uth possess horses,
and hunt the buffalo and deer. Some are even more savage than the
Dakotahs, while others, again, have made slight progress towards
civilisation, and live in settled villages, while they rudely cultivate
the ground, and possess herds of cattle.

Although the Indian languages differ greatly from each other, a great
similarity in grammatical structure and form has been found to exist
among them, denoting a common, though remote origin. They differ,
however, so greatly from any known language of the Old World, as to
afford conclusive proof that their ancestors must have left its shores
at an early period of the world's history.

The governments also differed. In some tribes it approached an absolute
monarchy, the will of the sachem or chief being the supreme law; while
in others it was almost entirely republican, the chief being elected for
his personal qualities, though frequently the leadership was preserved
in the female line of particular families.

When describing the customs of the Indians, we are compelled often to
speak of the past, as the tribes, from being pressed together by the
advancement of civilisation, have become amalgamated, and many of their
customs have passed away. Most of the nations were divided into three
or more clans or tribes, each distinguished by the name of an animal.
Thus the Huron Indians were divided into three tribes--those of the
Bear, the Wolf, and the Turtle. The Chippeways, especially, were
divided into a considerable number of tribes.

RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

Though their language differs so greatly, as do many of their customs,
their religious notions exhibit great uniformity throughout the whole
country. They all possess a belief, though it is vague and indistinct,
in the existence of a Supreme, All-Powerful Being, and in the
immortality of the soul, which, they suppose, restored to its body, will
enjoy the future on those happy hunting-grounds which form the red man's
heaven. They also worship numerous inferior deities or evil spirits,
whom they endeavour to propitiate, under the supposition that unless
they do so they may work them evil rather than good. They suppose that
there is one god of the sun, moon, and stars; that the ocean is ruled by
another god, and that storms are produced by the power of various malign
beings; yet that all are inferior to the Supreme Ruler of the universe.
We can trace in some of the tribes customs and notions which have bee