to the Sun.  The sufferings undergone by men in the Medicine Lodge each year were sacrifices to the Sun.  This torture was an actual penance, like the sitting for years on top of a pillar, the wearing of a hair shirt, or fasting in Lent.  It was undergone for no other purpose than that of pleasing God—­as a propitiation or in fulfilment of vows made to him.  Just as the priests of Baal slashed themselves with knives to induce their god to help them, so, and for the same reason, the Blackfoot men surged on and tore out the ropes tied to their skins.  It is merely the carrying out of a religious idea that is as old as history and as widespread as the globe, and is closely akin to the motive which to-day, in our own centres of enlightened civilization, prompts acts of self-denial and penance by many thousands of intelligent cultivated people.  And yet we are horrified at hearing described the tortures of the Medicine Lodge.

Besides the Sun and Old Man, the Blackfoot religious system includes a number of minor deities or rather natural qualities and forces, which are personified and given shape.  These are included in the general terms Above Persons, Ground Persons, and Under Water Persons.  Of the former class, Thunder is one of the most important, and is worshipped as is elsewhere shown.  He brings the rain.  He is represented sometimes as a bird, or, more vaguely, as in one of the stories, merely as a fearful person.  Wind Maker is an example of an Under Water Person, and it is related that he has been seen, and his form is described.  It is believed by some that he lives under the water at the head of the Upper St. Mary’s Lake.  Those who believe this say that when he wants the wind to blow, he makes the waves roll, and that these cause the wind to blow,—­another example of mistaking effect for cause, so common among the Indians.  The Ground Man is another below person.  He lives under the ground, and perhaps typifies the power of the earth, which is highly respected by all Indians of the west.  The Cheyennes also have a Ground Man whom they call The Lower One, or Below Person (Pun’-[)o]-ts[)i]-hyo).  The cold and snow are brought by Cold Maker (Ai’-so-yim-stan).  He is a man, white in color, with white hair, and clad in white apparel, who rides on a white horse.  He brings the storm with him.  They pray to him to bring, or not to bring, the storm.

Many of the animals are regarded as typifying some form of wisdom or craft.  They are not gods, yet they have power, which, perhaps, is given them by the Sun or by Old Man.  Examples of this are shown in some of the stories.