The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-30

Ol tHe Aelu or the llSll ol WouhaSu Knee there was picked up an Indian baby not more than three months old a little girl. She was found strapped to the back of her dead mother, who was shot in the massacre General Col by adopted the child, to whom the name Zintka Lanuni Uost BirD was given, and reared her as his daughter. Although the little girl neither knows nor remembers any conditions other than those of civilization, she has evinched one very notable inherited trait-namely, a fear of shadows. She is greatly afraid even of her own shad- ow, and this would seem very surpris- ing were it not known that lndians, like most other savages regard shad- ow as the ghost of the person or other object by which it is thrown.
 The rules of conduct by which a saw age must govern his life are vastly more complex than because of the mul- titude of ghosts which surround him on every side. The civilized man consid- CTS that he is doing what is required of him if he does not disturb the comfort of his neighbors, but the Indian is obliged to behave himself in satisfac- tory way in respect to rocks, in respect to deer, in respect to the sun and moon, and so on ad infinitum. He has an infin- ite number of neighbors, all of whom are none the less read to him because they are phantoms to us. For example, a certain line of conduct must be full filled by him in respect to rabbits; oth- erwise he would not be able to catch any rabbits The Great Ancient of Rab- bits permits some of his representatives to be captured only on the condition that certain forms shall be carefully | observed by the captors.
 Every tribe of Indians has its ghost place sor devil places, which are haunt | ed localities In the country of the Tu- 1 lare Indians, in Southern California, is an enormous granite powder which is believed to be inhabited by witches. It | is known as Witch Rock, and nobody, least of all children, ventures to ap- | proach it. In the lower part of 1t is a curious opening, which has the shape | of a cavern, and here the witches are supposed to dwell Not far distant is a | pool which is supposed to be occupied by the devil. The waters of the pool are dark, being stained with some vegeta- l ble matter, and close by is a mineral spring, which lends additional mystery. l That the devil does actually live n the pool is indisputable, because practical | ly every member of the tribe has seen
 him. They go, a number of them to- gether, and hold each others hands while they watch for him, and they never fail to see him in the water. He is always there watching for somebody | to come along to be gobbled up.
 There does not seem to be any evil l denc to show that any monkey ever saw a ghost That is because the monk ey possesses no imagination. Without 1 imagination there can be no ghost. The man and the ghost must have be- l gun to exist in the world together, l practically. To the prlmeval savage, as to the Indian of to-day, everything
 had its phantasnal essence, so to l speak, and the essence was more inn
 portant than the external properties of the object. From this point of view a
 thing has a tangible shell, but within l it is contained potency of spirit, This I latter is the ghost, which is at liberty to leave the object when it wishes. Of course, the savage has ghost of his own, of which he is vaguely conscious. Among the most appalling spooks that haunt the Iroquois is a carnivor- ous ghost in the shape of skeleton.
 Echo, in their belief, is a species of
 phantom, which repeats their words l mockingly among the hills. Particular ly malevolent spirits are certain huge heads, without bodies, that go flying
 about. their long hair serving them in lieu of wings. The Indian generally be- 1 lieve in supernatural beings corre- spending to our fairies and gobins, | which have local abiding places well recognized as such. They call them the Little People"
 Near the junction of the Illinois and | Mississippi rivers is a great rock, on which is carved a representation of a panther. Up to very recent period,
 and until the Indians were driven out
 of that part of the country, they made sacrifices regularly to this scuptured
 animal, believing that the rock was the home of the Ancient of all the Pan
 thers. This custom of theirs was evi-
 dently very old, inasmuch as 1t is re-
 ferred to by Marquette.
 ormerly there dwelt under Niagara Falls gigantic snake, which now and then would make it's way to an Indian
 village in the neighborhood and coil it.
 self around the town. 1t swallowed the people who tried to escape, and render
 ed itself further obnoxious by poisoning the wells with it's spttle. Finally the
 serpent was destroyed by stratagem It was so huge that when the people laid it's body out in death it stretched over more than twenty arrow flights
 Indeed, when thrown into the river il
 was too large to pass the rocks, so that
 it became wedged iii between them, and
 the waters rose over it, thus fashionine
 the horseshoe, which remains to this
 day.
 he Cherokees are very much afraio
 of certain mythical horned ailgators
 which are supposed to reside in severa
 different places in deep holes in the
 rivers. There is one locally in Oklaho.
 ma where a creature of this descrip.
 tion has an underground tunnel from
 river to another. In the southern Ale
 gheny region, on the dividing ridge, is
 an enchanted lake that is the haunt o
 several monstruos animals possessed o
 magic powers. One of these is a great
 snake, which has the power offascin | ating it's human victim and it is SC