GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS OF THE RED RACE. PAGE Natural religions the unaided attempts of man to find out God, modified by peculiarities of race and nation.--The peculiarities of the red race: 1. Its languages unfriendly to abstract ideas. Native modes of writing by means of pictures, symbols, objects, and phonetic signs. These various methods compared in their influence on the intellectual faculties. 2. Its isolation, unique in the history of the world. 3. Beyond all others, a hunting race.--Principal linguistic subdivisions: 1. The Eskimos. 2. The Athapascas. 3. The Algonkins and Iroquois. 4. The Apalachian tribes. 5. The Dakotas. 6. The Aztecs. 7. The Mayas. 8. The Muyscas. 9. The Quichuas. 10. The Caribs and Tupis. 11. The Araucanians.--General course of migrations.--Age of man in America.--Unity of type in the red race 1 CHAPTER II. THE IDEA OF GOD. An intuition common to the species.--Words expressing it in American languages derived either from ideas of above in space, or of life manifested by breath.--Examples.--No conscious monotheism, and but little idea of immateriality discoverable.--Still less any moral dualism of deities, the Great Good Spirit and the Great Bad Spirit being alike terms and notions of foreign importation 43 CHAPTER III. THE SACRED NUMBER, ITS ORIGIN AND APPLICATIONS. The number Four sacred in all American religions, and the key to their symbolism.--Derived from the CARDINAL POINTS.--Appears constantly in government, arts, rites, and myths.--The Cardinal Points identified with the Four Winds, who in myths are the four ancestors of the human race, and the four celestial rivers watering the terrestrial Paradise.--Associations grouped around each Cardinal Point.--From the number four was derived the symbolic value of the number _Forty_ and the _Sign of the Cross_ 66 CHAPTER IV. THE SYMBOLS OF THE BIRD AND THE SERPENT. Relations of man to the lower animals.--Two of these, the BIRD and the SERPENT, chosen as symbols beyond all others.--The Bird throughout America the symbol of the Clouds and Winds.--Meaning of certain species.--The symbolic meaning of the Serpent derived from its mode of locomotion, its poisonous bite, and its power of charming.--Usually the symbol of the lightning and the Waters.--The Rattlesnake the symbolic species in America.--The war charm.--The Cross of Palenque.--The god of riches.--Both symbols devoid of moral significance 99 CHAPTER V. THE MYTHS OF WATER, FIRE, AND THE THUNDER-STORM.