Such exhibitions
must have made a profound impression on the spectators, and redounded in
a corresponding degree to the glory of the performer. "Who is a manito?"
asks the mystic meda chant of the Algonkins. "He," is the reply, "he who
walketh with a serpent, walking on the ground, he is a manito."[109-2]
And the intimate alliance of this symbol with the most sacred mysteries
of religion, the darkest riddles of the Unknown, is reflected in their
language, and also in that of their neighbors the Dakotas, in both of
which the same words _manito_, _wakan_, which express divinity in its
broadest sense, are also used as generic terms signifying this species
of animals! This strange fact is not without a parallel, for in both
Arabic and Hebrew, the word for serpent has many derivatives, meaning to
have intercourse with demoniac powers, to practise magic, and to consult
familiar spirits.[110-1]
The pious founder of the Moravian brotherhood, the Count of Zinzendorf,
owed his life on one occasion to this deeply rooted superstition.
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