CONFERENCE II, 447 afraid to be baptized, lest we should make them slaves in the country of souls. When one of them asked the author, whether there be good game for hunting in our country of souls, as there is in theirs, he answered, there is no need of it : Immediately they clapped their hands to their mouths, and said, thou art a liar : can anything live without eating? Scarce any ofthesesava- ges have any notion of a God ; they do not seem to comprehend a plain argument on that subject. The author had much ado to make them understand what he meant, when he would give them the idea of a God ; for they have no word for a God in their language, and yet it is very expressive in other things. He called him therefore, the great master of life, and the great cap- tain of heaven and earth, and when he preached a God to them they enquired whether he could send them some elks and beavers. It is true, among some of these nations a sudden glimmering of a deity sometimes comes on their minds. Some think thesun to be such a great superior power, but not without much confusion. Some fancy him a spirit that commands the air. And some of the more southern inhabitants of that country, imagine an univer- sal soul belongs to the whole world,just as everyparticular being has a particular soul. Father Marquette, who is cited by this author, says, every one of the Illinois has his peculiar god, whom they call Manitoo. It is sometimes a stone, a bird, a serpent, or any thing they dream of ; and they think thisManitoo will prosper their hunting, their fishing, their wars : They blow the smoke of their tobacco on their Manitoo, which they count a salutation of their god. For the most part, says our author, thosewho own a God, have scarce any sense of religion, and but few of them have any outward gestures to convince men of their, esteem for a deity ; they have no temple, no priests, no sacrifices, nor scarce any forms of wor- ship, unless it be to evil or malicious spirits, from whom they fear they shall receive some hurt : And to these some of them have made some kind of offerings. They throw in tobacco, or beavers' skins to a cascade or fall of water which is difficult to pass, and cannot easily be avoided, to engage the deity that presides there, in their favour : And if, after the practiceof any of their superstitions, they find any degree of success, they are then established in it, though they should mistake ten times for one that hits. As the generality of these nationsbave little sense ofreligion, dreams among them supply all other defects, and serve instead ofprophecy, laws, rules of action, and undertakings in war or hunting. If in their dreams they were persuaded to kill a man, they would hardly fail to do it. Parents' dreams serve for their own and their children's actions, and the dreams of the captain for all the people of the village. Some of them suppose, that
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