University of Virginia Library

I.
TO THE MANITTO

Or Spirit. The word is thus written by Heckewelder. By the English authors it is written Manitou, whence Mr. Campbell has it so, in “Gertrude of Wyoming.”

“As when the evil Manitou that dries
The Ohio woods,” &c.

The mistake may have arisen from the French authors writing it Manitou, which is pronounced Maneetou.

The incantation which I have introduced in this place, is founded on the subsequent passages from Charlevoix; which are, I believe, abundantly sufficient to justify the expressions in the text, unless it be, perhaps, those in the second verse of the third stanza, where the Spirit is apostrophized as the Muse, or personification of the imagination itself. I have also taken the liberty of ascribing to one Spirit the congenial attributes of many. If Father Charlevoix has not been deceived, and led too far by his own fancy, surely, the elements of poetry cannot be denied to our aborigines.

“Before we launch out into the particulars of their worship, it will be proper to remark that the savages give the name of Genius or Spirit to all that surpasses their understanding, and proceeds from a cause that they cannot trace. Some of their Spirits they take to be Good, and some Bad; of the former sort are the Spirit of Dreams, &c.—La Hontan, vol. ii. p. 30. The Manittos of the Lenapé are the same as the Okkis of the Iroquois.—Charlevoix, p. 345.

When the Indians had dreams, it was indispensable to their quiet, that the vision should be immediately accomplished. One of them, who dreamed that he was tormented by his enemies, had himself tied to a stake, and would not be pacified until he had been severely mangled. Many stories of this kind are told by Charlevoix, p. 354. The longest and most curious is that of a Huron woman, narrated p. 230, in the third volume. It is too long to be here inserted; though several ideas in the text are taken from it.

OF DREAMS.

---

256