"Many. There is, for instance, one Spirit who has charge of the buffalo. The group-consciousness of all the buffalo, their herd-awareness, which you know as instinct, is a part of his mind that warns the buffalo herds of coming storms, of changing seasons, and leads them to winter pastures where the bunch grass stands out clear from the thin snow. To this buffalo spirit my people address their prayers, asking him to guide them also in search for food, and in his pity to plead for them in their need to the Spirit in the Sun.
"Such prayers give them spiritual strength. Now, sonny, which will give you spiritual power—to make fun which hurts your wife, or to learn the lessons which she had from me?"
"Oh, damn the 'oly animals!" said Storm in his heart. "Old Daddy swore I'd never be a bargeman. Silas claimed he couldn't make a sailor of me. Even these Injuns despise me. I know I'm no good; I'm nothing."
He had forgotten that in the spirit-realms no secret thought is hidden. Now Rain winked at her mother, Thunder Feather, and Hiawatha, seeing that, nearly betrayed his laughter, which would give such pain if it were seen; but Catherine crept behind them and sat beside her son. "They're only a pack of savages," she whispered. "I 'aven't seen no 'oly animals neither."
Hiawatha made signs to the Indian women, composed his face to severity, and in the manner of a schoolmaster addressed himself to Storm.
"Storms-all-of-a-sudden, what is a savage?" he asked with Indian gravity.
"Oh, I dunno!" The white man was sulky, ashamed, and moaning to himself because his pride was wounded.
"A dog," said Hiawatha, "has only four fingers, so that he cannot hold or aim a gun to shoot at other people. A savage has four fingers and a thumb, so you see he must be rather better than a dog, because he can handle a gun, to shoot his neighbors when he is not pleased. A white man is still better because he can make the gun. In his rich country he finds the medicine stones, copper, tin, and iron for making tools. With the tools to strengthen his hands he can coin money, forge weapons, and build ships. As he labors his mind grows, his will increases, his intellect is strengthened, until he becomes as greedy as a pike, swift as a horse, and like the buffalo he tramples down the flowers, for none can resist his rush. He rules the seas, he occupies the lands, he wields dominion over mankind, and having the whole earth for his possession, dies, leaving it behind, divested of all that he had. All that he is goes to the spirit-lands, where the dogs pity him. The dog's unselfish love is worth more in the spirit-realms than the money, the weapons, the ships of his rich master. Dogs and savages have not much to be selfish about on earth, but only the hearts of little children."
Storm and his mother were not so proud of their blood as they had been; but Rain and Thunder Feather looked complacent as Hiawatha again took up his legend.
"When I lived on earth, my son, our Iroquois towns were not so very savage. London has lately copied our municipal police. While your doctors were bleeding their patients to death, ours were far advanced in hypnotic medicine, and among the Indian drugs were the salicylates, quinine, coca, and jalap. Our Indian farming gave to man tobacco, corn and potatoes. Of our monuments I dare not boast, for the tremendous pyramids of Mexico were an heresy, seeing that the body of man is the real temple of the Holy Spirit; and the palaces, however vast and lovely, were seats of tyranny.