POLYTHEISM.
Instead of believing in one Great Spirit, the Mandan and Hidatsa “believe in a multitude of different beings in the heavenly bodies; offer sacrifices to them; invoke their assistance on every occasion; howl, lament, fast, inflict on themselves acts of penance to propitiate these spirits; and, above all, lay very great stress upon dreams.”[219]
§ 312. The most sacred objects in the eyes of the Crow or Absaroka, a nation closely related to the Hidatsa, are “the sun, the moon, and tobacco,” that is, the leaves of the genuine tobacco (Nicotiana); and all their children wear a small portion of this herb, well wrapped up, round their neck, by way of an amulet.[220]