we know of Chibcha, Maya , and Nahua religions, this outline of Inca beliefs will serve as the type. Each had its creator, then the heavenly bodies to which The supreme power was conceived as resting in a culture hero, commonly passing under the name, Viracocha, though a number of other names appear in the literature of the subject, with somewhat contradictory attributes, seemingly due to original differences between the older creator gods for the several localities, differences which the Inca conquest could not entirely eradicate. The true Viracocha seems to have been a white man with a long gray beard, whose acts and disappearance have a curious resemblance to those of similar characters in the mythologies of the wilder peoples of both continents. That Viracocha was a highly personal and spiritual being is shown by one of the Inca prayers to him as translated by Sir Clements Markham. [ 1 Below these gods stood innumerable objects invested with huaca , a term difficult to define, but seemingly equivalent to wakan and manitou , as used by the wilder tribes of North America. All these objects, or huaca , were the places of sacrifice and observance for which priests were detailed. From what we know of Chibcha, Maya, and Nahua religions, this outline of Inca beliefs will serve as the type. Each had its creator, then the heavenly bodies to which sacrifices were made, and lastly a long array of fetish-like objects invested with some holy quality. The present status of our subject makes it difficult to truly characterize the ceremonial patterns for these four great centers, but certain striking features may be noted. The Maya and Nahua are notorious for the extent of their human sacrifice systems. One common form of such sacrifice was to bind the victim to a frame or pole and shoot him full of darts. This was a custom in Colombia also. For Peru there is conflicting evidence, the Inca being credited with prohibiting the practice by some authorities, but it is clear that the custom did prevail at one time. Joyce [ 3 ] believes that the bewildering multiplicity of Mexican gods is in part due to the Aztec having assimilated the respective religious systems of conquered cities; yet the  ​ Maya seem almost equally complex in their supernatural hierarchy. In both the Aztec and Maya systems there was a powerful god with a beard, resembling Viracocha of Peru, who was also the creator, but of very high rank; he was the sun and the god of thunder and rain. Particularly prominent were the star gods, of whom Venus seems to have been the most adored. Masks are used elsewhere, even among the Aztec and Inca, but among the wilder tribes are not highly developed as here on the coast of the salmon area. The whole subject of ritualism in the New World is too complicated to give an adequate view of it in a single chapter. Yet, from even this superficial sketch it appears that the phenomenon is strongest in Mexico and Peru, or the regions of highest culture, and that as we go outward in both continents from these centers, ritualism becomes less and less conspicuous. If we consider the United States and Canada only, it appears strongest in the centers of clan organization. Another general characteristic of New World ritualism is that wherever it appears, these rituals are the formalized narratives of an assumed supernatural, or spirit revelation, from the gods. The tracing out of the distribution of these rituals over the several areas of the New World is destined to become one of the most important problems of our subject and promises to reveal in the most satisfactory way the earlier historical contacts of the various existing tribes. For the three great centers of higher culture, Inca, Chibcha, and Maya-Nahua, we have far less data than for some of the wilder peoples, but what are available reveal a distinction between the two. The priests of these cultures were organized, as we have noted, in a manner comparable to and complementary to the political scheme, but the shaman class appears as unorganized and in some cases is described as itinerant. In Peru, they were sometimes  ​ given a room in the outer precincts of the temple where those who so desired could consult them.   ​ In literature the term shamanism specifically applies to the religious culture of Siberia. There we find a complicated conception of seventeen or more worlds in one of which human beings reside. Communication between these worlds can be made only through shamans conversing with the spirits of the dead. The typical shamanistic feats in Siberia are states of ecstasy, trembling, sweating, contortions, ravings, fits, etc. The shaman of the New World also manifests many of these reactions, particularly in those regions where there are no separate priests. The trances and ravings of the Eskimo angakok and the Tlingit doctor have an intensity comparable to those of the Siberian shaman, apparently much more so than have the methods of the page in the Amazon country. Yet, these abnormal psychic activities are to some degree the stock in trade of all shamans, only that when ritualism rises, they become relatively less important. Turning now to the priesthood, we find it most characteristic of the Inca, Chibcha, and Maya-Nahua centers. The priestcraft of the Maya, for example, illustrates the maximum development of ritualism where each day and night in the yearly cycle had its required rituals. In view of all this, one cannot escape the conviction that the existence of the great Inca and Maya centers of priestcraft is responsible for many specific features of New World ritualism. In these centers, one of the chief functions of the priests was the making of sacrifices. Innumerable birds, rabbits, fruits, and even leaves of plants were offered up from day to day in one ceaseless round. The occasional human sacrifice was but an   ​ incident in an otherwise steady flow of sacrificial blood.