File:Ridpath's Universal history - an account of the origin, primitive condition and ethnic development of the great races of mankind, and of the principal events in the evolution and progress of the (14770030472).jpg

Identifier: ridpathsuniversa08ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's Universal history : an account of the origin, primitive condition and ethnic development of the great races of mankind, and of the principal events in the evolution and progress of the civilized life among men and nations, from recent and authentic sources with a preliminary inquiry on the time, place and manner of the beginning
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history
Publisher: Cincinnati : Jones
Contributing Library: University of Pittsburgh Library System
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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l the supersti-tious apparatus of his people. Suchcharms and fetiches, including incanta-tions, prayers, and the like, were by theIndians called medicine, and for thisreason the person who officiated assoothsayer and superstitious practitionerfor the tribe was called the medicineman. He was not so much a doctor ashe was a prophet, a fortune teller, a 492 GREAT RACES OE MANKIND. dispenser of charms, and a depositary oftribal idolatries and superstitions. The Indians did not rely upon theirgreat spirit so much as they did oncharms and local deities forwelfare and happiness.Their belief in minor spir-its, capable of working good and evil, was Belief in localspirits; signsand omens. regarded as the representatives of spirits.The cries of animals were thought to besignificant because of the spirits of whichthey were possessed. The lore of thetribes had respect to the interpretationof signs and omens whereof the Indiansuperstition produced an innumerablearray. The most courageous and large-
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1XDIAX SUPERSTITIONS.—Rain Maker of the Mandans universal. Such spirits they regardedas near to themselves. The mysteriesof nature were all under the dominionof local and tribal gods, and these thepeople regarded with reverence or dis-trust, accordingly as they were supposedto be good or bad. The superstitions of the race reachedout largely into the animal kingdom.The beasts and the birds were generally minded chiefs and prophets were notfree from the dominion of these super-stitions which entered into the wholefabric of Indian life and gave theretoits substance and color. Of nature as a whole the Indiansformed many theories, none J Theory of na- of which were higher than ture and the fu- .. ,. . . ture life. the range ot barbaric con-cepts. Many of these theories re- NOR THERN A BORIGINES.—RELIGION. 493 ferred the creation of the world to ani-mals, such as the beaver, the bear, orthe buffalo. The supposed possessionof these creatures by unseen spirits was be broken through. The s

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