, though some rational remedies were occasionally applied. The priests were despised, though they were feared on account of their power, and were sometimes killed when their medicine or incantation had not the desired result. Besides the assistance of the priests, various magic agencies were employed; thus, for instance, Plate 33 (fig. 3) shows a magical monument of the Dakotas which was probably also a society emblem.
The priests gained a special influence by means of the secret religious associations which were found everywhere both in North and South America (Dakotas, Caribs, etc.). The much-despised men who wore VOL.
female attire formed such a society, but there were also other societies of higher rank into which persons from different tribes were admitted with solemn ceremonies. We shall mention only the Meda League, whose members—magicians and physicians of power—were supposed to stand iu close relation to the gods.
Their sacred songs descriptive of their rites were written in hiero glyphics, a specimen of which is given on Plate 37 (fig. 9). a is the medicine-hut of the Meda League, containing the Great Spirit, and represents the song which must be sling by each candidate : "The Great Spirit's house, of which you have been told, I will enter it;" b repre sents the novice with a crown of feathers and a pocket of adder-skin (c), and is the sign for a second song by the novice; the curved line which follows denotes recess, during which a meal was taken; a' is a man carry ing a dish; e a steam-bath which every novice had to take, such baths being a main feature in the religious life of the Americans; f is the arm of the priest who receives the presents (g) brought by the novice; h is the Meda tree with its magical roots. The whole is a representation of an initiation into the Meda League, and at the same time a mnemonic guide for the songs accompanying the admission.