0* o q*. *.. N* .vss&- W /jflK-- %,^ .«^ W ^ ^ > v ,o> 'of » ^ V**o, o, * ° 4* 4. v .•JmW* V I*. ^ & o* -•■■ * o o. •♦T7^*'V V :• J V •*«♦• - ♦ 6 0* r oK -\o' ,0, S. • A *^** L^-^, v«^ ft: •%/ .'^i^'- **o* »«^M: "%».* :i » ^. : * . : ~*.<* v •' : /%;■- 4. \a^^-» *^ .A* +J&&9*.* * « » * < ,3- * V 5? ^ l*> v •• : V ^.•••.~*c W a** ^l. % ^ • **\ V v oV* A 4. » A^vxS • «£ ^ ^ "*, A * 9 *itfk%*> ^\,"" V c * 0* ^ ".tfl^V K^^ ** v \ "Jv A*' * 0>*^ ••IK: ji :3flK: .Si. :£lH£: *2* -^ .• ^°* VI * A^ V ^ »^f^ : ^^\ .. -fe. 4> V, V <^ -o.T ^^ S'fataLA, .to A ON THE c ^ ->^ ^ / V ^ REMGION OF THE INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA. DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, DECEMBER 20, 1819. BY SAMUEL FAR MAR JAR VIS, D. D. A. A. S. Jusques dans leurs demarches les plus ind'flerpntes on appert,oit des traces de la religion primitive; mais qui echapent a ceu\, qui ue les efudierit pas asscz, par la raison qu'ellf s sont encore plus eflacees par le defaut d'iustruction, qu'alterees par ;<. melange d'un culte superstitieux, et par des traditions Ubnleusea. ...Ckurlrroix JVEW-YORK. rtfEMSHED BY C. WILE\ & CO. 3 WALL STREET. C. S. Van Winkle, Printer. 1820 598 . \ NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY December 20th, 1819. Resolved, that the thanks of this Society be presented to the Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis, D. D. for the Anniversary Dis- course delivered by him this day, and that he be respectfully requested to furnish the Society with a copy for publication. Resolved, that Doctor A. W. Ives, G. C. Verplanck, and M. C. Paterson, Esqrs. be a Committee to ivait on the Reverend Doctor Jarvis, with this resolution. JOHN PINTARD, Recording Secretary, A DISCOURSE ON THE RELIGION OF THE INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA. Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Historical Society, In surveying those portions of American history, from which I might select a subject for the present occasion, it appeared to me, that the religion of the Indian tribes of North America, had not been viewed with that largeness of observation, which is the characteristic of enlightened philosophy. Various causes may be mentioned, which have hitherto con- spired to prevent, or to impede, such an examination. In the first place, the horror, proceeding from the cruelties of their warfare, forbade the calmness of investigation. As long as they were formidable, curiosity was overpowered by terror ; and there was neither leisure, nor inclination, to contemplate their character as a portion of the human family, while the glare of conflagration reddened the mid- 6 night sky, and the yells of the savage, mingling with the shrieks of butchered victims, rode, as portentous messengers, upon every gale. But that state of things has long ceased to exist. The white men of America have become too numerous, to fear any longer the effects of savage barbarity ; and the tales, which once carried terror to the stoutest heart, are now scarcely heard beyond the precincts of the nur- sery. In the room of fear, should now arise a senti- ment of pity. " The red men are melting," to borrow the expressive metaphor of one of their most celebra- ted warriors* — " like snow before the sun ;" and we should be anxious, before it is too late, to copy the evanescent features of their character, and perpetuate them on the page of history. But when fear ceases, contempt is a natural con- sequence. The Indian, whose character was once so lofty and independent, is now seen begging at our doors for the price of his perdition ; and, as our foot spurns the suppliant, we are apt to think, that nothing, connected with one so vile, can be worthy of our attention. But is it fair to judge from so vitiated a specimen ? When a race of men are mingled with others, who consider them as inferiors, they inevitably become so. Submission to contempt, is an acknowledgment of its justice. If, therefore, the "• The noted Miami Chief Mishikinakwa, or Little Turtle, who contributed most to the defeat of St. Clair. See Volney's View of the soil and climate of the United States. Supplement, No. VI. Philad. 1S04, p. 385. Indian would avoid degradation, he must retire from the habitations of white men ; and if we wish to see him in his original character, we must follow him to his native forests.— There, surely, he is worthy of our attention. The lovers of the physical sciences, ex- plore the woods of America, to cull her plants, and to investigate the habits of her animals. Shall not the lovers of the moral sciences, be equally ardent and industrious ? Shall man, who stands at the summit of earthly creation, be forgotten, amid the general scrutiny ? The sources of prejudice which I have mention- ed, influence the examination of every subject, con- nected with the Indian character : there are peculiar difficulties, with regard to that on which I have chosen to address you. The Indians themselves are not communicative in relation to their religion ; and it requires a good deal of familiar, attentive, and I may add, unsuspected observation, to obtain any knowledge respecting it. Hence, many who have been transiently resident among them, have very confidently pronounced, that they have no religion ; an assertion, which subse- quent and more accurate travellers, have shown to be entirely unfounded.* Those, also, on whom we rely for information, have either been too little informed to know what to observe, or they have been influenced by peculiar Note A 8 modes of thinking, which have given a tinge to all they have said on the subject. The various speculations, for example, on the question, whence America was peopled, led to many misrepresentations of the religious rites of its inhabi- tants ; and affinities were discovered which existed no where but in the fancy of the inventor. Gomara, Lerius, and Lescarbot, inferred from some resem- blances of this kind, that America was peopled by the Canaanites when they were expelled by Joshua ; and the celebrated Grotius, adopting the sentiment of Martyr, imagined that Yucatan was first peopled by Ethiopians, and that those Ethiopians were Christians !* The human mind derives pleasure from paradox, for the same reason that it delights in wit. Both produce new and surprising combinations of thought; and the judgment, being overpowered by the fervours of imagination, becomes for a time insensible to their extravagance. It is well known, that, among the philosophers of Europe, the opinion has very generally prevailed, that the natives of America were, both as to physi- cal and mental powers, a feeble race ; and, impress- ed with this belief, they hardly considered the reli- gion of the Indians as worthy of minute attention. The celebrated historian of America, has uncon- sciously fallen into this error, at the very moment in which he was censuring others, for suffering their re- lation of facts to be perverted, by an attachment to preconceived theories.* Volney, in opposition to the sentiments of Rousseau, has endeavoured to sink the character of the savage, in the same proportion as that eccentric author sought to raise it. On the subject of the Indian religion especially, no one should be read with greater cau- tion. He who could imagine that Christianity was only an astronomical allegory, and that the birth of our Saviour meant no more than that the sun had entered the constellation Virgo, can hardly be con- sidered as perfectly sane, even when he treats on the religion of Heathens. t We need not be surprised, therefore, at the assertion, that the Indians have no regular system of religion ; that each one employs the liberty allowed him of making a religion for himself ; and that all the worship they know is of- fered to the authors of evil. J Never was there an * See Robertson's America, book iv. §. vii. t See Les Ruines, ou Meditations sur les Revolutions des Empires, par M. Volney. NouveUe edition, corrigie, Paris, 1792, Svo. chap. 22. p. 1S5. 221-4. In this work, Volney had the hardihood to maintain, not only that our Saviour was an allegorical personage, but that all religions, Heathen, Mahometan, and Jewish, as well as Christian, are in substance the same ; that all have arisen from a literal interpretation of the figurative language of astronomers ; and that the very idea of a God, sprung from a personification of the elements, and of the physical powers of the universe. At the sight of this monstrous creation of a disordered fancy, one cannot help exclaiming with Stillinglleet, " Oh what will not Atheists believe, rather than a Deity and Providence." i Volney's View of the United States, ut snpr. trans, by Brown, p. 41ir 2 10 assertion more unfounded ; but it enabled him to quote that maxim of the Epicniean poet, which is so frequently in the mouths of unbelievers, that all religion originated in fear : Primos in orbe Deos fecit timor. On the other hand, an hypothesis has somewhat extensively prevailed, which exalts the religion of the Indians as much above its proper level, as Vol- ney has debased it below ; I mean that, which sup- poses them to be the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel. This theory so possessed the mind of Adair, that, although he had the greatest opportunities of obtaining knowledge, his book is, comparatively, of little use. We are constantly led to suspect the fidelity of his statements, because his judgment had lost its equipoise, and he saw every thing through a discoloured medium. I feel myself bound to notice this hypothesis the more, because it has lately been revived and brought before the public, by a venera- ble member of this society, whose exalted character renders every opinion he may defend a subject of re- spectful attention.* To the mind of every religious man, the history of the Hebrews is a subject of peculiar interest ; and it is impossible to read of the extermination of the * See Dr. Boudinot's Star in the West, or a humble attempt to discover the long-lost ten tribes of Israel, preparatory to their return to their beloved fity Jerusalem. Trenton, (N. J.) 1S16. 8vo. 11 kingdom of Israel, without a feeling of compassion for the captives, who were thus torn from the land of their prerogative. The impenetrable darkness which hangs over their subsequent history, combines with this sentiment of pity, the powerful excitement of curiosity. It is not, then, to be wondered at, that When the disquisitions arose respecting the peopling of America, the idea of tracing to these western shores the long-lost tribes of Israel, should also have arisen before the eye of imagination with captivating splendour ; that the thought should have been seized with avidity by men who were pious, and ardent, and contemplative ; and that, in the establishment of a theory which every one could wish to be true, facts should be strained from their natural bent, and resemblances imagined, which have no existence in reality. The most unequivocal method of tracing the origin of the aborigines of America, as Charlevoix has sensibly remarked, is to ascertain the character of their languages, and to compare them with the pri- mitive languages of the eastern hemisphere.* But this test will, I conceive, be found very fatal to the theory in question. The best informed wri- ters agree, that there are, exclusive of the Karalit or Esquimaux, three radical languages spoken by the * Charlevoix's Dissertation sur l'origine des Ameriquains, prefixed to his Journal d'un voyage dans I'Amcr. Scptent. — Hist, de la nouvelle France, torn. iii. p. 36. 12 Indians of North America.* Mr. Heckewelder de- nominates them the Iroquois, the Lenape, and the Floridian. The Iroquois is spoken by the six na- tions, the Wyandots or Hurons, the Naudowessies, the Assiniboils, and other tribes beyond the St. Law- rence. The Lenape, which is the most widely ex- tended language on this side of the Mississippi, was spoken by the tribes, now extinct, who formerly in- habited Nova-Scotia and the present state of Maine, the Abenakis, Micmacs, Canibas, Openangos, Soc- cokis, Etchemins, and Souriquois : dialects of it are now spoken by the Miamis, the Potawotamies, Missisaugoes, and Kickapoos ; the Conestogos, Nan- { icokes, Shawanese, and Mohicans ; the Algonquins, Knisteneaux, and Chippeways. The Floridian in- cludes the languages of the Creeks or Muskohgees, Chickesaws, Choctaws, Pascagoulas, Cherokees, Seminoles, and several others in the Southern states and Florida.f These three languages are primitive, that is to say, are so distinct as to have no perceiva- ble affinity. All, therefore, cannot be derived from the Hebrew ; for it is a contradiction in terms, to speak of three languages radically different, as de- * See Note C. t Transactions of the Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society, held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge Vol.i. Philad. 1819, 8vo. No. I. An account of the history, manners, and customs, of the Indian nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania, and the neighbouring states. By the Rev. John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem. Chap is. p. 104. 13 rived from a common source.* Which then, we, may well ask, is to be selected as the posterity of the Israelites : the Iroquois, the Lenape, or the southern Indians ? Besides, there is one striking peculiarity in the construction of American languages, which has no counterpart in the Hebrew. Instead of the ordinary division of genders, they divide into the animate and inanimate. It is impossible to conceive that any nation, in whatever circumstances they might be placed, could depart, in so remarkable a manner, from the idioms of their native language.f But supposing that there were some affinity in any one of the languages of North America to the Hebrew, still it would not prove that the persons who speak it are of Hebrew descent. The Arabic and the Amharic have very strong affinities with the- Hebrew : but does it thence follow that the Arabs and Abyssinians are Hebrews? Admitting, there- fore, the fact of this affinity, in its fullest extent, the only legitimate inference would be, that the langua- ges of America are of oriental derivation, and, con- sequently, that America was peopled from Asia. To pursue this subject further, would occupy too much time upon a point which is merely subsidiary-! But I cannot forbear remarking, that, while the na- tion of Israel has been wonderfully preserved, the a See Note D. t See Note E t See Note F. 14 Indians are nearly exterminated. The nation of Israel will hereafter be restored to the land of their forefathers ; but this event must speedily arrive, or the unhappy tribes of America can have no part in it. A few years more, and they will be beyond the capability of migration ! The question, then, with regard to the immediate origin of the American Indians, must remain in the uncertainty which hangs over it. Nothing but a more extensive knowledge of the languages of this continent, of those of Northern Asia, and of the Islands in the Southern Pacific, can throw any ad- ditional light upon a problem, which has so long exercised, and so completely exhausted, the inge- nuity of conjecture. Their religion furnishes no assistance in the solution, for it cannot be identified with that of any particular nation, in any other por- tion of the globe ; and though resemblances, and those very strong and striking, can be traced, yet they are such as are common to the great family of man, and prove nothing but that all have one com- mon origin. It will be readily seen, however, that this proof is of vast importance. If the religion of the Indians exhibits traces of that primeval religion which was of divine appointment ; if the debasement of it was owing, as among all other nations, to the concurrent operation of human ignorance, weakness, and cor- ruption ; and if its rites, and even its superstitious 15 observances, boar that analogy to those of the old world, vvhich must exist where all have flowed from one source : then all that is really useful in the ques- tion respecting the origin of the inhabitants of this continent will be fully obtained. There will be no anomaly in the history of human nature ; and the assertion of Voltaire will be found to be as false as it is flippant, that the Americans are a race entirely dirTerent from other men, and that they have sprung into existence like plants and insects." * " II n'est permis qn'a un aveugle de douter que les Blancs, les Negres, les Albinos, les Hottentots, les Lapoiis, les Chinois, les Americains soient des races entierement diffcrentes." Voltaire Gluvres, vol. 16. p. 8. " Au reste si Ton demande d'ou sont venus les Americains, il faut aussi demander d'ou sont venus les habitants des terres Australes ; et Ton a deja repondu que la providence qui a mis des homines dans le Norvege, en a plante aussi en Amerique et sousle cercle polaire meridional, comme elle y a plante des arbres et fait croitre de Pherbe." Ibid, p. 10. " Se peut-il qu'on demande encore d'ou sent venus les hommes qui out peuplc I' Amerique ? On doit assurementfaire la mime (juestion sur les na- tions des Terres Australes. Elles sont beaucoup plus eloignees du port dont partit Christopbe Colomb, que ne le sont les iles Antilles. Onatrouvedes homines et des animaux partout ou la terre est habitable ; qui les y a mis ? On a deja dit; C'est celui qui fait croitre l'herbe des champs : et on ne de- vait pas ("ire plus surpris de trouver en Amirique des hommes que des mouches." lb. p. 37. How much pains did this extraordinary man take, to degrade that nature of which lie was at once the ornament and the shame ! No one can read the writings of Voltaire, without a feeling of admiration at the wonderful versa- tility of his talents. No one can help being amused, and having his mind drawn along, by the powers of his excursive fancy. Bui with all this, there is, to every serious and sensitive mind ; a feeling of disgust and shrinking ab- horrence. By associating ludicrous images with subjects which have been hallowed by the veneration of ages, he has the address to impart to them that ridicule which properly belongs only to the company in which he has 16 Previous to the dispersion of the descendants of Noah, ihe knowledge of the true God, of the wor- ship which he required from his creatures, and of the sanctions with which he enforced his commands, must have been common to all. It is impossible to conceive of any distinction where all were equally related to him, and possessed equal means of instruc- tion and knowledge. In a word, the whole of man- kind formed one universal church, having the same faith and the same worship. How long this purity continued we know not, nor when, nor where, idolatry was first introduced. That it began, however, at a very early period, we have the strongest evidence ; for Terah, the father of Abraham, was an idolater, notwithstanding the precepts and example of Noah, both of which, for more than a hundred years, hs personally enjoyed. We may account for it from that tendency in our nature which seeks to contract every thing within the compass of our understanding, and to subject it, if possible, to the scrutiny of our senses. A Being purely spiritual, omniscient and omnipotent, is above our comprehension, and we seek, by the multiplica- tion of subordinate deities, to account for the opera- placed them. Hence, his writings have done more injury to truth, and to human happiness, than those of any other modern — perhaps I may add, of any other being. The thoughtless and the timid have been frightened out of their good principles by his caustic sarcasm, while to the rashly bold and ignorantly daring, the eyes of the judgment have been blinded by 'ihe coruscations of his wit. 17 tions of his power. When this is done, the imagina- tion feels itself at liberty to clothe them with corpo- real forms : and from this idea, the transition is not difficult, to the formation of idols, and the introduc- tion of idolatry. But notwithstanding this departure from primeval purity, the religion of mankind did not at once lose all its original brightness. It was still the form of the archangel ruined. It did not reject the worship of the true God, but seems only to have absurdly combined with it the worship of inferior divinities. When Abraham sojourned at Gerar, the king of that country had evidently communications with the Al- mighty ; and the testimony which God gave of the integrity of his character, and his submission to the divine admonition, clearly prove that he was a true believer.* At a subsecpient period, when Isaac lived in the same country, the king, a descendant of the former monarch, requested that a covenant of friendship should be made between them, because, as he observed, Isaac was the blessed of Jehovah.f " This," as Bishop Horsley remarks, " is the lan- guage of one who feared Jehovah, and acknowledged his providence."J When Joseph was brought before the King of « Gen. xx. 3, 4, 5, 6. See also xxi. 22, 23. t Gen. xxvi. 28, 29. t Horsley's Dissertation on the Prophecies of the Messiah, dispersed among the Heathen, prefixed to Nine Serin, p. 41. New-York. lSltf. 8vn. f 3 18 Egypt, botli speak of God as if they had the same faith, and the same trust in his overruling provi- dence.* Even at so late a period as when the Israelites entered Canaan, the spies of Joshua found a woman of Jericho, who confessed that i; Jehovah, the God of Israel, he is God in Heaven above, and in the earth beneath. "f The book of Job presents an interesting view of the patriarchal religion as it existed in Arabia ; and, it will be remembered that, in Mesopotamia, Balaam was a prophet of tin 1 Most High. These instances are sufficient to show how exten- sively the worship of the true God prevailed, and that it had not become extinct even when the chil- dren oi' Israel took possession of the land of promise, and became the peculiar people of Jehovah. That it was blended, however, with the worship of infe- rior divinities, represented in idolatrous forms, is equally apparent from the sacred history. When the servant of Abraham had disclosed to the family oi' Nahor the purpose of his mission, both Laban and Bethuel replied: u The thing pro- ceedeth from Jehovah ; we cannot speak unto thee bad or good."J This reply was an evidence oi' their faith in the tine God; yet it afterwards appears that the same Laban had images which he called his t luils, and w Inch were regarded w iih veneration, and • <;-•„ \]\ 25.32 38,39 f Joab.ti. v M ' Gen kit 80 19 greativ valued by himself and his children.* I poii thr i - ob's departure to Bethel, he eom- s bold to •• put a way the - Gods g them.*' These Gods mu>t been numerous : for it is mentioned that •• unto Jacob all the strange Gods which were in their hand, and he hid them under the oak by -iri.i.- Even the chosen family, therefore, was xempt from the infection of idolatry. But this was idolatry in its milder form. Tin n fact _ sbm aod more malignant s\ i I.. worship of the urns at length is usurp. and a general apostacy preva: - Tht . _ nations on : robate mind."i and to >-_ : ■ 20 a peculiar people, to be a signal example of his pro- vidence, the witness of his wonders, and the guar- dian of that revelation with which he sought to check the waywardness of human corruption. I. Having thus seen that all false religions are, in a greater or loss degree, departures from the true ; that there is a tendency in the human mind, to form low and limited views of the Supreme Being ; and that, in fact, all nations have fallen into the corruptions of polytheism and idolatry ; we should conclude, even in reasoning a priori, that the religion of the Indians would be found to partake of the general character. Accordingly, the fact is amply attested, that while they acknowledge One Supreme Being, whom they denominate the Great Spirit, or the Master of Life, they also believe in Subordinate Divinities, who have the chief regulation of the affairs of men. Charlevoix,, who had all the opportunities of ob- taining information which personal observation, and the united testimony of the French missionaries could give, is an unexceptionable witness with re- gard to the Hurons, the Iroquois, and the Algon- quins. Nothing, says he, is more certain, though at the same time obscure, than the conception which the American savages have of a Supreme Being. All agree that he is the Great Spirit, and that he is the master, creator, and governor of the world.* ■ Charlevoix, Journal, fcc. let. xxiv. p. 343. 21 The Hurons call him Areskoui ; the Iroquois, by a slight variation, Agreskoue. He is, with them, the God of war. His name they invoke as they march. It is the signal to engage, and it is the war-cry in the hottest of the battle.* But, beside the Supreme Being, they believe in an infinite number of subaltern spirits, who are the objects of worship. These they divide into good and bad. The good spirits are called, by the Hu- rons, Okkis, by the Algonquins, Manitous, They suppose them to be the guardians of men, and that each has his own tutelary deity .f In fact, every thing in nature has its spirit, though all have not the same rank nor the same influence. The animals they hunt have their spirits. If they do not understand * Charlevoix, Journal, kc. let. xxiv. p. 344. " II paroit que dans ces chansons (tie guerre) on invoque le Dieu de la guerre, que les Hurons appellent ,1resl:oui, et les Iroquois Jlgrcskoui. Je ne scjai pas quel nom on lui donrie dans les langues Algonquiues. Mais n'est il pas un peuetonnant que dans le mot Grec A/>«c, qui est le Mars, et le Dieu de la guerre dans tous les pays, on Ion a suivi la Theologie d'Homere, on trouvc la racine d'ou semblent deriver plusieurs ternies de la langue Huronne et lroquoise,qui ont rapport a la guerre ? Aregouen signifie, fair'e la guerre, et se conjugue ainsi : Garego, je fais la guerre ; Surcgo, tu fais la guerre ; Arego, il fait la guerre. Au reste, Areskoui n'est pas seulement le Mars de ces penples; il est encore le Souverain des Dieux,ou, comme ils s'expriment, le Grand Esprit, le Createur et le Maitre du Monde, le Genie qui gouvernc tout : mais e'est principale- meiit pour les expeditions militaires, qu'on 1'invoque, comme si la qualite, qui lui fait le plus d'homieur utoit celle de Dieu des armees. Son nom est le cri de guerre avant le combat, et au fort dc la mSlie : dans les marches m£me on le n'pete souvent, comme pour s'encourager, et pour implorcr son assistance." Ibid, p. 208. t See Note G. 22 any thing, they immediately say, It is a spirit. If any man performs a remarkable exploit, or exhibits extraordinary talents, he is said to be a spirit, or, in other words, his tutelary deity is supposed to be of more than ordinary power.* It is remarkable, however, that these tutelary deities are not supposed to take men under their pro- tection till something has been done to merit the favour. A parent who wishes to obtain a guardian spirit for his child, first blackens his face, and then causes him to fast for several days.f During this time it is expected that the spirit will reveal himself in a dream ; and on this account, the child is anxiously examined every morning with regard to the visions of the preceding night. Whatever the child happens to dream of the most frequently, even if it happen to be the head of a bird, the foot of an animal, or any thing of the most worthless nature, becomes the symbol or figure under which the Okki reveals himself. With this figure, in the concep- tions of his votary, the spirit becomes identified ; the image is preserved with the greatest care — is the constant companion on all great and important occa- sions, and the constant object of consultation and worship.! As soon as a child is informed what is the nature 4 Charlevoix, Journal, Sic. let. xxiv. p. 345-6. [See Note H.] t See Note I. ; Charlevoix, ut supr. p. 346. 23 or form of his protecting deity, he is carefully in- structed in the obligations he is under to do him homage — to follow his advice communicated in dreams — to deserve his favours — to confide implicitly in his care — and to dread the consequences of his displeasure. For this reason, when the Huron or the Iroquois goes to battle or to the chase, the image of his okki is as carefully carried with him as his arms.* At night, each one places his guardian idol on the palisades surrounding the camp, with the face turned from the quarter to which the warriors, or hunters, are about to march. He then prays to it for an hour, as he does also in the morning before he continues his course. This homage performed, he lies down to rest, and sleeps in tranquillity, fully persuaded that his spirit will assume the whole duty of keeping guard, and that he has nothing to fear.f * See Note K. t " Mais ce que l'on oublieroit encore moiiis qne les armes, et ce que Ton consent avec le plus grand soin dont les sauvages sont capables, ce sont les Manilous. Jen parleraiailleurs plus amplement : il suffit ici de dire que ce sont les symboles, sou9 lesquels chacun se represente son esprit familier. On les met tous dans un sac fait de Jones, et peint de difl'erentes couleurs ; et sou- vent, pour faire honneur au chef, on place ce sac sur le devant de son canot. S'il y atrop de Manitous pour tenir dansun seul sac, on les distribue dans plusieuis, qui sont confies a la garde da lieutenant et des anciens de chaque famille. Alors on y joint les presens, qui out ete faits pour avoir des prison- niers, avec les langues de tous les animaux, qu'on a tuts pendant la campaene, et doat on doit faire au relour un sacrifice aux esprils." Charlevoix, Journal, p. -111. " On campe lontems avant le soled conche, et pour 1'ordinaire on laisse dcvautle camp un grand espace environne dune palissade, ou pKktot diine 24 With this account of Charlevoix, the relations which the Moravian missionaries give, not only of the Iroquois, but also of the Lenapes, or Delawares, and the numerous tribes derived from them, per- fectly accord. " The prevailing opinion of all these nations is," says Loskiel, " that there is one God, or, as they call him, one great and good Spirit, who has created the heavens and the earth, and made man and every other creature." But "beside the Supreme Being, they believe in good and evil spirits, considering them as subordinate deities." " Our missionaries have not found rank polytheism, or gross idolatry, to exist among the Indians. They have, however, something which may be called an idol.* This is the Manitto, representing, in wood, the head of a man in miniature, which they always carry about them, either on a string round their neck, or in a bag. They hang it also about their children, to preserve them from illness, and ensure to them success. When they perform a solemn sacrifice, a manitto, or a head as large as life, is put upon a pole in the middle of the house. But they understand by the word manitto, every being to which an offering is made, especially all good espece de treillis, sur Ipqnel on place les Manitous tournes du cote, ou Ton veut aller. On les y invoque pendant uneheure,etonenfaitautanttousles tKctlins, avant que de dicamper. Aprcs ceJa on croit n'acoir rien a craindre, on suppose que les esjirils se chargent de faire seals la sentinelle, et loute I'armct dor! tranquUlemenl sous leur sauve-gardt." Ibid, p. 23(5. * See Note L 25 spirits. They also look upon the elements, almost all animals, and even some plants, as spirits, one exceeding the other in dignity and power. The manittoes are also considered as tutelar spirits. Every Indian has one or more, which he conceives to be peculiarly given to assist him and make him prosper. One has, in a dream, received the sun as his tutelar spirit, another the moon ; a third, an owl ; a fourth, a buffalo. An Indian is dispirited, and considers himself as forsaken by God, till he has re- ceived a tutelar spirit in a dream ; but those who have been thus favoured, are full of courage, and proud of their powerful ally.* This account is corroborated by Heckewelder in his late interesting history of the Indian nations. " It is a part of their religious belief," says he, 11 that there are inferior manittos, to whom the great and good Being has given the rule and com- mand over the elements ; that being so great, he, like their chiefs, must have his attendants to exe- cute his supreme behests ; these subordinate spirits (something in their nature between God and manj see and report to him what is doing upon earth ; they look down particularly upon the Indians, to see whether they are in need of assistance, and are ready at their call to assist and protect them against danger. Thus I have frequently witnessed Indians, * Loskiel, parti, chap.iii. p. 34, 35. 39, 40. Lond. 1794. 4 26 on the approach of a storm or thunder gust, address the manitto of the air to avert all danger from them : I have also seen the Chippeways, on the lakes of Canada, pray to the manitto of the waters, that he might prevent the swells from rising too high, while they were passing over them. In both these instan- ces, they expressed their acknowledgment, or showed their willingness to be grateful, by throwing tobacco in the air, or strewing it on the waters."* — " But amidst all these superstitious notions, the Su- preme Manitto, the creator and preserver of heaven and earth, is the great object of their adoration. On him they rest their hopes — to him they address their prayers, and make their solemn sacrifices."! The Knistineaux Indians, who inhabit the country extending from Labrador, across the continent, to the Highlands which divide the waters on Lake Superior from those of Hudson's Bay, appear, from Mackenzie's account, to have the same system, ef one great Supreme, and innumerable subordinate deities. " The Great Master of Life," to use their own expression, "is the sacred object of their devo- tion. But each man carries in his medicine bag a kind of household God, which is a small carved image about eight inches long. Its first covering is of down, over which a piece of beech bark is closely tied, and the whole is enveloped in several folds of * See Note M. t Heckewelder, p. 205, 6 27 red and blue cloth. This little figure is an object of the most pious regard."* It is remarkable, that the description given by Peter Martyr, who was the companion of Columbus, of the worship of the inhabitants of Cuba, perfectly agrees with this account of the Northern Indians by Mackenzie. They believed in the existence of one supreme, invisible, immortal, and omnipotent crea- tor, whom they named Jocahuna, but at the same time acknowledged a plurality of subordinate deities. They had little images called Zemes, whom they looked upon as only a kind of messengers between them and the eternal, omnipotent, and invisible God. These images they considered as bodies inhabited by spirits, and oracular responses were therefore received from them as uttered by the divine com- mand.! The religion of Porto Rico, Jamaica, and His- paniola, was the same as that of Cuba ; for the in- habitants were of the same race, and spoke the same language. The Carribean Islands, on the other hand, were inhabited by a very fierce and savage people, who were continually at war with the milder natives of Cuba and Hispaniola, and were regarded ■ Mackenzie's Voyages from Montreal, on the river St. Lawrence, through the continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, in the years 1789 and 1793. Lond. 1801. 4to. p. ci. cii. 8vo. 1902. vol. i. p. 124. t Pet. Mart, decad i. lib. ix. apud StilliHgfleet's Origines Sacro*, vol. 2. p. 360. and Edwards' West-Indies, vol. i. p 83. [See Note N ] 28 by them with the utmost terror and abhorrence. Yet " the Charaibes," to use the language of the elegant historian of the West Indies, " while they entertained an awful sense of one great Universal Cause, of a superior, wise, and invisible Being of ab- solute and irresistible power, admitted also the agency of subordinate divinities. They supposed that each individual person had his peculiar protector or tutelary deity ; and they had their lares and pe- nates, gods of their own creating." " Hughes, in his History of Barbadoes, mentions many fragments of Indian idols, dug up in that island, which were com- posed of the same materials as their earthen vessels. 'I saw the head of one,' says he, ' which alone weighed above sixty pounds. This, before it was broken off, stood upon an oval pedestal, about three feet in height. The heads of all the others were very small. These lesser idols were, in all proba- bility, made small for the ease and conveniency of being carried with them in their several journeys, as the larger sort were perhaps designed for some sta- ted places of worship.' "* Thus, in this vast extent of country, from Hud- son's Bay to the West Indies, including nations whose languages are radically different, nations un- connected with, and unknown to, each other, the greatest uniformity of belief prevails with regard te " Edwards, vol. i. p. 48-9. and Hughes, p. 7. apud Edwards ut. sup. 29 the Supreme Being, and the greatest harmony in their system of polytheism. After this view, it is impossible not to remark, that there is a smaller de- parture from the original religion among the Indians of America, than among the more civilized nations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The idea of the Divine Unity is much more perfectly preserved ; the subordinate divinities are kept at a much more im- measurable distance from the Great Spirit ; and, above all, there has been no attempt among them to degrade to the likeness of men, the invisible and in- comprehensible Creator of the universe. In fact, theirs is exactly that milder form of idolatry which ' ; prevailed every where from the days of Abraham, his single family excepted," and which, after the death of that patriarch and of his son Isaac, infected, from time to time, even the chosen family itself.* II. The belief of a future state of rewards and punishments has been kept alive among all heathen nations, by its connexion with the sensible enjoy- ments and sufferings, and the consequent hopes and terrors of men. Its origin must have been in divine revelation ; for it is impossible to conceive that the mind could have attained to it by its own unassisted powers. Bui the thought, when once communicated, would, in the shipwreck of dissolving nature, be clung to with the ■ Horsley's Dissertation, nt supr. p. 47. 30 grasp of expiring hope. Hence no nations have yet been found, however rude and barbarous, who have not agieed in the great and general principle of retri- butive immortality. When, however, we descend to detail, and inquire into their peculiar notions with regard to this expected state, we find that their tra- ditions are coloured by the nature of their earthly occupations, and the opinions they thence entertain on the subject of good and evil. This remark is fully verified by the history of the American Indians. " The belief most firmly esta- blished among the American savages," says Charle- voix, " is that of the immortality of the soul.* They suppose, that when separated from the body, it pre- serves the same inclinations which it had when both were united. For this reason, they bury with the dead all that they had in use when alive. Some imagine that all men have two souls, one of which never leaves the body unless it be to inhabit ano- ther. This transmigration, however, is peculiar to the souls of those who die in infancy, and who therefore have the privilege of commencing a se- cond life, because they enjoyed so little of the first. Hence children are buried along the highways, that the women, as they pass, may receive their souls. From this idea of their remaining with the body, arises the duty of placing food upon their graves ;f and mothers have been seen to draw from their * See Note 0. t Journal Historique, p. 351. [See Note P.] 31 bosoms that nourishment which these little crea- tures loved when alive, and shed it upon the earth which covered their remains."* " When the time has arrived for the departure of those spirits which leave the body, they pass into a region which is destined to be their eternal abode, and which is therefore called the Country of Souls. This country is at a great distance toward the west, and to go thither costs them a journey of many months. They have many difficulties to surmount, and many perils to encounter. They speak of a stream in which many suffer shipwreck ; — of a dog from which they, with difficulty, defend them- selves ; — of a place of suffering where they expiate their faults ; — of another in which the souls of those prisoners who have been tortured are again tor- mented, and who therefore linger on their course, to delay as long as possible the moment of their arrival. From this idea it proceeds, that after the death of these unhappy victims, for fear their souls may remain around the huts of their tormentors from the thirst of vengeance, the latter are careful to * " On a vft des meres garder des ann6es entiores les cadavres de leurs en- fans, et ne pouvoir s'en eloigner ; et d'autres se tirer du lait dc la mamelle, et le repandre sur la tombe de ces petites creatures. Si le feu prend a ua village, ou il y ait des corps morts, c'est la premiere chose qu'on met en surete on se depouille de ce qu'on a de plus precieux, pour en parer Ie3 dcfunts : de terns en tems on d6couvre leurs cercueils pour les changer d'ha- bits, et Ton s'arrache les niorceaux de la bouche, pour les porter sur leur sepulture, et dans les lieux, ou Ton s'imagine que leurs ames se promeneut." Charlevoix, Journal, ut supr. p, 372-3. 32 strike every place around them with a staff, and to utter such terrible cries as may oblige them to de- part."* To be put to death as a captive is, therefore, an exclusion from the Indian paradise ; and, indeed, "the souls of all who have died a violent death, even in war, and in the service of their country, are supposed to have no intercourse in the future world with other souls.f They therefore burn the bodies of such persons, or bury them, sometimes before they have expired. They are never put into the common place of interment, and they have no part in that solemn ceremony which the Hurons and the Iroquois observe every ten years, and other nations every eight, of depositing all who have died during that period in a common place of sepulture."! To have been a good hunter, brave in war, fortu- nate in every enterprise, and victorious over many enemies, are the only titles to enter their abode of bliss. The happiness of it consists in the never-fail- ing supply of game and fish, an eternal spring, and an abundance of every thing which can delight the * Journal Historique, ut supr. p. 352. [See Note Q.] t How different from the opinions of the Scandinavian Nations, from whose paradise all were excluded who ignobly died in the common course of nature. None were admitted to the Hall of Odin but those who had fallen in battle. i Charlevoix, Journal Hist. p. 376-7. This ceremony is called the feast of the dead, or of souls, and is described very minutely by Charlevoix, who calls it w Taction la plus singuliere et la plus cclcbre de toute la religion des sauvages." 33 senses without the labour of procuring it."* Such are the pleasures which they anticipate who often return weary and hungry from the chase, who are often exposed to the inclemencies of a wintry sky, and who look upon all labour as an unmanly and degrading employment. The Chepewyans live between the parallels of lat. 60 and 65 north, a region of almost perpetual snows ; where the ground never thaws, and is so barren as to produce nothing but moss.f To them, therefore, perpetual verdure and fer- tility, and waters unincumbered with ice, are volup- tuous images. Hence they imagine that, after death, they shall inhabit a most beautiful island in the centre of an extensive lake. On the surface of this lake they will embark in a stone canoe, and if their actions have been generally good, will be borne by a gentle current to their delightful and eternal abode. But if, on the contrary, their bad actions predominate. " the stone canoe sinks, and leaves them up to their chins in the water, to behold and regret the reward enjoyed by the good, and eternally struggling, but with unavailing endeavours, to reach the blissful island, from which they are excluded for ever."! On the other hand, the Arrowauks, or natives of Charlev. ut supr. p. 332-3. t Mackenzie, 8vo. vol. I. p. 155. 1ST. | Mackenzie, ut sup. General History of the Fi u 'Tpade, 4to. p. CIUL 8ro. vol i. p. 145, 6. 5 34 Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, Jamaica and Trini- dad, would naturally place their enjoyments in every thing that was opposite to the violence of a tropical climate. " They supposed, therefore, that the spirits of good men were conveyed to the plea- sant valley of Coyaba; a place of indolent tranquillity, abounding with guavas and other delicious fruits, cool shades, and murmuring rivulets ; in a country where drought never rages, and the hurricane is never felt."* While these voluptuous people made the happi- ness of the Future State to consist in these tranquil enjoyments, their fierce enemies, the Charaibes, looked forward to a paradise, in which the brave would be attended by their wives and captives. " The degenerate and the cowardly, they doomed to everlasting banishment beyond the mountains; to unremitting labour in employments that disgrace manhood — a disgrace heightened by the greatest of all afflictions, captivity and servitude among the Ar- rowauks."f Thus the ideas of the savage, with regard to the peculiar nature of future bliss or woe, are always mo- dified by associations arising from his peculiar situa- tion, his peculiar turn of thought, and the pains and pleasures of the senses. With regard to the ques- tion in what their happiness or misery will consist, Edwards' West Indies, vol. i. p. 73. ' Ibid. vol. i. p. 47. 35 they differ ; but with regard to the existence of a future state, and that it will be a state of retribution for the deeds done in the body, they agree without, exception, and their faith is bright and cloudless. u Whether you are divinities or mortal men," said an old man of Cuba to Columbus, " we know not — but if you are men, subject to mortality like our- selves, you cannot be unapprised, that after this life there is another, wherein a very different portion is allotted to good and bad men. If, therefore, you expect to die, and believe, with us, that every one is to be rewarded in a future state, according to his conduct in the present, you will do no hurt to those who do none to you."* This relation is given us by Martyr, and it is suf- ficient to show, with what exactness the primitive belief has been retained. This man was a savage, but he spoke the language of the purest revelation. III. On the belief of a God who regulates the affairs of men, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, all religion is founded; and from these principles, all religious rites are ultimately derived. But there is an obvious distinction to be made, be- tween the tradition of doctrines, and the tradition of those outward observances with which the doctrines were originally connected. The tradition of doc- * Herrera, lib. ii. cap. 14 and Martyr, decad. i. lib. iii. apud Edwards vo). i. p. 72-3. Sec also Stillingfleet's Orig. Sac. Oxon. 1797. vol. 2. p. 3.37. 86 tnnes is oral ; the tradition of ceremonies is ocular. The relation of the most simple fact, as it passes from mouth to mouth, is discoloured and distorted. After a few removals from its source, it becomes so altered as hardly to have any resemblance to its first form. But it is not so with regard to actions. These are retained by the sight, the most faithful and accurate of our senses : — they are imitated ; — the imitation becomes habitual ; — and habits, when once formed, are with difficulty eradicated. No fact is more certain, or falls more within the expe- rience of every attentive observer of our nature, than that of customs prevailing among nations, for which they are totally unable to account. Even among individuals, habits exist, long after the causes have ceased, to which they owed their origin. The child imitates the actions of the parent, without inquiring, in all cases, into the motives which lead to the ob- servance ; and even if informed of the motives, he may either misconceive or forget them. Here then is the difference between oral and ocular tradition. The doctrine may be lost in the current of ages, while the ceremony is transmitted unimpaired. Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem Quiitn quffi sunt oculis suhjecta fidelibus. Hou. A. P. ISO. " That which strikes the eye Lives long upon the mind : The faithful sight Engraves the image with abeam of light. 37 In endeavouring, therefore, to trace the affinities which a corrupt religion may bear to the pure, if wo wish to be successful, we must confine ourselves to its outward observances. This remark applies with peculiar force to the religion of the Indian tribes. They have never possessed the knowledge of letters, and all their religious doctrines have been trusted to the uncertain conveyance of oral tradition. The wild and roving life of the Indian, is at variance with the reception of regular instruction ; and though the parents may be very careful in relating their tradi- tions to their children,* they must, of necessity, be confused and imperfect. But supposing them to be ever so exact, we have no certainty that the accounts given of them by tra- vellers are correct. The Indians, it has before been observed, are not communicative on religious sub- jects ; and they may take pleasure in baffling, or mis- leading, the curiosity of white men, whom they, in general, look upon with no friendly eye. And with regard to oral traditions, there is greater room, also, for the imagination of the traveller to draw wrong conclusions, and to be influenced in his report by the power of a preconceived system. On the other hand, with regard to religious ceremonies, he has only to give a faithful relation of what he sees ; and * See Hecke welder, Hist. Ace. p 99. who mentions the great pains which the Indian* take to instil £uod principles into the minds of (heir chil- dren. 38 even if the force of some favourite theory, leads him to mingle his comments with his description, a judi- cious reader is able to separate the one from the other. The application of these principles will save much labour, and give certainty to a subject, which has hitherto been considered as affording nothing but conjecture. We will proceed, then, to consider the external part of the religion of the Indians, and we shall soon see, not only that there is a great uniformity among the rites of nations who are radi- cally different, but, if I am not mistaken, that con- nexion with the patriarchal religion which might naturally be supposed to exist, if the one be consi- dered as a corruption of the other. All who have been conversant with the worship of the American tribes, unite in the assertion, that they offer sacrifices and oblations, both to the Great Spirit, and to the subordinate or intermediate Divi- nities. To all the inferior deities, whether good or male- volent, the Hurons, the Iroquois, and the Algonkins, make various kinds of offerings. " To propitiate the God of the Waters," says Charlevoix, " they cast into the streams and lakes, tobacco, and birds which they have put to death. In honour of the Sun, and also of inferior Spirits, they consume in the fire a part of every thing they use, as an acknow- ledgment of the power from which they have de- 39 rived these possessions. On some occasions, they have been observed to make libations, invoking at the same time, in a mysterious manner, the object of their worship. These invocations they have never explained ; whether it be, that they have in fact no meaning, or that the words have been trans- mitted by tradition, unaccompanied by their signifi- cation, or that the Indians themselves are unwilling to reveal the secret. Strings of wampum, tobacco, ears of corn, the skins, and often the whole carcasses of animals, are seen along difficult or dangerous roads, on rocks, and on the shores of rapids, as so many offerings made to the presiding spirit of the place. In these cases, dogs are the most common victims ;* and are often suspended alive upon trees by the hinder feet, where they are left to die in a state of madness. "t What Charlevoix thus affirms, with regard to the Hurons, Iroquois, and Algonkins, is mentioned by Mackenzie, as practised among the Knisteneaux. " There are stated periods," says he, " such as the spring and autumn, when they engage in very long and solemn ceremonies. On these occasions, dogs are offered as sacrifices ; and those which are fat and milk white are preferred. They also make large offerings of their property, whatever it may be. The scene of these ceremonies, is in an open inclo- • See Note R ' Charlevoix, Journal, p. 347-8. 40 sure, on the bank of a river or lake, and in the most conspicuous situation, in order that such as are pass- ing along, or travelling, may be induced to make their offerings. There is also a particular custom among them, that on these occasions, if any of the tribe, or even a stranger, should be passing by, and be in real want of any thing that is displayed as an offering, he has a right to take it, so that he replaces it with some article he can spare, though it be of far inferior value ; but to take or touch any thing wan- tonly is considered as a sacrilegious act, and highly insulting to the Great Master of Life, who is the sacred object of their devotion." At the feasts made by their chiefs, he farther observes, " a small quantity of meat or drink is sacrificed before they begin to eat, by throwing it into the fire, or on the earth."* A similar account is given by Adair of the prac- tice among the Creeks, Katabahs, Cherokees, Choc- taws, and other southern Indians. "The Indian women," says he, " always throw a small piece of the fattest of the meat into the fire, when they are eating, and frequently before they begin to eat. They pretend to draw omens from it, and firmly be- lieve that it is the mean of obtaining temporal bless- ings, and averting temporal evils. The men, both in their summer and winter hunt, sacrifice in the - Grn. Hist, of Fur Trade, 4to: \\ c ci. cii. civ. Svo. vol. i. p. 123-4. 128. 41 woods a large fat piece of the first buck they kill, and frequently the whole carcass. This they offer up, either as a thanksgiving for the recovery of health, and for their former success in hunting, or that the Divine care and goodness may still be con- tinued to them."* The song of the Lenape warriors, as they go out to meet their enemy, concludes with the promise ef a victim if they return in safety. O ! Thou Great Spirit above ! Give me strength and courage to meet my enemy Suffer me to return again to my children. To my wife, And to my relations ! Take pity on me and preserve my life, And 1 will make to thee a sacrifice. Accordingly, " after a successful war," says Heckewelder, " they never fail to offer up a sacrifice to the great Being, to return him thanks for having given them courage and strength to destroy or con- quer their enemies. "f Loskiel, who has given a minute account of the sacrifices offered by the Lenape or Dela- wares, and who is said, by Heckewelder, to have almost exhausted the subject, affirms that they are offered upon all occasions, the most trivial. * Adair, Hist, of North American Indians, p. 115. 117. i Heckewelder. Hist. Ace oflnd. p. 204. 207. [See Note SJ 6 42 as well as the most important. " They sacrifice to a hare," says he, " because, according to report, the first ancestor of the Indian tribes had that name.* To indian corn, they sacrifice bear's flesh, but to deer and bears, indian corn ; to the fishes, small pieces of bread in the shape of fishes ; but they positively deny, that they pay any adoration to these subordi- nate good spirits, and affirm, that they only worship the true God, through them : For God, say they, does not require men to pay offerings or adoration immediately to him. He has, therefore, made known his will in dreams, notifying to them, what beings they have to consider as Manittoes, and what offerings to make to them."f — " When a boy dreams, that he sees a large bird of prey, of the size of a man, Hying toward him from the north, and saying to him, ' Roast some meat for me,' the boy is then bound to sacrifice the first deer or bear he shoots to this bird. The sacrifice is appointed by an old man, who fixes on the day and place in which it is to be performed. Three days previous to it, messengers are sent to invite the guests. These assemble in some lonely place, in a house large enough to con- tain three fires. At the middle fire, the old man * This may account for the following statement by Charlevoix : " Pres- que tbutes les Nations Algonquines out doone le nom de grand lA6im an premier Esprit. Quelques uns I'appellent Mlchabou ; d autrcs Atahocan." Journal, p. 344. \ Loskiel, p. 40 43 performs the sacrifice. Having sent for twelve strait and supple sticks, he fastens them into the ground, so as to inclose a circular spot, covering them with blankets. He then rolls twelve red-hot stones into the inclosure, each of which is dedicated to one God in particular. The largest belongs, as they say, to the great God in Heaven ; the second, to the sun, or the God of the day ; the third, to the night sun, or the moon ; the fourth, to the earth ; the fifth, to the fire ; the sixth, to the water ; the seventh, to the dwelling or House-God ; the eighth, to indian corn; the ninth, to the west; the tenth, to the south ; the eleventh, to the east ; and the twelfth, to the north. The old man then takes a rattle, containing some grains of indian corn, and leading the boy, for whom the sacrifice is made, into the enclosure, throws a handful of tobacco upon the red-hot stones, and as the smoke ascends, rattles his calabash, calling each God by name, and saying : * This boy (naming him) offers unto thee a fine fat deer and a delicious dish of sapan ! Have mercy on him, and grant good luck to him and his family.' "* All the inhabitants of the West fifthes offered sa- crifices ; and of these, the Charaibes were accustom- ed, at the funerals of their friends, to offer some of the captives who had been taken in battle. f I scarcely need advert to the well-known fact, that Loskiel, part i. cap. iii. p. 42-3. I Edwards' West-Indies, p. 47. 51. 44 human sacrifices were offered by the Mexicans. Of these, all the Spanish historians have given the most horrible and disgusting account, and they are de- scribed more especially by Bernal Diaz, who was an eye witness, with the most artless and affecting simplicity. Of this practice, however, there are no traces among the present Indian tribes, unless the tormenting of their captives, as Charlevoix seems to intimate, be considered as a sacrifice to the God of war.* That the practice of sacrifice, as an expiation for sin, formed a prominent feature in the religion of all the nations of the old world, is a truth too well known to require proof. That it formed a part of the patriarchal religion is equally evident ; and that it must have been of divine institution will, I think, be admitted, after a very little reflection. The ear- liest instance of worship, recorded in the Holy Scrip- tures, is the sacrifice offered by Cain and Abel, at a period when no permission had yet been given to eat animal food, and no pretext could have possibly pre- sented itself "ft) # fhe mind of man for taking the life of any of the creatures of God. It is equally incon- ceivable, that by any deduction of unassisted reason, * " II semble que ce soit des victimes qu'on engraisse pour le sacrifice, et ils sont effectivement iramoles an Dieu de la Guerre : la seule difference qu'on met entre ceux et les autres, (the adopted prisoners,) c'est qu'on leur noircit. entitlement le visage." Journal Hist. p. 246. 45 the mind could have arrived at the conclusion, that to destroy a part of creation, could be acceptable to the Creator ; much less, that it could be viewed as an act of homage. The difficulty is still greater, when it is considered that this was intended as an expiation for the sins of the offerer. How could the shedding of the blood of an animal be looked upon as an atonement for the offences which man had committed against his maker ? This would have been to make an act at which nature would once have involuntarily shuddered, the expiation of an- other act which might not in itself be so hurtful or so barbarous. This reasoning is further strengthened by the next instance of worship recorded in the Bible. When Noah had descended from the Ark, the first act of a religious nature which he performed, was to build an altar and to offer sacrifice. Human reason would have dictated a course of conduct directly opposite ; for it would have told him not to diminish the scanty remnant of life ; especially when the earth was al- ready covered with the victims which had perished in the mighty waste of waters. But if of divine institution, the question then ari- ses, what was the reason of the institution ? Every intelligent being proposes to himself some end — some design to be accomplished by his actions. What, then, with reverence let it be asked, was the design of God ? 46 To the Christian the solution of this inquiry is not difficult. He has learned, that in the secret counsels of almighty wisdom, the death of the Messiah was essential for the salvation of man ; that in his death, the first of our race was as much interested as he will be, who will listen to the last stroke of depart- ing time ; that it was necessary, therefore, to esta- blish a representation of this great event as a sign of the future blessing, in order to keep alive the hopes and the expectations of men ; and that this was ef- fected by the slaughter of an innocent animal, whose life was in the blood, and whose blood poured out was the symbol of His death, who offered himself a ransom for the sins of men. Assuming this as the origin and intent of sacri- fice, it is easy to account for its universal prevalence among mankind. Noah, as we have seen, offered a burnt offering immediately after he left the Ark. From him, and his three sons, did their posterity de- rive the practice ; and we find from the Scriptures, that it prevailed among all the nations, which, from their connexion with the family of Israel, are there incidentally mentioned. If we turn to profane history, we cannot open a volume without meeting every where the record of sacrifice. The Phenicians, the Ethiopians, the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Persians, the nations in the north of Europe and Asia, the Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Romans, the inhabitants of Gaul 47 and Britain — in a word, every heathen nation, of which we have any records remaining, constantly offered sacrifice as an expiation for sin. The gra- dual corruption of the true religion, while it caused the origin of the rite to be forgotten, made no other alteration in the practice than such as regarded the quality of the victim. Human reason must, at all times, have perceived, how inadequate was the slaughter of animals to atone for the sins of man- kind. A nobler victim seemed to be demanded ; and it was not to be wondered at, that the blood of men, and even of children, as approaching nearer to inno- cence, should finally be considered as essential to ob- tain the grant of pardon.* To find the same practice prevailing among all the Indian tribes of America, a practice deriving its origin, not from any dictate of nature, or from the deductions of reason, but resting solely upon the positive institution of God, affords the most trium- phant evidence, that they sprang from the common parent of mankind, and that their religion, like that of all other heathen nations, is derived by a gradual deterioration from that of Noah. At the same time, it will be seen, that they are far from having sunk to the lowest round on the scale of corruption. With the exception of the Mexicans, their religious rites - See Nate T. 48 have a character of mildness which we should else- where seek in vain. IV. Having seen that sacrifice is practised among the Indians, we are naturally led to consider the question, whether they have among them a priest- hood ; and, on this point, the testimony of travel- lers is somewhat discordant. Mackenzie mentions that the Chepewyans have high priests ;* yet he describes the public sacrifices of the Knisteneaux, as offered by their chiefs, and the private, by every man in his own cabin, assisted by his most intimate friend. f Charlevoix says, that among the Indians of whom he writes, in public ceremonies, the chiefs are the priests, in private, the father of each family, or where there is none, the most considerable person in the cabin. An aged missionary, he says, who lived among the Ottawas, stated, that with them an old man performed the office of priest."! Loskiel says * Mackenzie, Svo vol. i. p. 153. " There are conjurers and high priests ; but I was not present at any of their ceremonies." t Ibid, p. 124. 128-9. t " Si Ton pent dormer le nom de sacrifices aux offrandes, que ces peuplet font a leurs divmites, les prSlres parmi eux ne sont jamais les jongleurs : dans les ceremonies publiques, ce sont les chefs, et dans le domestique, ce sont erdinairement les peres de famille, ou a leur defaut les plus considerable de la cabanne " Journal Hist. p. 364. " Un ancien Missionaire (le pere Claude Allouez, jesuite) qui a beau- coup vecu avec les Outaouais a ecrit que, parmi ces sauvages, un viellard fait 1 'office de pivtre dans les fest'ms, dont je viens de parler ; qu'il commence par remercier les esprits du succes de la chasse ; qu'ensuite un autre prend un pain de petun, le rompt en deux, et le jette dans le feu." Ibid, p. 350. 49 of the Lenape, or Delaware Indians, that " they have neither priests regularly appointed, nor tem- ples. At general and solemn sacrifices, the oldest men perform the offices of priests ; but in private parties, each man bringing a sacrifice is priest him- self. Instead of a temple, a large dwelling-house is fitted up for the purpose." He afterwards speaks of the place of offering, under the name of " the house of sacrifice," and mentions it as being " in a lonely place."* On the other hand, Bartram, in his account of the Southern tribes, says, " There is in every town, or tribe, a High Priest, with several inferior, or junior priests, called by the white people jugglers, or conju- rers.'^ To the same purpose, Adair asserts, that they " have their High Priests, and others of a reli- gious order." " Ishtohoollo," he observes, " is the name of all their priestly order, and their pontifical office descends by inheritance to the eldcst."J Notwithstanding this diversity, however, the dif- ference is more in appearance than in reality. Va- rious meanings attached to the same words, in con- sequence of arbitrary associations, may produce a diversity of description. If a priest be one whose exclusive duty it is to celebrate the rites of religion, * Loskiel, p. 39, 40. 42. ad calc. A house of sacrifice is only another name for temple. t Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina Georgia, East and West Florida, &c. Loud. 1792. 8vo. p. 495. * fcdair, Hist. 'North American Indians, p, so. si. then it must be admitted that a priesthood exists among the Indians ; for those who deny that they have priests, allow that in their public sacrifices the chiefs are the only persons authorized to offi- ciate. The only difference, then, lies in this, whe- ther the priesthood be or be not connected with the office of the magistrate. Among Christians, as among the Jews, the priest- hood is distinct from the civil authority ; but pre- vious to the separation of the family of Aaron, these two offices were generally united. Melchizedeck Avas both king of Salem and priest of the most High God. Jethro was, at the same time, priest and prince of Midian ; and Abraham himself, who is called a prince, performed the sacerdotal functions. We find this union of the regal and sacerdotal cha- racters existing among heathen nations. Homer describes the aged Pylian King as performing reli- gious rites ;* and Virgil tells of the Monarch of Delos, who was both priest and king : "Rex Anius, rex idem hominum Phcebique sacerdos."t Among the Creeks, and other Southern Indians, a monarchical form of government seems to pre- vail ; among the Northern Indians, a republican. In both, the sacerdotal office may be united with civil authority, and therefore partake of its peculiar character. Among the one, it may be hereditary ; Odyss. lib. i'ri. 1. 418-460. P JEnri-J. lib. ill 1.80. 51 among the other, elective. If this be not sufficient to reconcile the discordant accounts, we are bound, I think, to respect the united testimony of Charle- voix and Loskiel, in preference to any other, as they do not appear to have had any system to serve, which might give a bias to their statements. And if this be so, it will be seen that the Religion of the In- dians approaches much nearer to the patriarchal, than to that of the Jews. Their public sacerdotal offices are performed by their chiefs, and in their private, the head of every family is its priest. V. But there is another office, which Carver, Bar- tram, and others, have confounded with the priest- hood, which exists among all the Indian Tribes, and concerning which, there is no diversity in the state- ment of travellers. To this class of men, the French Missionaries gave the name of Jongleurs, whence the English have derived that of Jugglers or Conju- rers.* To use the definition of Charlevoix, they are those servants of their Gods, whose duty it is to announce their wishes, and to be their interpreters to men :f or, in the language of Volney, those ¥ whose trade it is 4 to expound dreams, and to nego- * See Note U. t " lis (the Jongleurs) ne sont niansinoins les niinistres de ces Dieux prt-- tendus, que pour annoncer aux Iiomnies leurs volontes, et pour etre leurs in- terpretes : car, si Ion peut donner le nom de sacrifices aux offrandes que ces peuples font a leurs Divinites, les pre Ires parmi ewx fie unit jamais les Jon- gleurs." Journal Hist. p. 363-4. m tiate between the Manitto, and the votary."* " The Jongleurs of Canada," says Charlevoix, " boast that by means of the good spirits whom they consult, they learn what is passing in the most remote coun- tries, and what is to come to pass at the most dis- tant period of time ; that they discover the origin and nature of the most secret disorders, and obtain the hidden method of curing them ; that they dis- cern the course to be pursued in the most intricate affairs ; that they learn to explain the obscurest dreams, to give success to the most difficult negotia- tions, and to render the Gods propitious to warriors and hunters." " I have heard," he adds, " from per- sons of the most undoubted judgment and veracity, that when these impostors shut themselves up in their sweating stoves, which is one of their most common preparations for the performance of their sleight of hand, they differ in no respect from the descriptions given by the poets, of the priestesses of Apollo, when seated on the Delphic Tripod. They have been seen to fall into convulsions, to assume tones of voice, and to perform actions, which were seemingly superior to human strength, and which inspired with an unconquerable terror, even the most prejudiced spectators." Their predictions were •sometimes so surprisingly verified, that Charlevoix * View of the soil and climate, &c. p. 417. 63 seems firmly to have believed, that they had a real intercourse with the father of lies.* This account of the Jongleurs of Canada, is con- firmed by Mr. Heckewelder, in his late work on the Indian Tribes. " They are a set," he observes, " of professional impostors, who, availing themselves of the superstitious prejudices of the people, acquire the name and reputation of men of superior know- ledge, and possessed of supernatural powers. As the Indians in general believe in witchcraft, and ascribe to the arts of sorcerers many of the disor- ders with which they are afflicted in the regular course of nature, this class of men has arisen among them, who pretend to be skilled in a certain occult science, by means of which they are able, not only to cure natural diseases, but to counteract or destroy the enchantments of wizzards or witches, and expel evil Spirits, "f " There are jugglers of another kind, in general old men and women — who get their living by pretending to supernatural knowledge — to bring- down rain when wanted, and to impart good luck to bad hunters. In the summer of 1799, a most uncommon drought happened in the Muskingum country. An old man was applied to by the wo- men to bring down rain, and, after various ceremo- Charlevoix, Journal, p. 361-2. t Heckewelder, Hist. Account, at supr. p. 224. 54 nies, declared that they should have rain enough. The sky had been clear for nearly five weeks, and was equally clear when the Indian made this decla- ration. But about four in the afternoon, the horizon became overcast, and, without any thunder or wind, it began to rain, and continued to do so till the ground became thoroughly soaked. Experience had doubtless taught him to observe that certain signs in the sky or in the water were the forerun- ners of rain ; yet the credulous multitude did not fail to ascribe it to his supernatural power."* " It is incredible to what a degree the superstitious belief in witchcraft operates on the mind of the Indian. The moment his imagination is struck with the idea that he is bewitched, he is no longer himself. Of this extraordinary power of their conjurers, of the causes which produce it, and the manner in which it is acquired, they have not a very definite idea. The sorcerer, they think, makes use of some deadening substance, which he conveys to the person he means to ' strike,' in a manner which they can neither un- derstand nor describe. The person thus ' stricken,' is immediately seized with an unaccountable terror. His spirits sink, his appetite fails, he is disturbed in his sleep, he pines and wastes away, or a fit of sick- ness seizes him, and he dies at last, a miserable vic- tim to the workings of his own imagination. "f * Heckewelder, Hist. Ace. of Indians, ut supr. p. 229 — 231. ' Ibid, p. 232 3. 55 A remarkable instance of this belief in the power of these sorcerers, and of the wonderful effects of imagination, is related by Heame, as having occur- red during his residence among the northern or Chepewyan Indians. Matonabbee, one of their chiefs, had requested him to kill one of his enemies, who was at that time several hundred miles distant. " To please this great man," says he, " and not ex- pecting that any harm could possibly arise from it, I drew a rough sketch of two human figures on a piece of paper, in the attitude of wrestling ; in the hand of one of them I drew the figure of a bayonet, point- ing to the breast of the other. ' This,' said I to Matonabbee, pointing to the figure which was hold- ing the bayonet, ' is I, and the other is your enemy. 7 Opposite to those figures I drew a pine tree, over which I placed a large human eye, and out of the tree projected a human hand. This paper I gave to Matonabbee, with instructions to make it as public as possible. The following year when he came to trade, he informed me that the man was dead. Ma- tonabbee assured me, that the man was in perfect health when he heard of my design against him, but almost immediately afterward became (mite gloomy, and, refusing all kinds of sustenance, in a very few days died."* Bartram, in his account of the manners and habits * Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean. Dublin, 17Pfi, 8vo. p. 221 Note. 56 of the tribes which inhabit Florida and the south of the United States, relates, as their general belief, that " their seer has communion with powerful in- visible spirits, who have a share in the government of human affairs, as well as of the elements. His in- fluence is so great, as frequently to turn back an army when within a day's journey of their enemy, after a march of several hundred miles." " Indeed," he adds, " the predictions of these men have sur- prised many people. They foretel rain or drought, pretend to bring rain at pleasure, cure diseases, ex- ercise witchcraft, invoke or expel evil spirits, and even assume the power of directing thunder and lightning."* The power, then, of these impostors, is supposed to consist — in the miraculous cure of diseases — the procuring of rain, and other temporal blessings, in the same supernatural manner — the miraculous in- fliction of punishment upon the subjects of their dis- pleasure — and the foretelling of future events. It will immediately be seen, that these are, in fact, the characteristics of the prophetic office ; those, I mean, which are external, which produce, therefore, a last- ing impression upon the senses of men, and from the force of ocular tradition, would naturally be pre- tended to, even after the power of God was with- drawn. * Bartram, Travel?, lit supr. p. 496 57 That true prophets had such power, is evident from the whole tenor of Sacred History. On their power of predicting future events, it is not necessary to dwell ; but it will be seen, that there is a striking analogy between the pretensions of the Indian im- postors, and the miracles wrought by the prophets. We have seen, that the former assume the power of curing or inflicting diseases by supernatural means. We find the prophets curing or inflicting the most inveterate diseases, by a word, by a touch, by wash- ing, and other means naturally the most inadequate.* We have seen that the Indian impostors pretend to foretel drought or rain. So, Elijah the Tishbite said to Ahab, " As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word."f And again, the same prophet, when there was no appear- ance of change in the heavens, said to the King, " Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain."{ We have seen, that among the Indians, the conjurers pretend to inflict punishment on their enemies by supernatural means. So we read of a true prophet, that he commanded fire to descend from heaven and consume the soldiers who were sent by the King of Israel to take him.§ But I wish to direct your attention more especially * Thus Naaman was cured of liis leprosy by Elisha. and the same disease inflicted by the prophet on his servant Gehazi. 2 Kings, \ . 1 1 Kings, xvii I ! 1 Kings, xviii. II * 2Kings,l 10. 12. 58 to a very early period of Sacred History, while the Gentiles had not yet entirely apostatized from the worship of the true God, and therefore were not yet wholly cut off from the patriarchal church. In the history of Abraham and Abimelech, we have an in- stance of the power which prophets possessed of ob- taining blessings for others. " Now, therefore," said God to Abimelech, " restore the man his wife : for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live"* The same power is attributed to Job, who was probably a descendant of Esau ; con- sequently, not one of the chosen family ; and, there- fore, a prophet among the Gentiles. " The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends. — There- fore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept : lest I deal with you after your folly. "f Traces of the same power are to be found in the History of Balaam, the prophet of Midian. When the Israelites, on their passage from Egypt, were passing through the country of Moab, the King of the Moabites, alarmed for his personal safety, sent for the prophet to curse them. " Come now, there- fore, I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are * Gen. xx. 7. 1 Job. xlii. 7. 8 59 too mighty for me ; peraelventure, I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land : for I wot, that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed. And the elders of Moab, and the elders of Midian, de- parted with the rewards of divination in their hand ; and they came unto Balaam and spake unto him the words of Balak. And he said unto them, lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as Jehovah shall speak unto me. — And God said unto Balaam, thou shalt not go with them ; thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed."* Here is not only a proof of the power ascribed to the prophet by the nations among whom he dwelt, but a-' recognition, by God himself, of the authority of Balaam to bless and curse in his name. And here, if I mistake not, we may observe the connecting link between the power of true prophets, and the arts practised by the false, after the divine influence was withdrawn. The elders of Moab and of Midi- an, it is said, " departed with the rewards of divina- tion in their hand." The inference is inevitable, that Balaam, who undoubtedly had intercourse with the true God, was at times deprived of the divine in- fluence, and that under a sense of that deprivation, he had recourse to the arts of divination. Of this there is farther evidence. " Surely," he exclaims, -" Numb. sxii. 6, 7, 8. 12. 60 in one of tiis sublime prophecies, " there is no en- chantment against Jacob, neither is there any divina- tion against Israel." And it is subsequently stated, that " when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments."* When he could not obtain au- thority from God to curse Israel, he had recourse, in the depravity of his heart, to these unhallowed in- cantations ; but finding that it was in vain to con- tend with the determination of the Almighty, he re- signed himself at length to the divine influence, and converted his intended curse into a blessing. " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob ! and thy tabernacles, O Israel ! — Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee."f In proportion, then, as Idolatry increased, the prophetic spirit in the patriarchal church was gra- dually withdrawn. While the true God was wor- shipped, even though in absurd connexion with Idols, the divine influence was sometimes communicated. But being gradually more and more frequently de- nied, the prophets had recourse to the superstitious observances of divination and judicial astrology. And as Idolatry, in its downward course, at length lost sight of the Creator, and worshipped only the creatures, so the prophetic office degenerated into the arts by which impostors preyed upon the super- stition of the ignorant. * Numb. xxiv. 1 . t Ibid, 5. 9, 61 J have now, gentlemen, finished the view Which I proposed to take of the Religion of the Indians. I am sensible that it is very imperfect, but enough has been said, I hope, to show the analogy which it bears to the religion of the patriarchal ages, and its wonderful uniformity, when considered as prevailing among nations so remote and unconnected. It has already been observed, however, that their religious system can afford no clue by which to trace them to any particular nation of the old world. On a subject so obscure as the origin of nations, there is great danger of expatiating in conjectures. In fact, the view here taken, in some measure cuts off these conjectures, by tracing the Aborigines of America, to a higher source than has usually been assigned to them. If the opinion I have advanced be true, it will, I think, appear rational to believe, that the Indians are a primitive people ; — that, like the Chinese, they must have been among the earliest emigrants of the descendants of Noah ; — that, like that singular nation, they advanced so far beyond the circle of human society, as to become entirely separated from all other men; — and that, in this way, they preserved a more distinct and homogeneous character than is to be found in any other portion of the Globe. Whether they came immediately to this western continent, or whether they arrived here by gradual progression, can never be ascertained, and is, in fact, an inquiry of little moment. It is 62 probable, however, that, like the Northern hordes who descended upon Europe, and who constituted the basis of its present population, their numbers were great ; and that from one vast reservoir, they flowed onward in successive surges, wave impelling wave, till they had covered the whole extent of this vast continent. At least, this hypothesis may ac- count for the uniform character of their religion, and for the singular fact which has lately been illus- trated by a learned member of the American Philo- sophical Society, that their languages form a sepa- rate class in human speech, and that, in their plans of thought, the same system extends from the coasts of Labrador to the extremity of Cape Horn.* But, turning from speculations which are ren- dered sublime by their shadowy form, and immeasu- rable magnitude, I shall conclude a discourse which, I fear, has become already tedious, by remarks of a more practical, and, I would hope, of a more useful nature. We have seen that, like all other nations unblessed with the light of Christianity, the Indians are idola- tors ; but their idolatry is of the mildest character, and has departed less than among any other people from the form of primeval truth. — Their belief in a future state is clear and distinct, debased only by 63 those corporeal associations which proceed from the constitutional operations of our nature, and from which even Christians, therefore, are not totally ex- empt — They retain among them the great principle of expiation for sin, without which all religion would be unavailing — And they acknowledge, in all the common occurrences of life, and even in their very superstitions, the overruling power of Divine Provi- dence, to which they are accustomed to look up with an implicit confidence, which might often put to shame the disciples of a purer faith. Provided, then, that their suspicions respecting every gift bestowed by the hands of white men, can be overcome, the comparative purity of their reli- gion renders it so much the easier to propagate among them the Gospel of Salvation.* In this view, is it possible for the benevolent heart to restrain the rising wish, that the scanty remnant of this unfortu- nate race may be brought within the verge of civi- lized life, and made to feel the influence, the cheer- ing and benign influence, of Christianity ? Is it not to be wished, that the God whom they ignorantly worship, may be declared to them, and that, toge- ther with the practices they have so long preserved, may be united that doctrine which alone can illu- mine what is obscure, and unravel what is intricate ? If this be desirable, it must be done quickly, or the • See Note X 64 opportunity will be for ever lost. Should our pre- judices prevent it, we must remember that their faults will be obscured, and their virtues brightened, by the tints of time. Posterity will think of them, more in pity than in anger, and will blame us for the little regard which has been paid to their welfare. Hapless nations ! — Like the mists which are ex- haled by the scorching radiance of your summer's sun, ye are fast disappearing from the earth. But there is a Great Spirit above, who, though for wise purposes he causes you to disappear from the earth, still extends his protecting care to you, as well as to the rest of his creatures. — There is a country of Souls, a happier, and better country, which will be opened, w r e may charitably hope, to you, as well as to the other children of Adam. — There is the ato- ning blood of the Redeemer, which was shed for jou, as well as the rest of mankind ; the efficacy of which, you have unwittingly continued to plead ; and which may be extended, in its salutary influence, even to those who have never called on, because they have never heard, the name of the Son of God. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. NOTE A. Thus, Hearne says, "Religion has not as yet begun to dawn among the Northern Indians — I never found any of them that had the least idea of futu- rity." " Matonabbee, a man of as clear ideas in other matters as any that I ever saw, always declared to me, that neither he, nor any of his country 1 •men, had an idea of a future state." Journey to the Northern Ocean. Dub- lin, 179G, Svo. p. 343 — 4. Yet Mackenzie affirms, that they believe iu a future state of rewards and punishments, and gives a very particular account of their belief. " They are," he says, " superstitious in the extreme. I ne- ver observed that they had any particular form of religious worship ; but as they believe in a good and evil spirit, and a state of future rewards and pu- nishments, they cannot be devoid of religious impressions. At the same time, they manifest a decided unwillingness to make any communications on the subject." This last fact will account for the declaration of Matonabbee; and also for the concealment of their forms of worship from the view of Mackenzie. Mackenzie, Gen. Hist. Svo. vol. 1. p. 145. 156. Mackenzie cor- rects several other erroneous statements made by Hearne. Colden, speaking of the five natious, says: "It is certain they have no kind of public worship, and I am told they have no radical word to express God, but use a compound word, signifying the Preserver, Sustainer, or Mas- ter of the Universe ; neither could I ever learn what sentiments they have of a future existence." Colden, Introduction to Hist, of Five Indian Nations of Canada, p. 15. On the other hand, Charlevoix assures us, that " parmi ces peuples, qu'on a pretendu n'avoir aucune idee de religion, ni de Divi- nite, presque tout paroit l'objet dun culte religieux, ou du moins y avoir quelque rapport." Journal, p. 348. And Heckewelder affirms, that " Ha- bitual devotion to the Great First Cause, and a strong feeling of gratitude for the benefits which He confers, is one of the prominent traits which charac- terize the mind of the untutored Indian." Hist. Ace. p. 84. " Another dif- ficulty I had to encounter," says Adair, " was the secrecy and closeness of the. Indians as to their own affairs, and their prying disposition into (hose of others." Adair, N. Am. Indians, preface. The testimony of so respectable a writer as Colden would have great weight, if he had spoken from his own 9 66 personal knowledge ; but he confessedly derived his opinions of the Indian character from the testimony of others. What he has said, therefore, can- not avail against the united testimony of Charlevoix, Adair, and Heckewel- der. NOTE B. - Goinara et Jean De Lery font descendre tous les Ameriquains des Ca- naneens chasses de la terre promise par Josue." — Charlevoix, Dissertation sur l'origine des Ameriquains, prefixed to his Journal d'un Voyage, Sic. Histoire de la Nouvelle France, torn. 3. p. 4. Paris, 1744, 4to. " Lescarbot panche un peu plus vers le sentiment de ceux qui ont trans- porte dans le Nouveau Monde les Cananeens chasses de la terre promise par Josue. II y trouve an moins quelque vraisemblance en ce que ces peuples, aussi bicn que les Ameriquains, avoient la cofttume de faire sauter leurs en- fans par-dessus le feu, en invoquant leurs idoles, et de manger la chair humaine." Ibid, p. 10. " En 1642. Grotius publia un petit ouvrage in-quarto sous ce titre : De origine gentium Americanarum. — Si on en croit le docte Hollandois, a l'exception de l'Yucatan, et de quelques autres provinces voisines, dont il fait une classe a part, toute l'Amerique Septentrionnale a ete peuple par les Norvegiens. — Ce qui l'oblige de mettre a part l'Yucatan, c'est l'usage de la Circoncision, dont il s'est mis dans la tete qu'on a trouve des traces dans cette province, et une pretendue tradition ancienne des habitans, qui portoit, que leurs ancetres avoient ete sauves des flots de la mer ; ce qui a fait croire a quelques-uns, ajoute-t'-il, qu'ils etoientjissus des Hebreux. II refute neans- moins cette opinion, avec les memes argumens a peu prcs dont s'est servi Breverood, (Breerwood,) et il estime, avec Dom Pierre Martyr d'Anglerie, que les premiers qui peuplerent l'Yucatan, furent des Ethiopiens jettes sur cette cote par une tempute, ou par quelque autre accident. II juge meme que ces Ethiopiens etoient Chretiens, ce qu'il infere d'une csp6ce de Bap- teme usite dans le pays." — Ibid. p. 12, 13. In this dissertation, Charlevoix, has given a very judicious and interest- ing summary of the several theories, which had been formed, at the time he wrote, respecting the peopling of America. As the writings of their re- spective authors are mentioned in chronological order, it may be called, in fact, the annals of these opinions, up to the date of his work: (1744.) In contemplating their extravagance and inconsistency, we scarcely know whether to smile or to mourn most, at these results of learned imagination. In 1767, was published at Amsterdam, a French work, entitled, " Essai sur cette question, quand et comment l'Amerique a-t-elle ete peuplee d'honimes ct d'auimaux? parE. B. d'E." The author professes respect- 67 lor religion ; but he is either an Infidel in disguise,' or a very sorry Christian ; and he has asmattering oflearning, just extensive and superficial enough, to intoxicate the brain. He maintains, thai the deluge was of very limited extent ; that the Chinese and the Scythians are the descendants of Abel ; that the Egyptians and Ethiopians are the posterity of Cain ; that the Negro complexion was the stigma of his punishment ; that the Creeks, Thracians, Celts, and ancient inhabitants of Italy, were Antediluvians; and hence, he concludes, that the Aborigines of America are derived from as high an origin. For the establishment of this theory, which occupies a quarto volume of 600 pages, he has formed a vast apparatus of astronomy and geology, of history and philology, in which the wrecks of every thing that had been considered by the learned as established, and no longer controvertible, ap- pear " nantes in gurgite vasto." In 1810, the excellently learned professor Vater published at Leipzig his 11 Inquiry on the origin of the American population," in which he minutely considers every hypothesis that has ever been formed or maintained on this interesting subject. It will doubtless give pleasure to the public, to be in- formed, that Mr. Duponceau is now engaged in translating this valuable work, which is undoubtedly the best that has ever been written on the subject. NOTE C. I have excluded the Karalit, because it is generally admitted, that the Esquimaux derive their origin from Groenland, and are a distinct race from all the other inhabitants of this Continent. " In all the North American territories,'' says Heckewelder, "bounded to the North and East by the Atlantic ocean, and to the South and West by the river Mississippi, and the possessions of the English Hudson's Bay Company, there appear to be but four principal languages; branching out, it is true, into various dialects, but all derived from one or the other of the four mo- ther tongues, some of which extend even beyond the Mississippi, and per- haps as far as the rocky mountains. These four languages are, 1. The Karalit. 2. The Iroquois. 3. The Lenape. 4. The Floridian. Mr. Duponceau has mentioned, in his report prefixed to Mr. Heckewclder's history, that the language of the Osages has been found, from a vocabulary by Dr. Murray of Louisville, to be a dialect of the Iroquois. " By means of this vocabula- ry,'' says he, " we have acquired a knowledge of the wide-spread extent of the family of Indian nations of Iroquois origin, which, not long ago, were thought to exist only in the vicinity of the great lakes, while we are enabled to trace them even to the banks of the Missouri." p. xxxvii. Charlevoix and Loskiel give substantially the same account. " Dans rctte otendue de pays," says the former, " qu'on appelle propremonf la Nouvelle 68 France, qui n'a de bornes au nord que du c6te dc la bayc de Hudson, qui n'en a point d'autre a Test que la mer, les coloiiies Angloises au sud, la Louysiane ausud-est, ct les terres des Espagnols a louest ; dans cette etendue dis-je, de pays, il n'v a que trois langues-meres dont tontes les autres sont derivees. Ces langucs sont, la Siouse, l'Algouquine, et la Huronne." Jour- nal, p. 183. The Huron, is the same with the Iroquois ; and the Algonquin, only another name for the Lenape or Delaware. AVith regard to the third language (la Siouse) Charlevoix confesses he knew little or nothing. "It appears very probable," says Loskiel, " that the Delaware and Iroquois are the principal languages spoken throughout the known part of North America, Terra Labrador excepted, and that all others are dialects of them. Our missionaries at least, who were particularly attentive to this subject, have never met with any which had not some similitude with either one or the other : But the Delaware language bears no resemblance to the Iro- quois." Hist, of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians of North America, part 1. ch. 2. p. 18. Lond. 1794, 8vo. i We have no reason, I think, to doubt the statement of the Roman and Mo- ravian missionaries, who have made these languages their study, and who had no object in attempting to trace affinities where none existed. In the state- ments of Charlevoix and Hecke welder, the Spanish territories are cautiously excluded ; doubtless because of the great number of radical languages which are said to exist there. For the same reason, in Loskiel's account, the term JVorth America is to be understood in contradistinction to Middle, as well as South America ; since the Moravian missionaries could have had no knowledge of the Indian languages within the Spanish dominions. — I wish to be understood as speaking with the same reservation ; on account of the express testimony given to this surprising fact by the most respectable wit- nesses. " Le nombre de ces langues," says the Baron Von Humboldt, speaking of the languages of Mexico, " est au dela de vingt, dont quatorze ont deja des grammaires et des dictionnaires assez complets." After enu- merating them, he proceeds to observe, " 11 paroit que la plupart de ces langues, loin d'et/es des dialectes d'une seule, (comme quelques auteurs l'ont faussement avanc6,) sont au raoins aussi differentes les unes des autres que Test le Grec de I'Allemand, ou le Francois du Polonois : e'est du moins le cas des sept langues dc la Nouvelle-Espagne, dont je possede les vocabulaires. Cettc raricli d'idiomes que parlent les peuples du Aouveau Continent, et que, sans la moindre cxagtralion on peut porter a plusiecrs centaines, pre- sente un phrnominc bienfrappant, surtout si on les compare au pen de langues qu'offrent I'Asic et VEurope." Essai politique sur le Royaume de Nouvelle Espagne, torn. 1. p. 378. Paris, 1811. Svo. It is, indeed, a striking phenomenon ; and it becomes still more so when compared with the fact, tfiatin the United States and British America, there are 69 only four radical languages, even including the language of Grocnland. If,. however, it should be true, as Humboldt thinks, that there are several hundreds of primitive American languages, it would only afford stronger proof of the truth of the position, in support of which the existence of three radical languages has been mentioned ; namely, that the Indians are not the descendants of the twelve tribes. I feel very great diffidence in appearing to call in question so high an au- thority, yet I cannot help suggesting the probability, that the more our know- ledge of Indian languages is extended, the greater will be the affinities we shall discover; and that many will be found to be related, which are now considered as totally distinct. Even in written language, to trace etymologies is, in many cases, a diffi- cult task; and requires an extensive knowledge of the philosophy of human speech. But this difficulty is immeasurably increased, when languages are merely oral, and are represented in foreign characters, not by the natives themselves, but by persons who are often ignorant of all other tongues but their own, w ho are confessedly unacquainted with that which they endea- vour to write, and whose power of discriminating sounds is not always the most acute. When a language is written, the writing continues unaltered through all the changes of pronunciation ; when it is only spoken, the deviations from the original become rapid and various, in proportion as the imperfections are more or less extensive, of the bodily organs and the mental faculties. As, therefore, languages merely oral tend inevitably to corruption, so the attempts made to reduce them to writing, are subject to corresponding im- perfections. The alphabets in which they are represented, may vary in themselves, and be severally incompetent to convey an exact idea of (heir (towers. Persons who use the same alphabet may employ different com- binations of letters to represent the same sounds. " I have frequently found," says the celebrated circumnavigator, Captain Cook, " that the same tcords, written down by tioo or more persons from the mouth of the same natice, on being compared together, differed not a little." Voyages, vol.2, p. 521. Lond. 1785. 4to. And even if the sounds be perfectly re- presented, we know, from our own experience, the confusion, with regard to etymology, which would arise from making pronunciation the standard of orthography. The anomalies of English pronunciation are so great, that if we were to write it as it is spoken, to trace its etymologies would re- quire the powers of an (Edipus. Under such disadvantages, we certainly ought to be cautious not to form hasty opinions with regard to the affinities of Indian languages. Our means of information are, at present, too limited, and we must patiently wait the result of those inquiries, which, though commenced too late, have, 70 at length, been happily begun by the American Philosophical Society. The collection of information from distant and independent sources, will lead, by a gradual approximation, to the most accurate results ; and we shall probably be able to apply to the subject, the remarks of the great lexico- grapher of our language, that in proportion " as books are multiplied, the various dialects of the same country will always be observed to grow fewer and less different." Perhaps I ought not to dismiss this subject without observing, that Mr. Jefferson long ago made the same remark as M. Von Humboldt, with re- gard to the great number of American languages, in his Notes on Virginia. « Arranging them," says he, " under the radical ones to which they may be palpably traced ; and doing the same by those of the red men of Asia, there will be found, probably, twenty in America for one in Asia, of those radical languages, so called, because, if they were ever the same, they have lost all resemblance tc one another. A separation into dialects may be the work of u few ages only, but for two dialects to recede from one another till they have lost all vestiges of their common origin, must require an im- me r s<: course of time ; perhaps, not less than many people give to the age of the earth. A greater number of those radical changes of language having ta;:e.i place among the red men of America, proves them of greater antiqui- ty ■ '. ii those of Asia." — Notes on Virginia, Query 11. Aborigines. The acute and scientific author might have contented himself with stating the fact, and have spared the slur upon Revelation. It is by no means certain, that the same phenomenon does not exist in Asia. The languages spoken in the immediate neighbourhood of the Caucasian mountains, have little more in common than their geographical situation. " Except the Armenian and Georgian," say the Quarterly Reviewers after Adelung, " they are scarcely ever employed in writing ; and, principally perhaps from this cause, they ex- hibit as great a diversity in the space of a few square miles, as those of many other nations do, in as many thousands." Q. R.vol.x. p.285.Rev. of the Mithridates. But admitting that it is confined to America, is there no way of solving the difficulty, but by attacking the Scriptures ? And if it be inexplicable, shall we surrender all the stupendous evidences of Divine Revelation, because we are unable to account for a fact which is comparatively insignificant ? This is a kind of minute philosophy, unworthy of so distinguished a name, which can be compared only to the calculations of the Canon Recupero in Bry- doue, who sought to determine the world's age by enumerating the lavas of ^Etna. NOTE D. There maybe an affinity among languages in two ways; in etymology, and in grammatical construction. Where there are etymological affini- 71 ties, there will of course be a similarity in grammatical forms. On the other hand, languages may be entirely different as to etymology, and yet similar in grammatical construction. The question, with regard to the de- scent of the Indians from the Hebrews, must rest upon both these affinities ; for although resemblances in grammatical construction will not prove a common origin, yet differences in grammar afford the strongest evidence of the converse of the proposition. ETYMOLOGY. Table I. — Delaware, and Iroquois words of the Onondago dialect, from Zeisberger. Lenap6 or Delaware. Iroquois, (Onond. dialect.) Hebrew. God, Patanuiwos, Nioh, Elohim, DN-rbx Spirit, Mannitto, Otcon, Ruach, mn Man, Lenno, Etschinak, Ish, W*K Woman, Ochqueu, Echro, Isha, TW* To Die, Angeln, Yaiche-ye, ) Yawo-he-ye, $ Waunteconi, Mut-th, ma To Eat, Mitzin, Achal, blK Flesh, Oyos, Owachra, Ba-sar, IV* Fish, Nama?s, Otschionta, Dag) Nge-tsem, 31 Bone, Wochgan, Oschtiehnta,* D3W A Child, Amemens, Ixhaa, Nan gar, *1OT It may not be amiss to make some remarks upon the pronunciation of this and the following specimens. In Zeisberger's vocabulary, the powers of the German Alphabet are employed to express the pronunciation of Indian words. Ch has the guttural sound of the Greek X. When the consonants are doubled, it is merely to denote that the preceding vowel is short, as a in man. /andj before a vowel have the power ot'y which I have therefore in most cases taken the liberty to substitute. Sck is equivalent to the English sh. The apostrophe after n fc and * denotes the contraction of a vowel, as n'pommauchri, for ni pommaucfui. Que and ke differ ; the former being pro- nounced like kwe. W before a vowel, as in English. In representing the Hebrew in English letters, I have followed the points, which give, I am in- clined to believe, the traditional representation of the original vowel sounds. These remarks will apply to all the specimens, excepting those from Adair, »f which I can say nothing. Cherokee, K6ra, according to Adair. 72 §,» £ S" « S^"" -^ (0 5 '5 » « 5" 1 TT S0 3 3.3JB 2 2 a o — <»» 1 g. o " ~' rj ■ se-filsi' ffja-^o S SS.org 6-8 s,^.«r » *' o °, s |~ o ? k> 2 — 8 "* « S- 2 a- 5 cl - =• c: - o 8 § * 3 1 8 3 s ifg - • M p ??c« T ^ g. * re » ST 3 • o — t,-^' SL 2 £"__ o §* 2- « B ~ a X 5 a» =>"' • . -! tc o as jj re o o «> a 5. „. — 5" ^cfS 2 5" oj c = a- §. = ^ § s d ODgsfSPgS d, a:. One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Sis, Seven, Eight, IVine, Ten, 1 p" t- re ~ o 2- ~ • ? 2- ^ o s ft, a o Nsrntti, Nischa, Naclia, Newo, Paletiach, Guttasch, Nischaschf Chasch, Peschkonk, Tellen, r - a Soquo, Tahre, Choeh, Nankke, Ishke, Sootare, Karekoge, Stihnayra, Sohnayra, Skoeh, 1 3 s El 5' a oa-aapPcoos- 7T3 «■ <* 5 =i 2. o O CD p " s OrantDrrOnn §""8 oiias s-a p,^~ " p ■- j o o I 2j H W oa CBO> oa ca .-ri S - r, y — = p a-a p~ 2 a g a 5.5.3 5 s-S. < 5g H i>3 i» '-" O > ^ ^ ?»■ l.f|l||i:||| £ 1 !2! ^5§ iSsg • O j^ • w •' S" Q J' a OS OS SS.NJ o 2 aorq I ? 73 3d per. 2d per. 1st per. 'x? XX *i^H ggr w s xxx » w 3:* 9 W J 3 w 93 B i X _, E 3" E"p » §4 ? s o« p S - o 3 S B- sT P -T a m a p ■? Si -t S^ S CTQ £ P i B ?o r+J" o =•» || | € 3 o f j r s" 3 v. Qj OfQ 5 SIL 5 o n £f> era o £i cs" in B 1 t H- H g 1 _P i©2 ? T P P _P pr 1 - 3 £T — j" &3 P P IS -3 1 | £* *■§ 4° 3 E. ?r a "I i K X >> >> s 3 3 " o -• B 5- 1 3 i sc X s i d d p U d sc z 5C * - | m B B" on B" B" * M o <>g 1 | U -* 3 -j_i <• a c a ill re" --=> ?s} g re « ^ >o a ~. £■ cr- sirs! re <=" § 111 ^q re" III si § II § g-S- o « ft » s » In 5" §■'1 l& h li Is ft £, II *i 10 7-4 3c pers. 2d p. 1st per. ocs HH HH X X a a o o w w 2 « . 1 3 o 3" g. 3 O g: 3_ " ■3 S* » 0) 6" ■a /-•-•v*^ / -^ \ ' vv > i * \ ■~, © era" S cr^S J c 3 ST "- a o p 3 $• C 3 3 IT. 3 C*. S c ST. - "- » *Fil 41 3 "•" -. P B "^* a 3 O 3 b; >- a v" cd "§ " 5' Bk "* P 3 U. SB era B o w t CD Q °2 5. ts v< pi k< 5 p 3" 3" = o c 3 s «r* - p ST. c "5 B fe» P7- CD ?r 5 5 P 3 -= 9! 3 3 5- J c 5 B P CD | 1 " kg 5L 3 -i crs- 3- tar P » 3 P 05 cd a a rt> a cr =r a a 3 CD CD 3 3 3f g s 3 3" -^0 d 75 II. Example of a Noun in the Lenapi, or Delaware, with the Inseparable Pro- nouns, from Heckew elder's Correspondence, Let. XXI. (Transac. ut sup. p. 426.) compared with the Hebrew. Father. Delaware, Ooch .* Hebrew, Ab, ax. My Father, Thy Father, His Father, Her Father, Our Father, Nooch, Kooch, Oochwall, Oochwall, Nochena, Abi, »3K Abicha, (m.) Abich, (f.) -pax Abiv, or Abihu, IITON Tax Abiha, rrax Abinu, 1T3K Your Father, Kochuwa, Abichem, (m.) Abichen, (f.) { J? f S * K Abihem, (m.) Abihen, (f.) ) m .D^H Their Father, Ochuwawall, In Delaware, the pronoun is sometimes prefixed and sometimes suffixed. In Hebrew, it is uniformly suffixed. According to Adair, my father is, in Chickasaw Angge, in Cherokee Ake- tohta ; your father, Chickasaw Chinge, Cherokee Chalokta. My mother, Chickasaw Saske, Cherokee Machee ; your mother, Chickasaw, Chishke, Cherokee Chacheeah. * Ooch is the abstract word. " Wetoochvvink," the father, is commonlt/ used, because there are few occasions of using this word in the abstract sense 76 III. Example oj Hit Verb To Love, in Hie Lenape or Delaware, and Iroquois compared ivith the Hebrew. Under the general name of Iroquois, I have given the Onondago verb from Zeisberger, and the Mohawk, which I wrote down in Albany, in the year 1817, from the mouth of Mr. Eleazar Williams, a son of one of the chiefs of the Oneida nation, who is now a candidate for Holy Orders, and a lay reader and catechist among the Oneidas. Mr. Williams has received a very good education ; is acquainted with Greek and Latin ; and speaks French fluently. He assured me, that the Mohawk was the pure, or mother tongue, which was understood by all the five nations ; but that each had a dialect of its own. An evidence of the correctness of this statement, was afforded me by an interview which I had with several chiefs of the Onon- dago tribe, who were at Albany transacting some business with the governor. On that occasion I read the general confession in our liturgy ; after which Mr. Williams translated it for them, and then proceeded to read in the Mo- hawk, the prayer for all conditions of men. In looking over it, as he read, I perceived that the vowels had the full Italian sounds, excepting a, pro- nounced like aw; that the nasal sounds an, on, kc. were exactly like the French ; and that the guttural sounds were like those of the Oriental lan- guages. I observed, likewise, that the accent was chiefly on the ultimate and penultimate. I ventured, therefore, to read a portion of the prayers and hymns, and succeeded so well that they understood me, and expressed their surprise and pleasure. This is a proof, not only of the ease with which a correct pronunciation might be acquired, but also of the fact, that the Onondagoes understand the Mohawk, though they have a dialect which dif- fers from it considerably, as will appear from the verb here exhibited from Zeisberger. 77 1 Plural. Singu 'ar. H H >< ■< ^ U3 IHH- S 5. s 5 « 3 b s a r 1 M _ C C O O 3 1 S W M H _ P 1 a a •< c 2, fr" s. -*. B C O B u. 1 < ^" -MB S2— H H 9."? "?~ ^5°. £P H O 50. SPW 2 a If op re w p p ^ re C. B • sa P C- 3 0> C- B 3 ■ 3 3 ' l| 3 S • 3 3 re re • re re jf ~ 5- | • ^ 5- .5" - ■ - ™ ~ -4 re j» . re re 5" o ^. CS. ^Ha O 35 02C !3 CO sf -* = o o 3 2 o 3 S- • < <»3 3 3 S 5 03 <■ re 3 & P= !» C It III s » . sic O © S. 3. S- S- W SB O o it B C » P i S 2. o o* s re % ~~-s 5" . cl cl I.- 3- a- dig 3-2. • *^ EL CL - P P_ re" . o o ! o 5 ^ . a. s. £L r p. SL I -1 2 P p P p" o ■ ~. ! P -F" *-; g: 3 - c 2 3 *3_ . 3 ,= o o =r • o c o E" gq ffl ffi o" |1§?;|5 ^ ° re 3 3 ^ So ~, 1 g g: • o n ^* giS ^"i O 3 re =■■ °- if -•*-.=•- E c ' re ^3 -i o P r. 7 ST •? 5 S o re re 3 C 3 - n S re ~ re re 3 re re re -• = » -• S" 5' EL re* 3 3 g, B" Q 3, i • 3- 2 « ~ T "re s Z « - 8 lf |y 5" 5* 3 C „ i re 3 2 — - - c eJZ, - re 2 o ? ? EC re 78 I shall Love, Thou shalt L. (m.) (fem. He shall Love, She shall Love, We shall Love, Ye shall L. m.) (fem. Thev shall L. (in. (fem. ) mpers. On Aimera, SIS re- re- re- III III o ? re pr re x • CO -T x* re- re-"" — - — — — * Sn re- re- re- re^ re- re- 3 3 3 3 • B 3 re re p, p, re m =5 < = B ■ 3 3 p p C O- • g-O- 3 3 3 3 . - 3 C- O- S g < < 5 = re re * J » 111 1 ■ p-i- re re re- re- . S>~ ra ~ ?r w — re- re- 22- as s- c o OS.3- £ s ° • 3 £ ©-• 2. i * • Z^2 3 • 22 w «: re" 2_ p_ p_ o 5 5" re" 3" 3 3- re c re 3 2. 2. | INdahoalatsch, Kdaboalalsch, ( Ahoaleuchtsch, or I Wdahoalatsch, - - ■s re :■■ re: 3" rr s a ^r D - 3 £ 4 5? HH2 J. 5. 2 =~ =~ cr ■=- P p- i. c- ct n rep""* 3 8 L 5§2 3 ^^^° re re re re 3- * re: C: re: p 5 *§§2 He did Love, She did Love, We did Love, Ye did Love, (m.) (fem.) Thev did L. (m.) (fem.) Imp. On Aimoit, B O § 3 a r 1 s § t-« 5 1 'ST ~ O P £-3- 5" s ='£■ 5 O- 3 S- i ■% " "* re- < 5 f ! p p c- o- ~ 3 re re 111 | ||- - re-re- 3 g §• §- eg | re- re- B 1 o o OS - 2. of!" re O n ffJN* 3*| 8 ir c o o p S 3 C g g" pill fiff! illrl i 6 g «^ re - a 8 III !■&•§ 8 o o s 5, | > — SL _re p 3^ W2 a. a, 5 o o" re* 3- 3 3" 3 c re 3 3 o-§ p -^ 3* > B* o SL 3> W 2 B. B. P P 3" 3* O O SL SL re" re* 7 y r 1 re p re- P" cr u S. SL — 21 3 u u u XXX > > 1 1 u u se 9: > > > p- p- p- 3* C£ C* 3 3 3 u u u *i n ^ % x x w re re "5 79 H *i m X H a m s B* K m .. M ^ C p r « r o » o po p. - s 1-1 ► C 5 5 o o III || g'3-g|f E"«C 3-S S ■■2 sSB i g * S 5-0- fB re fi> O "*><8 Love Thou, (masc.) (fem.) Let him Love, Let her Love, Love Ye, (masc.) (fem.) Let them Love, (fem.) Impers. Qu'onAime, Ranonwenn, Ganonwenn, Sewanonvvenn, Ratinonwenn, Kontinonwenn, Ienonwenn, B2 re O re 3 3 •- ? 2 s 3 1 ■ s* • s . p> 3 ■ O ■ 3- • o 3- ' .0 ■ 3 • .5° > » 3 O 3. o 3" X> 3 ■ o . re > 3" O re "3 ) expressed in Heb.by fut. J of the indicative. Ehebu, -nrrN Ehebenah, nssrrtf S In Heb. future indicative. 5« 55 2- J u J U k r. X re 3" re :» 80 When or if I love, thou lovest, he loves, we love, ye love, they love, CONJUNCTIVE MOOD. PRESENT. Iroquois. Zeisberger says, in his Onondago Grammar, " The conjunctive or op- tative is not in the language, but is ex- pressed by the in- dicative" Lenap6. Ahoalak, Ahoalanne, Ehoalat, Ahoalenk, Ahoaleque, Ahoalachtit. There is no conj. or opt. mood in Heb. the idea of de- sire or contin- gency being expressed by the fut. ind. PRETERITE. When or if I loved, thou didst I. he loved, we loved, ye loved, they loved, Ahoalachkup, Ahoalannup, Ehoalachtup, Ahoalenkup, Ahoalekap, Ahoalachtilup, Nothing cor- respondent in Hebrew. PLUPERFECT. When or if I had loved, thou badst I'd he had loved, we had I'd, ye had loved, they had I'd, Wanting in Iro- quois. Ahoalakpanne, Ahoalanpanne, Ehoalatpanne, Ahoalenkpanne, Ahoalekpanne, Ahoalachtitpanne Nothing cor- respondent in Hebrew. When or if I shall love, thou shalt I. he shall love, we shall love, ye shall love, they shall 1. Wanting in Iro- quois. Ahoalaktsch, Ahoalantsch, Ehoalatsch, Ahoalawonksch, Ahoalaweksch, Ahoalaktiksch, Nothing cor- respondent in Hebrew. INFINITIVE MOOD. To love, To have loved, To be about to love, YonorOchqua, Yonorochquisqua 'Nyonorochqua, Ahoalan, Ehob, The participles are not given by Zeisberger, either of the Onondago, or Lenni Lenape. It must be observed, that my object being merely to show the difference between the Indian languages and the Hebrew, I have not attempted to ex- hibit a full view of the exuberant richness of their grammatical construction. The Delaware verb, Ahoalan, to love, pursued through all its forms, occupies alone fourteen folio pages in Zeisberger's Grammar. I proceed to give, merely as a specimen, a comparative view of the man- ner in which the objective personal pronouns are united to the active verbs. 81 EXAMPLE OF THE PERSONAL FORMS IN DELAWARE AND HEBREW. FIRST PERSONAL FORM, I. Delaware, present. Singular. I love thee, I love him or her, K'dahoatell N'dahoala Plural. I love you, I love them, K'dahoalohhumo N''lalioala-\\ak Hebrew, prceterite. I have loved thee, (m.) AhaUicha, •proroj (f.) Ahabticb, -pnnrrx I have loved him, Ahabtihu, irrnarrN her, Ahabtiha, rpnarrN I have loved you, (m.) Ahabtichem, DSTOnK (f.) Ahabticheo, I have loved them, (m.) AhabtiUem, erraarm . (f.) Ahabtihem, SECOND PERSONAL FORM, THOU. Delaware, present. Thou lovest me, him or her, K'dahoali j ibou lovest us, k"clahoal'n>pen K'dahoala them, K'daboalawak Hebrew, preelerile, (masc.) Ihou (m.) hast loved me, Ahabtani, him, Ahabtahu, her, Ahabt-h b, rrnarrn Thou hast loved us, Ahabtanu, ■onanu them, (m.) Ah. it:' m , omrrK (t.) Ahabtan, franx (feminine.) Thou (f.) hast loved me, Ahabt.iui, Thou (f.) hast loved us, Ahabtinu, -marm i:vn,-TK -him,^ Ahabtihu, ( is in first It , j person. Ahabtiha, J • them,(m.) Ababi m, o*narn« (i) Ah: f-narrx 11 82 THIRD PERSONAL FORM, HE OR SHE. Delaware, present. Singular. He or she loves me, N'dahoalok thee, K'dahoaluk him, W'dahoalawall He or she loves us, W'dahoalguna you, W'dahoalguwa them, W'dahoalawak Hebrew, prceteriie, (masc.) He has loved me, Ahabani, - thee,(m.) Ahabcha, -prrx (f.) Ahabech, -prrx - him, Ahabahu, imrrK - her, Ahab-hah, miix He lias loved us, Ahabanu, "OanK you, (m., Ahabchein, D3irrx (f.) Ahabehe'i, p-zr\H. them, (m.) Ahabam, nsrrx (f.) Ahaban, farm (t'eminine.) She has loved me, Ahabathni, <3narrx — thee, (m.) Ahabathcha, -jmrrx (f.) Ahabathech, -jmrrx -him, Ahabath-huoi-TmrrN her, Ahabath-hah,nri2rTX She has loved us, Ahabathnu, isnanx you, (m.) Ahabathchem, (f.) Ahabathchen, them, (m.) Ahabatham, onamc (f.) Ahabathan, JnarrK IV. As a specimen of the Grammatical forms of the Floridian Languages, 1 subjoin the " Conjugation of a verb in the Cherokee language, by the Rev. Daniel S. Butrick," communicated by him to the American Philosophical Society. I copy it with the division of syllables, accents, &ic. from the ori- ginal paper. ACTIVE VOICE— INDICATIVE MOOD. PRESENT TENSE. Sin is. Dual. Plural. tse ne yl. 1 take, or am takiiig, (a per- son,) he ne yl. Thou ta- kest, CO ne yl. He or she takes, 1. a ne ne yi. We two take, (speaking to each other,) 1. a ste ne yi. We two take, (speaking to a third person,) 2. a ste ne yi. You two take, 1. a te ne yl. We (all) take, (speaking to oneofthecon jinny,) 1. a tse ne yl. We (all) tak^, (speaking to one not of the com- pany,) 2. a tse ne vl. You (all) take, 3. lineneyi. They take , 6 ne yu li, &.c. he. he. " 4. I have passed over the potential and subjunctive modes, because there are various ways of forming them, and I am not confident which is best. I have omitted the participles, because I am not sufficiently acquaint- ed with them." U will immediately be seen, that a language so remarkably rich in gram- matical forms as to surpass even the Greek, differs loto ccelo from the He- brew, one of the simplest of all languages. For the sake of those, however, who are unacquainted with the latter, I subjoin the preterite of the verb to take, Lakach npb Sing. Plur. He took, Lakdchh npblThey (m. k. f.) took, La-ktchu inp? She took, Ltt-kechith rmpblYe (m.) took, Le-kack46m onnpb Thou (m.) didst take, Ln-i deltrta nnpb Ye ((.) took. Lt-kach-tcn Jnnpb Thou (f.) did*t take, Lc-knrhl nnpb We (m. h f ) took, La-kach-nu Mnpb I (m. h f.) took. Lctrkaeh-H Tinpbl For the vocabulary from Zeisberger, the conjugation of the verbs in the Lenni Lenap6, and Onondago, from the same author, and the above exam- ple of the Cherokee verb, I am indebted to the kindness of Peter S.Dupoa- ceau, Esq. corresponding secretary of the Historical and Literary Commit 83 tee of the American Philosophical Society. As that gentleman is devoting his leisure moments with great ardour to the study of Indian languages, we have reason to expect, that he will throw much light upon the philosophical history of human speech ; a subject in which, to use the words of the Quar- terly Reviewers, " the critical scholar, the metaphysician, and the historian, are equally interested." NOTE E. " In the Indian languages, says Mr. Heckewelder, those discriminating words or inflections, which we call genders, are not, as with us, in general, intended to distinguish between male and female beings, but between animate and inanimate things or substances. Trees and plants (annual plants and grasses excepted) are included within the generic class of animated beings. Hence the personal pronoun has only two modes, if I can so ex- press myself, one applicable to the animate, and the other to the inanimate, gender; l nekama' is the personal pronominal form which answers to ' he' and < she' in English. If you wish to distinguish between the sexes, you must add to it the word ' man' or < woman.' Thus, ' nekama lenno' means • he,' or ' this man :' ' nekama ochqueu,' ' she,' or ' this woman.' " The males of quadrupeds are called l lenno w6chum,' and by contrac- tion ' lennochum,' the females ' ochque wechum,' and by contraction ' och- quichum,' which is the same as saying he or she beasts. With the winged tribe, their generic denomination ' ivehelle' is added to the word which ex- presses the sex, thus ' lenno wehelle,' for the male, and * ochquechelle,' (with a little contraction,) for the female. There are some animals, the females of which have a particular distinguishing name, as <■ nunsclietto," a doe, 'nunsheach,' a she bear. This, however, is not common." Corres- pondence respecting the Indian languages, Let. vii. Transactions, ut supr. p. 367-9. " The Indians distinguish the genders, animate and inanimate, even in their verbs. Nolhatton and nolhalla, both mean ' I possess,' but the former can be used only in speaking of the possession of things inanimate, and the latter of living creatures. — In the verb, ' to see,' the same distinction is made between things, animate and inanimate. Newau, ' / see,' applies only to the former, and ' nemen,' to the latter. Thus the Delawares say ; lenno newau, ' I see a man;' tscholens newau, '/see a bird ;' achgook ne- wau, « I see a snake ;' On the contrary, they say, wiquam nemen, ' I see a house ;' amockol nemen, ' / see a canoe,' &ic. Ibid. p. 438-9. These expressions of Mr. Heckewelder are to be takeu, however, with due limitation. In their full extent, they apply only to the Lenape and their kindred tribes. It is certain, from the specimens of the Mohawk and Onon- 89 dago in the preceding note, that there are feminine verbs in the Iroquois. That the distinctions of gender exist also in the nouns, is evident from the following passage in Zeisberger's Onondago Grammar. " The gender of nouns is twofold, masculine and feminine;* it is partly designated or dis- tinguished by the nature of the thing, and partly from prefixes, or, to speak more accurately, preformatives. Examples : 1. From the nature of the thing — Etschinak, a man ; Eehro, a woman. 2. From prefixes — Sayddat, a person, (m.) Sgayudat a person, (f.) T'hiatage, two persons, (m.) t'gidtagc, two persons, (f.) dchso nihccnati, three persons, (m.) dchso negunati, three persons.(f.)" Zeisberger's M. S. Grammar of the Onondago Lang, transl. by P. S. Duponceau, Esq. Yet we must not hastily conclude, that the distinction of animate and inanimate, does not exist in the Iroquois. Charlevoix, whose cautious ac- curacy on other subjects leads us to place confidence in what he asserts on his own knowledge, says expressly, " Dans le Huron, (a dialect of the Iro- quois,) tout se conjugue," &.C. — " Les verbes simples ont une double conju- gaison, Tune absolue, l'autre reciproque. Les troisicmes personnes o?U (es deux genres, car il n'y en a que deux dans ces langues, a sgavoir le genre no- ble, et le genre ignoble. Pour ce qui est des nombres et des tems, on y trouve les memes differences, que dans le Grec. Par exemple, pour racon- ter un voyage, on s'exprime autrement, si on l'a fait par terre, ou si on l'a fait par eau. Les verbes actifs se multipbent autant de fois, qu'il y a de choses qui tombent sous leur action ; comme le verbe, qui signifie manger, varie autant de fois, qu'il y a de choses comestibles, faction s'exprime autrement a I'egard d'une chose animie, et d'une chose inanirnce ; ainsi, voir an liomme, el voir une pierre, ce so)d deux verbcsA Se servir d'une chose, qui appartient a celui qui s'en sert, ou a celui a qui on parle, ce sont autant de verbes differens. — // y a quelque chose de lout cela dans la langue Algon- quine, (a dialect of the Lenape or Delaware,) mais la maniere n'en est pas la meme, etje ne suis nullement en etat de vous en instruire." Journal Hist. p. 197. On this subject, Mr. Duponceau thus writes to me: "I have yet found nothing in Zeisberger respecting an inanimate gender in the Iroquois, but it does not follow from thence, that it does not exist some where, and in some ' In another grammar of the Onondago, by the same author, he says, " there are three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter. The neuter nouns are those which have no sign of gender prefixed to them." In his Delaware grammar, he also divides the genders into masculine, feminine, and neuter. Yet we now know, that they are also divided into animate and inanimate. f The same assertion, and the same example, as that of Heckewelder, with respect to the Delaware, above quoted. 12 90 form, in that language ; for in his Delaware Grammar, he divides the gen- ders into masculine, feminine, and neuter ; and it is from Mr. Heckewelder that we have the account of the inanimate. The truth is, that the writers of Indian Grammars, most of them at least, have tried too much to assimilate their rules to those of their own language, or of the Latin. It was a great while before I satisfied myself, that the Iroquois was Polysynthetic. Ze\s- berger's Grammars do not show it; but some other manuscripts of his, and a careful investigation of his Grammars and Dictionaries, with that view, have convinced me that it is so in the highest degree. This I shall develope at a future day, when I have more leisure for it ; but, on the whole, we must be careful of general negative inferences, as they may mislead us." " The Delaware, though it has this general division of animate and inani- inattfh not a stranger to the masculine and feminine; as many names of animals are different for the sexes, and others are distinguished as with us by a male and female epithet Thus we say, he cat, she cat, cod: sparrow, hen sparrow, he. From these, an Iroquois, on a superficial view, might say that our language has no genders," he. NOTE F. Much stress has been laid upon the supposed use of the Hebrew words Jehovah and Halleluiah, among the Indians. With regard to the invocation of God, by the name of Jehovah, the fact, in the first place, is not certain. Some travellers assert that the Indians, when assembled in council, and on other solemn occasions, express their approbation by ejaculating Ho, ho, ho, with a very guttural emission. In the minutes of a treaty, held at Lancaster, I think in 1742, on which occasion Conrad Weiser was interpreter, it is said that the chiefs expressed their approbation in the usual manner, by say- ing, " Yo-wah." Adair says that they exclaim, " Yo-he-wah," and, accord- ing to his manner of interpretation, asserts, that this means " Jehovah." But surely all this may be purely imaginary. It is well known that the Hebrew nation abstain from the use of this sacred name. We have the authority of Josephus and Philo, that it was never pronounced. The Septuagint ver- sion, which was made more than 250 years before Christ, constantly substi- tutes for it, the word Kwp/oc, Lord, which agrees with the present practice among the Jews. It must be proved, then, that before the dispersion of the ten tribes, it was customary to pronounce the name of Jehovah, or else the use of a similar word among the Indians is hostile to the theory it was in- tended to serve. As to the word Halleluiah, supposing it to be true that such a word is ut- tered, and that it is not an accidental resemblance, what is the inference to be drawn from it ? That the Indians arc Hebrews ? But " the ancient Greeks 91 had their similar acclamation, E>.«xw I«, with which they both began and ended their picans, or hymns, in honour of Apollo." See Parkhurst, Heb. Lex. voce brr. v. and Calmet's Diet. Article Alleluia. May we not as well conclude, that the Indians are descended from the Greeks, or the Greeks from the Hebrews ? All such arguments are extremely unsatisfactory, and can weigh nothing in opposition to the facts, that the American languages have no affinity with the Hebrew, that the Indians have not the least know- ledge of written characters, that none of them practise the rite of circum- cision, and that there arc no traces among them of the observation of the Sabbath. " It cannot be perceived that they have any set holy-dayes; only in some great distresse of want, feare of enemies, times of triumph, and of gathering their fruits, the whole countrcy, men, women, and children, as- semble to their solemnities." Observations of the Rites of Virginians, bv Captain Smith and others. Purchas, vol. v. p. 951. NOTE G. This belief in subordinate deities is represented by Adair, in conformity with bis systemj as only a belief in the ministration of Angels. Hist, of the .North American Indians, p. 36. " They (viz. the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, k.c.) believe the higher regions to be inhabited by good spirits, v\ horn they call Tlottuk hhlohoollo and Nana hhlohoollo, ' holy people,' and « relations to the great holy one.' The Hotluk Ookproose or Nana Ookproose, ' accursed people,' or « accursed beings,' they say, possess the dark regions of the west ; the former attend and favour the virtuous; and the latter, in like manner, accompany and have power over the vicious." p. 36. " Several warriors have told me, that their Nana hhlohoollo, 'concomitant holy spirits,' or angels, have forewarned them, as by intuition, of a dangerous ambuscade, which must have been at- tended with certain death, when they were alone, and seemingly out of dan- ger ; and by virtue of the impulse, they immediately darted off, and, with extreme difficulty, escaped the crafty pursuing enemy." p. 37. The Chepewyan, or Northern Indians, according to Hearne, " are very superstitions with respect to the existence of several kinds of fairies, called by them Nant-e-na, whom they frequently say they see; and who are supposed by them to inhabit the different elements of earth, sea, and air, according to their several qualities. To one or other of those fairies they usually attribute any change in their circumstances, either for the better or worse; and as they are led into this way of thinking entirely by the art of the conjurers, there is no such thing as any general mode of belief; for those jugglers differ so much from each other in their accounts of these beings, that those who believe any thing they say, have little to do but change their opinions according to 92 liic will and caprice of the conjurer, who is almost daily relating some new whim or extraordinary event, which, he says, lias been revealed to him in a dream, or by some of his favourite fairies, when on a bunting excursion*'? Hearne, 347. cap. is. end. What Hearne calls fairies were probably the infe- rior tutelary deities. When among the Sioux, Captains Lewis and Clarke went to see, (anno 1804,) "a large mound in the midst of a plain, about sr. 20. w. from the mouth of Whitestone River, from which it is nine miles distant. It is called by the Indians, the Mountain of Li Me People., or Lillle Spirits, and they be- lieve that it is the abode of little devils in the human form, of about 18 inches high, and v;ith remarkably large heads; the;/ are armed with sharp arroics, with which they are very skilful, and are always on the watch to kill those who should have the hardihood to approach their residence. The tradition is, that many have suffered from those little evil spirits, and among others, three Maha Indians fell a sacrifice to them a few years since. This has inspired all the neighbouring nations, Sioux, Mahas, and Ottoes, with such terror, that no consideration could tempt them to visit the hill." Lewis and Clarke's ex- pedition up the Missouri, vol. 1. p. 52-3. Philad. 1814. The term devils'is a gloss of the travellers. These are probably the same with the IVfatchi Manittoes, or inferior evil spirits, of the Lenap6. " The whole religion of the Mandans, (anno 1804,) consists in the belief of one Great Spirit, presiding over their destinies. This being must be in the nature of a good genius, since it is associated with the healing art, and the Great Spirit is synonomous with Great Medicine, a name also applied to every thing which they do not comprehend. Each individual selects for himself the particular oliject of his devotion, which is termed his medicine, and is either some invisible being, or more commonly sonic animal, which thenceforward becomes his protec- tor or his intercessor with the Great Spirit; to propitiate whom, every atten- tion is lavished, and every personal consideration is sacrificed. 'I was lately owner of 17 horses,' said a Mandau to us one day, ' but I have offered them all up to my medicine, and am now poor.' He had in reality taken al! his wealth, his horses, into the plain, and, turning them loose, committed them to the care of his medicine, and abandoned them for ever. The hor- ses, less religious, took care of themselves, and the pious votary travelled home on foot." Lewis and Clarke, vol. 1. p. 138. "Besides the bufi'aloe dance, we have just described, there is another called medicine dance, an entertainment given by any person desirous of doing honour to his medicine or genius. He announces that on such a day he will sacrifice his horses, or other property, and invites the young females of the village to assist in rendering homage to his medicine ; all the inhabit- ants may join in the solemnity, which is performed in the open plain, and by daylight, but the dance is reserved for the unmarried females. The feast 93 h opened by devoting the goods of the Master of the feast to his medicine, whir% is represented by a head of the animal itself, or by a medicine bag, if the deity be an invisible being." Lewis and Clarke, vol. 1. p. 151-2. I am inclined to think that, from an imperfect knowledge of their language and religious customs, Lewis and Clarke were led into a mistake respecting the term " Medicine," as applied to the Supreme Being, and to the subordi- nate divinities The Indians undoubtedly consider the healing ait as a supernatural power: and as they cull every thing they do not comprehend a Spirit, they would naturally call any medicine, of which they had felt the efficacy, a Spirit. Lewis and Clarke may easily, therefore, have been led to suppose that their word for Spirit meant medicine. That the same belief in one supreme, and numerous subordinate deities, existed among the tribes now extinct, who formerly inhabited the Atlantic States, appears from the accounts given by the first settlers, which coincide in a remarkable manner with the statements of Modern Travellers. In the year 1587, Thomas Hariot, sent over by Sir Walter Raleigh, and, to use his own expressions, " in dealing with the natural! inhabitants specially iraploycd," gives the following statement, concerning the Indians within (he Colony of Virginia : " Some religion they have already, which, although it be farre from the true, yet this being as it is, there is hope it may be the easier and sooner re- formed ; they also believe that there are many gods, which they call Metntoac, licing of different sorts and degrees, one onely chieje and Great God, which hath bene from all elernitie. Who, as they affirme, when hee purposed to make the world, made first other Gods of a principal! order, to be as meanrs and instruments to be used in the Creation and government to foloiv ; and after the sunne, rnoonc, and starves as pettie Gods, and the instruments of the other order more principal. First, (they say,) were made waters, out of which by the Gods was made all diversitie of creatures that are visible or invisible." Backluyt's Collection, vol. 3. p. 276-7. In Winslow's " Good News from New-England; or a relation of things remarkable in that plantation," anno 1622, occur the following remarks on the subject of the Indian Religion: " A few things I thought meete to adde heereunto, which I have observed amongst the Indians, both touching their religion, and sundry other cus- tomes amongst them. And first, whereas myselfe and others, informer letters' (which came to the presse against my wille and knowledge,) wrote that the Indians about its arc a people without any religion or knoirh dire of any God, therein I erred, though wee coidd then gather no better : for as they conceive of many divine, powers, so of one whom they call Kiehtan, to be the principall maker of nil the rest, and to be made by none : Hee, (they say,) created the Heavens, Earth, Sea, and all creatures contained therein. Also, that hee made 94 •ne man and one woman, of whom they and wee, and all mankind, came : but how they became so nrre dispersed that know they not. At first, they say, there was no Sachem or King, but Kiehim- who dwclleth above the Heavens, whither all good men goe when they die to see their friends, and have their fill of all things : This, his habitation, lyeth westward in the Hea- vens they say; thither the bod men goe also, and knocke at His doore, but lie bids them Quachet, that is to say Walke abroad, for there is no place for such ; so that they wonder in restlesse want and penury. Never man saw this Kiehlan ; o\ly old men tell them of him, and bid them tell their children; yea, to charge them to teach their posterities Ihe same, and lay the like charge upon them. This power they acknowledge to be good, and when they abtaine any great matter, meet together and cry unto him, and so likewise for plenty, victory, fy-c. sing, dance, feast, give thankes, and hang up garlands, and other things in memory of the same. " Another power they worship whom they call Hobbamock, and to the northward of us Hobbamaqui ; this as farre as wee can conceive is the deviii, him they call upon to cure their wounds and diseases. When they are curable, hee perswades them hee sends the same for some conceiled an- ger against them, but upon their calling upon him, can and doth help them ; but when they are mortall, and not curable in nature, then he perswades them Kiehlan is angry and sends them, whom none can cure ; insomuch, as in that respect cnely they somewhat doubt whether hee bee simply good, and therefore in sickness.? never call upon him. This Hobbomock appears in sundry formes unto Ihnu, as in the shape of a man, a deare, afawne, an eagle, fyc, but most ordinari'y as a snake :" fyc. Furchass Pilgrim, lib. x. chap. v. vol. 4- p. 1867 This Hobbomock, or Hobbamoqui, who " appears in sundry forms," is evidently the Oke or Tutelary Deity, which each Indian worships; and Mr. Winslow's narrative affords a solution of the pretended worship of the devil, which the first settlers imagined they had discovered, and which has since heen so frequently mentioned on their authority, without examination. The natives, it was found, worshipped another being, beside the Great Spi- rit, which every one called his Hobbomock, or Guardian Oke. This, the En- glish thought, could be no other than the Devil, and accordingly they as- sorted, without further ceremony, what they believed to be a fact. Hence, in a " Tractate, written at Henrico in Virginia, by Master Alexander Whit- aker, Minister to the Colony there," (anno 1613,) we find the following ac- count of the worship of the Kewas, or Tutelary Deity of the Virginian In- dians: " They acknowledge that there is a Great Good God, but know him not, having the eyes of their understanding as yet blinded : wherefore they serve Ihe deiill for feare, after a most base manner, sacrificing sometimes, (as 1 95 have here heard,) their owne children to hirn.* / have sent one image of their God to the counsell in England, which is painted upon am side of a toad- stoole, much like unto a deformed monster. Their priests, (whom they call Quiokosoughs,) are no other but such as our English witches are," &c. Purchas, lib. ix. vol. 4. p 1771. NOTE H. " Nemo vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fait." Cic. de. Nat. Deor. lib. ii. "Les sauvages appellent Genie ou Esprit tout ce qui surpasse la capacite de leur entendemer.t, et dont ils ne peuvent comprendre la cause, lis en croyent de bons et de mauvais." La Hontan, Memoires de l'Am6riqua Septentrionale, Amsterd. 1705. ed 2. vol. 2. p. 127. They adore the Great Spirit, he observes, in every thing. " Cela est si vrai que drs qu'ils voyent quelque chose de beau, de curieux ou de surprenant, surtout le soleil et les autres astres, ils s'ecrient aiusi: O Grand Esprit, nous te voyons partout." lb. p. 115. — La Hontan was an infidel, and sought to exalt deism at the expense of Christianity. It is impossible to read his work without perceiv- ing that he shelters himself under the garb of an Indian, while he gives vent to opinions which in France would have endangered his safety, if uttered as his own. We can never be certain of the accuracy of his statements, ex- cepting when corroborated by other testimony. — In the above extracts, it will be seen how he has bent to the support of his own notions, the belief that every thing in nature has its tutelary spirit. It has been before remarked that all nature is divided by the Indians into the two great classes of animate and inanimate. It is probable, therefore, that all animate nature being considered as one great whole, the agency of tutelary spirits is supposed to be co-extensive. — " Un Francois ayant un jour jette un souris qu'il venoit de prendre, une petite lille la ramassa pour la manger: le pere de l'enfant, qui 1'appen ut, la lui arracha, et se mit a faire de grandes caresses a I'animal qui etoit mort: le Francois lui en demanda la raison : ' C'est, repondit-il, pour appaiser le Guide des souris, atin qu'il ne tourmente pas ma fille, quand elle aura mange celle-ci.' Apres quoi, il rendit I'animal a l'enfant, qui le inangea." — Charlevoix, Journal, p. 299, 300. — " Non seulenient ces sauvages (the Potewotamies, Outagamies, and other nations around Lake Michigan) ont,co?«»ie tons les attires, la coutume de se preparer aux grandes chasses par desjeunes, (jue les Outagamis poussent meme jusqu'a dix jours de suite, niais encore, tandis que les chasseurs sonten campagne, on oblige soovenl » This, Purchas afterwards mentions, is found to be fa'sc, vol.5, p. 952. It arose from a mistaken notion respecting the ceremony of obtaining a GuardtM Spirit for boyj Se< Note I 96 les eufans dejeuner, on observe les songes qu'ils ont pendant leur jeiine, et on en tire de bons ou de mauvais augures pour le succes de la chasse. Lin- tention de cesjeunes est d'appaiser les Ginies tutclaires des animaux, qu'on doit chasser, et Tun pretend qu'ils font connoHrc par les reves s'ils s'ojjposeront, ou s'ils scrontj avorables aux chasseurs." lb, ubi supra. " I have often reflected," says Mr. Heckewelder, "on the curious con- nexion which appears to subsist in the mind of an Indian, between man and the brute creation, and found much matter in it for curious observation. — All beings, endowed by the Creator with the power of volition and self-mo- tion, they view in a manner as a great society, of which they are the head, he. — They are, in fact, according to their opinions, only the first among equals, the legitimate hereditary sovereigns of the whole animated race, of •which they are themselves a constituent part. Hence, in their languages, those inflections of their nouns, which we call genders, are not, as with us, descriptive of the masculine and feminine species, but of the animate and inanimate kinds. Indeed, they go so far as to include trees and plants within the first of these descriptions. All animated nature, in whatever degree, is, in their eyes, a great whole, from which they have not yet ventured to sepa- rate themselves. They do not exclude other animals from their world of Spirits, the place to which they expect to go after death. " A Delaware hunter once shot a huge bear, and broke its back bone. The animal fell, and set up a most plaintive cry, something like that of the panther when he is hungry. The hunter, instead of giving him another shot, stood up close to him, aud addressed him in these words: 'Hearkye ! bear; you are a coward, and no warrior, as you pretend to be. Were you a warrior, you would show it by your firmness, and not cry and whimper like an old woman. You know, bear, that our tribes are at war with each other, and that your's was the aggressor. You have found the Indians too powerful for you, and you have gone sneaking about in the woods, stealing their hogs : perhaps at this time you have hog's flesh in your belly. Had you conquered me, I would have borne it with courage, and died like a brave warrior; but you, bear, sit here and cry, and disgrace your tribe by your cowardly con- duct.' I was present at the delivery of this curious invective. When the hunter had despatched the bear, I asked him how he thought that poor ani- mal could understand what he said to it ? 'Oh!' said he, in answer, 'the bear understood me very well ; did you not observe how ashamed he looked while I was upbraiding him?' " Historical Account, he. p. 247 — 9. NOTE I. Mr. Heckewelder describes the same custom under the name of " Initia- tion of Boys ;" " a practice," he says, " which is very common among the 97 Indians, and indeed is universal among those nations that 1 have become acquainted with." " When a boy is to be thus initiated, he is put under au alternate course of physic and fasting, either taking no food whatever, or swallowing the most powerful and nauseous medicines, and occasionally be is made to drink decoctions of an intoxicating nature, until his mind becomes sufficiently bewildered, so that he sees, or fancies that he sees, visions, and has extraordinary dreams," kc. — "Then he has interviews with the Man nitto, or with Spirits who inform him of what he was before he was born, and what he will be after his death. His fate in this life is laid entirely open before him ; the Spirit tells him what is to be his future employment,' Lc. — " When a boy has been thus initiated, a name is given to him analo- gous to the visions that he has seen, and to the destiny that is supposed to be prepared for him. The boy, imagining all that happened to him, while un- der perturbation, to have been real, sets out in the world with lofty notions of himself, and animated with courage for the most desperate undertakings." Hist. Account, p. 238, 23'.). This practice of blacking the face and fasting, together with the use of emetics, as a system of religious purification, for the purpose of obtaining a Guardian Spirit, appears to have existed formerly among the natives of Vir- ginia and New-England ; though the first settlers were not always able to learn the real object of the ceremonies they saw. Tomocomo, one of the Chiefs of the Virginian tribes, gave the following account to Mr. Purchas, in the year 1616. " They use to make blackboyes once in 14 or 15 yeeres generally, for all the country, (this happened the last yeere, 1615,) when all of a certaine age, that have not beene madeblack-boyes before, are initiated in this ceremonie. Some foure monthes after that rite they live apart, and are fed by some ap- pointed to carry them their food : they speake to no man, nor come in company, seeme distracted, (some thinke by some devillish apparition scarred ; certaine, to oblige them to that devillish religion as by a hellish sacrament of the devil's institution,) and will offer to shoot at such as come nigh them. And when they come into company, yet are, for a cer- taine lime, of silent and strange behaviour, and \\ il doe any thing never so desperate that they shal be bidden ; if they tel them they shal be old men, if they goe not into the fire, they will doe it. There is none of their men but are made blacke-boyes at one time or other. Let us observe these things with pittie and compassion, and endevour to bring these silly souls out of the snare of the Devill, by our prayers, our purses, and all our best endea- vours. This may bee added, that their young people have, in manner, no knowledge, and the vulgar little of their religion. They use also to beguile them with their okce, or image of him in their houses, into whose mouth they will put a tobacco-pipe kindled, ami ene behinde that image drawl 13 S8 the smoke, which the sillier vulgar and children thinkc to bee done by their God or Idoll." Relation of Tomocomo and Mr. Rolph, in Purchas, vol. v. booke 8. chap. 6. p. 955. This ceremony was witnessed by the famous Captain John Smith, one of the first settlers, and by William White, but they at the time mistook it for a sacrifice of the Children to the Devil. See Purchas, vol. 5. p. 952. "The Werowance being demanded the meaning of this sacrifice, answered, That the Children were not all dead, but the next day they were to drinke Wighsalcon, which would make them mad; and they were lo be kept by ihe Inst made blacke-boyes in the wildernesse, when their oke did sucke the bloud of those which fell to his lot, &c. This sacrifice they held to be so necessa- ry, that if they should omit it, their oke or Devil!, and all their other Qui- youghcosughes, which are their other gods, would let them have no dear e, lur' kies, come, nor fish, and yet besides, he would make a great slaughter amongst them." Captain Smith's Description of Virginia. Purchas, vol. 4. p. 1702 lib. ix. cap. ill . Mr. Winslow gives the following account of the Indians of New-England. " The Panicses are men of great courage and wisedome, and to these also the Dcuill appcareth more familiarly then to others, and, as wee concciue, maketh coueuant with them, to preserve them from death by wounds with arrowes, knives, hatchets. §-c. or al least both themselucs and especially the people thinke them- sclucs lo be freed from the same. Jlnd though against their battels, all of them, by painting, disfigure ihcmselues, yd tiny arc knowne by their courage and holdnes.se, by reason whereof one of them will chase almost an hundred men, for they account it death for whomsoever stand in their way. These are highly esteemed by all sorts of people, and are of the Sachim's councill, without, which they will notwarre, or undertake any weigbtie businesse," &c. "Jfad lo the end liny may haue store of these, they traine up the most for- ward and likeliest boys from their childhood in great hardnesse, and make them abstain from daintie meat, observing diutrs orders prescribed, to the end that when they ewe of age, the Dcuill may appeare to them, causing to drink the juyce of sentry, and other bitter hearbs till they cast, which they must disgorge into the platter, and drinke againe and againe, till at length, through extraor- dinary press of nature, it will seeme to be all bloud, and this the boys will doe with eagernesse, till by reason of faint nesse they can scarce stand on their legs, and then must goe forth into the cold : also they beat their shins with sticks, and cause them to run through bushes, stumps, and brambles, to make them hardy and acceptable to the Devill, that in lime he may appeare unto them." Purchases Pilgrim, b. x. chap. 5. vol. 4. p. 1S6S. The passages in italics sufficiently indicate the confidence and courage with which the natives were inspired, from the conviction of their possessing a Guardian Spirit, and the painful austerities which their children were obliged to under- go in order to obtain one. 99 NOTE K. In 1584, when Virginia was first discovered, the Captain of one of the vessels sent by Sir Walter Raleigh, states, concerning the inhabitants of the Island of Roanoak, that " within the place where they feede was their lodg- ing, and within that their Idoll, which they worship, ofirhome they speak incre- dible things." Hakluyt, vol. 3. p. 249. 4to. Lond. 1600 " When they goe to warres they carry about with them their idol, of whom they aske counsel, as the Romans were woont of the oracle of Jlpullo. They sing songs as they niarche towardes the battell instead of drummes," &:c. Ibid. p. 250. NOTE L. Adair affirms that the Indians do not " worship any kind of Images what- soever/' (p. 22.) " These Indian Americans," he says, "pay their religious devoir to Loak Ishto-hoollo-Aba, ' the great, beneficent, supreme, holy Spi- rit of Fire,' who resides, (as they think,) above the clouds, and on earth also with unpolluted people. He is with them the sole author of warmth, light and of all animal and vegetable life. They do not pay the least perceivable adoration to any images or to dead persons ; neither to the celestial lumina- ries, nor evil Spirits, nor any created beings whatsoever." p. 19. Yet he afterwards admits that " there is a carved human statue of wood," but as- serts that they pay to it no religious homage. " It belongs to the head war- town of the upper Muskohge country, and seems to hare been originally de- signed to perpetuate the memory of some distinguished hero who deserted well of his country ; for when their cusseena, or bitter black drink, is about to be drank in the Synedrion, they frequently, on common occasions, ivill bring it there, and honour it with the first conchshell-full by the hand of the chief religious attend- ant : and then return it to its former place." (p. 22.) He speaks also of " Cherub! mical figures in their Synhedria," before which they danced through a st: ,v ig religious principle, and always in a bowing posture : (p. 30.) When it is recollected that Adair's theory required it to be proved that the Indians worship no other than the Supreme Being, it will not be difficult to account for the reluctance with which he is obliged to admit the fact of the existence of these images, and for the attempt to explain it in consistency with his hypothesis. "Though so familiar with these genii, they, (the Jugglers,) cannot de- scribe their form or nature. They suppose them to lie bodies of a light, volatile, shadowy texture. Sometimes they and their disciples will select a particular one, and give him for a dwelling, a certain tree, serpent, rock, or waterfall, and him they make their fetish, like the Africans of Congw " V'olney, p. 417 t.ofC. 100 •• When wc arrived on the west side of the River, each painted the front of his target or shield ; some with the figure of the sun, others with that of the moon, several with different kinds of birds and beasts of prey, and many with the images of imaginary beings, which, according to their silly notions, are the inhabitants of the different elements, earth, sea, air, fee. On inquiring the reason of their doing so, I learned that each man painted his shield with the image of that being on which he relied most for success iu the intended engagement." Hearne, 149. Yet Hearne affirms elsewhere that they had no religion ! — He speaks in this place of the Chepewyan, or Northern Indians, passing the Copper-mine River to attack the Esquimaux. Just above the mouth of Stone Idol Creek, " we discovered that a few miles back from the Missouri there are two stones resembling human figure?, and a third like a dog ; all which are objects of great veneration among the Ricaras. — Whenever they (the Ricaras) pass these sacred stones, they stop to make some offering of dress to propitiate these deities. Such is the account given by the Ricara Chief." Lewis and Clarke, (1804,) vol. 1. p. 107. Hariot, a servant of Sir AValter Raleigh, says of the natives of Virginia, (anno 1587.) "They thinke that all the Gods are of humane shape, and therefore they represent them by images in the formes of men which they call Kewasowok, one alone is called Kewas: them they place in houses appro- priate or temples, which they call Maehicomuck, where they worship, pray, sing, and make many times offering unto them. In some Maehicomuck we have seene but one Keicas, in some two, and in other some, three. The common sort thinke them to be also Gods." Hakluyt, vol. 3. p. 277. See also Purchas, vol. v. p. 948. of the Virginian rites related by Master Hariot. " Their Idoll, called Kiwasa," says the same author, " is made of wood foure foot high, the face resembling the inhabitants of Florida, painted with fleshe colour, the brest white, the other parts black, except the legs, which are spotted with white ; he hath chaines or strings of beades about his neck." Hariot, apud Purchas, vol. v. p. 950. ^ " There is yet in Virginia," says Captain Smith, : ' no place discovered to be so savage in which the Savages have not a religion. — All things that were able to doe them hurt beyond their prevention, they adore with their kinde of divine worship ; as the fire, water, lightning, thunder, our ordnance pieces, horses, fee. But their Chiefe God they worship is the Divell ; him they call Oke, and serve him more of feare than love. They say they have con- ference with him, and fashion themselves as neere to his shape as they can imagine. In their temples they have his image evil favouredly carved, and then painted and adorned icith chaines, copper and beades, and covered irith a skin. in such manner as the deformitie may well suite with such a God." De- scription of Virginia, Purchas, lib. ix. cap. iii. vol. 4. p. 1701 101 NOTE M. 11 There is an herbe which is sowed apart by itselfe, and is called by the inhabitants Uppowoc: in the West Indies it hath divers names, according to the severall places and coun treys where it groweth and is used; (he Span- yards generally call it Tobacco. — This Uppowoc is of so precious estimation amongst them, that they thinke their gods are marvellously delighted there- with : whereupon sometime they make hallowed fires, and cast some of the pouder therein for a sacrifice : being in a tlorme upon the watt rs, to pacifie their gods, they cast some up into the aire, and into the water: so a weare for fish be- ing newly sit up, they cast some therein ami into the aire : also after an escape of danger, they cast some into the aire likewise : but all done with strange gestures, stamping, sometime dancing, clapping of hands, holding up of hands, and staring up into the heavens, uttering therewithal! and chattering strange words and noises." Hariot, apud Hakluyt, vol. 3. p. 27 1-2. " In every territory of a U'erowance, is a temple and a priest, two or three, or more. The principal! temple, or place of superstition, is at Uttamussack, at Pauiaunk, and neere unto which is a house, temple, or place of Powhatuns. Upon the top of certain red sandy hils in the woods, there are three great houses filled with images of their kings, and divels, and tombs of their prede- cessors. Those houses are neere sixty foot in length, built arbor-wise, after their building. This place they count so holy, as that none but the pries's and kings dare come into them ; nor the savages dare not go up the river in boates by it, but that they solemnly cast some peece of copper, white beads, or poconcs into the river ; for feare their Oke should he offended and revenged of them. In this place commonly are resident, seven priests,'" kc. Smith's Description of Virginia. Purchas, lib. ix. chap. iii. vol.4, p. 1701. NOTE N. How exactly the Zemcs of the Islanders corresponded with the Okies or Maniitocs of the present Continental Indians, will appear from the following relation in Purchas : "Now, concerning the Zemcs and the superstitions of Hispaniola, the Spaniards had beene long in the iland before they knew that the people worshipped any thing but the lights of Heaven ; but after, by further con- versing and living amongst them, they came to know more of their religion, of which, one Ramonus, a Spanish heremite, writ a booke, and Martyr hath borrowed of him to lend us. It is apparent, by the images which they wor- shipped, that there appeared unto them ceitaine illusions of evil spirits. These images they made of Gossampine cotton hard stopped, sitting, like the pictures of the Divel, wkich they railed '/.ernes: whan thry take to be the 102 mediators and messengers of the Great God, which they acknowledge One, Eternall, Infinite, Omnipotent, Invisible. Of these they thinke they oblaine mine or faire weather ; and when they goe to the warres, they have ccrtaine little ones which they bind to their foreheads. Every king hath his particular Zemes, which he honoureth. They call the Eternall God by these two names, Jocanna and Guamanomocon, as their predecessors taught them, affirming, (hat he hath a father, called by these five names, Attabeira, Mamona, Guaca- rapita, Liella, Guimazoa. " They make the Zemes of divers matter and forme : some of wood, as they were admonished by certaine visions appearing to them in the woods : others, which had received answere of them among the rockes, make them of stone : some of rootes, (o the similitude of such as appeare to them when they gather the rootes whereof they make their bread, thinking that the Zemes sent them plenty of these rootes. They attribute a Zemes to the par- ticular tuition of every thing ; — some assigned to the sea, others to fountaines, woods, or other their peculiar charges." Purchas, vol. v. p. 1091. NOTE O. " The Mandans," according to Captains Lewis and Clarke, 1804, '• be- lieve" that " the whole nation" formerly " resided in one large village under ground, near a subterraneous lake." Accident made them acquainted with the charms of the upper region, and about one half of the nation ascended to the surface of the earth. When they die, they expect to return to the original seats of their forefathers ; " the good reaching the ancient village by means of the lake, which the burden of the sins of the wicked will not ena- ble them to cross." See the tradition related at large, Exped. up the Mis- souri, vol. 1. p. 139. " Kagohami came down to see us early ; his village is afflicted by the death of one of their eldest men, who, from his account to us, must have seen one hundred and twenty winters. Just as he was dying, he requested his grandchildren to dress him in his best robe when he was dead, and then carry him on a hill, and seat him on a stone, with his face down the river towards their old villages, that he might go straight to his brother, who had passed before him to the ancient village under ground." Ibid, vol. 1 p. 163. It is remarkable how many of the Indian nations think they formerly lived under ground. "They," the natives of Virginia, (anno, 1587,) "believe also the immor- talitie of the soule, that after this life, as soone as the soule is departed from the body, according to the workes it hath done, it is either caried to heaven, the habitacle of Gods, there to enjoy perpetuall blisse and happinesse, or els to a great pitte or hole, which they thinke to be in the furthest parts of their part 103 of the world toward the sunne set, there to burne continually : the place they call Popogusso." Hariot,apud Hackluyt, vol. 3. p. 277. " They think that their werowances and priests, which they also esteeme Qyiyougheosughes, when they are dead, goe beyond the rnountaines towards the setting of the sunne, and over remaine there in forme of their Oke, with their heads painted with oileand pocones, finely trimmed with feathers, and shall have beades, hatchets, copper, and tobacco, doing nothing but dance and sing, with all their predecessors," &.c. Capt. Smith's Description of Virginia, apud Purchas, vol. iv. p. 1702. NOTE P. See Heckewelder's account of Indian funerals, Hist. Ace. p. 262-271. " This hole" (in the coffin) " is for the spirit of the deceased to go in and out at pleasure, until it has found the plaee of its future residence." p. 266. "At dusk a kettle of victuals teas carried to the grave, and placed upon it, and the same was done every evening for the space of three weeks, at the end of which it was supposed that the traveller had found her place of residence." p 270. This was the funeral of the wife of Shingask, a noted Delaware chief, at which Mr. H. was present in 1762. Blackbird, a Maha chief, died of the small pox about four years before Lewis and Clarke's expedition, (i. e. in 1800.) On the top of a knoll, three hundred feet above the water, a mound of twelve feet diameter at the base, and six feet high, is raised over the body of the deceased king. " Ever since his death he is supplied with provisions from time to lime, by the superstitious regard of the Mahas." Lewis and Clarke's Exped. up the Missouri, vol. 1. p. 43. " The effects of the small pox on that nation" (the Mahas) " are most distressing. — They had been a military and powerful people, but when these warriors saw their strength wasting before a malady which they could not resist, their frenzy was extreme ; they burnt their village, and many of them put to death their wives and children, to save them from so cruel an afflic- tion, and that all might go together to some belter country." Ibid. p. 45. Compare with this, Hebr. xi. 14, 15, 16. NOTE Q. " When any of their relations die," says Adair, " they immediately fire o(F several guns, by one, two, and three at a time, for fear of being plagued with the last troublesome neighbours :" (the llottuk ookproose, accursed people, or evil spirits.) " All the adjacent towns also on the occasion, whoop and halloo at night; for they reckon, this offensive noise sends off the •hosts to their proper fixed place, till they return at some certain time, to 104 repossess their beloved tract of land, and enjoy their terrestrial paradise. As they believe in God, so they firmly believe that there is a class of higher beings than men, and a future state of existence." Hist, of North American Indians, p. 36. NOTE R. In another place, Charlevoix mentions the superstitions of the Otta.vas, among whom an Idol was erected, " et tout le monde occupe a lui sacrifier des Chiens." Hist, de la Nouv. France, Tom. 1. p. 392. " Les Cliques adorent le soleil, auquel ils sacrifient des Chiens." Ibid. p. 3i>7. Lewis and Clarke, (anno 1S04,) observed the same custom among the Tetons Okaudandas. " The hall, or council room, was in the shape of three quarters of a circle covered at the top and sides with skins well dressed and sewed together. Under this shelter sat about 70 men, forming a circle round the chief, before whom were placed a Spa- nish flag, and the one we had given them yesterday," &tc. — " After he had ceased, the great chief rose and delivered an harangue to the same effect : then, with great solemnity, he look some of the ino^t delicate parts of the dog, which was cooked for the festival, and held it to the fag by way of sacrifice .- this done, he held up the pipe of peace, and first pointed it towards the heavens, then to the four quarters of the globe, and then to the earth, made a short speech, lighted the pipe, and presented it to us." Expe- dition up the Missouri, vol. 1. p. 84. ** When any of the young men of these nations, (Iroquois,) have a mind to signalize themselves, and to gain a reputation among their countrymen, by some notable enterprise against their enemy, they, at firstj communicate their design to two or three of their most intimate friends ; and if they come into it, an invitation is made in their names to all the young men of the Castle to feast on dog's flesh ; but whether this be because dog's flesh is most agreeable to Indian palates, or whether it be as an emblem of fidelity for which the dog is distinguished by all nations, that it is always used on this occasion, I have not sufficient information to determine. When the company is met, the promoters of the enterprise set forth the undertaking in the best colours they can; they boast of what they intend to do, and incite others l> join, from the glory there is to be obtained ; and all who eat of the dog's flesh, thereby enlist themselves" Colden's Hist, of Five Indian Nations of Canada, Introduc. p. vi. Bernal Diaz, one of the companions of Cortes, mentions the same prac- tice as prevailing among the Mexicans. " When he arrived at the summits he found there an Indian woman, very 105 fat, and having with her a dog of that species, which they breed in order to eai> and which do not bark. This Indian was a witch ; she was in the act oj sacrificing the dog which is a signal of hostility" The true Hist, of the Con- quest of Mexico, by Captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of the Conquer- ors, written in the year 15G8. Keatinge's Trans, p. 352. In the Scriptures, dogs and swine are continually mentioned together as animals equally unclean. Hence, the prophet, reprehending the hypocrisj of those who rested in mere external observances, could think of no stronger figure to represent the abhorrence with which God regarded their offerings, than the comparison of them to the sacrifice of dogs and swine. " He that sacrificed) a lamb, is as if he cut off a dog's neck ; he that olfereth an obla- tion as if he offered swine's blood," &ic. Isaiah, lxvi. 3. Comp. Matt. vii. 6\ and 2 Pet. ii. 22. The law not only forbade dogs lo be offered to God, but even the price for which dogs were sold. Deut. xxiii. 18. Sec Bochart Hieroz. lib. ii. cap. lvi. pars. 1. p. 690. Is it credible that nations, descended from the Hebrews, would have so far forgotten their origin, as to olfer in sacrifice, what the law of Moses declared to be an abomination in the sight of God ? — Adair speaks of the aversion which the Indians originally had to swine's flesh, as a proof of their Hebrew origin, but is silent respecting the practice of sacrificing and eating that of dogs. Hist. N. Amer. Indians, p. 133-4. NOTE S. Hearne, speaking of the superstitious observances of the Chepewyan In dians, after an engagementjwith the Esquimaux, says, that all who had shed blood were considered in a state of uncleanness, and were not permitted to cook any victuals for themselves or others. The murderers painted all the space between the nose and chin, as well as the greater part of their cheeks, with red ochre before they would taste a bit of food, and would not drink out of any other dish, or smoke out of any othev pipe but their own ; and none of the others seemed willing to drink or smoke out of theirs. All these ceremonies were observed from the time of their killing the Esqui- maux in July, till the winter began to set in, and during the whole of that time they would never kiss any of their wives or children. They refrained also from eating many parts of the deer, and other animals, particularly the head, entrails, and blood , and during their uncleanness, their victuals were never sodden in water, but dried in the sun, eaten quite raw, or boiled, wheu a fire fit for the purpose could be procured. " When the time arrived for putting an end to these ceremonies, the men, without a female being present, made a fire at some distance from the tents ? into which they threw all their ornaments, pipe-stems, and dishes, which 14 106 were soon consumed to ashes ; after which a feast was prepared, consisting of such articles as they had long been prohibited from eating ; and when all was over, each man was at liberty to eat, drink, and smoke as he pleased ; and also to kiss his wives and children at discretion, which they seemed t© do with more raptures than I had ever known them do it either before or since." Hearne, p. 204-6. This was evidently an expiatory rite, a purifi- cation by fire and a sacrifice. How inconsistent with Hearne's assertion in another place, that they have no religion! Captain Smith thus describes the worship of the natives of Virginia : " The manner of their devotion is, sometimes to make a great fire in the house or fields, and all to sing and dance about it with rallies, and shout to- gether four or five houres. Sometime they set a man in the midst, and about him they dance and sing, he all the while clapping his hands, as if he would keepe time, and after their songs and dances ended, they goe to their feasts. " They have also certaine altar stones, they call Pawcorances, but these stand from their temples, some by their houses, others in the woods and wildernesses, where they have had any extraordinary accident or incoun- ter. As you travell by them they will tell you the cause of their erection, wherein they instruct their children ; so that they are in stead of records and memorialls of their antiquities. Upon this they offer Blond, Deare Suet, and Tobacco. These they doe when they relume from the warres, from hunt- ing, and upon many other occasioiis. They have also another superstition that they use in stormes, ivhen the ivalers are rough in the Rivers and Seacoasls. Their conjurers runne to the water sides, or passing in their boats, after many hellish outcries and invocations, they cast tobacco, copper, pocones, or such ti-ash, into the water, to pacifie that God whom they thinke to be very angry in those stormes. Before their dinners and suppers, the better sort will take the first bit, and cast it i?i the fire, which is all the grace they are knowne to •use." Description of Virginia, by Captaine John Smith. Purchas, lib. ix. chap. iii. vol. 4. p. 1702. Mr. Winslow gives the following account of the religious rites of the na- tives of New-England : " Many sacrifices the Indians use, and in some cases kill children. It seem- eth they are various in their religious worship in a little distance, and grow more and more cold in their worship to Kiehtan," &.c. " The Nanohigganses exceed in their blind devotion, and have a great spatious house wherein onely some few (that as we may tearme them priests) come : thither at cer- taine knowne times, resort all their people, and offer almost all the riches Ihey have to their Gods, as kettles, skins, hatchets, beades, knives, fy-c. all which are cast by the priests into a great fire that they make in the midst of the house, and there consumed to ashes. To this ottering, every man bringeth freely, and the more bee is knowne to bring, hath the better esteeme of all men." Good News from New-England, kc. Purchas, vol. 4. lib. x. chap. v. p. 1867-8, 107 NOTE T. '' One would think it scarce possible," says Bryant in his Analysis of An tient Mythology, " that so unnatural a custom, as that of human sacrifice?, should have existed in the world ; but it is very certain, that it did not only exist, but almost universally prevail." Analysis, Edit. 3d. 8vo. Lond. 1807. vol. 6. p. 295. From this learned writer I select a few examples of this horrid practice, referring for complete satisfaction on this interesting subject to the work itself. " Phylarchus affirms, as he is quoted by Porphyry, that of old, every Grecian state made it a rule, before they marched towards an enemy, to solicit a blessing on their undertakings by human victims. Aristomenes, the Messenian, slew 300 noble Lacedemonians, among whom was Theo- pompus, the King of Sparta, at the altar of Jupiter, at Ithome. The Spar- tan boys were whipped, in the sight of their parents, with such severity be- fore the altar of Diana Orthia, that they often expired under the torture. Among the Romans, " Caius Marius offered up his own daughter for a vic- tim to the Dii Averrunci, to procure success in a battle against the Cimbri. AVhen Lentulus and Crassus were Consuls, so lale as the 657th year of Rome, a law was enacted that there should be no more human sacrifices. — This law, however, was not sufficient to produce their abolition, for not very long after this, it is reported, by Suetonius, of Augustus Cresar, when Perusia sur- rendered in the time of the second Triumvirate, that, beside multitudes executed in a military manner, he offered up, upon the Ides of March, 300 chosen persons, both of the Equestrian and Senatorian Order, at an altar dedicated to the manes of his Uncle Julius Even at Rome itself this cus- tom was revived : and Porphyry assures us, that, in his time, a man was every year sacrificed at the shrine of Jupiter Latiaris. Heliogabalus offered the like victims to the Syrian Deity, which he introduced among the Ro- mans. The same is said of Aurelian. " The Carthaginians, upon a great defeat of their army by Agathocles, see- ing the enemy at their gates, seized at once 200 children of the prime nobi- lity, and offered them in public for a sacrifice. Three hundred more, being persons who were somehow obnoxious, yielded themselves voluntarily, and were put to death with the others. The neglect of which they accused themselves, consisted in sacrificing children, purchased of parents among the poorer sort who reared them for that purpose ; and not selecting the most promising, and the most honourable, as had been the custom of old. In short, there were particular children brought up for the altar, as sheep are fattened for the shambles : and they were bought and butchered in the same manner. — If a person had an only child, it was the more liable to be put to death, as being esteemed more acceptable to the deify- and more effi- 103 . acious of Hie general good," &c. It is impossible not to shudder at this dreadful recital. In comparison with the infernal rites of these civilized nations, how pure is the religion of the Savages of America! NOTE U. The arts practised by these impostors, when called upon to exercise their s upposed power of healing, are thus described by Mr. 1 ieckewelder. " At- tired in a frightful dress, he approaches his patient, with a variety of con- tortions and gestures, and performs by his side, and over him, all the antic tricks that his imagination can suggest. He breathes on him, blows in his mouth, and squirts some medicines, which he has prepared, in his face, mouth, and nose ; he rattles his gourd tilled with dry beans or pebbles, pulls out and handles about a variety of sticks and bundles, in which he appears to be seeking for the proper remedy, all which is accompanied with the most horrid gesticulations, by which he endeavours, as he says, to frighten the Spirit or the disorder away," fcc. Hist. Account, p. 225. Mr. Hearne's description of the conjurers among the Chepewyan or Northern Indians, which is very minute, and disgusting enough, corresponds (!y with Heckeweldcr's account, that it would seem as if the same .. had sat to each for his picture. From the following passage it will dej ends for ^■irvi'>^ upon the aid of his attendant Spirit. « — I began to be very inquisitive about the Spirits, which appear to them, on these occasions, [swallowing a stick, bayonet, &ic] and their form ; when 1 was told that they appeared in various shapes, for almost every < on jure r had his peculiar attendant ;, but that the Spirit which attended the man who pretended to swallow the piece of wood, they said, generally ap- peared to him in the shape of a cloud." Hearne, p. 217-18. of the Northern or Chepewyan Indians. From the following extracts, it will be seen that the same office existed, attended by the same ceremonies, and the same results, among the natives of Virginia, at the time of its first settlement by the English. " To cure the sicke, a cei taine man with a little rattle, using extreme bowl- ings, shouting, singing, with divers antick and strange behaviours over the patient, sucketh blood out of his stomack or diseased place." News from Virginia by Captain Smith, apud Purchas, vol. v. p. 950. Master Alexander Whitaker, Minister to the Colony at Henrico, anno 1613, states, that " they stand in great awe of the Quiokosovghs, or priests, which are a generation of vipers, even of Sathan's owne brood. The man- lier of their life is much like to the Popisli Hermits of our age ; for they live alone in the woods, in houses sequestered from the common course of men, may any man be suffered to come into their house, or to speake with 109 ihem, but when this priest doth call him. He taketh no care for his victuals for all such kinde of things, both bread and water, &.c. are brought unto a place neere unto his cottage, and there are left, which hee fetcheth for his proper neede. If they would hare raine, or have lost any thing, they have their recourse to him, who conjurethfor them, and many times prevaileth. If they be sick, he is their physician ; if they be wounded, he suckcth them. At his com- mand they make wane and peace, neither doe they any thing of moment with- out him." Whitaker, in Purchas, vol. 4. p. 1771. Quiokosough seems to have been an appellation common to their Gods and conjurers, unless it be a mistake of the English settlers. The Virginian In- dians so fed Captain Smith, "that he much misdoubted that he should have beene sacrificed to the Quoyoughquosicke, which is a superiour power they worshippe, then the Image whereof, a more ugly thing cannot be described." Purchas, vol. v. p. 950. The name written by Whitaker, Quiokosough, and by Smith, Quoyoughquo- sicke, is, no doubt, the same as Keicasotvok in Hariot's account ; a proof of the uncertainty of the orthography of Indian words. Among the New-England Indians, the same office was designated by the name of Powah, or as it is otherwise written Powow. Thus Mr. Winslow states, in his " Good Newes from New-England" — " The office and dutie of the Powah, is to be exercised principally in calling upon the Devill, and cur- ing diseases of the sickc and wounded, &c " In the Powah's speech, hee promiseth to sacrifice many skinnes of Beasts, Kettles, Hatchets, Bcades, Knives, and other the best things they have, to the fiend, if hee will come to helpe the partie diseased," &c. Purchas, vol. iv. lib. 5. cap. v. The Savages of Acadia, according to Charlevoix, called their Jongleurs, .luhnoins. " Dans l'Acadie — quand on appelle les Jongleurs, e'est moins it cause de leur habilete, que parce qu'on suppose, qu'ils peuvent mieux sc^a- voir des Esprits la cause du mal,et les remedes, qu'il y faut appliquer. — Dans l'Acadie, les Jongleurs s'apelloient Autmoins,et e'etoit ordinairement le chef du village, qui etoit revetu de cette dignite." Journal, p. 3t>7-8. In the Bohilii of the natives of Hispaniola, when they were visited by Co- lumbus, we clearly recognize the same office. "Their Boitii, or priests, instruct them in these superstitions: these are also physicians, making the people beleeve that they obtaine health for them of the Zemcs. They tye themselves to much fasting and outward cleanlinesse and purging ; especially where they take upon them the cure of great men : for (hen theydrunke the powder of a certaine hearbe, which brought than into a furic, wherein they said they teamed many things of their Zemts. Much adoe they make about the sickc partie, deforming themselves with many gestures, breathing, blowing, sucking the forehead, temples, and nccke of the vatimt: 110 sometimes also saying, that the Zeme*is angrie for not erecting a chappell, or dedicating to him a grove or garden, or the neglect of other holies. And if the sick partie die, his kins-folkes, by witchcraft, enforce the dead to speake, and tell them whether hee died by naturall destinie, or by the negligence of the Boitii, in not fasting the full due, Or ministring convenient medicine : so that, if these physicians be found faulty, they take revenge of them." Pur- chas, vol. v. p. 10y3. NOTE W. Seethe very interesting report of Mr. Duponceau, to the Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophical Society; and also his Correspondence with Mr. Heckewelder. " All the genuine specimens that we have seen," he observes, " of the grammatical forms of the Indians from North to South, on the Continent and in the Islands, exhibit the same general features, and no exception whatever, that I know of, has yet been dis- covered." " When we find so many different idioms, spoken by nations which reside at immense distances from each other, so entirely different in their etymolo- gy, that there is not the least appearance of a common derivation, yet so stri- kingly similar in their forms that one would imagine the same mind presided ever their original formation, we may well suppose that the similarity extends through the whole of the language of this race of men, at least until we have clear and direct proof to the contrary." Correspondence, ut supr. Letter sxiii. Will it be thought an extravagant supposition, that it was the Divine mind ■vhich presided over their original formation ; and that when God confounded the languages of men for the very purpose of dispersing them throughout the Earth, He should have so planned the systems of speech, as to make similar grammatical forms characterize the great divisions of the human race ? NOTE X. In this opinion I am supported by Charlevoix. " D'ailleurs les idees Kjuoiqu'cnticrement confuses, qui leur sont restees d'un Premier Etre, les vestiges presqu'etfaces du culte religieux, qu'ils paroissent avoir autrefois rendu a cette Divinite Supreme ; et les foibles traces, qu'on rcmarque, jusques dans leurs actions les plus indifferentes, de l'ancienne croyance, ct de la religion primitive, peuvent les remettre plus facilcment qu'on ne croit, dans le chemin dc la verite, et donner a leur conversion au christianisme des facilites qu'on ne reacontre pas, ou qui sont contrebalancees par de plus grands obstacles, dans les nations les plus civilisees." Charlevoix, Journal; p. 2<55. Ill On this subject, Charlevoix may surely be admitted as a competent witness. No men have more accurately studied the human character than the Jesu- its ; and their conversion of the natives of Paraguay, and, what is still more to our purpose, the success of their present attempts to civilize and convert the Araucanians, a nation unconquered by the Spaniards, and in the highest degree martial, and jealous of their liberties, is a convincing proof of the wisdom of their system. Their missionaries are never solitary, and there- fore are not obliged to sink to the level of the savage state, in order to enjoy the privileges of social life. The Indians, also, whom they educate, are in- duced to marry and settle around them, under their paternal supervision, in- stead of being again incorporated with their uncivilized countrymen ; among whom, as experience has fully shown, they would quickly lose all that they had gained. 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