The Sacred Scrolls
Dewdney learned of a secret society within the Ojibway, the Midewiwin, which purportedly embodied traditional ceremonial rituals of healing and sorcery and included four degrees of initiation. Despite being first documented by Europeans in the early 18th century, it is believed that some essential elements of the Midewiwin were "elaborations of traditional Anishinaabe beliefs and practices". Elements of this belief system were recorded on scrolls made of birch bark, sewn together with cedar roots. His The Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway, published in 1975, remains the only volume dedicated exclusively to this subject.
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Famous quotes containing the word sacred:
“For them it’s out-of-date and outmoded to perform miracles; teaching the people is too like hard work, interpreting the holy scriptures is for schoolmen and praying is a waste of time; to shed tears is weak and womanish, to be needy is degrading; to suffer defeat is a disgrace and hardly fitting for one who scarcely permits the greatest of kings to kiss the toes of his sacred feet; and finally, death is an unattractive prospect, and dying on a cross would be an ignominious end.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)