"From the remotest wilds of the Northwest," says Dr. Brinton, "to the coast of the Atlantic, from the southern boundaries of Carolina to the cheerless swamps of Hudson's Bay, the Algonquins were never tired of gathering around the winter fire and repeating the story of Manibozho or Michabo, the _Great Hare_. With entire unanimity their various branches, the Powhatans of Virginia, the Lenni-Lenape of the Delaware, the warlike hordes of New England, the Ottawas of the far North, and the Western tribes, perhaps without exception, spoke of this 'chimerical beast,' as one of the old missionaries calls it as _their common ancestor_. The totem or clan which bore his name was looked up to with peculiar respect. . . . "What he really was we must seek in the accounts of older travelers, in the invocations of the _jossakeeds_ or prophets, and in the part assigned to him in the solemn mysteries of religion. In these we find him portrayed as the patron and founder of the Meda worship, _the inventor of picture-writing_, the father and guardian of their nation, the ruler of the winds, even the maker and preserver of the world and creator of the sun and moon. From a grain of sand brought from the bottom of the primeval ocean, he fashioned the habitable land, and set it floating on the waters till it grew to such a size that a strong young wolf, running constantly, died of old age ere he reached its limits. . . . He was the founder of the medicine-hunt. . . . He himself was a _mighty hunter_ of old. . . . Attentively watching the spider spread its web to trap unwary flies, _he devised the art of knitting nets to catch fish_."[1] This is a barbarian's recollection of a great primeval civilized race who established religion, invented nets, and, as the other legends concerning him show, first made the bow and arrow and worked in the metals. There is every reason to think the division of the people into several classes, or families, who take the name of [1. "Myths of the New World," p. 175.] {p. 363} some animal whose picture is their _totem_, dates back to the very beginning of the human race. The animal fables, as I have suggested, grew out of these animal _totems_; we find them everywhere among the American tribes; and in some cases they are accompanied by mental and physical traits which may be supposed to indicate that they originated in primal race differences. This is the belief of Warren, the native historian of the Ojibways. I am indebted to Hon. H. Al. Rice, of St. Paul, for an opportunity to examine his valuable manuscript history of that tribe of Indians. The great _totem_ of the Algonquins is the Hare; he represents a ruling class, and is associated with recollections of this Great Hare, this demi-god, this man or race, who taught them all the arts of life with which they are acquainted. Then there is a _turtle totem_, associated with myths of the turtle or tortoise, which are the images all over the world of an island.[1]