many tribes had risen to a vague conception of tutelar deities embodied in human or animal forms. Myth-tales abounded, and the folk-lore of the red men is found to be extremely interesting and instructive.[57] Their religion consisted mainly in a devout belief in witchcraft. No well-defined priestly class had been evolved; the so-called "medicine men" were mere conjurers, though possessed of considerable influence. [Footnote 52: See Humboldt, _Ansichten der Natur_, 3d ed., Stuttgart, 1849, vol. i. p. 203.] [Footnote 53: "Women and children joined in these fiendish atrocities, and when at length the victim yielded up his life, his heart, if he were brave, was ripped from his body, cut in pieces, broiled, and given to the young men, under the belief that it would increase their courage; they drank his blood, thinking it would make them more wary; and finally his body was divided limb from limb, roasted or thrown into the seething pot, and hands and feet, arms and legs, head and trunk, were all stewed into a horrid mess and eaten amidst yells, songs, and dances." Jeffries Wyman, in _Seventh Report of Peabody Museum_, p. 37. For details of the most appalling character, see Butterfield's _History of the Girtys_, pp. 176-182; Stone's _Life of Joseph Brant_, vol. ii. pp. 31, 32; Dodge's _Plains of the Great West_, p. 418, and _Our Wild Indians_, pp. 525-529; Parkman's _Jesuits in North America_, pp. 387-391; and many other places in Parkman's writings.]