Universality of the belief in a soul and a future state shown by the aboriginal tongues, by expressed opinions, and by sepulchral rites. The future world never a place of rewards and punishments.--The house of the Son the heaven of the red man.--The terrestrial paradise and the under-world.--Çupay.--Xibalba.--Mictlan.--Metempsychosis?--Belief in a resurrection of the dead almost universal 233 CHAPTER X. THE NATIVE PRIESTHOOD. Their titles.--Practitioners of the healing art by supernatural means.--Their power derived from natural magic and the exercise of the clairvoyant and mesmeric faculties.--Examples.--Epidemic hysteria.--Their social position.--Their duties as religious functionaries.--Terms of admission to the Priesthood.--Inner organization in various nations.--Their esoteric language and secret societies 263 CHAPTER XI. THE INFLUENCE OF THE NATIVE RELIGIONS ON THE MORAL AND SOCIAL LIFE OF THE RACE. Natural religions hitherto considered of Evil rather than of Good.--Distinctions to be drawn.--Morality not derived from religion.--The positive side of natural religions in incarnations of divinity.--Examples.--Prayers as indices of religious progress.--Religion and social advancement.--Conclusion 287 THE MYTHS OF THE NEW WORLD. CHAPTER I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE RED RACE. 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. When Paul, at the request of the philosophers of Athens, explained to them his views on divine things, he asserted, among other startling novelties, that "God has made of one blood all nations of the earth, that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far from every one of us."