41 (p. 157).--The aborigines of North America had but vague and uncertain ideas of a Supreme Being or Creator. They believed in certain supernatural Beings, called Manitous (Algonkin), or Okis (Huron-Iroquois), which they conceived under the forms of beasts, birds, or reptiles,--occasionally in human form, or even that of stones. Another class of beings embodied the polytheistic tendencies of the savage mind,--the manitous of the sun and the moon, of the water, of the winds, etc.; and the progenitors or "Kings" of various animals,--of which Michabou, Messou, or Manabozho ("the Great Hare") was the chief. The Huron deity Jouskeha and the Huron-Iroquois Areskoui are apparently personifications of the Sun. Sometimes, too, are found deifications of heroes, as the Iroquois Taounyawatha, or Hiawatha, the Northern counterpart of the Peruvian Viracocha, the Carib Tamu, or the Aztec Quetzalcoatl,--all suggestive, in personal characteristics, and in their influence upon their respective peoples, of the Greek Prometheus. Charlevoix, in _Journal Historique_ (Paris, 1744), pp. 344-347, gives an account of Michabou, Areskoui, and other deities, and of the tutelary genius that each Indian adopts. Lafitau (_Mœurs des Sauvages_, tome i., pp. 126, 127, 145) says that Areskoui is the Supreme Being, in the belief of the Hurons; and he cites the saying of a Huron convert that Areskoui was such as the missionaries described their God to be. Lafitau tries to prove, by arguments more ingenious than convincing, that Areskoui was the same as the Ares (or Mars) of the Thracians. Perrot relates the legends of the Great Hare, in his _Mémoire_ (Tailhan's ed.), pp. 3-7. Many legends of Manabozho and Manitou are collected by Schoolcraft in his _Algic Researches_ (N. Y., 1839); cf. _Ind. Tribes_, vol. i, p. 317. Parkman (_Jesuits_, pp. lxxii.-lxxv.) outlines the whole subject as connectedly as is possible, giving many references to other authors. Brinton has just issued (1896) a third and revised edition of his _Myths of the New World_, which fully treats these legends; he regards Manabozho as an impersonation of Light, and belonging to the world-wide cycle of Sun-myths. Cf. A. F. Chamberlain's "Nanibozhu among the Algonkian Tribes," in _Jour. Am. Folk-Lore_, vol. iv. (1891), pp. 193-213.