Note 41.2 — RITUAL AND BELIEF

Whatever differences an exact analysis, in accordance with the clearly cut methods of scientific thought, may result in discovering between the concept of manitou as here displayed and the Iroquoian orenda, two resemblances stand out prominently. Orenda is, like manitou, a mystic, or magical—not a natural—quality or potentiality, which resides in some persons or objects in greater measure than others. And the fact that it is “held to be the property of all things, all bodies, and by the inchoate mentation of man is regarded as the efficient cause of all phenomena, all the activities of his environment,”41.2 approximates the conception very closely to that of manitou.