“It is a part of their religious belief” says he, “that there are inferior _manittoes_ to whom the great and good being has given the rule and command over the elements; that being so great, he, like their chiefs, must have his attendants to execute his supreme behests: these subordinate spirits, (something in their nature between God and man) see and report to him what is doing upon earth; they look down particularly upon the Indians, to see whether they are in need of assistance, and are ready at their call to assist and protect them against danger. Thus I have frequently witnessed Indians, on the approach of a storm or thunder-gust, address the _manitto_ of the air to avert all danger from them; I have also seen the Chippeways, on the lakes of Canada, pray to the _manitto_ of the waters, that he might prevent the swells from rising too high, while they were passing over them. In both these instances they expressed their willingness to be grateful, by throwing tobacco in the air or strewing it on the waters. ‘But amidst all these superstitious notions, the supreme _manitto_, the creator and preserver of heaven and earth, is the great object of their adoration. On him they rest their hopes; to him they address their prayers, and make their solemn sacrifices.’[39] “The Knistineaux Indians who inhabit the country extending from Labrador, across the continent, to the Highlands which divide the waters on Lake Superior, from those of Hudson’s Bay, appear, from Mackenzie’s account, to have the same system, of one great Supreme, and innumerable subordinate deities. ‘The great master of life,’ to use their own expression, is the sacred object of their devotion. But each man carries in his medicine bag a kind of household god, which is a small carved image, about eight inches long. Its first covering is of down, over which a piece of beech bark is closely tied, and the whole is enveloped in several folds of blue and red cloth. This little figure is an object of the most pious regard. “It is remarkable, that the description given by Peter Martyr, who was the companion of Columbus, of the worship of the inhabitants of Cuba, perfectly agrees with this account of the Northern Indians, by Mackenzie. They believed in the existence of one supreme, invisible, immortal and omnipotent Creator, whom they named _Jocahuna_, but at the same time acknowledged a plurality of subordinate deities. They had little images called Zemes, whom they looked upon as only a kind of messengers between them and the eternal omnipotent and invisible God. These images they consider as bodies inhabited by spirits, and oracular responses were therefore received from them as uttered by the divine command.”[40]