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Show i9oo] INDIAN RELIGION * 53 character of priests, though the essentials of their equipment were still strictly those of the primitive shaman or sorcerer. In the carrying out of elaborate ceremonies, like those of the southwest, organization was necessary, and there arose shaman-istic societies or brotherhoods which gained great power and influence. These societies were often secret in character, which increased their popular prestige. The character of the chief ceremonials of the Indians has been referred to in the various descriptive chapters. \ The most elaborate of theq* ceremonies are in the southwest, and it is possible to trace a gradual modification from that region as a base. v Passing north over the great plains the importance and complexity of the religious rites are still great, but become progressively less, until the elaborate ceremonies disappear in the forests of the north. Tracing the characteristics eastward along the gulf coast we find the green- corn dance playing an all important r61e in the lives of the southeastern tribes, but its complexity is not to be compared with that of similar ceremonies in the Pueblo region, and it defreases as the northern tribes are reached. Northwest from the Pueblo the plateau tribes exhibit little that even remotely suggests the ceremonies of the southwest; and in California a simple type also exists, though more intricate than on the plateaus. A certain amount of contact be- |