Many's the hour I've passed,
pleasantly enough too, in what is tarmed conterplation by my people.
On such occasions the mind is actyve, though the body seems lazy
and listless. An open spot on a mountain side, where a wide look
can be had at the heavens and the 'arth, is a most judicious place
for a man to get a just idee of the power of the Manitou, and of his
own littleness. At such times, there isn't any great disposition
to find fault with little difficulties, in the way of comperhension,
as there are so many big ones to hide them. Believin' comes easy
enough to me at such times, and if the Lord made man first out
of'arth, as they tell me it is written in the Bible; then turns
him into dust at death; I see no great difficulty in the way to
bringin' him back in the body, though ashes be the only substance
left. These things lie beyond our understandin', though they may
and do lie so close to our feelin's. But, of all the doctrines,
Sarpent, that which disturbs me, and disconsarts my mind the most,
is the one which teaches us to think that a pale-face goes to one
heaven, and a red-skin to another; it may separate in death them
which lived much together, and loved each other well, in life!"
"Do the missionaries teach their white brethren to think it is so?"
demanded the Indian, with serious earnestness.
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