Thus, by imposing on an ignorant, savage people, “gods many,” gods of life and gods of death, gods of hate and revenge and lust, gods of cold and of heat, gods of all the various passions, gods of lying, deceit and wrong, gods of gluttony and drunkenness, gods of lasciviousness and impurity, gods of conception and abortion, gods innumerable—hideous and horrid monsters, which are the creation of the inflamed and bedeviled imaginations of these Thugs—these wakan men—they exert an influence over them, in the various official capacities which they assume, which is absolute and which pervades Dakota society—an influence which bears with all its force on each individual of their victims, which tends to crush him down still deeper, if indeed there are depths below them, in ignorance, superstition, degradation and misery of soul and body, and force them into an unreserved surrender to their own whims and caprices. Of these wakan men there are from five to twenty five in each of the little clans of Dakotas. Alkalies and acids mingled produce effervescence. A like result attends the contact of any opposing influences. Nothing can exceed the antagonism that lies between TRUTH and the system of superstition which is the subject of the foregoing paper. Root, trunk, branches and leaves there is not the smell of truth to be found on it. It is plainly opposed to truth and truth is opposed to it. It is opposed by the truth of history, the truth of science, the truth of “animated nature,” social truth, political truth and spiritual truth. _All_ truth tends directly to its destruction. A little boy was one day listening to a missionary who was endeavoring to explain to him the workings of the magnetic telegraph. The little half naked fellow seemed to catch an idea of natural truth, and starting up, excitedly exclaimed. “If that is true, then all our religion is false.” A glimpse of truth broke the spell that bound his mind, and shook their whole system of superstition to its foundations. It never recovered its hold on him. For more than thirty years, truth, in variety, has been held to the Dakota mind. With a keen and jealous eye, these wakan men have watched its workings. It has mortified and pained them to see their cords of error snapped by it, one after another, and their hold on their blind victims loosened. Their “craft was in danger.” They have cried with voice and soul, these thirty years, “Great is the Taku-Wakan—the Taku-Wakan is wakan, and I am their prophet.”