In religion "A mysterious and inexplicable power resides in inanimate things ...

Lakes, rivers, and waterfalls [as conspicuously in India] are sometimes the dwelling-place of spirits; but more frequently they are themselves living beings, to be propitiated by prayers and offerings."[4] The greatest spirit among the Algonquins is the descendant of the moon, and son of the west-wind (personified).

After the deluge (thus the Hindus, etc.) this great spirit (Manabozho, _mana_ is Manu ?) restored the world; some asserting that he created the world out of water.

But others say that the supreme spirit is the sun (Le Jeune, Relation, 1633).

The Algonquins, besides a belief in a good spirit (_manitou_), had also a belief in a malignant _manitou_, in whom the missionaries recognized the devil (why not Ormuzd and Ahriman ?).