The Indian is like a raccoon: in his proper
surroundings he is clean morally and physically because he knows how to
be so; but in a cage he is filthy because he does not know how to be
otherwise.
I must not be understood as condemning missionary work; only the stupid
missionary work one most often sees in the North. Surely Christianity
should be adaptable enough in its little things to fit any people with
its great. It seems hard for some men to believe that it is not
essential for a real Christian to wear a plug-hat. One God, love,
kindness, charity, honesty, right living, may thrive as well in the
wigwam as in a foursquare house--provided you let them wear moccasins
and a _capote_ wherewith to keep themselves warm and vital.
Tawabinisay must have had his religious training at the hands of a good
man. He had lost none of his aboriginal virtue and skill, as may be
gathered from what I have before said of him, and had gained in
addition certain of the gentle qualities. I have never been able to
gauge exactly the extent of his religious _understanding_, for
Tawabinisay is a silent individual, and possesses very little English;
but I do know that his religious _feeling_ was deep and reverent.
He never swore in English; he did not drink; he never travelled or
hunted or fished on Sunday when he could possibly help it. These
virtues he wore modestly and unassumingly as an accustomed garment. Yet
he was the most gloriously natural man I have ever met.
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