“There is but one Great Spirit, who made all things,” said Sassacus, solemnly, “and we worship him as well as the white men.  Lightnings are the glances of his eyes; thunder is his voice; the sun is the fire before his lodge, which he extinguishes when he sleeps, and the moon and stars are the sparks which fly up into the air when it goes out.”

“Thou hast indeed, in some sort, a religion, for He hath not left even the most barbarous nations without some knowledge of himself, howbeit it is not unto wisdom.  But it is only with his true religion that he has connected that acquaintance with himself, which makes men to advance in all that is worthy to be known here, and happy hereafter.”

“Our wise men say,” replied Sassacus, “that for the spirits of brave and just warriors there are happy hunting grounds, far away towards the setting sun, which the Indian travels to, over the white path in the middle of the sky, where deer, and elk, and bears never fail, and where the hunter is never tired, nor very hungry.”

“Alas!” said the Knight; “these are but figments of the imagination—­fond dreams as unsubstantial as morning mist, and deceitful as the wandering fire, which lures the ignorant traveller into the morass.”

“O, wise chief,” said Sassacus, “our tribes have also their traditions, and I know not why they may not be as true as thine.  We do not think, as your powahs teach, that our traditions come from Hobbamocki, while yours all proceed from the Master of life.”

“Hobbamocki is thy name for the Evil Spirit?”

“My brother has said it.  Would he like to know how he was created?”

“I listen,” said the Knight.

“A long, long time ago,” said Sassacus, “the Master of Life, Kiehtan, went to a large flat island, in order to complete his work of creation.  He there created a multitude of animals, some of which were so large that he was unable to control them.  It is said that remains of gigantic beasts are still to be found upon the island, which were never finished.  It was out of clay that Kiehtan formed the beasts, while the inferior manitos looked on and rejoiced in his labor.  He made in the side of each animal an opening, whereinto he crept, and so warmed it into life.  It the animals pleased him he permitted them to swim to the great pasture land, and to fill the woods; if they pleased him not, he first withdrew the life, and then turned them into clay again.  Once he made so large a beast that he was afraid to give him life.  There were also other smaller, to whom he gave not life, because he considered them not useful.  Once he made a creature, in the form of a man, which he also rejected, but he forgot to take the life away from him, and this is the evil spirit, Hobbamocki.”

“And thou believest this fable, as wild as ever sprung from the unbridled license of an Oriental story-teller?”

“Sassacus believes as the wise men of his nation believed, when he was a little pappoose, and as their fathers believed, when they were papooses, and as his people have always believed, for more summers than there are stars in the sky.  But do not the white men believe in Hobbamocki?”