eams; but they differ much in
the manner of explaining their thoughts on this matter. Sometimes it is
the reasonable soul that wanders out, while the sensitive soul continues
to animate the body; sometimes it is the familiar genius that gives good
advice about future events; sometimes it is a visit they receive from
the soul of the object they dream of. But, in whatsoever way they
conceive of a dream, it is always regarded as a sacred thing, and as the
means which the Gods most usually employ to declare their will to men.

"Prepossessed with this idea," says Charlevoix, (a writer I delight
to quote) "they cannot conceive that we should take no notice of them.
For the most part they look upon them as desires of the soul inspired by
some spirit, or an order from it. And, in consequence of this principle,
they make it a duty of religion to obey these commands. A savage, having
dreamt that his finger was cut off, really had it cut off when he awoke,
after he had prepared himself for this important action by a feast.
Another, dreaming that he was a prisoner in the bands of his enemies,
was greatly embarrassed. He consulted the jugglers, and, by their
advice, got himself tied to a post, and burned in various parts of the
body."--_Charlevoix,_ ii. 18.

Dreams are resorted to for the purpose of procuring a proper Manitou or
guardian spirit for the child. This is the most important affair of
life. They begin by blacking the face of the child; then it must fast
for eight days, without baring the least nourishment; and, during this
time, his future guardian genius must appear to him in his dreams. Every
morning, they take great care to make him relate them. The thing the
child dreams of most frequently is supposed to be his genius; but no
doubt this thing was considered at first only as a symbol or shape under
which the spirit manifests itself.

Nor is this potency of dreams peculiar to one tribe or nation; it
obtains, both as a belief and practice, throughout the entire continent,
over which that perfect anomaly in the human kind, the red men, are
scattered. Equally among the Esquimaux of the regions of eternal ice,
and the Abipones of Paraguay, dreams are reckoned the revelations of the
God of the Universe.

(3) _Wise and good bird.--p._ 68.

It is singular that the owl should be the symbol of Wisdom, Minerva's
bird, alike with the classic Greeks and Romans, and the American
savages. This is one of the many arguments to be