| OCR Text |
Show HAVE MANY PRETTY LEGENDS Coupled With Their Belief in "Magic," Indians Possess Interesting Stories Sto-ries of the. Creation. Civilized Indians are very reluctant to give up their belief in magic. The idea of worshiping objects is quite a settled one among the tribes, and some stories which connect corn aud flowers flow-ers with beneficent deities are very pleasing and attractive. Animals, too, are spoken of in a very singular aud superstitious manner, and the different sizes of the beasts wdtich are hunted is accounted for in a story of the creation, crea-tion, whiijh has many variations, but always agrees that at the time of the creation aa or tne oeasts ciamoreu ror priority in size. Each was vain and dictatorial, and one after another was humbled by being be-ing made smaller than a hated enemy, the idea being that everything. human and otherwise that was born had a prior existence and came into the world with the benefit of the experience experi-ence I bus derived. . Indians in many tribes believe in the doctrine of transmigration of souls, by which is meant that they believe souls, after the death of the bodies of animals that they have inhabited, pass into the bodies of others. |
