Spirit, and sacrifice is quite unknown, nor is there any attempt to placate any spirits with gifts.
There are, according to Indian belief, four kinds of spirits: the temporarily disembodied spirits of the living; the permanently disembodied of the dead; the extra-mundane spirits; and the spirits of all animate or inanimate objects. The Indian believes in a temporary transmission of soul from one body to another, for a definite purpose and time, whether the spirit be one disembodied temporarily or permanently, or whether it be extra-mundane. As for the spirit that exists in all objects,—the 'transcendental x' is Pfleiderer's illuminating expression,—this belief is the corner-stone of the Indian magico-religious system. In no other way can he explain the occult influences that surround and oppose him. Whether, when a higher-grade spirit migrates temporarily into a lower material form, the native spirit of that form is expelled, or shares its habitation for the time being, I was not able to ascertain.
Thunder is the noise of the spirits of evil when angry, and before a thunderstorm the air is full of bad spirits, whom the medicine-man must attempt to drive away, for probably they bring sickness from some enemy, wishful to destroy the tribe. Anything abnormal or unknown is regarded with suspicion. It is far more likely to be evil than good. One of the Witoto tribes had a double-stemmed palm tree that was an object of great importance, even of veneration, though not actually of worship. The sun and moon also are regarded with veneration, but are not worshipped. The moon is the sun's wife, and is sent by him periodically to prevent the evil spirits of the bush from killing everyone when the sun has set. Little attention is paid to the stars, but a Boro told me they were the spirits of great men of his tribe.
All Indians fear darkness, for then the powers of evil are most active, and no one willingly ventures far alone after sundown, nor would one bathe without a companion. In
