LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
THE ORIGIN 
 
 OF 
 
 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
PLATE 1 
 
 . 
 
 Wm 
 
 ^1 
 
 
 I 
 
 A FLYING HEAD. 
 
 [Frontispiece.] 
 
THE ORIGIN 
 
 OF 
 
 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS 
 
 AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT INTO THE WORSHIP OF 
 
 SPIRITS AND THE DOCTRINE OF SPIRITUAL 
 
 AGENCY AMONG THE ABORIGINES 
 
 OF AMERICA. 
 
 BY 
 
 RUSHTON M. DORMAN, 
 
 TWENTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 LONDON : 16 SOUTHAMPTON STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
 1881. 
 
K 
 
 Copyright, 1881, by RUSHTON M. DORMANT. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE study of archaeological subjects is increasing in interest. 
 Recent disclosures concerning the early condition and history 
 of the human race have directed much attention to these sub 
 jects. Man s oral history crystallized in myths and supersti 
 tions reflects much light into a past which written history has 
 not penetrated. Mythology is, therefore, a very important 
 branch of anthropological science. Mythology in its broadest 
 definition includes all pagan religious beliefs, commonly called 
 superstitions, and cannot be confined to collections of fables 
 and traditions, which are the folk-lore of peoples. It is the aim 
 of this book to contribute facts to show the homogeneity of 
 man s religious beliefs. Although the New World is the field 
 of research in the present volume, the rudimentary forms of 
 belief are shown to be the same there as elsewhere, and their 
 systematic development is also the same. A striking illustra 
 tion of this fact occurs to the writer, who, while among the 
 negroes of the South, found among that uncultured people the 
 same superstitions that prevailed in Africa, which were also the 
 same as those found among equally uncultured peoples every 
 where. The only way to account for their presence among the 
 Southern negroes is to ascribe them to the natural outgrowth 
 of the human mind, everywhere the same in the same stage of 
 progress. Mythologists have studied myths without studying 
 the superstitions which have found expression in the myths. 
 They have exhausted resources in attempts to prove that the 
 higher phases of belief and worship have been the most ancient 
 and have become debased in the ruder forms. Voss endeavors 
 to find in pagan myths a distortion of Hebrew revelations. 
 
 221023 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 Dupuis, with his Sabaistic origin for cults, looks to astronomy 
 for a solution. Abbe Banier finds in mythology " history in 
 poetic dress." Creuzer sees nothing but symbols, and shows 
 much erudition in his attempts to find their hidden meaning. 
 Nearly all mythologists have fixed upon some locality where 
 myths have originated, in the infancy of the human race, and 
 whence they have spread, by transmission or migration, into the 
 rest of the earth. Pococke and Sir William Jones locate their 
 origin in the East; Rudbeck, in the North; Bryant, among 
 the Hebrews. A new departure has been taken, however, in 
 mythological science. 
 
 A work of the character of the present volume must neces 
 sarily be to a great extent a compilation. I have used great 
 care to give credit to authors cited in this work, but, in order 
 to escape quoting in full, in some cases have made abstracts of 
 passages in such a way as to preserve their sense, without being 
 able, however, to use quotation-marks, on account of such 
 change. In such cases citations always occur, but it may not 
 always be clear where the citation begins and ends. On this 
 account I wish to acknowledge special obligations to the work 
 of H. H. Bancroft on the Native Races of the Pacific Slope, 
 Mr. Spencer s works on Sociology, and Mr. Tylor s Primitive 
 Culture. I will also mention, as being specially full of in 
 formation on subjects relating to the aboriginal tribes, the works 
 of Mr. Schoolcraft, especially the large work, in six volumes, 
 published at the expense of the United States government, but 
 under his supervision; also the works of Messrs. Squier and 
 Brinton; also Mr. Southey s History of Brazil. 
 
 A list of authorities cited in this work might be of some 
 value as a bibliographical manual of the literature of the sub 
 ject, but would add to the size and cost of this book, and only 
 be superfluous when such exhaustive works as those of Messrs. 
 Ludewig, Field, and Sabin have been published and can easily 
 be obtained by those desiring such a work. 
 
 CHICAGO, February 9, 1881. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY . . " . . . . . . . . . 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 
 
 Spirits permeate all animate and inanimate nature Fear of these spirits 
 Contests with spirits Destruction and desertion of property Spirits 
 assume fairy forms Demonology Fear of evil spirits becomes worship 
 Doctrine of future rewards and punishments Land of souls Its locali 
 ties and occupations Difficulties of the journey thither These difficul 
 ties dependent on the traditional difficulties of tribal migrations Trans 
 migration of spirits Disease produced by them The confessional as a 
 cure Sorcery Couvade Dreams a revelation from spirits Prophecy . 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS (CONTINUED). 
 
 Worship of human spirits Ancestral worship Apotheosis Culture-heroes 
 Fabulous forms assumed by mythical beings Gods of Mexico, Central 
 America, Bogota, and Peru Idolatry Its primitive forms Grave-posts 
 roughly hewn into the image of the dead and worshipped Its later form 
 an image of the deceased containing his ashes Idolatry in aboriginal 
 art Supposed vitality of idols ........ 69 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Fetichism Scalping fetichistic in conception Inherence of spiritual force 
 Cannibalism fetichistic and a religious act Eating images of gods a rite 
 similar to the eucharistic Superstitious fears about pronouncing the names 
 of the dead Tattooing fetichistic Amulets Primitive ornamentation 
 fetichistic .. . . . . . . . . . . 141 
 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 RITES AND CEREMONIES CONNECTED WITH THE DEAD. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Burial-customs Care of the dead Interment Suspension Cremation- 
 Tombs the primitive altars The mounds, their builders and uses Burial- 
 towers Resurrection of the dead Sacrifice Food-offerings the primitive 
 
 form Human sacrifices Tombs the primitive temples .... 163 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ANIMAL-WORSHIP. 
 
 Its animistic origin Immortality of the spirits of animals Transmigra 
 tion of human souls into animals Omens Manitology Totemism 
 Animal names given to human beings Traditionary descent of tribes 
 from animals Totemism in art Heraldry Totemic writing Tattooing 
 
 Probable totemic origin of the animal mounds Traditionary descent 
 
 of animals from the human race Metamorphosis Animal dress Wor 
 ship of animals Fabulous animals Animals in the r6le of creators . 221 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WORSHIP OF TREES AND PLANTS. 
 
 Worship of trees Their supposed vitality explained by animism Supposed 
 descent of human beings from trees Worship of plants Personality 
 ascribed to them Origin of plants from human bodies Those having 
 medical properties supposed to be endowed with supernatural powers . 287 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WORSHIP OF REMARKABLE NATURAL OBJECTS. 
 
 Worship of mountains and dangerous places Their supposed frequentation 
 by spirits Worship of volcanoes Echoes and other noises supposed to 
 be the voices of spirits Traditionary descents of tribes from mountains 
 Metamorphosis Worship of islands Traditions of the origin of islands 
 Origin of the belief that the world was supported on the backs of ani 
 mals Worship of springs and fountains Traditionary tribal descents 
 from them Their healing properties supernatural Worship of rivers and 
 lakes Places of refuge . .. . . . " . - 300 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SABAISM. 
 
 PAGE 
 Worship of the heavenly bodies Their personality Their anthropomorphic 
 
 nature Animistic conceptions of them Their romantic attachments to 
 human beings Their vitality Their occupation by translated heroes 
 Crude notions concerning them Eclipses Astrology .... 325 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ANIMISTIC THEORY OF METEOROLOGY. 
 
 Tempests produced by hostile spirits Coercive measures used to prevent 
 them Winds the manifestations of spiritual agency Anthropomorphic 
 representations of aerial deities ........ 349 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 PRIESTCRAFT. 
 
 Priests Sources of their influence Medicine-men or doctors of rude tribes 
 Exorcism of evil spirits the method of curing diseases Sorcerers 
 Miraculous powers ascribed to them Rain-doctors Witches Rise of 
 priestly hierarchies among the more civilized peoples Priesthoods of Peru, 
 Mexico, Yucatan, etc. Monastic institutions of those countries Educa 
 tional institutions in the hands of the priests Their influence in the State 
 Confessional Priestly absolution saved criminals from legal penalties . 353 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 CONCLUSION 385 
 
 INDEX 393 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 A FLYING HEAD (see page 281) Frontispiece 
 
 DACOTAH GOD OF THUNDER 83 
 
 HEYOKA 84 
 
 DACOTAH GOD OF WAR 85 
 
 ATOTARHO, ANCIENT RULER OF THE IROQUOIS .... faces 86 
 
 GRAVE-POST HEWN TO THE LIKENESS OF THE DECEASED . . . . Il8 
 
 TOMB OF AN ALASKAN CHIEF . . . . . . . . .118 
 
 IMAGE OF AN INCA . . . . . . . . . . .119 
 
 SEPULCHRAL URN OF THE MEXICANS faces 120 
 
 SEPULCHRAL URN CONTAINING BRAZILIAN CHIEF ..... 121 
 
 OJIBWAY IDOI .... 127 
 
 MOQUI IDOL 127 
 
 STONES SLIGHTLY ALTERED TO A HUMAN RESEMBLANCE . . . .130 
 BURIAL-TOWER OF PERU . . . . . . . . . .191 
 
 TOTEMIC WRITING faces 239 
 
 THUNDER-BIRD OF THE HAIDAHS 272 
 
 TCHIMOSE 278 
 
 FABULOUS ANIMAL OF THE WINNEBAGOES 279 
 
 COMPOSITE FIGURE OF THE PERUVIANS 284 
 
 GOD OF GRASS . 299 
 
 ROCK-TEMPLE OF PERU . . . 302 
 
 GOD OF THE SEA ........... 323 
 
 SUN-HEAD . ... 338 
 
 GOD OF THE AIR 352 
 
 PROPHET S LODGE . . faces 363 
 
 1 1 
 
PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 THE object of this book is to reduce to a system of religious 
 belief that multitude of superstitions that have germinated 
 among uncultured peoples, and many of which remain as sur 
 vivals in a higher culture, although they are inconsistent with 
 the higher forms of religious belief among which they are 
 found. We hope to trace all superstitions to a common ori 
 gin. Success in tracing such superstitions to their source, 
 connected with evidence that they have originated in error, or 
 in ignorance of the truth, will certainly prove a benefit to man. 
 The process of discovering these sources is, and always will 
 be, an interesting labor to the anthropologist. The results of 
 such research will certainly prove an interesting chapter in the 
 history of man. 
 
 The doctrine of transmigration in the Orient, the animal 
 worship of the Egyptians, the Sabaism of the Persians, are but 
 stages of progress in a religious evolution. The pagoda of 
 the Orient, the pyramid of Egypt, the temple of Greece, are 
 but the representations in art of a superstition that finds its first 
 expression in a more primitive form. The laws of evolution 
 in the spiritual world can be traced with as great precision as 
 in the material world. Much labor has been spent in the study 
 of the laws of man s social progress, and much success has 
 followed such effort. While a progressive movement must be 
 recognized in all social institutions among peoples that have 
 
 2 13 
 
I 4 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 attained any degree of civilization, yet the tendency of all the 
 evidence is to show that the highest development of religious 
 culture among pagan nations has not attained to monotheism ; 
 on the contrary, the principles that control all religious thought 
 among primitive peoples will work themselves out in poly 
 theism among those peoples in lower stages of culture, or in 
 pantheism among those of a higher culture. 
 
 That sublime definition, u God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and 
 unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, 
 goodness, and truth," followed by that definition of the " chief 
 end" of man, which is " to glorify God and enjoy him forever," 
 is the high product of Christianity, which, if maintained in its 
 purity, has nothing to fear from religious evolution. 
 """All primitive religious belief is polytheistic. All savage 
 tribes are full of the terror of invisible spirits which have been 
 liberated by death. These spirits fill all nature, animate and 
 inanimate. They are in the air, the wind, the storm, in the 
 rock, the hill, the vale, in the river, the waterfall. They trans 
 migrate into human beings, animals, plants, and even into in 
 animate stones, idols, and heavenly bodies, which are supposed 
 to be animate thereafter. Hence originates the worship of 
 ^ancestors, and also of animals, plants, stones, idols, and the 
 heavenly bodies. Death, the liberator, and burial, have their 
 religious ceremonies, and the tomb becomes the temple. 
 These spirits liberated by death, or by sleep or a comatose 
 condition, which are its equivalents in savage life, are abroad 
 on the earth for a time, and can avenge themselves for past or 
 present wrongs, in disease, which is a form of transmigration. 
 They can appear in dreams, which is a form of prophecy. 
 
 Among primitive peoples the cure of diseases was given 
 over to sorcerers, who were supposed to have .some control 
 over the evil-disposed spirits. This sorcery developed into 
 the priestcraft of higher cultures, where exorcism of evil spirits 
 still survives as one of the offices of the priests. In our own 
 day those peculiar diseases which have defied medical skill, 
 such as insanity, hysteria, and epilepsy, are relegated in many 
 
 lllc 
 
 7ro< 
 
INTR OD UCTOR Y. 1 5 
 
 countries for cure to the priesthood. Even the primitive feti- 
 chism survives in the use of charms and amulets, and in the 
 heraldic devices on many national flags and the armorial bear 
 ings of many families. 
 
 In tracing the origin of superstitions among savage or bar 
 barous peoples, we will become convinced of the error of any 
 writer who has affirmed that this or that people has no re 
 ligion or religious feeling. Many such authors have contra 
 dicted themselves unwittingly by giving a long list of these 
 superstitions ; and I have often thought that they merely meant 
 to convey the impression that the savages knew nothing of 
 true religion. Let me say here that in all my studies upon 
 this subject I have not found a people, no matter how savage, 
 who have no religion, if the word is used in its broadest sense 
 to embrace all superstition. I wish to speak of another error 
 found in many books on the aboriginal tribes of America, 
 where it is intimated that the belief in a Supreme Being has 
 existed among them from an early time. No approach to 
 monotheism had been made before the discovery of America 
 by Europeans, and the Great Spirit mentioned in these books 
 is an introduction by Christianity. Among the Northern tribes 
 the Indian word manitou expresses their highest conception of 
 deity. " Their gods were no whit better than themselves," 
 says Mr. Parkman, " and when the Indian borrows from Chris 
 tianity the idea of a supreme spirit, his tendency is to reduce 
 him to a local habitation and a bodily shape. The idea that 
 the primitive Indian had an Omnipotent Spirit to which he 
 yielded his untutored homage is a dream of poets, rhetoricians, 
 and sentimentalists." Mr. Keating says that the ideas that the 
 Sauks had of the Great Spirit were that he had a human form, 
 was white, and wore a hat. Mr. Dall says, " The Thlinkeets, 
 like all American Indians, do not believe in a Supreme Being. 
 Their feeble polytheism presents no feature worthy the name 
 of such a belief." Mr. Schoolcraft says, " The Dacotahs do 
 not understand the difference between a great Good Spirit and 
 a great Evil Spirit. They think any spirit can do good when 
 
1 6 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 it chooses, or evil when it chooses." The Patagonians call 
 God Sorc/tii y but their word for the dead is soychuhet. The 
 word Con, which has been used for the supreme deity of the 
 Peruvians, originated in a blunder of the Spanish writers. It 
 was a prefix to sacred names, and is the first syllable in Con- 
 opa, a stone idol. A close examination makes it evident that 
 the Indians idea of a Supreme Being was a conception no 
 higher than might have been expected, and when they under 
 took to contemplate such a Being it became finite, and gener 
 ally ridiculous. There is no Iroquois word that had such a 
 primitive meaning as Great Spirit, or God. Perrot, after a life 
 spent among the Northern Indians, ignores the idea that they 
 had any conception of such a Being ; and Allouez says the 
 same of the tribes about Lake Superior. The tribes of Cali 
 fornia had no conception whatever of a Supreme Being. Mr. 
 Powers says, " True, nearly all of them now speak of the Old 
 Man Above, but they have the word and nothing more." 
 
 The American tribes afford a very favorable opportunity for 
 such an investigation as the present. Without entering into 
 the controversy as to the antiquity of the Red Race, I shall 
 assume that it has occupied the territory of North and South 
 America for a sufficient length of time to have developed its 
 own culture in the varied stages of progress found at the time 
 of the discovery by Columbus. Such an assumption is war 
 ranted by the best researches into their antiquity. I shall also 
 assume that during the progress of their culture no interference 
 from without has left any traces of itself. The best American 
 ists, after much study devoted to this subject, have so decided. 
 
 Without discussing the theory of the unity of the human 
 race, I shall assume that the Red Race, if the unity of human 
 races is true, was separated from the rest of the human family 
 at such an early day that their mythology is indigenous, as was 
 also their language. 
 
 All stages of progress are faithfully represented among them, 
 from the most savage root-digger to the most civilized Peru 
 vian. There were tribes of hunters, tribes of fishermen, and 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 17 
 
 tribes of agriculturists. Art is also represented in all its forms. 
 When we arise from a study of their mental characteristics, 
 we cannot help being impressed with the fact that the human 
 mind unfolds itself in all directions with as great regularity as 
 does our physical nature. The growth of the mind is as cer 
 tain in its order of development as is the growth of the body. 
 It is due to these laws of development that the native of Pata 
 gonia has about the same superstitions as has the native of 
 Alaska. The similarity is not due to contact between the sev 
 eral tribes of America. The differences in all the tribes are 
 due to external influences, such as climate, soil, occupation, 
 and also to their different degrees of progress in culture. 
 
 Progress in religious culture is coextensive with all other 
 human progress among pagan nations. Pagan religion being 
 the product of the human mind, and emanating from no higher 
 source, will therefore have no great tendency to elevate hu 
 manity. Hence religious progress will always be in accord 
 with progress in other directions. 
 
 The American savages agree in their religious views with 
 the savages of other continents more than with the civilized 
 peoples of their own. Says Mr. J. G. Miiller, " The origin, 
 of their religions is found in their human nature. They 
 have not received them from the peoples of the Old World, 
 neither can they be understood if we try to derive them from 
 thence." 
 
 Hence the study of comparative mythology can never have 
 scientific value unless it is coextensive with the study of 
 human progress in all directions. Too much effort has hereto 
 fore been directed to tracing a derivation of one system of 
 mythological belief from another by contact or migration of 
 myths. The growth of mythologies among all peoples has 
 taken place according to the laws of man s spiritual being. 
 There is therefore a great similarity of religious belief among 
 all peoples in the same progressive stages. Even the simi 
 larity of the myths themselves is remarkable in cases where 
 no transmission could possibly have taken place. 
 
1 8 PRJM1TIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 I shall not undertake to compare, to any extent, the super 
 stitions of the New World with those of the Old World in 
 this volume, as I intend to reserve that subject for another 
 time; and I shall therefore confine my attention almost ex 
 clusively to a comparative study of the religious beliefs and 
 traditions of the aborigines of the New World. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 
 
 Spirits permeate all animate and inanimate nature Fear of these spirits Contests 
 with spirits Destruction and desertion of property Spirits assume fairy forms 
 Demonology Fear of evil spirits becomes -worship Doctrine of future re 
 wards and punishments Land of souls Its localities and occupations Diffi 
 culties of the journey thither These difficulties dependent on the traditional 
 difficulties of tribal migrations Transmigration of spirits Disease produced by 
 them The confessional as a cure Sorcery Couvade Dreams a revelation 
 from spirits Prophecy. 
 
 primitive man fills his world with spirits, and his belief 
 in this spirit life manifests and unfolds itself in all his varied 
 superstitions. The places of the living are haunted with the -Di 
 spirits of the dead. 
 
 The Illinois, says Tonti, " fancy that the world is full of 
 spirits, who preside over everything in nature, and that they are 
 good or bad according to their caprice. It is upon this prin 
 ciple that all their foolish superstitions are grounded." x 
 
 The Hurons, says Charlevoix, believe in an infinite number 
 of subaltern spirits, both good and bad. These are objects of 
 their worship. Everything in nature has its spirit. Lest the 
 spirits of the victims of their torture should remain around 
 the huts of their murderers from a thirst of vengeance, they 
 strike every place with a staff in order to oblige them to de- 
 part. 
 
 Mr. Greenhalgh relates the same custom among the Iro- 
 quois. He says, " Att night we heard a great noise as if ye 
 houses had all fallen, butt itt was only ye inhabitants driving 
 away ye ghosts of ye murthered." 2 
 
 1 Tonti s Account, 7. 2 I Doc. Hist. N. Y., 16. 
 
 T9 
 
20 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 The Iroquois believe the space between the sky and earth is 
 full of spirits. 1 In every tribe a death from time to time adds 
 another ghost to the many that have gone before. Continually 
 accumulating, they form a surrounding population, usually in 
 visible, but occasionally seen. 2 
 
 The Ottawas all believe in ghosts. " Once," said Mr. Bar 
 ren, " on approaching in the night a village of Ottawas in con 
 fusion, they were all busily engaged in raising noises of the 
 loudest and most inharmonious kind. Upon inquiring, I found 
 that a battle had been lately fought between the Ottawas and 
 Kickapoos, and the object of all this noise was to prevent the 
 ghosts of the dead combatants from entering the village." 3 
 
 The Choctaws also have their ghosts or wandering spirits, 
 which can speak and are visible, but not tangible. Of the be 
 lief of the tribes about Hudson s Bay in spirits, Umfreville tells 
 us they were so influenced by these superstitious ideas that 
 they kept large fires burning all night, and slept only in the 
 daytime. They often fired their guns at them. Among the 
 tribes about Lake Superior you will frequently be awakened 
 by the firing of guns. On inquiring for the cause, you will be 
 told they are shooting the dead that trouble them. The Mo 
 hawks would never leave their dwellings at night, except in 
 companies, for fear of evil spirits. 4 
 
 In a war expedition, if any warrior fancies that he has seen 
 the spirits of his forefathers, or heard their voices, he can 
 oblige the warriors to retreat. The Ohio tribes were accus 
 tomed to bore holes in the coffin over the eyes and mouth 
 to let the spirit pass in and out. 5 
 
 Among the Eskimos, spirits trouble them by seating them 
 selves near them and making faces at them. A meal is often 
 spoiled in this way. They can generally drive them off by 
 blowing their breath at them. 6 
 
 1 Hennepin s Contin., 55. 2 i Spencer Soc., 234-35. 
 
 3 i Keating s St. Peter s River, 109. 4 Wood s N. E. Pros., 86. 
 
 s Dodge s Red Man O., 52. 6 Lyon s Journal, 172. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 21 
 
 " The natives of Brazil so much dread the manes of their 
 dead, that some of them have been struck with sudden death 
 because of an imaginary apparition of them. They try to ap 
 pease them by fastening offerings on stakes fixed in the ground 
 for that purpose." T 
 
 Among the natives of Costa Rica spirits are thought to in 
 fest everything. When anything has been lying around for 
 some time, they beat it with sticks the day before they use it, 
 to drive away the spirits. The spirits of the dead are supposed 
 to remain near their bodies for a year. 2 
 
 The natives of the Pacific slope suppose spirits to be present 
 everywhere. On the northwest coast of America, at Stony 
 Point, a burial-place of the Indians was considered to be 
 haunted by them, and no Indian ever ventured there. Their 
 usual superstitious reverence for and fear of anything belonging 
 to the " memelose tillicums," or dead people, prevented their 
 going near the spot. 3 
 
 There was another locality near there, on the Shoal-Water 
 Bay, the former site of an Indian village which had been de 
 serted on account of dead people. The Indians were afraid to 
 go back there on account of them, but if a white man went 
 along they were willing to go, for the dead people were afraid 
 of whites. 4 
 
 The idea they have of their spirits is that they are hovering 
 in the air; yet they are puzzled to know where the spirits of 
 the whites got their wings from. 5 Association of ideas had not 
 led them to this pleasing fancy of cultured minds. 
 
 Their superstition about names originates in their belief 
 in spirits. The Indians of the Northwest Territory always 
 change their own names when a relative dies, because they 
 think the spirits of the dead will come if they hear the 
 same name called that they were accustomed to hear before 
 
 1 Nieuhoff s Brazil, 2; Churchill s Coll. Voy., 150. 
 
 2 Gabb s Ind. Tribes, 503-4. 3 Swan s Wash. Ter., 68. 
 4 Ib., 77. 5 ib., 181. 
 

 22 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 death. For the same reason they avoid speaking the name of 
 the dead person. 1 
 
 They would not let Mr. Swan attend the burial of their dead, 
 because, they said, the spirit of the dead person, and hosts of 
 others hovering around, would see him and be displeased at 
 his presence. 2 
 
 Among many of the tribes their contests with spirits would 
 often appear such realities that in their defence of themselves 
 they would be covered with blood from the bruises received in 
 their violent gesticulations. The spirits would often vanish by 
 turning themselves into stone with a flesh-and-blood interior. 3 
 
 This superstitious fear of places supposed to be haunted by 
 spirits led to the destruction and desertion of dwelling-places, 
 t and thus served as a check to material prosperity and became 
 an obstacle to progress. 
 
 The Ojibways pulled down the house in which any one had 
 died, and chose another place to live in as far off as possible. 
 Even with the death of an infant the same dread manifested 
 itself. Mr. Kohl, while among them, visited a neighbor with a 
 sick child in the morning. When he returned in the evening 
 the lodge had disappeared, and all its inhabitants had departed. 
 This revealed to him the child s death. 4 
 
 It is quite remarkable to discover this same fear of the spirits 
 of harmless children; but its cause is found in their superstitious 
 i ideas about disease. The Navajos would never occupy a lodge 
 "~*T*--in which a person had died, but the lodge was burned. 5 
 
 The Seminoles immediately removed from a house where 
 death had occurred, and where the body was buried. 6 
 
 A superstition is universally prevalent among the tribes of 
 the Northwest, that when an abode has been deserted on 
 account of a death, an evil spirit dwells there. The New Eng 
 land tribes would never live in a wigwam in which any person 
 had died, but would immediately pull it down. 7 
 
 1 Swan s Wash. Ter., 189. a Ib., 192. 3 i Jes. Rel., 16. 
 
 * Kitchi-Gami, 106. 5 4 Schoolcraft, 214. 6 5 ib., 270. 
 
 7 10 Mass. Hist. Coll., 1st Series, 107. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 23 
 
 The Arkansas burned the lodges in which any one had 
 died. 
 
 Among the Abipones of Paraguay, when any one s life is 
 despaired of, the house is immediately forsaken by his fellow- 
 inmates. The custom of destroying and deserting the houses 
 where death has occurred has undoubtedly arisen from a super 
 stitious fear of the spirits of the dead. The same fear impels 1 
 them to thrust the dead through some aperture other than the 
 ordinary way of exit, and carry them away to a place of burial. 
 By closing securely the hole which is made for the exit of the 
 dead, the spirit, it was thought, would not be able to get back 
 again into the lodge. A very curious custom sprang up in 
 connection with this, by which they could investigate to their 
 satisfaction whether the spirit had made any effort to return : 
 they sprinkled ashes along the way to the place of burial. 1 
 
 The Ojibways believe innumerable spirits are ever near; that 
 the earth teems with these spirits, good and bad. Those of 
 the forests clothe themselves with moss. During a shower of 
 rain thousands of them find shelter in a flower. These spirits 
 assume fairy forms, and also appear by means of transmigra 
 tion in the varied forms of insect life. The Ojibway detects 
 their tiny voices in the insect s hum. Thousands of them 
 sport on a sunbeam. 2 
 
 Thus the Ojibways have a fairy mythology. Burlington 
 Bay is a great resort for these fairies. Whenever they are 
 cornered they disappear under ground with a rumbling noise. 
 They are thought to have great influence on the lives of the 
 Indians. They attack their poultry and cattle, who soon there 
 after die. They throw small stones through the windows of 
 their houses. They dance over the ground like the down of a 
 thistle. The Indians say the fairies are enraged at white people 
 for destroying their forests. 
 
 The manifestation of spirits in fairy-like forms is not con 
 fined to the mythology of the Ojibways. The Dacotahs have 
 
 1 2 Dobrizhoffer, 265. 2 Copway s Ojibways, 148-49. 
 
24 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 land and water fairies of a mischievous character. They say 
 they often see them. 1 
 
 Among the Otoes, a mound near the mouth of White Stone 
 River is called the mountain of Little People or Little Spirits, 
 and they believe that it is the abode of little devils in human 
 form, about eighteen inches high, and with remarkably large 
 heads. They are armed with sharp arrows, 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 these little evil 
 spirits. This has inspired all the neighboring nations with 
 such terror that no consideration could tempt them to visit 
 the hill. 2 
 
 Mr. Kane tells a legend of the Nasquallies, who believed in 
 a dwarf people, that were destroyed by birds, who stuck their 
 quills into them. When the quills were extracted by one of 
 their tribe, the fairies came to life again. 3 
 
 Aisemid was a famous aerial spirit of the Western tribes, 
 who carried a curious little shell, and could become visible or 
 invisible as he chose. 4 
 
 All the Indians imagine they see small spirits skip about 
 over the plains and suddenly vanish ; they dance in the moon 
 light on the tops of cliffs. 5 
 
 The Shoshone legends people the mountains of Montana 
 with little imps, called Ninumbees, two feet long, naked, and 
 with a tail. These limbs of the evil one are accustomed to eat 
 up any unguarded infant they find, leaving in its stead one of 
 their own baneful race looking so much like the child that the 
 mother will return and suckle it. If the little fiend seizes her 
 breast she dies thereafter. 6 
 
 The Tinneh also people their earth, sea, and air with spirits 
 in the shape of fairies. 7 
 
 1 3 School., Ind. Tribes, 232. a I Lewis and Clarke, 52-53, ed. 1814. 
 
 3 Wanderings, 253. 4 3 School., Ind. Tribes, 523. 
 
 5 3 ib., 408. 6 3 Bancroft, Native Races, 157. 7 3 ib., 142. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 25 
 
 In Choctaw mythology, itallaboys are genii of very diminu 
 tive stature, but of great power. From them the conjurers 
 receive their influence. They often ride by moonlight on 
 deer, with wands in their hands, singing magic songs. They 
 are invisible, intangible, and invulnerable. Thus we find 
 a fairy mythology similar to that of Europe among the native 
 races of America, embracing even the superstition of the 
 Changelings. 
 
 " Sleep is thought by the Algic race to be produced by fair 
 ies, the prince of whom is Weeng. The power of this Indian 
 Morpheus is exerted in a peculiar manner and by a novel 
 agency. Weeng seldom acts directly in inducing sleep, but he 
 exercises dominion over hosts of gnome-like beings, who are 
 everywhere present. These beings are invisible. Each one is 
 armed with a tiny club, and when he observes a person sitting 
 or reclining under circumstances favorable to sleep, he nimbly 
 climbs upon his forehead and inflicts a blow. The first blow 
 only creates drowsiness ; the second makes the person lethargic, 
 so that he occasionally closes his eyelids ; the third produces 
 sound sleep. It is the constant duty of these little emissaries 
 to put every one to sleep whom they encounter, men, women, 
 and children. They hide themselves everywhere, and are ready 
 to fly out and exert their sleep-compelling power, although 
 their peculiar season of action is in the night. They are also 
 alert during the day. While the forms of these gnomes are 
 believed to be those of little or fairy men, the figure of Weeng 
 himself is unknown, and it is not certain that he has ever been 
 seen. lagoo is said to have seen him sitting upon a branch of 
 a tree. He was in the shape of a giant insect with many wings 
 upon his back, which made a low, deep, murmuring sound, like 
 distant falling water. Weeng is not only the dispenser of 
 sleep, but it seems he is also the author of dulness. If an 
 orator fails, he is said to be struck by Weeng. If a warrior 
 lingers, he has ventured too near the sleepy god. If children 
 begin to nod or yawn, the Indian mother looks up smilingly 
 
26 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 ami says they have been struck by Weeng, and puts them to 
 bed." 
 
 The Indian conception of the action of these invisible spirit 
 ual agents is aptly illustrated by an Ojibway legend of a war 
 rior s spirit which returned from the field of battle and found 
 his wife lamenting his death. He endeavored to talk to her, 
 but she made no reply, except to remark to one near her that 
 she felt a buzzing in her ears. The enraged husband, who did 
 not realize the change from the material to the spiritual in his 
 condition, struck her a blow on the forehead. She complained 
 of feeling a shooting pain there. Thus the spirit was foiled in 
 every attempt to make itself known. 2 
 
 The Dacotahs believe that a mother, when her dead children 
 think of her, will feel a pain in her breast, due to the action of 
 the invisible spiritual agent. 3 
 
 Thus the far-reaching effect of their doctrine of spiritual 
 agency is evident. 
 
 Another form of spiritual manifestation is fire. Fire has 
 always been regarded with more or less superstitious awe, 
 because it is supposed to contain a mysterious spirit. Among 
 the Hurons, a female spirit who was supposed to cause much 
 of their sickness appeared like a flame of fire. 4 
 
 Of the New England Indians, Josselyn says, " They have a 
 remarkable observation of a flame that appears before the death 
 of an Indian, upon their wigwams, in the dead of night When 
 ever this appears, there will be a death." 5 
 
 The Ojibways will never cut a stick that has once been on the 
 fire. The reason of this superstition is that the fire has a spirit 
 that has entered the wood and will get cut. 
 
 Among many of the tribes of Americano cutting instrument 
 could be used for some time after the death of a person, lest his 
 spirit, the exact whereabouts of which they could not determine, 
 
 1 Schoolcraft s Algic Res., 226, seq. 2 Jones s Traditions, 120. 
 
 3 Neill s Minnesota, 70. Jes. Rel., 16. 
 
 s Josselyn s Two Voyages, 133. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 27 
 
 should get cut. Every object is supposed to be occupied by a 
 spirit. The intelligence of these spirits is aptly illustrated by 
 the following anecdote. A certain missionary to the Califor- 
 nians sent a native with some loaves of bread, and a letter, 
 stating their number. The messenger ate a part of the bread, 
 and his theft was consequently discovered. Another time, when 
 he had to deliver four loaves he ate two of them, but hid the 
 accompanying letter under a stone while he was thus engaged, 
 believing that his conduct would not be revealed this time, as 
 the letter had not seen him eating the loaves. 1 
 
 This illustrates the natural tendency of the savage to believe 
 that everything is inhabited by a spirit. 
 
 While upon the doctrine of spirits, let us trace the belief 
 in evil spirits, and its gradual development into demonology. 
 Although there was no moral dualism among the American 
 nations, whereby all evil had become personified in a Satan, 
 yet there were many tribes who had one or more evil spirits, 
 to whose visits they ascribed personal and tribal calamities. I 
 shall not, however, dwell long on this branch of their my 
 thology, as the material for the subject has been employed to a 
 great extent in tracing their belief in a future life, and their 
 theory of disease. The Indians thought the inhabitants of the 
 spirit-land act very much as they did when among the living. 
 Hence each individual could do much harm as well as good. 
 It was also thought that the next life was a time for retribution ; 
 and this idea is the key-note to demonology in primitive times. 
 
 The Comanches stood in great dread of evil spirits, which 
 they attempted to conciliate. Their demons withheld rain or 
 sunshine. 2 
 
 All the appeals of the Mosquitoes are addressed to the evil 
 spirits called Wulasha. These devils are the causes of all 
 misfortunes and contrarieties that happen. The fear of these 
 devils prevents them from going out alone after dark. 3 
 
 1 Baegert s, Smith, Rep., 1864, p. 379. 
 
 2 i Bancroft, Native Races, 520. 3 3 ib., 479. 
 
28 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 These Wulasha are supposed to strive for the possession of 
 the dead. They have a religious ceremony in which we have 
 a scene very similar to those represented upon Etruscan vases. 
 Four naked men disguise themselves in performing their burial 
 rite so that the Wulasha will not know them, and then rush 
 into the hut, seize the dead body, drag it away, and bury it. 
 Thus the dead are rescued from evil spirits. 1 
 
 "They think that evil spirits destroy their crops and do 
 them many grievous injuries." 2 
 
 Thevet mentions an isle of demons near Newfoundland 
 where the Indians were so tormented with them that they 
 would fall into his arms for relief. 
 
 Among the Californians the most interesting feature of their 
 religion was their belief in a body of demons. These malig 
 nant spirits have taken entire possession of the country about 
 the Devil s Castle. In the face of divers assertions that no 
 such thing as a devil proper has ever been found in savage 
 mythology, Mr. Powers uses this language in reference to 
 the belief of the California!! tribes : " Of course the thin and 
 meagre imagination of the American savages was not equal to 
 the creation of Milton s magnificent, imperial Satan, or of 
 Goethe s Mephistopheles, with his subtle intellect and malig 
 nant mirth ; but in so far as the Indian fiends or devils had the 
 ability they are wholly as wicked as these. They are totally 
 bad, but they are weak, undignified, absurd." 3 
 \ Says Denis of the Brazilian tribes, " They complain without 
 ceasing of the evil spirits that torment them. Houcha was 
 the chief of the hierarchy of devils" among the Brazilians. 
 
 Ercono is the devil of the Moxos, and their foes were the 
 Conos tribe. The devils of the Taos were called Tupas, and 
 their enemies were the Tupis. Chelul is the devil of the Pat- 
 agons, and a tribe called Cheloagas were their enemies. 4 
 
 These linguistic evidences are very interesting in the study 
 
 1 i Bancroft, 744. Roberts s Narrative, 267. 
 
 3 3 Bancroft, 158. 4 2 Rafmesque, 204. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 29 
 
 of the mythologies, and are very consistent with their animistic 
 theories. How natural that tribal enemies should become the 
 devils of the tribe, and their spirits attempt to revenge the in 
 juries of their lives ! 
 
 Among the more civilized peoples demonology prevailed, 
 and a tendency existed to exalt some one demon to a pri 
 macy. 
 
 The Nicaraguans had evil spirits, and a ceremony for expel 
 ling them from new dwellings. 1 
 
 The Mayas of Yucatan had evil spirits who could be driven 
 off by the sorcerers ; they never came around when their 
 fetiches were exposed. 2 They had a ceremony for expelling 
 evil spirits from houses about to be occupied by newly-married 
 persons. 3 
 
 The Peruvians had devils who frequently put in an appear 
 ance. The Huancas have a legend that a great number of 
 these devils once assembled and did much damage. One of 
 their devils, called Huarivalca, is worshipped to this day, al 
 though he has disappeared and not been seen lately. There 
 were spots which they said showed evidences of his presence. 
 Supay was the prince of devils among them. 4 
 
 The Toltecs have left a curious tradition of the destruction 
 of many of their people by a demon, who would stalk into their 
 midst, with long bony arms, and dash many of them lifeless. 
 He kept up his persecution, appearing from time to time, and 
 spreading disease, fear, and destruction, until they fled from 
 their homes and lands. 5 
 
 The Mexicans had an evil spirit, which often appeared in 
 order to terrify and injure them. 6 
 
 The assumption of pre-eminence by one or more demons is 
 made easy by a belief in a local demon, who sometimes assumes 
 the office of tribal demon or god. A local demon or malev 
 olent spirit is usually ascribed to places where accidents re- 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 785. 2 2 ib., 697. 
 
 3 Landa, xxxii. 4 Cieza, 179. 
 
 s 5 Bancroft, 281. 6 I Clavigero, Hist, of Mexico, 242. 
 
30 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 suiting in death have occurred. An eddy in the river where 
 floating sticks are whirled around and engulfed is not far from 
 the place where one of the tribe was drowned and never seen 
 again. What more manifest, then, than that the spirit of this 
 drowned man dwells thereabout, and pulls these things under 
 the surface, and even in revenge perhaps seizes and drags down 
 persons who venture near? Soon there survives the belief in a 
 water demon haunting the place. Some tribes had a curious 
 way of finding drowned bodies. They would float a chip of 
 wood, watch where it turned around, and drag there for the 
 body. 1 The spirits of the drowned, with motives of revenge, 
 dragged every object beneath the surface. 
 
 The primitive doctrine of souls obliges the savage to think 
 of the spirit of the dead as close at hand. The tribes of Guiana 
 suppose every place is haunted where any one has died. A 
 superstitious fear soon instigates worship, and this worship, 
 beginning at the tombs and burial-places of the dead, develops 
 into the temple ritual of higher cultures. 
 
 " Most of the worship of the natives of Guiana," says Mr. 
 Brett, " is directed to spirits, and generally to those of a malig 
 nant nature, which are unceasingly active in inflicting miseries 
 on mankind. Pain in their language means the evil spirit s 
 arrow. " 
 
 C Among almost all of the American tribes the worship of 
 spirits that are malicious, and not of those that are good, is a 
 *( characteristic that has been noticed with much astonishment 
 and commented upon by travellers and other writers. It is 
 certainly natural that primitive worship, which is born of fear, 
 should be directed to those malevolent objects that inspire 
 fear. Another cause of this distinction in their worship is un 
 doubtedly to be found in their belief that the wicked spirits 
 remain upon the earth, and only the good ones pass over into 
 a heavenly land, where they have naught to do with human 
 affairs. The Ojibways thought good spirits inhabited the 
 
 1 i Alexander s L Acadie, 26. 2 Brett s Ind. Tribes, 284. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 31 
 
 upper empyrean and descended every few days to inquire after 
 them. An invisible vine was supposed to form the connect 
 ing link, whose roots were in the earth and top in the sky. On 
 this ladder the spirits passed up and down. 1 All ordinary and 
 wicked spirits, however, remained on the earth, which was 
 called the big plate where the spirits eat. Here we can trace 
 the germ of the belief in a difference of locality for good and 
 evil spirits. Among the Blackfeet, demons are worshipped 
 with much ceremony and self-torture, in which they torment 
 themselves without flinching or appearance of pain, in order to 
 show the demons that it is useless to try to afflict them. There 
 are evidences of demon-worship among the Cherokees, Chick- 
 asaws, Shawnees, and many other tribes, which I will not notice. 
 To use the language of Mr. Shea, " pure unmixed devil-worship 
 prevails through the length and breadth of the land." 2 The 
 primitive conception of the spirit-land is not, except in a few 
 cases, of a place in the sky, but of a place upon the earth and 
 earthlike, where the ordinary avocations of life are carried on 
 with less vicissitudes and hardship. 3 
 
 Let us now notice the different opinions entertained as to the - 
 occupations of the spirit-life, and their doctrine of rewards and 
 punishments. Mr. Tylor divides the subject of the future life t- 
 into two theories, the continuance theory and the retribution 
 theojry. The first is that the future life is a reflection of this. 
 Men are to retain their earthly form and earthly conditions, 
 have around them their earthly friends, possess their earthly 
 property, and carry on their earthly occupations. The other 
 theory is that the future life is a compensation for this, where 
 men s conditions are reallotted as the consequence, and especi 
 ally as the reward or punishment, of their earthly life. The 
 most_rjrimitive of these is the continuance theory. The shade 
 of the Algonkin hunter hunts the spirits of the beaver and the 
 elk with the spirits of bows and arrows, walking on the spirits 
 of his snow-shoes over the spirit of the snow. The Brazilian 
 
 1 Copway, 164. 2 Catholic Missions, 25. 3 5 School., 403. 
 
3 2 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 forest tribes will find a forest full of calabash-trees and game, 
 where the souls of the dead will live. 1 Most of the tribes of 
 North America thought that the spirits of the dead remained 
 in form and feature as they had been in life. The belief re 
 specting the land of souls varied greatly in different tribes. 
 The prevalent idea was that the present life was continued 
 with little change. The Ojibways think the soul after death 
 enters a world where the souls injured in life haunt it. Even 
 the phantoms of the wrecks of property destroyed during life 
 obstruct its passage, and the animals to which cruelty has been 
 shown in life torment it. After death enemies are also ready 
 to avenge their injuries. 2 In this primitive form we can see the 
 outline of the doctrine of future punishment. 
 
 Among the Ahts, a lofty birth or a glorious death gives the 
 right of entering into a goodly land, where there are no storms 
 or frost, but sunshine and warmth. The common people had 
 to roam about the earth, in the form of some person or 
 animal. 3 
 
 The Brazilian tribes think the spirits of their chiefs and sor 
 cerers enter a world of enjoyment while others wander about 
 the graves. 4 
 
 The Manacica chiefs were fed with a gum distilled from cer 
 tain celestial trees in the spirit-land. 
 
 The Chibchas believed that men who died in war, and women 
 in childbed, went directly into bliss, no matter how wicked they 
 were. 5 
 
 The Natches and Tensas believed that after death the souls 
 of their warriors went to reside in the land of the buffalo ; but 
 those who had not taken any scalps went to reside in a country 
 inhabited by reptiles. 6 
 
 We find everywhere the prevalence of the idea that the cour 
 ageous would be specially favored in the spirit-world. This is 
 
 1 2 Tylor, Primitive Culture, 75-77. 2 2 Keating, 255. 
 
 3 3 Bancroft, 521. * Bradford s American Antiquities, 345. 
 
 5 5 Herrera, 90. 
 
 6 La Harpe s Historical Journal; French s Historical Coll., La., vol. iii. p. 18. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 33 
 
 the primitive idea. The infliction of punishment for evil deeds 
 soon appears, however. The Natches consigned the guilty 
 guardian of their sacred fire, who let it go out, to one of those 
 large mounds which are to be seen in the vicinity of the pres 
 ent city of Natchez. There he is doomed to languish forever, 
 and to be eternally debarred from entering the world of spirits, 
 unless he can make fire with two dry sticks, which he is ever 
 rubbing together with desperate eagerness. Now and then a 
 slight smoke issues from the sticks, the wretch rubs on with 
 increased rapidity, and just as a bright spark begins to shoot 
 up, the sluices of his eyes open against his will, and pour out a 
 deluge of tears which drown the nascent fire. Thus he is con 
 demned to a ceaseless work, and to periodical fits of hope and 
 despair. 1 
 
 The Sioux are of opinion that suicide is punished in the land 
 of spirits by the ghosts being doomed forever to drag the tree 
 on which they hang themselves ; for this reason they always 
 suspend themselves to as small a tree as can possibly sustain 
 their weight. 2 
 
 The Mayas of Yucatan believed in rewards and punishments^ 
 in the future life. Living in a warm climate, their idea of 
 happiness in the future life was to lie beneath the shade of 
 the evergreen and umbrageous tree called yaxche. Herrera 
 says, " The wicked were hungry and cold. 3 They think the 
 souls of the deceased return to the earth if they choose, 
 and, in order that they may not lose the way to the domestic 
 hearth, they mark the path from the hut to the tomb with 
 chalk." 4 
 
 The Peruvians held the doctrine of future rewards and pun 
 ishments. The greatest enjoyment of the good was rest of 
 mind and body. 5 The souls can wander about the earth, 
 although their heaven and hell are above and below the earth, 
 
 1 Gayarre s La., 356. 2 Bradbury s Travels, 89. 
 
 3 Herrera, 176. 4 Orozco y Berra, 157. 
 
 5 i Garcilasso, 126-27. 
 
34 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 and therefore they have anniversaries, at which food and sup 
 plies are furnished these souls. 1 
 
 The Chippewyans think that bad souls stand up to their chin 
 in water, in sight of the spirit-land, which they can never enter. 
 Many believe, however, in transmigration for the wicked. 
 
 The New England tribes consigned their enemies to a place 
 of misery, but they themselves had a very good time in the 
 next world. 2 
 
 Some tribes thought the wicked hunted and killed, in the 
 next world, animals that were all skin and bone. 
 
 Thus we see the universal credence of all the tribes in the 
 reality of a spiritual life and its rewards and punishments. Not 
 only is that world inhabited by the spirits of their dead, but 
 also all animate and inanimate substances, or shadows of sub 
 stances. Its woods, streams, and lakes were more beautiful 
 than the earthly. The soul s progress was not stopped by 
 them, for they were but the shadows of material forms. 
 
 " By midnight moons, o er moistening clews, 
 
 In vestments for the chase arrayed, 
 The hunter still the deer pursues, 
 The hunter and the deer a shade." 
 
 The region supposed to be haunted by the souls of the dead 
 becomes wider as populations increase and scatter. Several 
 counteracting influences have operated, however, to prevent the 
 entire possession of the earth by these unseen powers. The 
 most important of these influences has been the gradual sepa 
 ration of the spirit-world from the world of the living. Their 
 entire separation is the last result of causes that for a time 
 only removed it to localities proximate to the abodes of the 
 living. 
 
 As nomadic tribes change their habitat, the spirit-land di 
 verges from the abode of the living; and the difficulties of the 
 road thither depend upon the nature of the hardships endured 
 
 1 Jos. D Acosta, bk. 5, chap. 7. a Wood s N. E. Pros., 104. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 35 
 
 in migration. Most of the traditions agree that the spirits on 
 their journey to the spirit-land were beset with difficulties and 
 perils. There was generally a stream of water to cross, and 
 only a narrow and slippery log to bridge the stream. Often 
 they had to pass between moving rocks, which momentarily 
 crashed together, grinding to atoms the less nimble of the 
 pilgrims. 1 
 
 As populations increase, burial-places are set apart, and the 
 world of the dead becomes distinct from that of the living. In 
 many cases the world of the dead, still near at hand, is an adja 
 cent mountain. The genesis of this belief is clear. The Caribs 
 buried their chiefs on mountains ; the Comanches, on the highest 
 hill in the neighborhood ; the Patagonians, on the summits of 
 the highest hills. 2 The Tupinambas located their heaven behind 
 the great mountains which surrounded their country. The 
 Mexicans also buried on their high places. Where caves are 
 used for interments, they become the supposed places for the 
 dead ; hence develops the notion of a subterranean other world. 
 The natives of Terra del Fuego believe that some of them after 
 death are to return to those divine caverns where they were 
 created and their deities reside. 3 Many of the savages of South 
 America have a subterranean spirit-world where the pursuits 
 are the same as in life. 4 The Zufiis had removed their spirit- 
 world to a comfortable distance, where they would not be 
 troubled with them daily; but they annually assembled on 
 the top of a lofty mesa, and spent the entire day in communi 
 cation with the spirits of the departed, who were supposed on 
 that day to revisit that locality and hold converse with their 
 friends and relatives, who carried them presents. This supersti 
 tion is very similar to the custom of Roman Catholics on All 
 Souls Day. 
 
 The Dacotahs think each human body has four souls. After 
 death one wanders about the earth, the second watches the 
 
 1 Parkman s Jesuits, vol. Ixxxii. 2 i Spencer Soc., 218. 
 
 3 I ib., 219. 4 2 Dobriz., 269. 
 
36 J ) RL}riTIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 body, the third hovers over the village, whilst the fourth goes 
 to the land of spirits. 1 
 
 Here we have a curious illustration of continuous survivals 
 of more primitive beliefs. The soul which watches over the 
 body represents the most primitive form of belief. The soul 
 which hovers over the village represents one remove from the 
 primitive belief. The soul which wanders about the earth repre 
 sents another remove, and the fourth stage of progress assigns 
 it to a distant land of spirits ; but the three other beliefs are 
 still surviving, and are the causes of their belief in this quadru- 
 plication of souls. The last forms of belief are undoubtedly 
 due to the increasing tendency to migration as population in 
 creases. 
 
 A tribe that leaves its accustomed seat will have ever-recur 
 ring memories connected with that locality. They will desire 
 when the spirit leaves the body to go back and visit the spirits 
 of their ancestors and friends, whose souls are still living at 
 their places of sepulture. An impulse is given to this belief 
 by the superstitious fear of the dead by the living, who are very 
 glad to get rid of them in this way. 
 
 Hence the tendency to locate the spirit-land elsewhere than 
 in the midst of the living has been due to the migratory move 
 ments of tribes that are nomadic, or to the separation of the 
 places of burial among populous settled peoples. 
 
 As migrations have proceeded in all directions, there must 
 arise different beliefs about the direction of the world of spirits. 
 In South America the Chonos and Araucanians go after death 
 towards the west ; whereas the Peruvians went east. The 
 Central Americans went towards the east, while the Otomacks 
 of Guiana went west. In North America the Chinooks have 
 their paradise in the south, the Ojibways in the west, where the 
 brave and good spend their time in pleasures, but cowards and 
 the wicked wander about in darkness. 2 
 
 The New England tribes thought the souls of the dead went 
 
 1 Eastman s Legends, 129. 2 Jones s Ojibways, 104. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 37 
 
 to the southwest, where were their forefathers souls. 1 The 
 souls of murderers and thieves, however, wandered restlessly. 2 
 
 Among many tribes the spirit-land is far distant from the 
 place of the living. The soul is believed to take a long jour 
 ney, only after the tribe has taken a long journey away from 
 the place where their ancestors lived and died. It is generally 
 to see its ancestors. If the tribe has formerly lived upon an 
 island, their heaven is upon an island, as among the Caribs. If 
 the tribe in its migrations has crossed a stream of water, as is 
 generally the case, then the soul has a Stygian flood to en 
 counter. If the tribe has crossed dangerous and difficult moun 
 tains, and has barely escaped their dangers, then a Scylla and 
 Charybdis stand in the path of the soul. 
 
 The Potawatomies think the souls of the dead cross a large 
 stream over a log which rolls so that many slip off into the 
 water. One of their ancestors went to the edge of the stream, 
 but, not liking to venture on the log, he came back two days 
 after his death. He reported that he heard the sounds of the 
 drum on the other side of the river, to the beat of which the 
 souls of the dead were dancing. 3 
 
 The Ojibways have traditions of the return of souls who have 
 come to this stream, across which lies a serpent, according to 
 their mythology, over whose body they must pass. A big 
 strawberry lies by the side of the way to the spirit-land, which 
 affords them refreshment on the journey. 4 
 
 The soul of the Manacicas of Brazil is carried on the back 
 of a sorcerer to the spirit-land. Over hills and valleys, across 
 rivers, swamps, and lakes, to the Pass Perilous they fly. Here 
 they have to get by a god Tatusio, who, if not satisfied with the 
 conduct of the spirit, casts it into the flood. 
 
 These sorcerers who pretend to take charge of the soul, and 
 when they have deposited it safely in the future home return 
 to the earth, frequently come back, and say that Tatusio took 
 
 1 Williams, Key to the Languages, 21. 2 Ib., 113. 
 
 s I Keating, 173. 4 Tanner s Narrative, 290. 
 
38 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 it away from them and threw it into the water. They then ask 
 for a canoe from the relatives, that they may go back with it 
 and fish out the soul. This artifice is successful in getting 
 them a good canoe, which they keep. 1 
 
 The Chibchas had a great river that souls had to pass over 
 on floats made of cobwebs. On this account they never killed 
 spiders. In the future state, each family had its own location, 
 as in this life. 2 
 
 The Araucanian soul is borne across the Stygian flood by a 
 whale, which does not succeed, however, in protecting it from a 
 mythical hag, who tears out one eye if a toll is not paid her. 3 
 
 The Mohaves believed that when their friends died they de 
 parted to a certain high hill in the western section of their terri 
 tory ; that they there pursued their avocation free from the ills 
 and pains of their present life, if they had been good and brave. 
 But they held that all cowardly Indians were tormented with 
 hardships and failures, sickness and defeats. This hill, or hades, 
 they never dared visit. It was thronged with thousands who 
 were ready to wreak vengeance upon the mortal who dared to 
 intrude upon this sacred ground. 4 The souls of those cremated 
 were wafted thither on the curling smoke. 
 
 The Blackfeet believe that the spirits of the dead have to 
 scramble up the projecting sides of a steep mountain before 
 they can view the land of their ancestral spirits. Those who 
 have imbrued their hands in the blood of their tribesmen fall 
 down this mountain-side, and can never reach the top. Women 
 who have been guilty of infanticide never even reach this moun 
 tain, but wander about the earth with branches of the mountain 
 pine tied to their legs. The cries of wicked spirits are often 
 heard above the country. Those that reach the happy land 
 can have plenty of mushrooms, which are considered a great 
 delicacy by Blackfeet spirits. He who has destroyed his neigh 
 bor s canoe stumbles over its wreck, which he cannot pass. The 
 
 1 3 Southey, 186-87. 2 Bollaert, 12. 3 2 Molina, 91-92. 
 
 4 Captivity of the Oatman Girls, 233. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 39 
 
 spirits of animals and men injured in life haunt him. All the 
 acts of life are deeply impressed on the green leaf of his 
 memory. 1 
 
 The Chippewyan, living in the regions of almost perpetual 
 snow, wants to find a heaven in some more genial clime, and as 
 his spirit moves onward the ice grows thinner, the air warmer, 
 the trees taller. Birds of gay colors plume themselves in the 
 warm sun. The swallow and the martin skim along the level 
 of the green vales. The trees no longer crack beneath the 
 weight of icicles and snow, and he sees no more the spirits of 
 the departed dancing on the skirts of the northern clouds. His 
 spirit craves a wanner heaven. A stone canoe is ready to take 
 him over the dividing stream. No Charon demands a fare, but 
 onward speeds the magic craft, with no visible impelling force, 
 and lands him on the blessed shore, if he has not slaughtered 
 more oxen than he could eat, or speared salmon to be devoured 
 by the brown eagle, or gathered rock-moss to rot in the rain. 
 These great crimes, in the moral code of the Blackfeet, will 
 sink the canoe, and its occupant will flounder about in the 
 water black with the heads of the unhappy. 2 
 
 The Mosquito heaven was across a broad stream. 
 
 The future abode of Mexicans had three divisions. Their 
 elysium was open to the souls of warriors, who were borne 
 thither in the arms of Teoyaomique, Queen Consort of the 
 God of War. Here awaited them the presents sent by loving 
 friends below. These souls never tired, for they spent their 
 days marching around the zenith as an escort to the sun. At 
 evening they dispersed to the chase, or to the shady grove, 
 after having delivered their precious solar charge to a new 
 escort, composed of women who had died in childbed, who 
 conducted it to its nightly couch of quetzal feathers, in which 
 it reclined. 
 
 Although this is represented as the highest heaven, its joys 
 would not appear as great to us as those of Tlalocan, where 
 
 1 i Jones s Traditions, 245-50. 2 i ib., 256-63. 
 
40 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 happiness reigned supreme and sorrow was unknown. To this 
 place were assigned those killed by lightning, and the drowned, 
 and those dying of long and incurable skin diseases. Children 
 sacrificed to Tlaloc played about its gardens. 1 
 
 The Greeks assigned children to Erebus, as a penalty to 
 prevent infanticide ; but the Mexicans encouraged their sacrifice 
 by assigning them to this place of happiness. 
 
 The third place, Mictlan, was a land of darkness and desola 
 tion, wherein were the souls of those who died of old age, or 
 those who died in bed. There was no mercy in the Aztec 
 Tartarus for those who died in bed among a race of warriors. 
 The Mexican souls had to pass between two mountains that 
 confronted each other. They were subjected to cutting winds. 
 They had passes given them by the priest, who thrust little slips 
 of paper in their hands. The journey ended with the passage 
 of the " nine waters." 2 
 
 In the Mexican heaven there were various degrees of happi 
 ness. The high-born warrior who fell gloriously in battle did 
 not meet on equal terms the base-born rustic who died in his 
 bed. The ordinary avocations of life were not dispensed with, 
 but the man took up his bow again, the woman her spindle. 
 
 The road to paradise was represented to be full of dangers. 
 Storms, monsters, deep waters, and whirlpools met the traveller 
 on his way, who, however, almost always succeeded in reach 
 ing his destination, after having suffered more or less maltreat 
 ment on the way. 3 
 
 The Northern Californians had a heaven where all met after 
 death to enjoy a life free from want; but when the soul first 
 escaped from the body, Omaha, an evil spirit, hovered near, 
 ready to pounce upon it and carry it off. 4 
 
 Among the natives about Clear Lake there is no contest, but 
 a coyote waits for the soul and captures it : a good spirit may 
 redeem it by paying a price. They kept up many demonstra- 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 532-34. 2 2 ib., 604-5. 3 3 ib- 5* i- 3- 
 
 4 3 il -, 523- 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 41 
 
 tions about the grave for three days, to scare away coyotes. 1 
 This superstition has arisen from the fact that the coyotes dig 
 up the dead and devour them. 
 
 The Winnebagoes keep a fire on graves for four nights after 
 burial, and keep the grass dug up, that bad spirits can have 
 nothing to cling to. 2 
 
 The Eurocs burn a light on the grave, and this beacon is kept 
 burning a longer time in the case of the wicked, because they 
 are thought to have a longer and more difficult passage to the 
 spirit-land. Many are compelled to return, and transmigrate 
 into birds, beasts, and insects. 3 
 
 The Kailtas are carried to the spirit-land by a little bird, 
 but if impeded by sins a hawk will certainly overtake them, 
 and end their journey heavenward. The Cahroc path of the 
 dead branches into two roads, one bright with flowers and lead 
 ing to the great western land beyond the great waters, the 
 other filled with thorns and briers, and the haunt of deadly 
 serpents. 
 
 The Maricopa paradise is at their ancient home on the banks 
 of the Colorado. Tnere the spirits live on the sand-hills. 
 
 The Yumas located their paradise in a pleasant valley, hidden 
 in one of the canons of the Colorado, and they had gone so 
 far as to separate the wheat from the chaff, for their wicked 
 were shut up in a dark cavern, within view of their paradise, 
 but its pleasures they could never enjoy, although within sight. 
 The Navajo spirits had to travel far to reach their heaven. 
 They had to cross an extensive marsh, in which many were 
 bemired; but if they got through, they soon arrived at the home 
 of two spirits, one male and one female, who sat combing 
 their hair. After receiving a lecture on cleanliness, and obey 
 ing its injunctions, they passed on to the happy land. The Co- 
 manche spirits have not yet been confined to any locality, but 
 want much more freedom than the circumscribed bounds of 
 an Indian heaven can give them : so they hunt on the happy 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 523. 2 Eastman s Chicora, 21. 33 Bancroft, 524. 
 
42 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 prairies of the setting sun, where the buffalo leads the hunter 
 in the glorious chase, but at night they come back to their old 
 homes and stay till break of day. 1 
 
 The souls of the Sonora Indians dwell among the cliffs of 
 their mountains, and the echoes there are their clamoring 
 voices. Echoes throughout the Americas are the voices of 
 spirits. In Nayarit the natives thought that most souls went to 
 a common resort near their living habitat, but returned in the 
 daytime in the shape of flies, in order to get something to eat. 2 
 
 The Neeshenams had a heaven a long way off, and a stream 
 to cross before getting to it. Their great ancestor, Eicut, pre 
 sides over that happy land, whither he was led by his beloved 
 wife, Yoatotowee. When she died, his grief knew no bounds ; 
 the light was gone from his eyes, the world was black and 
 dreary. He fell into a trance ; Yoatotowee came and stood be 
 side him. He saw her; she turned, and started for heaven, the 
 dance-house of ghosts. Eicut followed her into the spirit-land. 3 
 
 The belief of the Mohicans regarding the separation of the 
 soul is that it goes westward on leaving the body. There it is 
 met with great rejoicing by the others who died previously. 
 There they wear black otter- or bear-skins, which among them 
 are signs of gladness. 4 
 
 The Creeks believe the soul at death goes to the west and 
 joins its friends. 5 
 
 When a Kioway dies, his spirit travels toward sunset. A 
 high mountain stands on the confines of the other world, upon 
 which is a sentinel who informs the spirits when their friends are 
 coming, and the spirits, with rejoicings, go forth to meet them. 
 
 The Dog-Ribs had located their heaven a great way off, for 
 Chappewee, their ancestor, when his spirit took the long jour 
 ney, carried three thousand roasted porpoises and thirty whales 
 to supply him food on the way. 6 
 
 3 Bancroft, 426-28. 2 3 ib., 528. 3 3 ib., 531-32. 
 
 * Wassenaer s Historic, Tr. Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. Hi. p. 29. 
 
 s Hawkins s Sketch, 80. 6 2 Jones, 2. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 43 
 
 The heaven of the Tondanwandies is not far off, for they 
 bury their dead in the morning, that the deceased persons may 
 have time before night to reach their relations in another world. 1 
 The peaks of Costa Rica are the resort of their spirits, and their 
 revellings can be heard at the distance of a mile or more. 2 
 
 The Greenlanders assign two retreats for their departed 
 souls; one the centre of the earth, the way to which appears 
 difficult, because upon the path at a certain point they slide 
 down a rocky defile, leaving blood all along the way. 3 It takes 
 about five days to make this slide. 4 
 
 Their spiritual body has evidently not been wholly demate- 
 rialized. The second abode for the dead is among the heavenly 
 bodies, the path to which is along the Milky Way, called the 
 path of the dead by this new school of Eskimo philosophers. 
 It is curious to note here the prevalence of these two opinions 
 upon the locality of their spirit-world. They have removed it 
 from their living abode, and the first remove has evidently been 
 to a subterranean abode, which is quite natural to a people 
 living in underground houses a portion of the year. The new 
 sect, becoming dissatisfied with this subterranean paradise, have 
 turned it into a gloomy underground region. Mr. Crantz 
 noticed that these two sects were quite hostile upon this subject. 
 
 Many mourning ceremonies had reference to the journey to 
 the spirit-land. In the burial ceremonies of the natives of 
 Alaska, if too many tears were shed, they said that the road of 
 the dead would be muddy, but a few tears just laid the dust. 5 
 
 Many traditions of a journey to the spirit-land and return are 
 found. The following story is told of an old Indian chief of 
 the Algonkins of Northern New Brunswick. His favorite son 
 died ; whereupon the father, with a party of friends, set out for 
 the land of souls to recover him. They had to wade through 
 a shallow lake several days journey. This they did, sleeping 
 at night on platforms of poles, which supported them above the 
 
 1 Evans, Pedest. Tour, 57. 2 Gabb, 506. 3 Egede s Greenland, 205. 
 
 4 i Crantz, 186. s Dall, Alaska, 423. 
 
44 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 water. At length they arrived in the realms of Papkootparout, 
 the Indian Pluto, who rushed at them with his war-club up 
 raised, but relented before striking. The bereaved father now 
 begged hard for his son s soul, which was given him in the 
 shape of a nut, which he was to insert in his son s body, and 
 he would come to life. The adventurers returned to earth, 
 and the father, who wished to take part in a dance of rejoicing 
 which was begun, handed the bag containing the soul to a squaw 
 to hold for him. She through curiosity opened the bag, and 
 away went the soul to the realms of the Indian god of the dead. 1 
 
 A Shawnee tradition tells of a brother who followed his sister 
 into the land of spirits, seized her in the midst of a spirit-dance, 
 placed her soul in a hollow reed, covered the orifice with the 
 end of his finger, and brought her back to the earth, where gay 
 festivities were indulged in on account of her return. 2 
 
 Such stories of journeys to the spirit-land and a return are 
 found in nearly every tribe. 
 
 Another destiny of the human spirits was transmigration. 
 The transmigration of souls explains and renders intelligible all 
 the various superstitions of pagan religions. A belief in this 
 doctrine is found in every American tribe. The most primitive 
 form of the belief was the most comprehensive. Before the 
 separation of the abode of spirits from the abode of the living, 
 disembodied spirits were everywhere present, seeking embodi 
 ment in some more material form. As the spiritual world be 
 came separated and became the abode of deserving souls, the 
 undeserving souls were left to transmigrate until they were 
 better fitted for the abode of the blest. The wicked generally 
 entered noxious animals ; those not so bad, the nobler animals 
 and the bodies of infants. 
 
 Mr. Schoolcraft says, " The Indians of the United States be 
 lieve in the transmigration of souls. The soul is thought to 
 pass from one object to another, generally into the animal cre- 
 
 1 Le Clerc, in Parkman s Jes., Ixxxiii. 
 
 2 2 Gregg s Commerce of Prairies, 239. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 45 
 
 ation. The individual can often determine the form of his 
 future life for himself." x 
 
 The Northwestern tribes believe in transmigration; their de 
 parted souls can come back in human shape. The priests can 
 transfer a soul released into a living body by blowing it through 
 their hands. 
 
 The medicine-men of the Cocomes pretend to receive the 
 spirit of the dead in their hands, and are able to transfer it to 
 any one, who then takes the name of the dead person. 2 
 
 When a body is burned among the Tacullies, the priest re 
 ceives the spirit of the deceased into his hands, and, with a 
 motion as though throwing it, he blows the spirit into some 
 person selected, who takes the name of the deceased in addition 
 to his own. 3 
 
 Algonkin women who desired to become mothers flocked to 
 the couch of those about to die, in hope that the vital principle 
 as it passed from the body would enter theirs. 4 
 
 A sorcerer among the Iroquois pretended he was once an 
 oki (spirit) dwelling under the earth with a female spirit; that 
 both of them ascended to the earth and hid beside a path until 
 a woman passed, when they entered into her. After a time 
 they were born, but not until he had quarrelled with and stran 
 gled his female companion, who came dead into this world. 5 
 
 Permanent transition, new birth, or reincarnation of human 
 souls is supposed to occur by the transmigration of the soul of 
 a deceased person into the body of an infant. Many tribes 
 buried dead children by the wayside, that their souls might 
 enter into mothers passing by, and so be born again. 
 
 The Nootkans accounted for the fact that a distant tribe 
 spoke the same language as themselves, by declaring them to 
 be the spirits of their dead. 
 
 The Thlinkeets believe in the transmigration of the soul. It 
 is not uncommon to hear a poor Thlinkeet say, when speaking 
 
 1 I Schoolcraft, 33. 2 4 U. S. Ex. Exp., 453. 
 
 3 Hazlitt, Br. Columbia, 32. * Brinton, 270. 
 
 s Parkman s Jes., 92. 
 4 
 
46 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 of a rich and prosperous family, " When I die, I should like to 
 be born into that family." x 
 
 The Greenlanders think the soul may be taken out of the 
 body and replaced; may be divided into parts and repaired 
 when it loses a part. It can forsake the body during sleep, 
 and be exchanged for that of some animal. They believe in 
 the migration of souls. Widows make use of this doctrine 
 to their great advantage; for if one of them can persuade 
 any father that the soul of her deceased child has migrated 
 into his son, or that the spirit of his deceased offspring ani 
 mates the body of one of her children, the man will always 
 do his best to befriend the child and widow. 2 As soon as a 
 person dies, the soul is supposed to animate a new-born in 
 fant. 3 A young Eskimo woman, by the name of Avigiatsiak, 
 had been a whale and a seal. When she was a seal she was 
 caught, killed, and her head thrown beneath a bench. From 
 
 o 
 
 thence she slipped into the body of the wife of the man who 
 harpooned her, and was born a human being. 4 
 
 Among the Kolushes the mother often dreams that she has 
 seen the deceased relative who will transmit his soul to her 
 child. In Vancouver s Island, in m 1860, a lad was very much 
 regarded by the Indians, because he had a mark similar to a 
 chief who had died four generations before. They thought the 
 dead chief had returned again. 5 
 
 The celebrated Dacotah, Cloudy Sky, had lived three times 
 on the earth. When his body was laid upon the scaffold at his 
 first death, his spirit enlisted in the army of the enemies of the 
 storm-god, and as they flew to battle with their shields before 
 their breasts, the wind tore up the trees, and the waters cast 
 their angry billows at the cloud ; but the contest was brief, and 
 they were conquerors, and the bow of bright colors rested be 
 tween the heavens and earth. It was these cloud-battles that 
 gave him his name of Cloudy Sky. 6 
 
 A curious tradition among the Crows relates the incarnation 
 
 1 Dall, 423. 2 I Crantz, 185. 3 i ib., 342. 
 
 * Rink, 450-51. s 2 Tylor, 3-4. 6 Eastman, 229. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 47 
 
 of Storm Child. Black clouds gathered in midwinter; the 
 thunder rolled and the lightning flashed, while strange noises 
 alarmed the Crows. An inky cloud covered the peak of their 
 mountain, and from its midst reached two long arms that de 
 posited an infant on the earth. Soon the mysterious child 
 which was given disappeared in the vapor. An old squaw who 
 had not borne children for years stood looking on. No sooner 
 did she see the child disappear in the vapor than she felt herself 
 seized with violent labor-pains, and was delivered of a female 
 child, perfectly green, like grass. The Indians all said it was 
 the same child that had been in the cloud, and that the mys 
 terious hands had no sooner deposited it than it was trans 
 ferred to the woman. The squaw persisted that it was not 
 the child of a man, though she was married. The Indians 
 named it the Storm Child. Says Mr. Belden, " I often saw 
 the Storm Child, and she is greatly feared and respected by 
 her tribe." * 
 
 The Chibchas of Bogota believe in transmigration of souls 
 into infants. 2 
 
 Mr. Southey says " the Tucamas of Brazil hold the metemp 
 sychosis," or transmigration of human souls into human bodies. 3 
 
 The Guaycurus 4 and the Guaranies believed in the same 
 doctrine. " The Conchas held for certain that the dead again 
 entered the bodies of those who were born." 5 
 
 The Peruvians thought the souls of the dead returned after a 
 time, and entered the bodies of infants at their birth. 6 
 
 These few illustrations, selected from many more, will suffice 
 to show the prevalence of the doctrine of transmigration, or re 
 incarnation of human souls in human bodies. Let us now 
 notice another form of the doctrine, the transmigration of human 
 souls into animals. All peoples in early stages of culture draw 
 little distinction between animal and man. 
 
 Primitive psychology, drawing no definite line of demarcation 
 
 1 Belden, p. 215, seq. 2 Bollaert, 5. 3 i Southey, 590. 
 
 4 i ib., 1 1 8. 5 Cieza, 354. 6 Bradford, 356. 
 
48 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 between souls of men and of beasts, admits the transmigration 
 of human souls into animals. 
 
 The nobler animals are generally, but not universally, selected 
 as objects into which transmigration takes place. The archi 
 tectural skill of the beaver, the wise aspect of the owl, the 
 sweet plaint of the nightingale, the howls of beasts like the 
 moans of children in pain, the sparkling orbs and tortuous 
 stealthiness of the snake, supply hints at metempsychosis. 1 
 
 The spirit freed 
 
 Fills with fresh energy another form, 
 And towers an elephant, or glides a worm ; 
 Swims as an eagle in the eye of noon, 
 Or wails a screech-owl to the deaf cold moon." 
 
 The Chinooks believe in the transmigration of souls into 
 birds, beasts, fishes, and all animate objects. 2 
 
 In Peru, as soon as a dying person draws his last breath, 
 ashes are strewed on the floor of the room, and the door is 
 securely fastened. Next morning the ashes are carefully ex 
 amined to ascertain whether they show any impression of foot 
 steps, and imagination readily traces marks, which are alleged 
 to have been produced by the feet of birds, dogs, cats, oxen, or 
 llamas. The destiny of the dead person is construed by the 
 footmarks which are supposed to be discernible. The soul has 
 transmigrated into that animal whose tracks are found. 3 
 
 Mr. Hennepin says the Northern Indians related that they 
 had seen a serpent come out of the mouth of a woman when 
 she died. 4 Her soul had passed into its body. 
 
 The Powhatans refrained from doing any harm to small wood- 
 birds, because they were animated by the souls of their dead 
 chiefs. 
 
 A very popular bird for transmigration of the souls of the 
 Hurons was the turtle-dove ; and the Iroquois, as a part of the 
 funeral rite, set free a bird to carry the soul away. 5 
 
 1 Alger*s Doc. Fut. Life, 479. 2 Swan s Washington Territory, 174, 
 
 3 Tschudi s Peru. 337. * Hennepin s Continuation, 122. 
 
 s Morgan s League, 174. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 49 
 
 In Dacotah mythology a large fish which dammed up the 
 waters of the St. Croix had in it the spirit of a Dacotah, and 
 the only way of inducing his monstrous highness to take him 
 self off and stop his obstruction of navigation was for an Indian 
 woman, whom he had loved when a Dacotah, to entreat him 
 to go to deeper water. She accompanied her request with a 
 present of a little dish of bark, worked and ornamented very 
 handsomely by herself. 1 
 
 Among the South American tribes, the Abipones of Paraguay 
 believe that the little ducks that fly about in flocks at night, 
 uttering a mournful hiss, are inhabited by the souls of their 
 dead. 2 
 
 The Yurubas believed the souls of the dead entered into 
 animals. The Mexicans also believed in such transmigration. 3 
 
 The Caribs think human souls transmigrate into the bodies 
 of beasts. A Guarany woman would start at seeing a fox, 
 thinking the spirit of her dead daughter might be within it. 
 
 The totemic system is connected with transmigration. The 
 Moquis think that after death they live in the form of their 
 totemic animal. Those of the deer family become deer; the 
 bear tribe become bears ; and so on through the gentes. 4 
 
 The doctrine of transmigration of human souls into animals 
 is the source of their superstitious abstention from eating the 
 flesh of some animals. 
 
 Darwin mentions a South American Indian who would not 
 eat land-birds because they were dead men. 5 
 
 The tribes akin to the Pomo will not eat grizzly bears, for 
 the spirits of their dead enter into them. They will often beg 
 to save the life of one of these animals. 6 
 
 The California tribes abstain from large game, because they 
 believe the souls of past generations have passed into their 
 bodies. 7 
 
 1 Eastman, 163-64. 2 2 Dobrizhoffer, 74. 
 
 3 Bradford, 357. 4 Cozzens, 465. 
 
 5 Naturalist s Voyage, 214. 6 3 Schoolcraft, 113. 
 - 5 ib., 215. 
 
50 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Hayes mentions an Eskimo woman who would not eat 
 walrus, as her husband s soul had passed into it for temporary 
 habitation. The Angekok always announces to the widow the 
 animal into which her husband s soul has entered, and she never 
 eats that animal. 1 
 
 Nothing could be more natural to those who believe in the 
 transmigration of human souls into animals, than to imagine 
 that the best men would enter the nobler animals, while the 
 common spirits entered the lower animals. The Tlascalans 
 thought the souls of nobles animated the beautiful singing birds, 
 while those of plebeians passed into weasels, beetles, and such 
 creatures. The Icannis of Brazil thought the souls of brave 
 warriors passed into beautiful birds that fed on pleasant fruits. 
 Souls of cowards migrated into reptiles. 2 
 
 The Tapuyas think the souls of the good and brave enter 
 birds, while the cowardly become reptiles. 3 
 
 The Arkansas thought their principal deities resided in some 
 of the nobler animals, feeding in the forests, and perpetuity was 
 kept up by transmigration. 
 
 The doctrine of transmigration of human souls into animals 
 is found among all the tribes of the New World, but among the 
 ruder tribes very little evidence of the limitation of this trans 
 migration to evil spirits is found. Among a few of the Northern 
 tribes it is found to a limited extent, but connected with a be 
 lief in a paradise for good spirits. The Ojibways thought the 
 souls of the \vicked passed into toads. 4 
 
 We can recognize in the destiny of the departed souls, accord 
 ing to these rules of transmigration, the beginning of the doc 
 trine of future rewards and punishments. 
 
 The Dog-Ribs think evil spirits assume the form of bears, 
 wolves, and other animals, and in the woods and desert places 
 they fancy they hear them howling and moaning. 5 
 
 The Allequas supposed the soul must transmigrate until it 
 
 1 Hayes s Arctic Researches, 199. 2 2 Tylor, 6-7; 3 Bancroft, 512. 
 
 3 Orton s Andes, 170. 4 Kohl s Kitchi-Gami, 219. 
 
 s Hartwig s Polar World, 329. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 51 
 
 had become so good as to be able to pass into the ever-green 
 prairies of the happy land. Some of the Western tribes thought 
 that by eating those animals that did not contain the embodied 
 spirits of their own tribe, whose flesh they abstained from eat 
 ing, they would gather their souls and increase their own soul- 
 power, and insure their getting into the spirit-land without 
 further transmigration. 1 
 
 fit is among the South American nations that we find the 
 doctrine most prevalent that wicked spirits transmigrate into 
 animals The Brazilian Indians thought evil spirits appeared 
 in lizards, crocodiles, and other such reptiles. 2 
 
 The Mbayas and Guaycurus of Brazil think the souls of the 
 wicked pass into the bodies of wild beasts at death. 3 
 
 Such is the doctrine of transmigration of wicked and inferior 
 spirits into animals, and it certainly suggests a similarity to that 
 of the races of the Old World, which Mr. Thoreau presents 
 pleasantly in this strain: "All the shore rang with the trump 
 of bullfrogs, the sturdy spirits of ancient wine-bibbers and 
 wassailers still unrepentant, trying to sing a catch in their 
 Stygian lake, who would fain keep up the hilarious rules of 
 their old festal table, though their voices have waxed hoarse 
 and solemnly grave, mocking at mirth." 4 
 
 Another form of transmigration, according to the super 
 stitious belief of barbarous peoples, appears in their theory of 
 diseases and their cures; and a brief history of this remarkable 
 superstition will now be given. As in normal conditions the 
 man s soul inhabiting his body is thought to give it life and 
 health and power to think, speak, and act through it, so an 
 adaptation of the same principle explains abnormal conditions 
 of body or mind, by considering the new symptoms as due to 
 the operation of a second soul-like being, a strange spirit. " A 
 man burning in fever, or pained and wrenched as though some 
 live creature were tearing and twisting him within, rationally 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 525. 2 Darwin, Nat. Voy., 243. 
 
 3 i Soutliey, 118; 3 ib., 392. * Thoreau s Wai den, 137. 
 
52 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 finds a personal spiritual cause for his sufferings. When the 
 mysterious unseen power throws him helpless on the ground, 
 jerks and writhes him in convulsions, and impels him, with 
 distorted face and frantic gesture not his, or seemingly even 
 human, to pour forth wild, incoherent raving; or, with thought 
 and eloquence beyond his sober faculties, to command, counsel, 
 and foretell ; such an one seems to those who watch him, and 
 even to himself, to have become the mere instrument of a spirit 
 which has seized him or entered into him. This is the savage 
 theory of possession and obsession, which is their theory of 
 disease and inspiration. There is this difference between pos 
 session and obsession. In possession the spirits enter into and 
 inhabit the body ; in obsession they hover about and affect it 
 from outside." 
 
 They are based on an animistic conception, most genuine 
 and rational. This animism must assume the most prominent 
 place in man s intellectual history. The doctrine underlying 
 disease spirits and oracle spirits is the same, however strange 
 it may appear. Many of those most diseased and abnormal 
 and morbid have for the same reason become the great re 
 ligious and prophetic teachers of humanity. Especially is this 
 true among the uncultivated and primitive races, where all 
 prophecy is a synonym of dream and all medical practice a 
 synonym of sorcery. Disease being accounted for by an attack 
 of spirits, it naturally follows that to get rid of these spirits is 
 the proper means of cure. Nothing could display more vividly 
 the conception of a disease or a mental affection, as caused 
 by a spiritual being, than the proceedings of the sorcerer, who 
 talks to it, coaxes or threatens it, makes offerings to it, and 
 tries to entice or drive it out of the patient s body. 
 
 That the two great effects ascribed to such spiritual influ 
 ence, namely, the infliction of ailments and the inspiration of 
 oracles, are not only mixed up together, but often run into 
 absolute coincidence, accords with the view that both results 
 
 1 2 Tylor, Prim. Cult., 123-26. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 53 
 
 are referred to one common cause. The intruding spirit may 
 be a human soul, or belong to some other class in the spiritual 
 hierarchy. These spiritual beings are abroad upon the earth in 
 lanje numbers, and their life is a continuation, and not a new 
 
 o 
 
 life, in savage religion. They have revenge to satisfy, inspired 
 by past and present wrongs. Again, those that have been 
 wicked spirits when embodied are wicked when disembodied, 
 and will seek to do all the injury to others in their power. The 
 most primitive belief concerning the way in which these injuries 
 are inflicted is that which attributes sickness and bodily harm 
 to these disembodied spirits. Those that inflict sickness are 
 really the demons of primitive times, although demonology in 
 its modern form has not yet been fully developed. Thus we 
 see that demonology, transmigration, disease, and dreams, 
 although different branches of the same subject, are so inter 
 woven in the study of the religion of the American nations 
 that I have chosen to place them together in the same chapter, 
 but study them separately, as far as it can be done, without a 
 repetition of the facts that elucidate them all. 
 
 Disease is produced by the transmigration of one or more 
 spirits, generally those of animals, into the sick person. Says 
 Mrs. Eastman, " What the Dacotah most dreads is that some 
 animal will enter his body and make him sick." * They 
 thought that toothache was produced by the spirit of a wood 
 pecker. 2 An old Dacotah, whose son had sore eyes, said that 
 nearly thirty years before, when his son was a boy, he fastened 
 a pin to a stick and speared a minnow with it, and it was 
 strange that the fish after so long a time should come to seek 
 revenge on his son s eyes. 3 
 
 Among the Northern Californians, snakes and other reptiles 
 appear to get most of the blame for their sickness. They dis 
 cover the locality of the spirit in the body by barking at it for 
 some time. 4 
 
 1 Eastman s Sioux. 2 Neill s Minnesota, 87. 
 
 s 2 Wiscon. Hist. Coll., 183. * i Bancroft, 354-55. 
 
54 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Among the wild tribes of Mexico the animals generally 
 guilty are monstrous ants or worms. 1 
 
 The natives of Brazil think disease is produced by the spirit 
 of some animal entering the body of the patient, in revenge for 
 some wrong, and the chief of the tribe, who acts as physician, 
 asks the patient if he has offended a tortoise, deer, or other 
 animal. 2 
 
 Thus, among the Abipones of Paraguay, if they give the flesh 
 of a tortoise, stag, or boar to dogs, it is an indignity to those 
 animals, and punishment will overtake them. The soul of the 
 animal will enter their bodies and afflict them.3 
 
 Paralysis was generally attributed to the agency of the spirit 
 of a deceased person. The treatment consists in efforts to 
 drive away the spirit by conjuring and uncouth noises. 
 
 According to the disease theory above given, the pathology 
 of all diseases being nearly the same, their professed medicine 
 men treat all diseases nearly alike. Their efforts are expended 
 in expelling the spirit, whatever it may be, which it is expected 
 the medicine-man will soon discover, and, hav/mg informed the 
 friends what it is, he usually requires them to be in readiness to 
 drive it away as soon as he shall succeed in expelling it. This 
 he attempts in the first place by incantations, intended to secure 
 the aid of the spirits he worships, and then by all kinds of fright 
 ful noises and gestures, and by sucking the place where the pain 
 is. As soon as he thinks he has succeeded in dislodging the 
 spirit, he says the word, and two or more weapons are dis 
 charged at the door of the tent, to frighten the spirit as it 
 passes out. 4 If they do not succeed in curing the patient, they 
 excuse themselves by saying that they have not found the 
 right animal. 
 
 Among the Six Nations the Indians had a singular way of 
 discovering the right intruder in cases of extreme sickness. In 
 the case of the illness of the wife of Ca-whic-do-ta, which oc- 
 
 1 I Bancroft, 640. 2 I Southey, 334. 
 
 3 2 ib., 263. * I School., 250. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 55 
 
 curred in 1/93, fearing she was to die, the Indians gathered 
 eight or ten bushels of ashes and placed them in a pile near the 
 hut in which she lay. The ashes were then scattered around 
 the cabin. By these manoeuvres they hoped to discover what 
 spirit visited the sick person by its tracks. The Western tribes 
 had a still more singular way of discovering the intruding 
 animal. Each medicine-man had diminutive wooden idols 
 under some form of a quadruped, or bird, or fish. When any 
 chief personage was sick, the priests were sent for, to bring their 
 idols. They retired into a canoe to hold a consultation, and if 
 they did not agree as to the malady or the mode of treatment, 
 they settled the dispute by beating the idols against each other, 
 and whichever lost a tooth or a claw was confuted. 1 
 
 The departure of the animal was a cause of thanksgiving, 
 even in the slightest affections. Thus, the Omahaws after an 
 eructation say, " Thank you, animal." 2 
 
 The way of curing sick patients among the Indians of Darien 
 was to strip them stark naked and shoot small arrows at them. 
 If an arrow opened a vein and blood rushed out, the people 
 leaped with joy. The theory undoubtedly was that the in 
 truding spirit had been pierced and compelled to come forth. 
 
 Among the Mapuches the sorcerer proceeds to frighten the 
 evil spirit out of the patient. He makes himself as horrible- 
 looking as he can, and begins beating a drum and working 
 himself into a frenzy until he falls to the ground with his breast 
 jerking convulsively. As soon as he falls, a number of young 
 men outside the hut, who are there to assist him in driving off 
 the evil one, begin yelling defiantly, and dashing at full speed, 
 with lighted torches, around the hut. If this does not frighten 
 the evil spirit off, but death takes place, it is attributed to witch 
 craft. A woman often acts as sorcerer. 3 
 
 The Araucanians have the same ceremonies for cure of 
 sickness. 
 
 The Mundrucus think sickness is caused by spirits, and the 
 
 Dunn s Oregon, 91. 2 2 Long s Exp., 54. 
 
 3 2 Wood s Uncivilized Races, 562. 
 
56 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 medicine-men fix upon the place where the evil spirit has 
 located itself, and then suck the spot and blow smoke upon it. 1 
 
 The Abipones think disease is produced by enemies, and 
 murders are committed in many cases where disease results in 
 death. An immense drum which makes a horrible bellowing 
 is placed near a sick person s head to frighten away the evil 
 spirit. 2 
 
 The Central American tribes attribute sickness to evil spirits, 
 and have medicine-men called sookias, who perform their in 
 cantations over the sick, whom they first surround with a little 
 fence of charmed and painted sticks. If there is an epidemic 
 in the town, they will surround the windward side with these 
 sticks, with little grotesque images on them. If their success 
 is not such as they expect in expelling the evil spirits, the in 
 habitants remove immediately and burn the village. 3 
 
 The Patagonians thought sickness was caused by a spirit en 
 tering the patient s body. They believed every sick person to 
 be possessed of an evil demon. The inhabitants of the West 
 Indies also referred diseases to hostile demons, and the physi 
 cian, after pulling and sucking the patient thoroughly, would 
 go to the door of the house and pretend to blow something 
 through his hands, saying, " Begone to the mountains, or where 
 you will." 4 
 
 The natives of Cumana thought the diseased v/ere possessed 
 with spirits. Their physicians sucked and licked the part af 
 fected, to draw out the distemper, spitting at short intervals. 
 They said they drew out spirits. " If the disease increased, they 
 tickled the throat with a stick till the patient vomited, which 
 they carried into the field, saying, Go thy way, devil ! " 5 
 
 The Koniagas in the Northwest, when a person falls sick, 
 suppose some evil spirit has taken possession of him, and it is 
 the business of the sorcerer to drive it out. He begins with a 
 tambourine and incantations, and if this does not accomplish 
 the purpose he falls upon the person of the sufferer, and, seizing 
 
 1 2 Wood s Uncivilized Races, 577. 2 2 Dobriz., 266. 
 
 * I Brown, 251. * i Herrern, 163. 53 ib., 310. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 57 
 
 the demon, struggles with it, overpowers it, and casts it out, 
 while the assistants cry, " He is gone ! he is gone !" x 
 
 The Nootkans ascribe disease to the influence of evil spirits. 
 The patient is always starved, lest the food should be consumed 
 by his internal enemy. 2 If the disease becomes serious, it is 
 decided that evil spirits have fixed upon the patient s body for 
 their dwelling-place, whereupon they begin a most violent 
 pressure and kneading of the body, 3 evidently intending to 
 make it very uncomfortable for the intruder. 
 
 Among the more advanced races of Mexico and Peru, an 
 additional method of aiding in the cure of disease was found in 
 the confession of sins. 
 
 The employment of the confessional in the cure of disease 
 had a practical use. The disease was supposed to be produced 
 by some avenging spirit, which might be appeased and turned 
 aside from its revengeful purpose by the penitent admission of 
 the wrong. Hence it was very common among semi-civilized 
 peoples to have a confessional, and among the barbarous tribes 
 it existed in a rude form, as the following illustration shows. In 
 Honduras, if a native was met by a jaguar he would confess his 
 sins aloud, imploring pardon. If the beast still threatened, he 
 would say, " I have committed as many more sins : do not kill 
 me." * 
 
 The Roman Catholics were quite astonished to find the con 
 fessional established before their arrival. The primitive belief 
 that disease is produced by hostile spirits seeking revenge for 
 some wrong would naturally result in confession, if the estab 
 lishment of a priestly hierarchy outstripped the progress of 
 medical science, conditions which we find fulfilled in the Mex 
 ican and Peruvian civilization. They both had an established 
 priesthood, successors to the primitive sorcerers. But the wild 
 and violent methods of these sorcerers would not be tolerated 
 by a more cultivated people. They must yield to a more 
 peaceful method of cure. The priest has assumed to himself 
 
 1 I Bancroft, 85. 2 I ib., 204-205. 
 
 3 i ib., 246. 4 3 ib., 486. 
 
58 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 the mediatorship between man and these revenging spirits, and 
 a confession to him of all offences, followed by sacrifice and 
 other penalties, served to propitiate the spiritual agents pro 
 ducing diseases. Coercion is supplanted by propitiation. 
 
 In Yucatan, difficulty in childbirth was supposed to be pro 
 duced by some sin which had to be confessed. If the wife s 
 confession did not answer, the husband was compelled to con 
 fess. 1 Sins committed twenty years before a sickness were 
 thought to have come to give judgment at last, and were con 
 fessed and sacrifices offered to escape the penalty. 2 A married 
 priesthood were the regular confessors, but in an emergency a 
 husband confessed to a wife, and a wife to a husband. 3 
 
 The natives of Salvador compelled confession of sins in case 
 of sickness. The sins confessed were generally neglect of the 
 worship of their gods. The Peruvians had the confessional, 
 and it was a sin to conceal anything therein: all had to con 
 fess but the Inca, who confessed to the sun. 4 
 
 The curious couvade, noticed by so many travellers, and 
 which has been so difficult to explain, is a superstition that has 
 arisen through fear of attacks of evil spirits. In the couvade 
 the man takes to his bed when the wife gives birth to a child, 
 and kills no animals. This fear of killing animals and carrying 
 on their ordinary avocations arises from the supposition that 
 the spirits of the animals will take advantage of the helpless 
 ness of the child, and avenge itself upon it in some disease. 
 
 Among the Caribs, in the West Indies, when a child is born, 
 the father begins to complain and take to his hammock, and 
 does not eat sometimes for five days together. After forty 
 days the relatives and friends collect, and hack his flesh with 
 agouti-teeth, and draw blood from all parts of his body. The 
 wounds are then washed with pepper infusion. For six months 
 he must not eat birds or fish, for whatever animals he eats will 
 impress their likeness on the child, or produce disease by 
 entering its body. The tribes on the east coast of South 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 678. 2 2 ib., 796. 
 
 3 3 ib., 472. ^ 4 Herrera, 348. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 59 
 
 America practised the couvade, and thought if the father 
 killed any animal it would harm the child. The idea seemed 
 to be that the father must refrain from food the killing of which 
 would bring harm to the child. Among the Arawaks the 
 father can kill little birds and fish, but no large game. 
 
 Says Mr. Sotithey, speaking of the couvade among the Bra 
 zilians, "The father, according to a custom more widely diffused 
 perhaps than any other observance which is entirely unac 
 countable, takes to his hammoc" during and after the birth of 
 a child. 1 For fifteen days after the birth he ate no meat, did 
 no hunting, and set no snares for birds. 2 
 
 Among the Abipones the husband goes to bed, fasts a num 
 ber of days, " and you would think," says Dobrizhoffer, "that it 
 was he that had had the child." 
 
 The same custom prevails among the Coroados, the father 
 abstaining from the flesh of animals. In Guiana the same 
 custom prevails. 
 
 Among the Eskimos the husbands forbear hunting during the 
 lying-in of their wives, and for some time thereafter. 3 
 
 A curious custom of transferring disease-spirits to images, 
 which are then carried away, is a method of cure that pertains 
 to the subject of transmigration. 
 
 The Mexicans, to cure a raging fever, made a little dog of 
 maize paste and put it on a leaf and left it on the roadside, 
 saying the first passer-by would carry away the illness. 4 The 
 spirit producing the disease entered the dog s image and was 
 carried away. These curious methods of sending away the 
 spirit of disease were common to the Old World as well as the 
 New. 
 
 A favorite treatment among the Nahuas was to form a figure 
 of corn dough. They introduced the disease into it and then 
 carried it off and left it by the wayside. Of course it is the 
 intruding spirit that is carried away in the image or figure, and 
 the priest has succeeded in driving it out of the patient into the 
 
 1 3 Southey, 165. 2 2 ib., 368. 
 
 3 Egede, 196. * Motolinia, 130. 
 
60 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 image, which is their equivalent of the scapegoat. It is quite 
 remarkable to find this practice more common among the civil 
 ized American tribes than anywhere else, although it is found 
 at certain stages of progress among all peoples. 
 
 The use of medical cures formed little or no part of the 
 sorcerer s programme, and the few herbs that were discovered 
 to have medical properties were themselves elevated into gods. 
 Those that grew on burial-places had superstitious pre-emi 
 nence given them in these cures, showing the animistic nature 
 of their cures and the tendency of the primitive mind. 
 
 Sometimes diseases of the consumptive or non-acute kind are 
 produced by the prolonged absence of a person s soul from his 
 body. Such a case came under Mr. Jones s observation, where 
 the sorcerer told a sick man that his soul had gone away from 
 him, and was in the bank of a river with the manitous who 
 reside there. 1 
 
 The Aht sorcerer undertakes to bring back truant souls into 
 bodies that have been bereft of them ; also effects interchanges 
 of souls. 2 
 
 This theory of the absence of the spirit from the body during 
 life and the incoming of another spirit, explains a large class of 
 phenomena which are accounted for by the presence of the 
 strange spirit. The body perhaps struggles violently in the 
 throes of a nightmare. The inference is that this usurping 
 spirit uses the body in this violent way. Sometimes the new 
 spirit is not willing to go out when the other returns, and then 
 we would have a case of possession, and the struggle might 
 become so fierce and sharp that the person would behave like 
 a maniac, and the intruding spirit would be dubbed a demon. 
 Again, upon the same theory these cases of possession by an 
 unclean, or, in other words, an intruding spirit, would not be 
 confined to the sleep superstition, but some audaciously wicked 
 spirit would occasionally attempt to force an entrance when the 
 spirit is not away ; and then we have epilepsy, and the falling 
 
 1 Jones s Ojibways, 271. 2 Sproat s Scenes of Savage Life, 169. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 6 1 
 
 sickness. Again, sometimes the body does things involuntarily. 
 What has caused this ? Evidently an intruding spirit has pro 
 duced contortions, and makes the body do things its owner does 
 not wish. Hysteria is produced by an intruder, and its uncon 
 trollable and meaningless laughs and sobs are those of the new 
 comer. Its movements are felt in the globus hystericus. Again, 
 sneezing and yawning are involuntary, and these are the work 
 of the intruder; and hence quite a body of superstitions have 
 grown up around these, many of which have survived to the 
 present day. 
 
 The next branch of the subject of the employment of spirits, 
 and their invisible agency, will be that of dreams. Dreams are 
 produced by the temporary transmigration of an outside spirit | 
 into the troubled person, or they are the real experiences of the I 
 wandering soul of the sleeper. Among the Ahts, when a per 
 son starts in a dream with a scream, a relative will cut his arms 
 and legs, and sprinkle the blood around the house as a sacri 
 fice to the spirit which is troubling him. If the vision continues, 
 they throw articles on the fire. 1 This sacrifice appeases the in 
 truding spirit. 
 
 The influence of dreams is so great upon the life of the x 
 American Indians that every act and thought is predicated 
 upon this superstition. Many instances are found where In 
 dians have dreamed of seeing a bear, or some other animal, at 
 a certain place, whose flesh they need to keep them from 
 starving ; and such credence do they give to this dream that 
 they will start after the game. Such a case is mentioned in 
 Tanner s narrative. The mother of a young hunter dreamed 
 that she saw a bear at a certain place which she described. 
 A young son following the description found a bear in the place 
 indicated, and killed it. 2 
 
 A few such coincidences have strengthened their faith in 
 dreams. The Nootkans find out where fish and berries are 
 most abundant by means of dreams. Obedience was yielded 
 to dreams. 
 
 1 Sproat, 173. 2 Tanner, 52-53. 
 
62 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Charlevoix mentions an Iroquois who dreamed of having a 
 finger cut off, and forthwith proceeded to cut it off when he 
 awoke. 1 . 
 
 An Iowa chief, having dreamed that he would die after the 
 happening of a certain event, prepared himself for death after 
 the event happened, and expired without any previous indis 
 position. 2 
 
 Says Hind of those savages about Hudson s Bay, " If one 
 of them dreams he will die, he cannot be saved." An Indian 
 dream is an inspiration. The inspiring agent is a spirit. Its 
 communication in the dream becomes an oracle to them, more 
 implicitly believed than ever was oracle of Dodona or Pythian 
 Apollo. Their doctrine of dreams is closely connected with 
 their belief in the transmigration of souls, for their doctrine 
 of the transmigration is much broader than the Pythagorean. 
 Death did not have to loose the bands of the spirit to give it 
 freedom to migrate, in the Indian philosophy. In sleep it wan 
 dered away from the body, and while gone another from the 
 spirit-land could usurp its vacant throne. Each man was, how 
 ever, his own channel of inspiration, and his own interpreter. 
 The spirit was not connected with the body by a luminous band 
 exceedingly ethereal, yet so sensitive as to warn the wanderer 
 of danger or encroachment, as is imagined by some modern 
 spiritualists, but its connection was severed, and it sometimes 
 took a long journey to converse with the sun or moon, or this 
 or that star. 
 
 Their crude anthropomorphic conceptions of the heavenly 
 bodies did not make it presumptuous to think of conversing 
 with the sun ; many of them in their dreams have taken a 
 pleasant walk with that luminary. Little Raven, an Ojibway, 
 walked over mountains and high up into the vault of heaven 
 with " the big sea-water" far beneath. He at last beheld the 
 sun sitting with a lamp behind him. The sun told him his 
 future life, and then sent him back to earth to live till it was 
 
 1 2 Voyage, 156. a Stoddarcl s Louisiana, 425. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 63 
 
 fulfilled. 1 Little Raven, on account of this dream, was confident 
 of living until his mission was accomplished. 
 
 Indians of the Algonkin stock believe that communications 
 from superior beings take place in dreams. Not only the future 
 in this life, but their life after death, is revealed to them in this 
 way. Many of their ideas of the future life are the result of 
 these dreams. 2 
 
 The savage considers the events in his dreams to be as real^^ 
 as those of his waking hours. The dream is the first important 
 act of their lives, and takes place soon after they become adults. 
 They have discovered that fasting is a very sure method of in 
 ducing these dreams, and each one goes to some secluded place 
 as soon as he arrives at maturity, to dream, and in this way to 
 select a guardian spirit. After fasting the necessary time in 
 his solitary retreat, whether it be a cave, a forest tree, or the 
 lofty summit of some neighboring mountain, the dream comes, 
 and home the famished recluse hastens, happy in the inspira 
 tion of the hour. Sometimes he is so reduced by starvation 
 he cannot return without help; but anxious friends who have 
 sought out the lost one are ready when the sacred act is over 
 to lend their aid. 
 
 In these first dreams, which are religious acts, the first or the \/ 
 most prominent thing they dream about becomes their manitou 
 (fetich), and on awaking all their efforts are directed toward ob 
 taining this object. To dream of anything that is proof against 
 the arrow or tomahawk makes them proof against the enemy, 
 and brave warriors. To dream of an animal of any kind 
 makes them imagine they will have the qualities of that 
 animal. Birds were favorite manitous, for he who had a bird 
 for his manitou could escape from impending danger as easily 
 as that animal. 
 
 We can see what a great influence these dreams would have 
 upon almost every act of their life. To illustrate more particu 
 larly ; chiefs when organizing an expedition for war would call 
 
 1 Kohl, 206-7. a Tanner s Narrative, 290. 
 
64 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 their men together and inquire of them, one by one, what they 
 had dreamt of during their fast-days, and what manitous they 
 could rely on for assistance. All who had dreamed of war, or 
 things proof against the arrow or tomahawk, were always selected 
 for these war expeditions. The Ojibways have a tradition of a 
 body of warriors who once went out to victories more astonish 
 ing than that of Marathon. The secret of their success was 
 that every man selected for the expedition had had a dream 
 that nerved him for the field of battle. 
 
 Dreams all through life have a great significance, though 
 not so great as these first dreams. For instance, if a band of 
 warriors is on its way to the enemy s country, it will turn back 
 if a chief has one or more unfavorable dreams. All dreams 
 before and during the expedition are carefully observed and 
 considered, and all the individual manitous of their first dreams 
 are carried along as fetiches to the war, and the most implicit 
 faith is shown in these, although they have so much evidence 
 all the time before their eyes of their uselessness. 
 
 A large part of the religious belief of the Dacotahs is made 
 up of dreams. 
 
 The Indians of New England had superstitious regard for 
 their dreams. One who dreamed that the sun had darted a 
 beam into his breast was so frightened thereby he lay awake 
 and fasted ten days and nights. 1 
 
 An Ojibway damsel, whom Cop way knew, had fasted ten days 
 and nights in a lonely cave near Grand Island. Here she waited 
 for inspiration of the spirits. She fled from her home to the 
 rocky cave, and, though sought in woodland and in glade for 
 two days, she was not found by her anxious friends. At last, 
 one evening, as the sun was sinking below the horizon, they 
 beheld, standing on a lofty peak, the lost maiden gazing at the 
 departing sun. She was soon found sitting in the cave, and, 
 although a rivulet of pure water coursed along at her feet, she 
 touched it not, for she was fasting that she might have dreams, 
 
 Williams, Key, 39-40. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 65 
 
 and they came. The clouds rolled beneath her. She looked 
 back on the path she had followed, and around it she beheld 
 the lightning s flash. Up she went, and on one side rolled the 
 deep broad ocean, on the other the lofty mountains of the west 
 stretched their heads into the clouds. She dreamed she had a 
 companion who touched her head, when one-half of her hair 
 was changed to snowy whiteness. She awoke ; her soul was 
 satisfied. She was to be blessed with old age, and with the 
 most perfect confidence she believed she would not die till her 
 hair turned white. 1 
 
 The Brazilians had the same superstitious confidence in the 
 inspiration of dreams as the Northern tribes. Before an expe 
 dition into an enemy s country, if many of the tribe dreamt of 
 eating their enemies it was a sure sign of success ; but if more 
 dreamt that they themselves were eaten, the expedition was 
 given up. The dreams of their prophetesses when in a trance 
 produced by being fumigated with petun were received as 
 oracles. 2 
 
 Among the Chiquitos a dream will make a whole horde for 
 sake their place of sojourn, and induce an individual to abandon 
 his wife and family. 3 
 
 The Guaranies noted their dreams with apprehensive cre 
 dulity. 4 Among the natives of Paraguay dreams were proph 
 ecies : an Abipone juggler would sit upon an aged willow over 
 hanging some lake, and abstain from food for several days until 
 he began to see into futurity through the medium of dreams. 5 
 
 The conjurers of Hispaniola fasted three or four months to 
 obtain communication with the evil spirits, and when reduced 
 to extreme weakness had a hellish apparition, to use the lan 
 guage of Herrera, in which they were informed whether the 
 seasons of the year would be favorable or not, and how many 
 children would be born, and how many live, and other such 
 inspirations. These were their oracles. 6 
 
 1 Copway, Ojibways, 150-58. 2 I Southey, 204. 3 i ib., 335. 
 
 4 2 ib., 371. 5 2 Dobriz., 67-68. 6 2 Herrera, 15. 
 
66 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 The native of Honduras repaired to a river, wood, or hill, 
 where, in an obscure place, he might fall asleep and dream. 
 In these dreams the first animal he saw would be his nagual, 
 their equivalent of the Northern manitou. 1 
 
 The civilized tribes watched their dreams after the birth of a 
 child, and interpreted them as a revelation of the future of the 
 child. 2 The Mayas believed implicitly in the fulfilment of these 
 dreams. 3 The same was true among the Nahuas, who had a 
 certain order of priests who made the interpretation of dreams 
 their special province. 4 
 
 Many of the folk-tales among the tribes of North America 
 describe the dreamy experiences of youthful Rip Van Winkles 
 who have, with so much vivid reality, lived out twenty years 
 of incident in twenty-four hours. Many imaginative persons 
 have passed into the dream-land, loved some spirit form that 
 has presented itself to their disordered minds, have had chil 
 dren grow up around them, and in the midst of these delight 
 ful associations awoke. Their dreams are remembered as 
 realities, and their awaking is called a return from the spirit- 
 land. 
 
 A curious tradition to illustrate this point is told of a Win- 
 nebago who died with love for a phantom woman who appeared 
 in a spiritual body and, beckoning to him, called, 
 
 " Misbikiwakwa, come, 
 And thou shalt be prest 
 To a faithful breast, 
 And thou shalt be led 
 To a bridal bed." 
 
 The romantic Winnebago, after pining away in his attach 
 ment to the dreamy shadow that had called him in some 
 ecstatic vision of the night hour, died, and went to drink with 
 her of the crystal streams in the land of souls, and bring her 
 berries from the hills and flowers from the vales. 5 
 
 1 4 Herrera, 138. 2 4 ib., 141. 
 
 3 2 Bancroft, 796. 4 2 ib., 212. 
 
 s 2 Jones, Traditions, 278-80. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 67 
 
 Among many of the tribes we find a mythical tree or vine, 
 which has a sacredness connected with it of peculiar signifi 
 cance. It always forms a connecting link and medium of com 
 munication between the world of the living and the dead. It 
 is generally used by the spirits as a ladder to pass downward 
 and upward upon, when their religious conceptions have located 
 the land of spirits in an upper empyrean. The Ojibways had 
 one of these vines, the upper end of which was twined around 
 a star. Many traditions are told of attempts to climb these 
 heavenly ladders. These myths have undoubtedly found place 
 in the Indian folk-lore on account of some dream many times 
 told and well adapted to fill a want in the human mind. The 
 wish has become father to the thought, and a way to the spirit- 
 land over the vine or the tree has been found just as satisfac 
 tory as was the ladder of Jacob to the ancient Hebrew world. 
 If a young man has been much favored with dreams, and the 
 people believe he has the art of looking into futurity, the path 
 is open to the highest honors. The future prophet puts down 
 his dreams in pictographs, and when he has a collection of 
 these, if they prove true in any respect, then this record of 
 his revelations is appealed to as proof of his prophetic power. 
 The old people meet together and consult them, for the whole 
 nation believe in these revelations. If convinced, they give 
 their approval, and he is declared a national prophet. 1 
 
 Among the Iroquois, Hiawatha gave his revelations to his 
 nation through the medium of dreams. 2 
 
 Many of the mystic ceremonies of the Iroquois, as well as 
 those of all the other tribes, designed for the cure of the sick 
 and the welfare of the community, have been dictated by 
 dreams and transmitted as a sacred heritage from generation 
 to generation. 
 
 To aid in bringing on dreams and visions, drugs were used, 
 especially among the natives of the Mexican countries and 
 those of South America. The Omaguas, on the Amazon, use 
 
 1 I Schoolcraft, 113-14. 2 Parkman s Jesuits, Ixxxii. 
 
68 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 narcotic plants, under the influence of which they are subject 
 to extraordinary visions. The inhabitants of the West Indian 
 islands snuffed cahoba, and by its intoxicating influence put 
 themselves in communication with the spirits, as they thought. 
 The Mundrucus of North Brazil would administer intoxicating 
 drinks to seers, who would discover murderers by their dreams. 
 The Peruvian priests threw themselves into an ecstatic con 
 dition by a narcotic drink, called tonca, made from the Datura 
 sanguinea, or fetich herb. The Mexican priests made them 
 selves ecstatic and saw spirits by the use of intoxicating drinks. 
 
 Mr. Heckewelder describes the same custom among the 
 Delaware medicine-men, who were made to drink decoctions 
 of an intoxicating nature until their minds became bewildered, 
 so that they saw extraordinary visions. The North Ameri 
 can Indians held intoxication by tobacco to be supernatural 
 ecstasy. 1 This accounts for their use of tobacco in so many 
 of their religious ceremonies. 
 
 Tobacco was called the holy herb among many Brazilian 
 tribes, because it induced visions in which they saw spirits. 
 
 1 2 Tylor, 416-17. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS (CONTINUED). 
 
 Worship of human spirits Ancestral worship Apotheosis Culture-heroes 
 Fabulous forms assumed by mythical beings Gods of Mexico, Central Amer 
 ica, Bogota, and Peru Idolatry Its primitive forms Grave-posts roughly 
 hewn into the image of the dead and worshipped Its later form, an image of 
 the deceased containing [his ashes Idolatry in aboriginal art Supposed 
 vitality of idols. 
 
 IN his earliest state of culture man is an ignorant, consistent, 
 natural spiritualist. The broader spiritualism of savage life is 
 more full and thoroughly consistent than that of modern times. 
 
 Mr. Spencer says, " It is unquestionably true that the first 
 traceable conception of a supernatural being is the conception 
 of a ghost." " Whatever is common to men s minds in all 
 stages must be deeper down in thought than whatever is pecu 
 liar to men s minds in higher stages, and if the later product 
 admits of being reached by modification and expansion of the 
 earlier product, the implication is that it has been so reached." 
 " When, instead of wandering groups, who continually leave far 
 behind the places where their members lie buried, we come to 
 settled groups whose burial-places are in their midst, and 
 among whom development of funeral rites is thus made possi 
 ble, we find that ghost-propitiation becomes an established 
 practice." 
 
 The fear of spirits inspired acts of worship. The supersti 
 tion that spiritual agency produced personal calamities would 
 naturally develop an appeal to spirits, together with rites and 
 ceremonies intended to appease their malevolent designs. 
 
 Says Schoolcraft, " The Dacotahs stand in fear of the spirits 
 
 1 I Spencer, 305-6. 
 
 69 
 
;o PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 of the departed, because they thought it was in their power to 
 injure them in any way they pleased." 1 They tried to keep these 
 spirits pleased, by making feasts to the dead. 2 They prayed to 
 the spirits of the dead for intervention in their behalf in the 
 ordinary pursuits of life. Mr. Prescott gives the following 
 prayer as a specimen : " Spirits ! have mercy on me, and show 
 me where I can find a deer." 3 The principal dance of the Da- 
 cotahs was a sacred rite in honor of the souls of their dead. 4 
 
 The Mandan religious ceremonies consisted in acts which 
 they supposed appeased the spirits of their dead. They crawled 
 on their hands and knees around a row of skulls which they 
 kept near the village. They cut their flesh with knives, and 
 prayed to and conversed with the spirits of their dead, which 
 were supposed to be present in the skulls. The women would 
 often bring their work and sit and keep company with, and 
 talk to, the skull of a husband for hours together. 5 
 
 The Koniagas worshipped dead whalers just before they 
 started on a whaling-expedition, and the Kadiaks seemed more 
 attracted to the dead than to the living. Their mourning cere 
 monies were very elaborate and of a religious nature. Sac 
 rifices were often made to their dead. 
 
 The Thlinkeets, Kenai, and Tinneh celebrated annual festivals 
 jji_Dmmemoration of the dead. One of the most important 
 religious ceremonies of the Ojibways was the feast of the dead, 
 when they kindled a fire at their graves, and burned meat in 
 sacrifice. They prayed to the dead. 6 They always offered a 
 portion of their daily food to the spirits of the dead by putting 
 it on the fire, where it burned while they were eating. 7 The 
 Virginians worshipped the manes of those buried in their tu 
 muli. The Abipones of Paraguay had annual religious cere 
 monies to the spirits of their dead. The Guaranies also wor 
 shipped their dead, and carried round with them little boxes 
 containing their relics. 
 
 1 2 Schoolcraft, 195. 2 2 ib., 199. 3 2 ib., 226. 
 
 4 Eastman s Legends, 33. s i Catlin s Illustrations, 90. 
 
 6 Jones, Ojibways, 98. 7 Beach, Ind. Mis., 376. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 71 
 
 The Mexicans worshipped the spirits of all women that died 
 in childbed. There were oratories raised to their honor in 
 every ward that had two streets crossing. In these were kept 
 images of them. The famous superstitions the world over 
 about cross-roads are familiar, probably, to the reader. These 
 haunted places where two roads cross are appropriate localities 
 for the spirits of mother and child who die together. The 
 Mexican cross-roads were their favorite haunts, and on certain 
 days of the year the people made offerings at the cross-roads 
 of bread kneaded into figures of butterflies, also toasted maize. 
 
 Cihuacoatl appears to have been the patroness of such women. 
 They prayed to her in their trouble. If they died before child 
 birth the body was sacred, and every effort was made to steal 
 it, to be divided into amulets. Hence it was guarded for four 
 days and nights by the family of the deceased. What a remark 
 able proof that spiritism was the secret of their religious life! 
 The value of these bodies consisted in their being surcharged 
 with a double portion of spiritual power. The superstition can 
 find no other rational explanation than this. The grave of the 
 unfortunate woman was turned into a bivouac of armed forces. 
 The body they guarded was a holy relic, which many were 
 eager to win, who prowled around the nightly camp-fires of the 
 little band that guarded her grave. Wizards watched for a 
 chance to obtain a left arm of the dead wife, which had a special 
 power in their profession. 1 
 
 Among the praises sung to her by the mourners of her fate 
 were many clothed in all the beauty of a matchless verbiage : 
 " O woman strong and toil-enduring! O child beloved, beauti 
 ful and tender dove ! Thou hast conquered ! Up with thee ! 
 Break from sleep ! Already the morning shoots through the 
 clouds. Thither, to the house of thy father, let thy sisters, the 
 celestial women, carry thee." 2 
 
 The savages that inhabited the banks of the Orinoco wor 
 shipped the dead, and their skeletons were hung up in rude 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 364. 2 3 ib., 366. 
 
72 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 huts or temples. All the bones of their dead were kept like so 
 many relics. 
 
 " The rudimentary form of all religion," says Mr. Spencer, 
 "is the propitiation of dead ancestors." The worship of human 
 spirits is more universal than pure ancestral worship. It is 
 doubtful whether ancestral worship is comprehensive enough 
 to explain all the facts connected with the worship of spirits. 
 It is limited in its definition, and the worship of spirits is in 
 clusive of it as well as all other worship of pagan peoples. 
 
 Ancestral worship is found in America connected with the 
 .worship of human spirits. It was most prevalent among the 
 more civilized peoples, but nowhere had it assumed that elab- 
 jf orate form found among the Chinese. Ancestral worship 
 might properly be called thejstate religion of Pexu. The living 
 Jngas worshipped their royal ancestors. The Peruvian village 
 Indians worshipped the founder of the village from whom they 
 claimed descent; the village patrons were the mummies of 
 these ancestral aboriginal inhabitants. 1 In addition, each family 
 worshipped the bodies of its ancestors, which were often 
 adorned with costly garments, and had priests attached to 
 them who made the offerings. 2 These dead bodies were wor 
 shipped every day. 3 Some of the Peruvians would carry the 
 dried corpses of their parents around the fields, that they might 
 see the state of the crops. 
 
 Among the natives of Trinidad Island, feasts are held in 
 honor of their ancestors, at which they worship them. The 
 natives of the Ladrone Islands worshipped the bones of their 
 ancestors, which they kept oiled in their houses. 
 
 The Haytians called their ancestors zemis, and worshipped 
 them. Some zemis were bad, and sent diseases, hurricanes, 
 and other catastrophes ; others were good. Some were male, 
 some female. 
 
 At the annual feast to the dead among the Central American 
 tribes, the relatives prostrated themselves and called loudly 
 
 1 Arriaga, 89. 2 Ib., 14. 3 Ib., 63. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 73 
 
 upon the dead. The Woolwas placed a gruel of maize on the 
 grave for some time after burial. 1 
 
 The Tlascaltecs had an annual festival of the dead, when the 
 lords and priests spent several days in the temple weeping for 
 their ancestors, and singing their heroic deeds. The families 
 of lately deceased persons assembled upon the terraces of their 
 houses, and prayed to their dead heroes who had fallen in battle, 
 who were rewarded with canonization, and their statues placed 
 among the images of the gods. 2 
 
 The Aztecs had two festivals of the dead each year, at which 
 they burned incense and made offerings to the dead in the 
 temples, and the people blackened their bodies and prayed to 
 their dead relatives. The Miztecs had an annual festival to the 
 dead, which was kept in all its primitive significance. On the 
 eve of that day the house was prepared as if for a feast. A 
 quantity of food was spread upon the table, and the inmates 
 went out with torches in their hands, bidding the spirits enter to 
 the feast. They then returned and squatted around the table 
 with crossed hands and eyes lowered to the ground, for it was 
 thought the spirits would be offended if looked upon. In this 
 position they remained till morning, praying to their unseen 
 visitors. The food was supposed to have had all its virtue 
 extracted by these spirits. 3 
 
 Speaking of ancestral worship among the Northern tribes, 
 Mr. Henry says, in his captivity among those about Lake 
 Superior, that at their feasts the master of ceremonies calls 
 upon the manes of deceased relatives to be present and par 
 take of the food which has been prepared for them, and to 
 assist them in the chase. They offer at every feast, and 
 almost all their meals, a portion of their food to their dead 
 ancestors. 
 
 Among the New England Indians ancestral worship is seen 
 in their reverence for the souls of their forefathers, which had 
 gone to the southwest, to the court of their great god Cantan- 
 
 1 i Bancroft, 745. 2 2 ib., 331. 3 2 ib., 622-23. 
 
74 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 towit, whose anthropomorphic and ancestral character is seen 
 in the traditionary accounts of him. 1 
 
 Among the Mandans there was a tradition of a first man who 
 promised to be their helper in time of need, and went away. 
 It came to pass that the. Mandans were attacked by foes. One 
 Mandan proposed to send a bird to the great ancestor to ask 
 for help ; but it was decided no bird could fly so far. Another 
 thought a look would reach him : but the hills walled him in. 
 
 o 
 
 Then said the third, thought must be the surest way to reach 
 the first man. He wrapped himself in his buffalo robe, fell 
 down, and thought a prayer. 2 
 
 The Mingo tribes revere and make offerings to the first man. 
 Many Mississippi tribes say the first man ascended into heaven 
 and thunders there. 3 
 
 The principal god of the Maypuris, of Brazil, was Eno, from 
 whom they claimed descent as an ancestor. This word Eno 
 forms the root of the word for man in the dialects of the Panos, 
 Guaranies, Omaguas, and other tribes who have probably de 
 scended from the same ancestor. 
 
 The Moquis worshipped a great father and mother from 
 whom they sprang. Traditionary first parents in many tribes 
 were deified, and often figured in the role of creators. Among 
 the Dog-Ribs, Chapewee, the first man, was creator of sun and 
 moon. 
 
 The Nicaraguans said Tamagostad, a man, and Cipattonal, 
 a woman, from whom they descended, made heaven and earth, 
 and they were their gods whom they served. They formerly 
 walked on the earth, and were just like them. The remotest 
 ancestors that are remembered have become divinities, remain 
 ing human in physical and mental attributes, and differing only 
 in power. 4 The mythical creator of the natives of the Antilles 
 was their ancestor. 
 
 The cosmogony of the tribes of interior California shows 
 
 1 Williams s Key, 21. a 2 Tylor, 311. 
 
 3 2 ib., 312. * I Spencer, 313. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 75 
 
 the anthropomorphic character of their creator, for the world 
 was produced by union of brother and sister, she protesting 
 against the incest ineffectually. From this union sprang all 
 animate creation, and even inanimate, according to some 
 authors. 1 They claimed that these creators were not of the 
 human family, but this assumption on behalf of an apotheosized 
 ancestor is generally found among all the tribes. The tradi 
 tions reveal their nature, for their progeny was Ouiot, an ances 
 tral chief, who was plainly a historical character. 2 Some time 
 after the death of Ouiot, whose tyranny led to his destruction by 
 poisoning, arose the great Chinigchinich, a leader and founder 
 of the order of sorcerers. His life was one of beneficence, 
 and his memory was revered among the Indians of California. 
 He was deified and much worship paid to him. He looks down 
 upon them from the stars. 3 
 
 The worship of living persons who, on account of some 
 physical peculiarity or mental superiority, are supposed to have 
 within them an incarnated spirit, is found in America, and is 
 not inconsistent with their worship of the dead. Diaz men 
 tions a curious case : " In the centre of the Chiapanese army 
 was a woman, aged and immoderately fat, who was esteemed 
 by them a goddess and had promised them the victory." 4 
 
 D Acugna also mentions the case of an Indian of a Brazilian 
 tribe, who presumptously set himself up to be a god and re 
 ceived the homage of a great many. 
 
 Mr. Dobrizhoffer mentions the case of an Indian sorcerer 
 at the town of St. Joaquin, in Paraguay, who was adored as a 
 divine person by a lot of foolish women. 5 
 
 The Indians of Tolteque worshipped an old Indian whom 
 they had dressed up in a particular way and installed in a hut, 
 where they offered sacrifices to him. His godship, who had no 
 manner of work to do, was regaled with all the good things 
 the village afforded, and willingly sustained the character he 
 
 1 Boscana s Chinigchinich, Tr. in Life in Cal., 243. a Ib., 246. 
 
 3 Ib., 254-56. 4 Diaz, 61. 5 2 Dobriz., 8l. 
 
76 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 had been made to assume. A great many instances of such 
 worship of the living are found. 
 
 " It was the custom of the natives of New England, at the 
 apprehension of any excellency in men or women, to cry out, 
 Manitou ! which means, he is a god ! This they do if they 
 see one man excel others in wisdom, valor, and strength. They 
 called the English gods. " x 
 
 Anything which transcends the ordinary, the savage thinks 
 of as supernatural. The remarkable man or hero shares this 
 superstitious reverence. This remarkable man may be simply 
 the remotest ancestor, remembered as the founder of the tribe. 
 He may be a chief famed for strength and courage. He may 
 be a sorcerer of great repute. He maybe an inventor of some 
 thing new that is useful. He may be a stranger of superior 
 race, who brings to them arts and knowledge. Whoever he is, 
 if he is regarded with awe during life he will be regarded with 
 increased awe after death. The propitiation of his ghost being 
 sought more than the propitiation of ghosts less feared, he will 
 become a culture-hero, with an established worship. 
 
 The apotheosis after death of those who have become dis 
 tinguished in life as benefactors or rulers renders them the 
 objects of a general worship, which is not ancestral because 
 participated in by all. 
 
 Montezuma appears to have been worshipped by the New 
 Mexican tribes. They extol his miraculous powers. He 
 planted maize at night which in the morning was grown and 
 ripened. He was immaculately conceived by a drop of dew 
 falling on the exposed breast of his mother as she lay asleep 
 in a beautiful grove. 2 The estufas are Montezuma s churches, 
 where they worship him. 
 
 The Arawaks had a culture-hero, named Arawanili, who 
 appears in their traditions to have been the discoverer and 
 founder of their system of sorcery. Before his time the spirits 
 inflicted continual misery on mankind, but by this mystery 
 
 1 Williams s Key, in. a Cozzens s Marvellous Country, 434-35. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 77 
 
 they could be restrained in their practices. Arawanili was 
 translated without death. He appears to be the principal deity 
 of the Arawaks. 1 
 
 A famous god among the Caribs was Bohito I., who was 
 evidently an early priest and legislator. He is said to have 
 established sorcery. Bohito II. introduced medical knowledge 
 and the burning of the dead, and was apotheosized. Bonito III. 
 brought music to them. 2 This trimurti appeared to stand at 
 the head of the Haytian pantheon. 3 Another prominent figure 
 was Oubekeyeri (man from above), who introduced agriculture 
 and house-building. 4 
 
 The worship of dead chiefs prevailed among the more civ 
 ilized peoples. Balboa says the Peruvians worshipped all their 
 dead chiefs, and offered them sacrifices at certain seasons of 
 the year. An ancient Curaca, mentioned by Cieza, was wor 
 shipped with great reverence by many villages. His body was 
 in a grotto under a tent, with a diadem on its head, and mag 
 nificently clothed. The Indians did not even dare to look 
 upon him. He had been a just and wise counsellor of one of 
 the Incas. 
 
 The Mexicans in their great feast of the tenth month gave 
 divine names to their dead chiefs and other famous persons 
 who had died in war. Idols were made in the image of these 
 persons and put with the other deities. Says Camargo, " They 
 then called them Teotl so-and-so, meaning god or Saint so- 
 and-so." The Mayas worshipped their dead chiefs! Among 
 the Isthmians a dead -chief was dried and hung up in his own 
 palace, and on the anniversary of his death food was brought 
 to him. The arms which he formerly used, and models of the 
 canoes he used, were placed in the presence of the body. They 
 then celebrated a festival in his honor. 
 
 There was a tendency among all the tribes to deify heroes. 
 Thus originates the worship of particular gods. Among primi- 
 
 1 Brett, 292-93. 2 i Rafinesque, American Nations, 189-92. 
 
 3 i ib., 189-92. 4 i ib., 196. 
 
 6 
 
;8 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 tive peoples the ghosts and manes of the dead are feared. Su 
 perstitious fear of these ghostly spirits pervades the savage 
 communities. There is not, however, among such a people, as 
 yet, a pantheon, nor has such pre-eminence been attained by 
 any member of a savage tribe as to entitle him to deification. 
 Equality in the social status of peoples seldom produces 
 apotheosis. Giants are the first mythical heroes that emerge 
 from the chaos of their past Nameless generally, they are 
 only identified with a locality. Gradually, however, as nations 
 emerge from a condition of barbarism, leaders of these pro 
 gressive movements become culture-heroes ; and if, perchance, 
 in these progressive movements a despotic form of government 
 should arise, under the leadership of a man of despotic nature, 
 and be isolated amid a surrounding barbarism, the religious 
 condition of such a people will and must be deplorable. All 
 the paraphernalia of apotheosis will lend its glitter to the ex 
 altation of the despot, but at the expense of the spiritual 
 degradation of the people. Costly funeral ceremonies and 
 magnificent tombs at the monarch s death will be followed by 
 as abject a spiritual worship as was the homage given him in 
 life. Human sacrifices will soon be added to the offerings with 
 which his tomb-temple has been filled. Human sacrifice is a 
 very convenient way of disposing of the multitudes of barbarous 
 captives taken in the wars. Besides this, the apotheosized 
 warrior king will delight in the blood of his enemies, who are 
 now sent to be his slaves in the spirit-world. Very soon a 
 myth of immaculate conception will account for the birth of so 
 elevated a personage, and if, perchance, another monarch of 
 similar courage or virtue appears, then an incarnation, accord 
 ing to the doctrine of transmigration, is accorded him. The 
 last great act in the drama of apotheosis will be translation. 
 Death must be robbed of this one victim, that the triumph of 
 the hero may not be limited. Then comes a myth of transla 
 tion, and we have a full-fledged heathen god, with a personality, 
 and a name, and a throne, and a court, and a moral nature no 
 different from that of the living king. This is the thread that 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 
 
 79 
 
 runs through the mythological story of every civilized people, 
 and especially is it true of the civilized American nations. Be 
 fore taking up the pantheons of the more civilized races, let 
 us notice some of the culture-heroes and mythical characters 
 that can be found among the more uncivilized tribes. 
 
 Torngarsuk is the principal god of the Greenlanders. The 
 most popular representation of him is as a giant with one arm. 
 He is the one consulted by the Angekoks in disease. But 
 Torngarsuk s wife or mother, the stories do not agree which, 
 is the most feared of any of their deities. She is reputed 
 by many to be the daughter of the famous Angekok who 
 tore Disko Island from the continent, near Baals River, and 
 towed it a hundred miles farther north. She lives under the 
 ocean in a large house. Sea-fowls swim about in the tub of 
 train-oil under her lamp. Seals, exceedingly vicious, guard 
 the portals of her palace. 1 Her human character is unques 
 tionable. 
 
 Another god is Innertirrirsok, who is spirit of the air. Er- 
 loersortok is a ghastly character in their pantheon, who feeds 
 upon the intestines of the dead. 2 
 
 The Ingnersuit are fabulous beings that live beneath the 
 surface of the earth, in cliffs along the sea-shore. They are 
 often seen entering through mounds of turf. They have the 
 shape of men, and their life is like the Greenlander s. They act 
 as the guardian spirits of the Kayakers. But they are not all 
 good. Some without noses persecute the Kayakers. 3 
 
 The Kayarissat are giant Kayakers. They raise storms 
 and bring bad weather. The Mermen are fabulous creatures 
 who inhabit the sea. They are fond of fox-flesh, which is sac 
 rificed to them. The Toruit are inland giants, living under the 
 earth. They enter through places hidden by vegetation. They, 
 however, go to sea in foggy weather, without kayaks, sitting on 
 the surface of the water. The Erkigdlit have the shape of man 
 in the upper part of their body, but are dogs in their lower 
 
 1 i Crantz, 190-91. 2 Egede, 185-86. 3 Rink, 46. 
 
8o PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 limbs. 1 These deities of the Greenlanders are evidently anthro 
 pomorphic. 
 
 Manabozho undoubtedly occupies the Olympic throne in 
 the Ojibway pantheon. He was no more nor less than a great 
 brave and chief, about whom many folk-tales are told. Mana 
 bozho lives in a wigwam, with two squaws to make up his 
 family circle. The Ojibways did not ascribe omnipotence to 
 him. Their crude ideas of the helplessness of their gods when 
 involved in difficulties is illustrated by a story they tell of 
 Manabozho. They say he went up into a tree-top to stop a 
 noise produced by two branches rubbing against each other. 
 When he had pulled the branches apart they sprang together 
 again and caught Manabozho and held him suspended for three 
 whole days. His appeals to the animals resulted in jibes and 
 ridicule, and the wolves ate up his breakfast which he left 
 under the tree. A bear at last helped him out of his difficulty. 
 When he returned home he gave both of his wives a severe 
 beating, 2 a touch of human depravity surviving in a god. 
 
 Manabozho had three brothers, named Chibiabos, Wabasso, 
 and Chokanipok. This last he accused of killing his mother, 
 because he was the last born of quadruplets, whose birth re 
 sulted in her death. He destroyed him, after many contests. 
 Wabasso went north, and was changed into a white rabbit, and 
 is considered a great spirit. Chibiabos and Manabozho lived 
 together in great happiness, until Chibiabos, venturing out on 
 the ice too far one day, was drowned. Manabozho made the 
 shores resound with his wails of sorrow on account of the death 
 of his brother. Such was the mythological family from whom 
 the Algonkin tribes trace descent. In a war between the tur 
 tles and Manabozho he barely escaped destruction in a flood 
 produced by the turtles. He reached a place of safety, how 
 ever, carrying his grandmother under his arm. She is a prom 
 inent character in their traditions, and is called the great-grand 
 mother of all. She remains at home in her lodge all the time, 
 
 1 Rink s Traditions, 47. a Kohl s Kitchi-Gami, 388-89. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 8 1 
 
 in order that no one may call on her in vain. They thus deny 
 her omnipresence. 1 
 
 Manabozho discovered that the maple-tree could produce 
 sugar. He killed the ancient monsters of their traditions, 
 whose bones are frequently found. He cleared the streams of 
 obstructions. He has now gone to live on an immense flake 
 of ice in the Arctic Ocean. 2 
 
 Manabozho was the reputed ancestor of the Algonkin race. 
 He was the inventor of picture-writing, the founder of Meda 
 worship, the maker of the earth, the sun, and moon. From a 
 grain of sand he fashioned the habitable land, and set it float 
 ing on the waters, till it grew to such a size that a young wolf, 
 running constantly, died of old age ere he reached its limits. 
 Manabozho was a mighty hunter of old. The Great Lakes 
 were the beaver-dams he built, and when the cataracts impeded 
 his progress he tore them away with his hands. After watch 
 ing the spiders spread their webs to trap flies, he devised the 
 art of making nets to catch fish. In the autumn, ere he com 
 poses himself to sleep, he fills his pipe and takes a godlike 
 smoke, and the clouds float over the hills and woodlands, filling 
 the air with the haze of an Indian summer. 3 
 
 He was reputed to have been born at Mackinaw. Accord 
 ing to ancient tradition, there is a chain of mountains and an 
 immense lake to the northwest of Lake Superior probably 
 meaning the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean where 
 he was particularly fond of living. 4 
 
 This god, says Father Allouez, according to the traditions 
 of the natives, crossed at a single step a bay eight leagues in 
 width. Manabozho once went angling for the king of fishes, 
 but was swallowed, canoe and all. He smote the monster s 
 heart with his war-club till the fish would fain have cast him up 
 into the lake again, but the hero set his canoe fast across the 
 fish s throat inside and finished slaying him. When the dead 
 
 1 Tanner s Narrative, 192. 2 i Schoolcraft, 317-19. 
 
 3 Brinton s Myths, 176-77. 4 Chateaubriand s Travels, 41-42. 
 
82 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 monster drifted ashore, the gulls pecked an opening, through 
 which Manabozho came out. 1 
 
 With entire unanimity all branches of the Algonkins, includ 
 ing the Powhatans of Virginia, the Delawares, the warlike hordes 
 of New England, the Ottawas of the far North, and the Western 
 tribes, spoke of this " chimerical beast," as one of the old mis 
 sionaries calls him, as their common ancestor. The totem of the 
 great hare, whose name he bore, was looked upon with respect. 2 
 
 He has not always borne the ludicrous character that has 
 been given him latterly. Mr. Brinton thinks it passing strange 
 that such an insignificant creature as a hare should receive this 
 apotheosis, and says, " No explanation of it in the least satisfac 
 tory has ever been offered." The totemic system of the Indians 
 is a solution of it. Manabozho, a hero of the gens of the hare, 
 has distinguished himself in their early history, and the process 
 of deification has gradually gone on, with an accretion of folk 
 tales and traditions, in which his acts have become more and 
 more superhuman, until nothing was too great for Manabozho. 
 
 Wabun, Kabun, Kabibonocca, and Shawana are four Algon- 
 kin gods, who preside over the winds from the cardinal points. 
 These gods of the winds were ancestral spirits. Shingebiss 
 was a mythical character of the Ojibways. He had probably 
 been an early sorcerer in that tribe, for they have many stones 
 to tell of his metamorphoses. His great triumph over the god 
 of the weather is curiously told in one of their folk-tales. How 
 he managed to live nobody knew : it was a mystery to the wild 
 foresters around him. Yet on the coldest day he would catch 
 fish. His success enraged Kabibonocca, god of the northwest, 
 who sends the cold and storms, and he determined to freeze 
 him out. He poured the cold blasts of the north upon him 
 and piled up the snow-drifts. Failing in this, he decided to 
 visit Shingebiss in person, and entered his lodge one night, 
 while he sat by the burning logs ; Kabibonocca began to melt, 
 and he was glad to leave the imperturbable Shingebiss to enjoy 
 
 1 i Tylor, 337. a Brinton, 175. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 83 
 
 his warm fire. Shingebiss had thereafter the reputation of being 
 a great spirit who was too much for the god of the wind. 1 
 
 " Windy god ! I know your plan : 
 You are but my fellow -man ; 
 Blow you may your coldest breeze, 
 Shingebiss you cannot freeze." 
 
 The Waindegoos were giants as tall as pine-trees. They 
 were invulnerable and cannibals, and passed through the forests 
 as a man does through grass. 2 They had the human form, as 
 had also the famous giant god called Aggodagoda, who was 
 uniped. He hopped over rivers and valleys at a bound. 3 
 Among the Ojibways there was a god called Pabookowaih, 
 the god that crushed diseases ; also a goddess Wahneetis, god 
 dess of health, 4 who was his spouse. The worship of these 
 gods was undoubtedly confined to a family or gens, as they 
 had no tribal reputation. Their images were of human form. 
 
 The name of one of the Dacotah divinities is Wahkeenyan. 
 His teepee is supposed to be on a mound on the top of a high 
 mountain in the far west. The teepee, or tent, has four open 
 ings, with sentinels clothed in red down. A 
 butterfly is stationed at the east, a bear at the 
 west, a fawn at the south, and a reindeer at 
 the north entrance. He is supposed to pro 
 duce the thunder. He has a bitter enmity 
 against Unktayhee, and attempts to kill his 
 offspring. The high water and floods were 
 supposed to be caused by his shooting 
 through the earth and allowing the water 
 to flow out. When the lightning strikes their teepees or the 
 ground, they think that Unktayhee was near the surface of the 
 earth, and that Wahkeenyan, in great rage, fired a hot thunder 
 bolt at him. 5 Fig. I is a representation of this god hurling 
 these thunderbolts, and shows his human form. 
 
 1 3 Schoolcraft, 324-25. 2 Jones s Ojibways, 156-60. 
 
 3 3 Schoolcraft, 521. 4 Jones s Ojibways, 87. 
 
 5 I Minn. Hist. Coll., 267, seq. 
 
84 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 The Jupiter Maximus of the Dacotahs is named Unktayhee. 
 He fills the role of creator. He made man in this manner. 
 The earth being finished, he took a deity, one of his own offspring, 
 and, grinding him to powder, sprinkled it upon the earth, and 
 this produced many worms. These matured into infants, which 
 became full-grown Dacotahs. They think the bones of the 
 mastodon are the bones of this god, and preserve them with 
 great care. 1 Morgan s Bluff, near Fort Snelling, is the residence 
 of Unktayhee. Under the hill, they say, is a subterranean 
 passage for the use of the god. They often pretend to see 
 this god passing through the air and over the hill, 2 and repre 
 sent him with human form. 
 
 Heyoka is the antinatural god of the Dacotahs. He ap 
 pears in four forms ; sometimes as a tall and slender man with 
 
 two faces, like the Janus of an 
 cient mythology. He holds a 
 bow in his hand streaked with 
 red lightning ; also a rattle of 
 deer-claws. The second form 
 is a little old man with a cocked 
 hat and enormous ears, holding 
 a yellow bow. The third, a man 
 with a flute suspended from his 
 neck. The fourth is invisible 
 and mysterious, and is the gen 
 tle zephyr which moves the 
 grass and causes the ripple of 
 the water. Heyoka is a perfect 
 
 paradox. He calls bitter sweet, and sweet bitter; he groans 
 when he is full of joy, he laughs when he is in distress ; in 
 winter he goes naked, and in summer wraps up in buffalo robes. 
 Those whom he inspires can make the winds blow and the rains 
 fall. 3 He uses a frog for an arrow-point. He keeps a zoo- 
 
 I Minn. Hist. Coll., 267, seq. a Eastman, 210. 
 
 3 i Minn. Hist. Coll., 268, seq. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 85 
 
 logical garden within his court-yard. Among the animals are a 
 deer, elk, and buffalo. He hurls meteors at his enemies in self- 
 defence, and uses the lightning which surrounds his house to 
 kill his game with. 1 Fig. 2 is a representation of this god. 
 
 Takinshkanshkan is a deity of the Dacotahs, and is sup 
 posed to be invisible, yet everywhere present. He is full of 
 revenge, exceedingly wrathful, very deceitful, and a searcher 
 of hearts. His favorite haunts are the four winds and the 
 granite boulders strewn on the plains of Minnesota. He is 
 never so happy as when he beholds scalps warm and reeking 
 with blood. 2 The East, West, North, and South each had a 
 deity presiding over them, but of an undoubtedly anthropo 
 morphic character. The translation of the names indicates Man 
 of the East, Man of the West, Man of the North, and Man of 
 the South. Witkokaga is another god, who deceives animals 
 into being taken. 3 Canotedan is the Dacotah god of the 
 forest, and lives in a tree. When he wants anything, he can 
 be found sitting on a branch. He has powers of attraction, 
 and draws around him all the birds of the forest. He wages 
 constant war with the gods of the elements, and kills one occa 
 sionally, which does not exterminate 
 
 FIG. 3. 
 them, however. The Dacotahs have a 
 
 god of the grass, who can make them 
 crazy, and a god of war. All of these 
 spiritual beings were anthropomorphic. 
 
 Fig. 3 is a rough representation of 
 the god of war. 4 
 
 The Great Spirit is borrowed from 
 the whites, to complete their pantheon. 
 The Dacotahs have giants who stride 
 over the largest rivers and the tallest 
 trees with ease. 
 
 Among the Iroquois the stonish giants figure in their folk- 
 
 1 2 Schoolcraft, 225. = I Minn. Hist. Coll., 268. 
 
 3 Eastman, xxxi. * 3 Schoolcraft, 485-87. 
 
86 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 lore, and undoubtedly represent an invading tribe whose valor 
 tested the Iroquois to the utmost. Plate II. is a representation 
 of one of their culture-heroes, whose name was Atotarho. He 
 was an early ruler, whose hair was represented in snake forms, 
 as was that of Medusa. Many of the characters in the Iroquois 
 pantheon have assumed the human form, or, in other words, are 
 ancestral. Hiawatha is one of the most prominent. He taught 
 the Six Nations arts and knowledge. He taught them to raise 
 corn and beans. His wisdom was great, and the people listened 
 to him with admiration. There was nothing in which he did 
 not excel. He was a good hunter, brave warrior, and eloquent 
 orator. He selected a beautiful spot on the southern shore of 
 Cross Lake. He erected his lodge, planted his field of corn, 
 and selected a wife. Here he was resorted to for advice and 
 instruction. Soon there arose a great alarm at the invasion of 
 a ferocious band of warriors from the north. The public fear 
 was extreme. A great council of all the tribes was appointed 
 to meet on an eminence overlooking Onondaga Lake. Three 
 days had elapsed, and there was a general anxiety lest Hia 
 watha should not arrive. Messengers were despatched for him. 
 They found him in a pensive mood, and he communicated to 
 them his strong presentiments that evil betided his attendants 
 at the council. The messengers urged him to come, and he 
 put his magic canoe in the water, and it moved without paddles. 
 His only daughter took her seat in the stern. Soon they en 
 tered on the bright bosom of the Onondaga. The great coun 
 cil saw the well-known canoe approaching, and sent up shouts 
 of welcome as the venerated man landed in front of the assem 
 blage. As he and his daughter ascended the banks, a loud 
 sound was heard in the air, and a dark spot was discovered de 
 scending rapidly. Terror seized the Indians, and they scattered 
 in confusion to escape the impending calamity. Hiawatha s 
 daughter was the doomed object. A white bird with a mighty 
 swoop crushed the girl to the earth, and not a human trace of 
 her could be discovered. Not a muscle moved in the face of 
 Hiawatha. He passed on to the head of the council. His 
 
PLATE II. 
 
 ATOTARHO. 
 
 (ANCIENT IROQUOIS CHIEF.) 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 87 
 
 advice was given and adopted, and Hiawatha s mission was 
 accomplished. He went down to the shore, and assumed his 
 seat in his mystical vessel. Sweet music was heard in the air, 
 and, as its cadence floated on the ears of the wondering multi 
 tude, an apotheosis was taking place. Hiawatha in his magic 
 canoe rose in the air higher and higher, and vanished from sight. 1 
 
 Thus was this great and good man translated, according to 
 the traditions of his people. The sun-worship of the Iroquois 
 is ancestral in its character, as they believe the sun to be a 
 man, but their legend has not come down to us relating the 
 earthly career of this solar man, as in many other tribes, 
 losco, another mythical hero, confirmed their ideas of this 
 luminary by visiting him and taking a day s journey with him 
 around the world. 2 
 
 Jouskeha was the Iroquois mythical character who figured as 
 the creator of the world and the father of the human race. 3 
 
 Areskoui was another of their deities to whom sacrifices were 
 offered. Father Jogues saw a female prisoner burned as a sac 
 rifice to Areskoui. 4 The god of thunder was supposed to be 
 a giant in human form. 5 Two gods of the Iroquois appeared 
 among the Natches ; for their goddess Athaensic was the fe 
 male chief of evil spirits, and Jouskeha of good spirits, in both 
 tribes. 6 They were the reputed ancestors. 
 
 Among the New England tribes a god called Squanto, to 
 whom they ascribed all good, and another god, Tanto, to whom 
 they ascribed all evil, were worshipped. Tanto produced death 
 and carried the dead to his wigwam. 7 They were ancestral. 
 Pampagussit was the name of the sea-god of the New England 
 Indians. 8 He was represented with human form. Yotaawit 
 was god of fire, Nanepaushat was god of the moon, and Kee- 
 suckquand god of the sun. " They had their he and she saints, 
 even as the papists," says Roger Williams.9 Another of their 
 
 1 3 Schoolcraft, 315-17. 2 5 ib., 402. 3 Parkman s Jesuits, Ixxvii. 
 
 4 Ib., Ixxvii. 5 Ib., Ixix. 
 
 6 2 Chateaubriand, 40. ^ 2 Maine Hist. Coll., 94. 
 
 8 Williams s Key, 98. 9 Ib., no. 
 
88 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 gods was named Moshup, who lived at Martha s Vineyard with 
 his wife and five children. He used to catch whales, and pluck 
 up large trees to roast them with. He once sent his children 
 to play ball on the beach that joined Neman s Land to Gay 
 Head. He then cut with his toe a line in which the water 
 followed and cut them off. His wife mourned them so much 
 that he threw her away in a fit of rage. She fell upon Seconet, 
 near the rocks, where she lived some time, exacting contribu 
 tion of all who passed there by water. After a while she was 
 changed into a stone : the shape of this stone remained until 
 the English broke it up for relics. 1 
 
 Wakon is the principal god and ancestor of the Osages. 2 
 
 The Indians on the Columbia River believe that men were 
 created by a deity named Etalapass, but when made they were 
 imperfect, having a mouth that was not opened, eyes that were 
 fast closed, hands and feet that were not movable. A second 
 divinity, whom they call Ecanumu, having seen men in this 
 state of imperfection, took a sharp stone and laid open their 
 mouths and eyes ; he gave agility also to their feet, and motion 
 to their hands. 3 
 
 Kareya, the ancestor of the Karoks of California, was the 
 creator of their world. They have the stool upon which he 
 sat when upon the earth. Since the advent of Christianity he 
 has been elevated to the divine primacy of Supreme Being. 
 
 Card is the name of the culture-hero of the Yuroks. He 
 gave them their language, and now lives in their mountains. 
 He has recently been elevated to the dignity of Supreme 
 Being, as no other is so well adapted to represent the Christian 
 God to their minds. 4 
 
 He was also ancestral god of the Hupas. Many of the in 
 cidents of his life are remembered by them. " Clean was his 
 heart," say they. He was translated, according to their 
 myths, in a thick cloud of smoke, which floated to the land of 
 
 1 I Mass. Hist. Coll., 1st Series, 139. a I Rafinesque, 160. 
 
 3 Franchere s Voy., 258. * 3 Ethnol. of Powell s Exp., 64. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 89 
 
 spirits. 1 This is undoubtedly a myth connected with his cre 
 mation. 
 
 The creator of the Maidus was a man from whom they 
 descended. 2 
 
 Quahootze is the principal god of the Nootkans. He stills 
 the tempests and controls the storm. They chant and pray 
 to him. A human victim was formerly offered at his annual 
 festival, but now a boy with knives stuck through his flesh 
 appears as a substitute. Matlose is a famous hobgoblin of 
 the Nootkans. He is a very Caliban of spirits : his head is like 
 the head of something that might have been a man, but is not. 
 His monstrous teeth and nails are like the fangs and claws of 
 a bear. Whoever hears his terrible voice falls like one smitten, 
 and his curved claws rend prey into morsels with a single 
 stroke. 3 Huge images, carved in wood, stand in their houses, 
 intended to represent the form and hold in remembrance the 
 visit of a god in the guise of an old man who came up the 
 sound long ago in a copper canoe and instructed them in 
 many things. 4 The Nawloks are fabulous beings, part human, 
 with whom their sorcerers are supposed to commune and ob 
 tain their prophecies. 5 
 
 Yehl stands at the head of the Thlinkeet pantheon. He is 
 kind, and loves men ; not so with Khanuk, who could raise a 
 magic darkness that would frighten Yehl into helplessness. 
 Yehl cannot die or become older. Chett is a great Northern 
 rukh, that snatches up and swallows a whale without difficulty. 
 The flash of his eyes produces the lightning. 6 
 
 The anthropomorphic nature of these gods is beyond ques 
 tion. Yehl and Khanuk lived formerly on the earth, and were 
 born of a woman whose race has passed away. Khanuk was 
 god of war and the patron of every fearless brave.* He sends 
 epidemics and bloodshed to all who displease him, while Yehl 
 crosses the purposes of his dark-minded brother. Yehl had 
 
 1 3 Ethnol. of Powell s Exp., 81. * 3 ib., 287. 3 3 Bancroft, 151. 
 
 3ib., 151. s 3 ib., 150. 6 3ib., 146. 
 
go PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 great skill in the use of the bow and arrow. They have a 
 traditionary incarnation of Yehl in one of their mighty hunters. 
 A disconsolate mother went to the sea-shore to weep for her 
 lost children, and while there a dolphin pitied her and told her 
 to swallow a small pebble and drink some sea-water, which she 
 did, and in proper time Yehl was born. His first famous ex 
 ploit was to shoot a crane, called, when translated, " crane that 
 can soar to heaven." In the skin of this bird he clothed him 
 self whenever he wished to fly. Yehl s contests with his uncle 
 for revenge made much of their folk-lore. Yehl had other in 
 carnations, in one of the most romantic of which he was trans 
 formed into a blade of grass and got into a girl s drinking-cup 
 and was swallowed by her and born again. The balance of 
 his life was spent in stealing benefits for mankind, and in his 
 adventures, metamorphosing himself at pleasure. His black 
 plumage was obtained in an adventure where he attempted to 
 escape through the chimney of a hut. 1 He had the fogs and 
 clouds at his command, and would draw them around him to 
 escape his enemies. 2 
 
 The Okanagans have a god Skyappe, and also one called 
 Chacha, who appear to be endowed with omniscience ; but their 
 principal divinity is their great mythical ruler and heroine 
 Scomalt. Long ago, when the sun was no bigger than a star, 
 this strong medicine-woman ruled over what appears to have 
 now become a lost island. At last the peace of the island was 
 destroyed by war, and the noise of battle was heard, with which 
 Scomalt was exceeding wroth; whereupon she rose up in her 
 might, and drove her rebellious subjects to one end of the 
 island, and broke off the piece of land on which they were 
 huddled, and pushed it out to sea, to drift whither it would. 
 This floating island was tossed to and fro and buffeted by the 
 winds till all but two died. A man and woman escaped in a 
 canoe and arrived on the mainland, and from these the Okana 
 gans are descended. 3 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 100-3. a 3 tt>., 149. 3 3 ib., 154. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 91 
 
 The Acagchemen races of California appear to reverence an 
 ancestor by the name of Ouiot, who was a great warrior and 
 ruler of the early day. He grew old, however, and useless, 
 and, as was their custom, they poisoned him, and he died, and 
 was succeeded by a greater, named Ouiamot, who came dancing 
 among them when assembled for some purpose, and entered 
 into league with their medicine-men and confirmed their power. 
 He then returned to the stars whence he came. 1 
 
 The Pericues of Lower California were divided into two 
 sects, worshipping two hostile divinities who waged a war of 
 extermination on each other, and who were historical characters. 
 
 Niparaya was the name of one, whose wife, though possess 
 ing no body, bore him, in a divinely mysterious manner, three 
 children. This young god made men by drawing them up 
 out of the earth. He died, and an owl appears to represent 
 him. Another god was Tuparan, whom Niparaya appears to 
 have defeated in battle and confined under the earth. This was 
 another way, undoubtedly, of expressing his death and burial. 
 His followers continue to be his sectaries. 2 
 
 The tribes in the neighborhood of Trinity River had their 
 great ancestor Wappequemow, who was a giant who quarrelled 
 with a great god at the mouth of the Klamath and was ban 
 ished thence. Next in their pantheon comes the great Omaha, 
 who is invisible and brings misfortune on mankind. Next is 
 Makelay, a veritable fiend, as swift as the wind, moving in 
 great leaps as the kangaroo moves. The sight of him is death 
 to mortals. 3 They were represented in human forms. 
 
 The most curious mythological characters among the natives 
 of Northern California are those mysterious people called the 
 Hohgates, who have left an immense bed of mussel-shells near 
 the Crescent City. These Hohgates, seven in number, were 
 famous hunters of seals. One day, being out at sea in their 
 boat, they struck a huge sea-lion with their harpoon, and, stand 
 ing by their line, were dragged with fearful speed toward a great 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 166. 2 3 ib., 169. 3 3.ib., 176. 
 
92 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 whirlpool that lay to the northwest, where spirits shiver in its 
 dark cold, and even the living suffer from its winds. Just as 
 the boat reached the dreadful current, the rope broke, and the 
 sea-monster was swept alone in the whirl, while the Hohgates 
 were caught up into the air, their boat floating steadily to 
 ward the empyrean until the translated heroes landed where 
 the Seven Stars now shine. 1 
 
 The inhabitants on the Rio Grande adored three ancestral 
 gods, called Cocopo, Cacina, and Homace, to the first of whom a 
 temple was raised some ten feet wide and twice as deep. At 
 the end sat the idol of stone or clay, representing the god 
 bearing some eggs in one hand and some ears of maize in the 
 other. In this temple an old woman presided as priestess, and 
 directed the ceremonies by which the natives implored rain, 
 a blessing the more necessary as the streams frequently ran 
 dry. 2 
 
 The Araucanian pantheon is composed of Pillan, Epunamun, 
 Mulen, and Guecubu. Pillan signifies the spirit, and it appears 
 that he had acquired a great pre-eminence over all others. His 
 anthropomorphic character is written plainly in his polity, which 
 is a prototype of the Araucanian. Undoubtedly he was an 
 early ruler and the founder of their government, and when he 
 disappeared his administration of affairs in the spirit-world 
 would not vary from the earthly. Epunamun was their god of 
 war. Mulen was their beneficent deity, and always the friend 
 of the human race. He is the antagonist of Guecubu, who is 
 their malevolent deity and the author of all evil. If a horse 
 tires, it is because Guecubu has ridden him. Death is brought 
 about by this demon, who suffocates them. These gods have 
 a hierarchy of genii or active spirits, 3 and were historical char 
 acters. 
 
 At the head of the pantheon of the Tupinambas was Tupa, 
 which is their word for father, and was used for the Supreme 
 
 3 Bancroft, 177. Shea s Cath. Missions, 79. 
 
 3 2 Molina, 84-86. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 93 
 
 Being after the introduction of Christianity. Although he was 
 the god of thunder, still his character was that of a beneficent 
 being. 1 Next stood Zome, who taught them the use of the 
 mandioc. The woods made a path for Zome in his progress, 
 and the rivers opened to give him passage. He could also 
 walk upon the waters. He commanded the tempests. The 
 most ferocious animals crouched submissive at his feet 2 They 
 pointed out his footsteps imprinted on the shore. 
 
 The Manacicas had a triplet of deities, called Urapo, Ura- 
 sana, and Uragozoriso, two of them good and one bad, and a 
 host of spiritual attendants, including the souls of their ene 
 mies. They would come with a noise through the air and 
 enter the hut prepared for them, which shook at their pres 
 ence. This rude temple had a holy of holies, into which none 
 but priests were allowed to enter. When the oracles were 
 pronounced, these spirits returned to the air whence they came. 
 They had a goddess Quipoci, who appears to have been a 
 sweet singer of early times. 3 
 
 The Yuracares of Brazil had a divine hero, Tiri, who was 
 suckled by a jaguar. 4 
 
 Among the Tamanacas of Guiana a hero-god, Amalavaca, 
 piled rocks upon each other until a famous cavern, which was 
 called his house, was formed. He was no other than their 
 primitive ancestor. He, with his brother Pochi, another myth 
 ical hero of this people, gave the surface of the earth its 
 present form. The pictographs on the rocks are his hand 
 writing. 5 
 
 Among all of the culture-heroes of the civilized races of 
 America, Quetzalcoatl is the pre-eminent one. There can be 
 no doubt that he was a historic character. Descriptions of 
 his personal appearance are found in the historic fragments of 
 those peoples among whom he lived. Quetzalcoatl came to 
 Tulla. He had a broad forehead, large eyes, and flowing 
 
 1 i Southey, 227. 2 Warden s Researches, 189. 
 
 3 3 Southey, 184. 4 i Tylor, 282. 
 
 s 2 Humboldt s Personal Narrative, 471, seq. 
 7 
 
94 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 beard, and was clad in a white robe. He held a sickle in his 
 hand. His habits were ascetic. He was never married, yet 
 was chaste and pure in his life. He condemned sacrifices, 
 except of fruits and flowers. When addressed on the subject 
 of war, he stopped his ears with his fingers. He loved peace. 
 He instructed people in agriculture, metallurgy, and the arts 
 of government. He was one of those benefactors of their 
 species who have been deified by the gratitude of posterity. 
 His age was the golden age of Anahuac; a veritable mythical 
 age, too, for under him the earth teemed with fruits and 
 flowers without the labor of culture. An ear of Indian corn 
 was as much as a single man could carry. The cotton as it 
 grew took the rich dyes of human art. Stalks of the amaranth 
 were so large people climbed them like trees. Such a man as 
 this in the semi-civilized state of Tulla is a marvel. His char 
 acter was more exemplary than any other human being of 
 whom we have any account in America. He was like a meteor 
 that flashes across a dark sky and is gone. Tezcatlipoca, whose 
 worship was quite opposite in its character to that of Quetzal- 
 coatl, triumphed, however, with his sanguinary ritual, which 
 was celebrated with human sacrifices. A struggle ensued in 
 Tulla between the opposing systems, which resulted favorably 
 to the bloody deity, and the faction who sought to establish 
 his worship in preference to the peaceful and ascetic service 
 of Quetzalcoatl triumphed. But Quetzalcoatl was allowed to 
 depart in peace. Myriads of rich-plumed songsters made the 
 air melodious as they accompanied him on his journey. The 
 flowers by the wayside gave forth unusual volumes of perfume 
 at his approach. A few devoted followers clung to him in his 
 travels. He next appeared at Cholula. War was not known 
 during his sojourn there. The enemies of the Cholulans came 
 with perfect safety to his temple, which is one of the most 
 interesting relics of antiquity, and the sculptor and architect 
 flourished under the patronage of the great god king. After 
 twenty years he passed down to the sea, and, entering his 
 wizard skiff, made of serpent-skins, embarked, after bestowing 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 95 
 
 his blessing upon four young men who had followed him 
 thither in their devotion. 1 
 
 Most prominent among the peculiar reforms of Quetzalcoatl, 
 and the one that is reported to have contributed most to his 
 downfall, was his unvarying opposition to human sacrifice. 
 This sacrifice had prevailed from pre-Toltec times at Teotihua- 
 can, and had been adopted more or less extensively in Culhua- 
 can and Tulla. By Quetzalcoatl it was absolutely prohibited 
 in the temples of the latter capital, and thus the powerful priest 
 hood of Otompan and Culhuacan was arrayed against him. 
 Again, it is thought that under Quetzalcoatl the spiritual power 
 became so dominant as to excite the jealousy and fears of the 
 nobility in Tulla, who were restless under priestly restraint. 2 
 
 Tezcatlipoca, the persecutor of the great priest of Tulla, be 
 came the greatest god adored in these countries. Creator of 
 heaven and earth, recompenser of the just and the unjust, his 
 name means shining mirror. According to tradition, he de 
 scended from heaven by a rope made of spiders webs. Stone 
 seats were placed in the corner of the streets for him to rest 
 upon, which no other person was ever allowed to use. Of 
 course this adulatory worship is due to his success in attaining 
 the primacy. His true character is shown as the sorcerer. 
 His triumph is that of sorcery and semi-barbarous religion 
 over an attempted reformation. The tradition of the visit of 
 Tezcatlipoca to the sick Quetzalcoatl gives us a vivid insight 
 into the nature of the struggle of the contending forces. The 
 account is as follows. There came at last a time in which the 
 fortunes of Quetzalcoatl and his people the Toltecs began to 
 fail, for there came against them three sorcerers who were gods 
 in disguise, Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli, and Tlacapevan. 
 Tezcatlipoca turned himself into a hoary-headed old man and 
 went to the house of Quetzalcoatl when sick, and demanded 
 to see the sick man. He gave him a draught, which worked 
 its spell to induce Quetzalcoatl to leave his pontifical throne 
 
 1 Short, 269-71 ; I Prescott, 58-60. 2 5 Bancroft, 261. 
 
96 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 and palace and become a wanderer. In Cholula he found a 
 resting-place for twenty years, and yet after that lapse of time 
 the magic spell was still upon him, and again he left his work 
 of civilizing to flee from the dread sorcerer s charm. 
 
 Tezcatlipoca, though a magician and of the religious order, 
 allied himself to the civil power in the following manner. He 
 disguised himself, and, while selling green peppers in the 
 market-place of Tulla, the only daughter of the temporal lord 
 of the Toltecs saw him by chance from the palace-windows, 
 and was smitten with love for the disguised god. She sickened 
 and languished with love for the handsome pepper-vender. He 
 was brought into the palace, went in to the princess and remained 
 with her, and she became well. Innumerable acts of sorcery 
 did he now perform, many of them in punishment of the Tol 
 tecs for their hostility to him. He at last won his way to the 
 control of the civil and religious affairs, and the Mexicans were 
 subdued into submission to the most bloody religious worship 
 ever established on the face of the earth. In the midst of their 
 progress in the arts of civilized^ life, a cessation of progress in 
 religious life took place. The retreating figure of Quetzalcoatl 
 would have shuddered to look back and see the dark pall that 
 the great sorcerer was hanging around his redeemed land. 
 Although so many supernatural acts are ascribed to Tezcatli 
 poca, yet he was undoubtedly a culture-hero and the founder 
 of Tezcuco. His father was king of Tulla probably about 752 
 A.D., and it was undoubtedly after his death that Tezcatlipoca 
 strove for the supremacy at Tulla, appearing there with many 
 metamorphoses. Quetzalcoatl, according to that eminent an 
 thropologist, Mr. Waitz, was originally a man, a priest in Tulla, 
 who arose as a religious reformer among the Toltecs, but was 
 expelled by the adherents of Tezcatlipoca, who had been, 
 according to Francis of Bologna, a great prince. They made 
 an image of him and worshipped it. 
 
 Apotheosis of monarchs among the Mexicans was a natural 
 consequence of their earthly autocracy. From the moment 
 of his coronation the Aztec sovereign lived in an atmosphere 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 97 
 
 of adulation unknown to the mightiest potentate of the Old 
 World. Reverenced as a god, the haughtiest nobles sov 
 ereigns in their own provinces humbled themselves before 
 him. Absolute in power, the fate of thousands depended upon 
 a gesture. 1 
 
 In his coronation oath he promised to make the sun shine, 
 the clouds give rain, the rivers flow, and the earth bring forth 
 fruit in abundance. 2 
 
 We will next notice the goddess Citlalicue, to whom women 
 prayed. She had many children in the upper world, but finally 
 brought forth a flint knife which was thrown to the earth, and 
 from it sprang sixteen hundred heroes. Xolotl, who was one 
 of these heroes, went to the regions of Mictlanteuctli, the 
 Mexican Pluto, and got a bone of a dead man, that he might 
 create a new race of men in place of those destroyed in one of 
 their traditionary destructions. The god of the dead pur 
 sued him when he discovered the theft. Xolotl stumbled in 
 his flight and broke the bone, but escaped with it. When 
 sprinkled with the blood of the heroes, the bone became a 
 male and female. 3 
 
 This Promethean legend of the Mexicans is repeated with 
 different incidents throughout American mythology. 
 
 Centeotl, goddess of corn, had five temples in Mexico. Next 
 to Quetzalcoatl, this goddess was the most beneficent in the 
 Mexican pantheon. She elicited the love of her worshippers. 
 There were no human sacrifices to her, but she was contented 
 with the sacrifice of doves, quails, and leverets, which they 
 offered in great numbers. They looked to her for deliverance 
 from the cruel slavery they were under to the other gods. 
 Mictlanteuctli, god of the under-world, was supposed to dwell 
 in a place of great darkness, in the bowels of the earth. Sac 
 rifices were always made to him at night, and his priests were 
 painted a black color. Both Centeotl and Mictlanteuctli were 
 represented in human form. 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 143-44. 2 2 ib., 146. 3 i Qavigero, 245-46. 
 
98 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Mixcoatl, goddess of hunting, was the principal deity of the 
 Otomies, who were a tribe of hunters. She had two temples, 
 however, in Mexico, where wild animals were sacrificed to her. 
 She was the Diana of the Mexican pantheon, and represented 
 a hunter condition. There appears to have been another deity 
 bearing this name, and a male. He seems to have been god 
 of thunder. He was represented with a bundle of arrows in 
 his hand. He was the principal deity of the ancient Chiche- 
 mecs, but held in high honor by the Nahuas, Nicaraguans, 
 and Otomies. He rode upon the tropical tornado, and was 
 lord of the lightning. .He is probably identical with Ca- 
 maxtli. It is not uncommon, where adoption of tribal gods 
 takes place, to change their profession without changing their 
 name. Thus, the god of hunting, of a tribe of hunters, if estab 
 lished in the pantheon of a tribe whose pursuits are not the 
 chase, will be assigned to other duties, and the whole form of 
 worship gradually changed. One of the ceremonies of this 
 god, however, observed by the Mexicans, was a great hunt in 
 the fourteenth month, when the celebrants wended their way to 
 a mountain-slope, and drove deer, rabbits, hares, coyotes, and 
 other game together and began their slaughter in honor of 
 this hunting god. A portion of the game was sacrificed to the 
 god. Later in the month, human sacrifices were made by the 
 Mexicans; but I think this was a late introduction by the ad 
 vocates of a bloody ritual, and after sacrifice had reached its 
 greatest height of enormity. Another fact has some bearing 
 upon this subject. The sacrifices of this hunting god appear 
 to have been synchronous with those of the gods Tlamatzincatl 
 and Yzquitecatl, and their ceremonies conducted together; and, 
 since human sacrifices were offered to these two deities, they 
 would eventually be introduced into the worship of the hunting 
 god. 
 
 Opochtli was god of fishing. He was believed to be the 
 inventor of nets and other instruments of fishing. His image 
 was like a man. The sacrifices to him were pulque, smoking- 
 canes, and other vegetable substances. No human sacrifices 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 99 
 
 are mentioned, and therefore no departure from the primitive 
 worship. 1 
 
 Texcatzoncatl was god of wine. This Aztec Dionysus had 
 companion deities, who as a class bore the remarkable name of 
 " the four hundred rabbits." This, taken in connection with 
 the fact that four hundred priests officiated in the temple of this 
 god, would point to a time when a family bearing the totemic 
 name of the rabbit had consecrated themselves to the worship 
 of an ancestor, and had gradually grown into a priestly caste, 
 maintaining the worship of their god among many other 
 rival deities. Upon the head of the image of this god was a 
 vessel for the reception of wine, which was ceremoniously 
 poured into it. 2 
 
 Ixtlilton was a god of physic, who cured sick children. He 
 was represented by a living man decorated with certain vest 
 ments. His temple was a temporary structure of painted boards, 
 in which were kept many jars containing a fluid like black 
 water, which was given the sick child to drink. This is a re 
 markable piece of imposture, which was only possible among 
 a people all of whose religious conceptions of a deity were 
 colored by anthropomorphism. Here we see a man assume 
 the functions of a deity, with a priesthood attached to his 
 service, whose blessing was supposed to impart curative power 
 to a useless decoction. The same god appears to have been 
 used for the detection of crime ; for when a feast was given to 
 him by a private person, he would come to the house of the 
 feast-giver with music, and preceded by the smoke of copal in 
 cense, and after feasting he would examine a jar containing the 
 black water above mentioned, and if a piece of straw, or a hair, 
 or any dirt was found therein, it was a sign that the giver of 
 the feast was a thief, or adulterer, or doer of some kind of evil, 
 and he was confronted with the charge accordingly. 3 This god 
 appears to be a personification of primitive sorcery surviving 
 in a higher civilization. 
 
 1 I Clavigero, 256; 3 Bancroft, 410. 2 3 Bancroft, 418. 
 
 3 i Clavigero, 257 ; 3 Bancroft, 409-10. 
 
100 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Tlazolteotl was the goddess of sensual pleasure. The Mexi 
 cans invoked her to free them from the disgrace following the 
 exposure of illicit love. Her principal devotees were lustful 
 men and courtesans. She does not, however, bear the wholly 
 depraved character of her votaries, for the Mexicans never 
 attributed to their gods those shameful irregularities which the 
 Greeks and Romans imputed to theirs. 1 She had no very 
 prominent place in the minds of the people. Her mythical 
 home was in a pleasant plain, watered by innumerable foun 
 tains, where she passed her time in the midst of delights 
 and ministered to by a host of inferior deities. No man was 
 able to approach her, but she had in her service a crowd of 
 dwarfs, buffoons, and hunchbacks, who diverted her with their 
 songs and dances and acted as messengers to such gods as 
 she fancied. So beautiful was she, no woman in the world 
 could equal her. The garden of her palace was filled with 
 flowers, the touch of any one of which would make one love 
 to the end and love faithfully. She would not allow that any 
 man could resist her temptations. Yappan, the Simeon Sty- 
 lites of the New World, retired to a great stone in the desert, 
 and there dedicated his life to penitential acts. No spot could 
 be found in the austere, continent life of the anchorite, and 
 the many women sent by the gods to tempt him to pleas 
 ure were repulsed and baffled. The chaste victories of the 
 lonely saint were applauded in the upper world, and he was 
 about to be transformed into the higher life. Then it was that 
 Tlazolteotl felt herself slighted, and, wrathful, contemptuous, 
 rose in her evil beauty and descended to earth. That day her 
 singing dwarfs were silent, her messengers undisturbed by her 
 behests, and away into the desert she sped, fairer than eye can 
 conceive, and advancing toward the lean, penance-withered 
 man on his sacred height, her sweet voice sent a thrill through 
 his mortified flesh. " She had come to comfort him," she said, 
 and down from the rock he came, and helped the goddess 
 
 1 i Clavigero, 257. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 101 
 
 ascend, and, alas! in a cloud of shame the chaste light of Yap- 
 pan went out forever. Tlazolteotl, flushed with victory, left the 
 poor recluse humbled on his deserted rock, all his nights and 
 days of fasting gone for naught. He was transformed into a 
 scorpion, and crawls in and out from under the stone on which 
 he had his abode. 1 
 
 Xipe was the god of the goldsmiths. Those who neglected 
 his worship would be afflicted with sores and itch. He appears 
 to have had his origin in Jalisco, and was especially honored 
 on the sea-shore. His image was of the human form. Human 
 sacrifices disgraced his altars. Those who stole gold^r jewels 
 were always offered, and often prisoners of war were sacrificed 
 to him. The hearts of the victims were placed in the mouth 
 of the idol with a golden spoon. Napatuctli was god of the 
 mat-makers and workers in water-flags and rushes. His idol 
 wore a black and white skirt adorned with little sea-shells. He 
 was a beneficent deity, and was known as " he that was large 
 and liberal." His image was that of a man. He had two tem 
 ples in Mexico. 2 
 
 Omacate was the god of mirth. His image, which was that 
 of a man, was brought to, and presided at, the banquets. If this 
 was neglected, this god would mix hairs with the food of the 
 guests, and this was a great disgrace. 3 
 
 Mexitli, often called Huitzilopochtli, was god of war and the 
 principal deity of the city of Mexico. He was immaculately 
 conceived by a woman called Coatlicue, and born with a shield 
 in his hand and a crest of feathers on his head. Coatlicue was 
 a very pious woman, and spent much of her time in the temple. 
 One day when walking in the temple she beheld descending 
 in the air a ball made of feathers, which she seized and kept in 
 her bosom. The ball disappeared, and Mexitli was the result. 
 Mexitli s first act was to kill his brothers and sister, who had 
 conspired to destroy their mother on account of her supposed 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 377-79. 2 I Clavigero, 257 ; 3 Bancroft, 417. 
 
 3 I Clavigero, 258 ; 3 Bancroft, 408. 
 
102 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 fall from virtue. His early life inspired mankind with terror. 
 He became the leader of his people, conducted them for many 
 years in their great migration, and settled them finally where 
 the great city of Mexico was buUt. He was the founder of 
 that city, in which was built for his worship the superb temple 
 so admired by the Spaniards. 1 Like all primitive heroes, he 
 was supposed to be gifted with miraculous power, and his birth 
 and death were surrounded with mystery. An incarnation 
 accounted for his birth, and an apotheosis rewarded his life. 
 Pinailton, who was Mexitli s war-lieutenant, came in for a 
 share of worship, and was appealed to on all sudden occasions 
 when the delay of formality kept them from the presence of 
 Mexitli. Coatlicue, his mother, was goddess of flowers and 
 patron saint of the flower-dealers, who were numerous in Mex 
 ico. She had a festival in the spring, when the flower-dealers 
 presented her with beautiful braids of flowers. 2 
 
 Toci was goddess of medicinal herbs. She was called " our 
 ancestor," or " grandmother." At her religious ceremonies she 
 was represented by a woman, who was then sacrificed to her. 
 This representative was treated with all the reverence due a 
 goddess. 3 
 
 The goddess Xilonen seems to be connected with agricul 
 ture and the vegetable world, as well as Centeotl and Toci. 
 She is represented by a woman who was to be offered to her 
 in sacrifice during her religious ceremonies. A peculiarity 
 connected with the human sacrifice in the case of these 
 agricultural gods appears to be the flaying of the victim, 
 whose skin is torn off and worn by the priests for a time. It 
 would appear to represent the tearing off of the husk or out 
 side covering of the corn and other vegetable substances used 
 by the people. 
 
 The goddess Chalchihuitlicue had power over the waters of 
 the sea and rivers, to drown those who went down to them. 
 She raised tempests and caused boats to founder. In her left 
 
 1 I Clavigero, 254-55. 2 I ib., 257. 3 3 Bancroft, 356-58. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 103 
 
 hand she held the leaf of the white water-lily; in her right a 
 boat in the shape of a cross. In her honor were celebrated the 
 ceremonies of the lustration of children. Two of these bap 
 tisms were practised on every infant, one immediately after 
 birth, when prayer was offered to this goddess of waters to 
 purge the infant of the vices inherited from its father and 
 mother. "All spot and defilement let the water carry away," said 
 the celebrant of this ceremony, who then immersed the child. 
 The second baptism took place about five days thereafter, at 
 some time considered propitious by the diviner. The cere 
 mony in its formal part was nearly similar to the first, but it 
 had more of a spiritual significance. The first was a practical 
 act, where washing the body of the newly-born babe was an 
 essential feature. The second was more of a typical cleansing 
 of the spirit and a dedication to the goddess of water. The 
 last baptism was not an immersion. It was accompanied with 
 the ceremony of naming the child. 
 
 Tlaloc was the god of rain and the fertilizer of the earth. He 
 resided where the clouds gather on the highest mountain-tops. 
 He had many attendant deities passing under the same name. 
 He had only one eye. They prayed and sacrificed to him for 
 rain. He received a very large share of the ceremonial worship 
 of the Mexicans. Xinhtecutli was the god of fire. Upon the 
 back of the image of this god was a dragon s head. This form 
 of representation of the gods is familiar to us in the art of 
 Nicaragua and other neighboring regions. Human sacrifices 
 and an elaborate ceremonial worship were given this god. 
 Teoyaomique was a goddess who collected the souls of those 
 who died in war. She was represented in an image as hold 
 ing her head in her hands, while two snakes issued from the 
 neck where the head should have been. 1 Jacateuctli was god 
 of merchants. He was represented as a man walking with a 
 staff. The Mexicans also had a god of the tennis-court, as 
 Herrera calls it, or a patron deity of the ball-play. His priest 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 400. 
 
104 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 blessed the ball-ground before the game began. The winner 
 of the game sacrificed to this god. 1 
 
 In Michoacan the goddess Xaratanga occupied the first place 
 in the affections of the Terascos, although she transformed 
 their princes into snakes because they appeared drunk at her 
 festivals. Her name is associated with the downfall of the 
 native dynasty. She was evidently a historic character. She 
 assumed at last a secondary place, because Curicaneri was ex 
 alted over her by the Chichemec rulers of the country. Mano- 
 vapa, the son of Xaratanga, was worshipped, as was also 
 Teras, from whom the Terascos took their name and were 
 descended. Surites, a high-priest who preached morality and 
 was considered an inspired prophet, also had a share of their 
 worship. 2 
 
 The Chiapenec pantheon had twenty gods, all of whom were 
 heroes, ancestors, or first rulers of the people inhabiting 
 Chiapas. Imox appears to have been the first settler of this 
 country, and was worshipped. Costahuntox was another of 
 their gods, who is represented with ram s horns on his head. 
 Chi max was a great military leader, and, although captured 
 and burned by enemies, he was apotheosized. Been appears to 
 have been god of travellers. Among the other gods, Igh, Chanan, 
 Yabalan, Tox, Moxic, Lambat, Molo, Elab, Evob, Hix, Chabin, 
 Chic, Cahoh, and Aghul appear to have had little related of 
 them, but were human beings elevated to the position of deities. 
 
 Votan is a mythical character who appears to have been one 
 of the earliest culture-heroes of the Mayas of Yucatan ; but 
 some authorities make him the descendant of Imox. He de 
 scribes himself in his book on the origin of the race as being 
 a snake. Votan founded the great city of Palenque, the 
 metropolis of a mighty kingdom, and one of the cradles of 
 American civilization. It is a curious fact that a tribe of 
 natives called the Snakes was found near Palenque and in the 
 neighborhood where Votan s life was spent. The name of 
 
 1 2 Herrera, 341. 2 3 Bancroft, 445-46. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 105 
 
 Snake, which he has given himself, was undoubtedly his 
 totemic or family name. Votan was apotheosized. Ah-Hulneb, 
 named the chief archer on account of his exploits before death, 
 received after death divine honors in the island of Cozumel, 
 whither he had probably carried the Maya civilization. After 
 his death his tomb became an object of veneration, and a temple 
 was built on his royal sepulchre. The island was named after 
 his successor, who also had a sumptuous temple there, in 
 which he was represented in the form of a swallow. Within 
 the temple of Ah-Hulneb a gigantic terra-cotta statue of him 
 was placed, where he appeared dressed as a warrior and hold 
 ing an arrow in his hand. This statue was hollow, and placed 
 close to the wall, so that a priest could speak through it. So 
 famous did this oracle become, and so great was the multitude 
 of pilgrims flocking thither, that it was found necessary to 
 construct roads to it from all the chief cities of Yucatan, 
 Tabasco, and Guatemala. Zacal-Bacab, Caual-Bacab, Chacal- 
 Bacab, and Ekel-Bacab were gods of the air, and were an 
 thropomorphic. 1 The deities of the Mayas of Yucatan, says 
 Lizana, were their good kings, whom gratitude or fear had 
 made them place among the gods. Hunabku, who was the 
 father of Zamna, their great culture-hero, appears to stand at 
 the head of the Maya pantheon in point of time, and his spouse, 
 Ixazalvoh, who was the inventor of weaving, was also apo 
 theosized. The principal god or culture-hero of the Mayas 
 of Yucatan was Zamna, who was an early lawgiver and civil- 
 izer. He invented the Maya hieroglyphic art. He was founder 
 of the royal house. He died at an advanced age, and was buried 
 at Izamal, where a sacred temple was erected in his honor. It 
 was a favorite shrine for Yucatec pilgrims, especially those who 
 were diseased. Prayer and presents offered to Zamna were sup 
 posed to bring cures. He was said to have raised the dead. 2 
 
 Of all the apotheosized heroes of Yucatan, Kinich Kakmo 
 was the most remarkable. Son of the sun, he dedicated to 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 466. 2 5 ib., 618 ; 3 ib., 464. 
 
106 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 that luminary a magnificent temple in the village of Izamal. 
 He became personified in the sun. 1 
 
 Pizlimtec, an ancient priest, was deified under the name of 
 Ahkin-Xooc. Ahkin means magician. He undoubtedly at 
 tained his distinction through the practice of sorcery. He was 
 also god of poetry and music. 2 
 
 Izona, who appears [to have been called the father of men, 
 and was probably an early historical character, was an object 
 of their worship. He had a son Bacab, who attained divine 
 honors. He was divinely begotten; for, according to the 
 traditions, he was born of a virgin Chibirias, who was the 
 daughter of Ixchel, the Yucatec medicine-goddess. 3 Echua 
 was the patron god of merchants and travellers. To him 
 travellers erected every night an altar and burned incense 
 thereon. 4 Cuculcan, the founder of Mayapan, has been con 
 sidered identical with Quetzalcoatl. Although this identity 
 has not been established, yet there is some probability of it. 
 Many of the followers of Cuculcan were deified, two of whom 
 became gods of fishes, two of farms, and one of thunder. 
 They wore full beards, says the account of them, showing 
 their anthropomorphic character. 5 Chilam Cambal was their 
 god of strength, says Ayeta; Citboluntum was god of health, 
 and Xuchitun of song. There can be no doubt that all of these 
 gods of the Mayas were deified men. All their kings and 
 heroes, for whom they had gratitude or fear, were apotheo 
 sized. 6 
 
 Another Maya divinity, by the name of Hunpictoc, had a 
 temple toward the southwest from Izamal. This name was 
 the title of one of the chiefs of the nobility, to whom were con 
 fided the safety of the king and the security of the temples. 
 This was the most respectable position under the prince, and 
 his eminent services were probably rewarded with an apotheosis. 7 
 
 1 2 Brasseur, Hist. Mex., 5. 2 2 ih., u. 33 Bancroft, 462. 
 
 4 Gogol lu do, bk. 10, ch. 8. 23 Bancroft, 465. 
 
 6 Cogulludo, 198. 7 2 Brasseur, 47. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 
 
 107 
 
 His name signifies " commander of eight thousand lances." 
 Yucemil was god of death. Food was sacrificed to him. If 
 he became hungry, human beings were his victims. Baklun 
 Cham was the Maya Priapus, and was worshipped in a magnifi 
 cent temple at Merida. Chac was god of agriculture. Abchuy- 
 Kak was another apotheosized warrior. He became god of war, 
 and his statue was borne in the van of the army by four of the 
 most illustrious captains, and received an ovation all along the 
 route. Yxchebelyax was god of painting and writing. 1 Xibalba 
 was the god of evil, or the devil of their religion. Ayeta gives 
 the name of Multimtizec to this god, and the change of this 
 name to Xibalba was probably brought about by their hostile 
 connection with the rising Xibalban empire, hereafter noticed. 
 Most of the Maya gods have evidently gained their celebrity as 
 historical characters. Very little is told of most of them, but 
 their anthropomorphic character is unquestionable. 
 
 The Mijes, a Maya nation, surrounded the birth and death of 
 their hero Condoy with the mystery preceding an apotheosis. 
 A prince of indomitable courage, undertaking great conquests, 
 he was defeated, and, with his followers, driven into the moun 
 tain-range of Cempoaltipec. He and his followers were hunted 
 down like the beasts of the forests, and would fain have hidden 
 themselves in the dens of animals. Condoy, in their traditions, 
 had no father or mother, and disappeared as mysteriously as he 
 came. 2 They cherished his memory, and thought he had been 
 translated among the gods. 
 
 The deities of the Quiches of Guatemala were apotheosized 
 men. Hun Hun Ahpu and Vukab Hunahpu are historical 
 characters who figure extensively in Quiche traditions. These 
 two culture-heroes appear to have gotten into difficulty with 
 the princes of Xibalba, and were beheaded. This tradition 
 shows their anthropomorphic character. The head of Hun 
 Hun Ahpu was placed between the withered branches of a 
 calabash-tree, whereupon the tree became immediately laden 
 
 3 Bancroft, 466-67. 2 3 Brasseur, 48-49. 
 
IOS PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 with fruit, and the head turned into a calabash. The tree was 
 thenceforth held sacred, and it was sacrilege to touch it. A 
 princess, however, disobeys the injunction, becomes pregnant, 
 and brings forth two sons, named Xbalanque and Hun Ahpu, 1 
 who after many adventures overthrow the Xibalban princes, 
 and apotheosize Hun Him Ahpu, whom they recognize as their 
 father by the mystery of an incarnation. Zipacna and Cabraken 
 were Herculean princes of the royal house of Xibalba at the 
 time of the struggle that ensued, and for their heroism had 
 godlike honors in their mythology. The primitive condition 
 of this early Xibalban monarchy is shown in the traditions. 
 Vucub Cakix, the monarch, was shot by Hun Ahpu and 
 Xbalanque while eating fruit in a tree-top. Zipacna, his son, 
 who carried mountains on his shoulders, had to be destroyed 
 by craft. He lived on crabs. Hun Ahpu and Xbalanque made 
 an artificial crab, which he followed into the cave of a moun 
 tain which had been previously mined by them. The moun 
 tain fell on him and crushed him. Thus ended the Hercules 
 of their mythology. Cabraken was poisoned, and, when the 
 strength had gone out of him, tied and buried alive. 2 Thus 
 ended the dynasty of Vucub Cakix. Monarchs that climbed 
 trees, and princes that crawled on the earth after crabs, were sup 
 planted by Hun Ahpu and Xbalanque, the young agriculturists, 
 whose enchanted tools worked of themselves while they were 
 away on the mountain-side hunting deer. The dawn of agri 
 culture had begun before the hunting life had closed. While 
 the Quiche-Cakchichel empire was in process of formation, a 
 great rivalry arose, as should be expected, between the gods 
 of the respective branches. The great ancestors of the Quiche 
 branch appear to have been rejected by a portion of the nation, 
 who favored the introduction of the new gods Tohil Avilixand 
 Hacavitz. Tohil appears to have been the creator of fire, and 
 probably represented an era of progress. As a condition of 
 granting the privilege of this great discovery to others, he in- 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 479-80. 2 5 ib., 172-73. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 109 
 
 sists upon an agreement to worship him. Tohil appears in 
 therr early history as the leader of a great migration. His fol 
 lowers on their way are much annoyed, according to tradition, 
 by the attacks of wild animals, meaning undoubtedly wild 
 tribes inhabiting the regions through which they passed. 
 Balam Quitze, who appears to have been high-priest of the 
 migrating tribe, and his companions, brought these wild beasts 
 and offered them before Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz. This 
 introduction of human sacrifice enraged the tribes of the in 
 vaded country. At last great hostility to Balam Quitze and 
 his companions was aroused in the mountain-tribes, who found 
 it hard, however, to track the invaders on the fog-enveloped 
 summits of the Guatemalan heights. The followers of Balam 
 Quitze found it equally difficult to overcome the tribes that 
 were arrayed in hostility against them. It was at last agreed 
 to submit the new gods, Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz, to an 
 ordeal, and if they proved to be the great and worthy gods they 
 were represented, then there would be a submission to them. 
 A strange plot was entered into to test their virtue, for two 
 beautiful virgins were sent to wash linen in the stream where 
 Tohil, Avilix, and Hacavitz were bathing in the form of young 
 men. They were subjected to the great temptation, but they 
 maintained their godlike dignity and virtue. They were the 
 representatives of a higher morality and a progressive civiliza 
 tion. At last the great priest Balam Quitze prepared to die, 
 after all the tribes were subjected and the Quiche empire es 
 tablished. He had been a faithful priest and leader. The tra 
 ditions say that he disappeared suddenly and mysteriously. 1 
 
 Tohil, the principal god of the Quiches of Guatemala, ap 
 pears to have been the discoverer of fire. This fire he produced 
 by stamping with his sandal. Tohil was a great leader of the 
 people at a period in their history when under him they went 
 forth from their native land. They endured much hardship. 
 A sea, however, parted for their passage, and water miraculously 
 
 1 5 Bancroft, 548-52. 
 
HO PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 favored them in their migrations, as it has done in the traditions 
 of almost all other peoples. It does not require much investi 
 gation to detect apotheosized men in the Quiche gods Tohil, 
 Avilix, and Hacavitz. They were ancestral gods who were 
 once men, and from whom the Quiches claim to have sprung. 
 Other gods of Guatemala are Xchmel, Xtmana, and Gucumatz, 
 who is identical probably with Quetzalcoatl, who, it will be re 
 membered, when exiled sought refuge among other peoples. 
 
 The CJialialka were Guatemalan household gods, who pre 
 sided over houses. When they built a house they dedicated 
 the central part to these gods, and kept a place of sacrifice to 
 them. They prayed to them that good fortune should favor 
 the house. 1 They are identical with the spirits of their dead 
 relatives, 2 and a survival of house-burial. Incense was burned 
 and sacrifices made to these ancestral deities. 
 
 Pezelao appears to have been the principal god of the Za- 
 potecs. He was their god of the dead and lord of the sacred 
 places of Yopaa. 3 
 
 The spiritual pontiff of Yopaa was looked upon as a god by 
 the Zapotecs, whom the earth was unworthy to hold, or the sun 
 to shine upon. No one dared look upon him, but all fell with 
 their faces to the ground. The most powerful lords never 
 entered his presence without bare feet. 4 Pitao Peeci, another 
 of their gods, presided over auguries and divination, 5 and was 
 undoubtedly an ancient high-priest. Pitao Pecala inspired their 
 dreams. Cociyo was the rain god, and gave or withheld the 
 showers as he pleased. 6 Wichaana was god of fish, and was 
 thought to be their creator. The earliest ancestor remembered 
 by a people is usually elevated to this position. Piltzinteolli, 
 the child-god, a representation of whose youthful form was 
 reared in several places in Jalisco, had offerings of the choicest 
 fruit and flowers. 7 In Oajaca, as might be expected of a people 
 
 1 Ximenez, 188. 3 3 Bancroft, 481. 
 
 3 3 Brasseur, 26. 4 2 Bancroft, 142-43. 
 
 s 2 ib., 27. 2ib.,27. 
 7 3 ib., 444-47- 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. in 
 
 who regarded living kings and priests with adoration, apothe 
 osis was common. Petela, an ancient Zapotec cacique, was 
 worshipped in the cavern of Coatlan. At one end of this 
 subterranean temple a yawning abyss received the foaming 
 waters of a mountain-torrent, and into this were thrown 
 human sacrifices, gayly dressed and adorned with flowers. 
 Pinopia, a saintly princess of Zapotecapan, was worshipped in 
 another place. Her corpse had been miraculously conveyed 
 to heaven. 1 Wixepecocha, a reformer and prophet of the 
 Zapotecs, was worshipped. A statue of this god was found 
 near Tehuantepec. 2 
 
 The principal goddess of the natives of the province of Cer- 
 quin, in Honduras, was Comizagual,a woman who came among 
 them from other parts, according to tradition. She was skilled 
 in the art of magic, and came into their province flying through 
 the air. She had three sons without being married, and, ac 
 cording to the usual traditions in such cases, without knowing 
 man. After ruling with equity, she was translated in the fol 
 lowing manner : she ordered her bed brought out of the house, 
 when there came a great flash of lightning with thunder, and 
 Comizagual was never seen more. 3 
 
 Oviedo says the Nicaraguans knew nothing of the " One 
 Creator." The anthropomorphic character of their creators is 
 evident from what Oviedo tells us of Tamagostad and Zipal- 
 tonal. These Nicaraguan creators were a man and woman, 
 from whom the Indians claimed descent. They asserted, with 
 the greatest assurance, that their ancestors were the greatest 
 gods. In their description of them they gave them the same 
 color as the Indians, and said they ate the same things. 4 Since 
 they were themselves anthropophagi, they said their gods 
 delighted in human flesh. 5 
 
 Nezahualcoyotl, king of Acolhuacan, in popular belief was 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 457. 2 4 ib., 372. 
 
 3 4 Herrera, 137. * Oviedo, 19-26. 
 
 s Ib., 61. 
 
112 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 placed among the gods, even though he died after the Spanish 
 inroad ; but the age of apotheosis was about closing. 
 
 The most prominent personage in the Isthmian pantheon 
 was Dabaiba. She is described as a native princess whose 
 reign was marked by great wisdom and many miracles, and 
 who was apotheosized after her death. She was said to control 
 the thunder and lightning, and to bring showers or produce 
 drought as she pleased. 1 
 
 Xolotl was the leader of the first Chichemec invasion. 2 He 
 was deified. Wanacace was another of their gods, and an 
 cestor of the branch of the Chichemecs called Wanacaces. 
 Hereti was also one of their primitive heroes, who became a 
 patron saint. 3 
 
 The worship of great national gods did not supplant the 
 worship of family gods, but supplemented it, as in the case of 
 the classical nations of antiquity. Thus often we find the hus 
 band worshipping his family god and the wife hers. Thus, 
 Iri Ticatame, in departing from his capital, took his god Curi- 
 caneri with him, while his wife took her god Nasoricuare 
 wrapped up in a rich cloth. 4 She was no more willing to 
 desert her family god than was Rachel to leave behind her the 
 idols of her father Laban. 
 
 Bochica was the leading mythical character in Bogota. He 
 had the fabulous age of two thousand years ascribed to him, 
 and this time was all employed in elevating his subjects. The 
 Chibchas apotheosized Bochica as the founder of their laws and 
 institutions. Bochica lives in the sun, and has the privilege of 
 standing at the head of their pantheon. His wife Chia was 
 deified with him, and occupies the moon. The powerful Toma- 
 gata, one of their oldest caciques, was deified. 5 Another of 
 their deities was Bachue, a beautiful female, from whom they 
 descended. She after a period of time disappeared by meta 
 morphosis ; but statues of gold and wood are still to be seen 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 498. 2 Ixtliltxochitl, ire partie, 29. 
 
 3 3 Brasseur, 80. * 5 Bancroft, 512. 
 
 s Bollaert, 48. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 113 
 
 representing her. Their patron deity was Chibchacum, although 
 his power was not so great as that of Bochica. Chibchacum 
 in an angry mood brought a deluge on the people of the table 
 land. Bochica punished him severely for this act, and obliged 
 him thenceforth to bear the burden of the earth. He was the 
 Atlas of the New World. He had not arisen above subjection 
 to fatigue, for he occasionally shifted the earth from one shoulder 
 to another, and he sometimes did this so carelessly that severe 
 earthquakes were produced. Neucatocoa was the god of revelry 
 and drunkenness, and was the Bacchus of the Chibchas. He 
 appears to be the only one not bearing a strictly anthropomor 
 phic character. He is represented as a bear covered with a 
 mantle. Sorro was the god who had charge of the boundaries 
 of their fields. 1 
 
 Gacheta is a famous virgin who conceived and brought forth 
 Garanchaca, a famous chief who ruled over them. She de 
 clared the sun to be the father of her boy. This is another 
 case of immaculate conception. 
 
 Xue, a great benefactor of his people, has received a place 
 in their pantheon. He appears to have been a great preacher 
 to whom large concourses of people repaired for instruction. 
 He also taught them to spin and weave. 2 
 
 The Muyscas of Bogota had a god named Queteba, who 
 fashioned the surface of the earth as it now is. With a single 
 blow he opened a cliff in the Andes, through which flows the 
 river Funha. 3 
 
 The historical deities were those which initiated men into 
 social life and were founders of civil or religious institutions. 
 Although the worship of spirits which was so prevalent among 
 all the uncivilized tribes still survived among the more civilized 
 nations, yet the worship of culture-heroes was peculiarly dis 
 tinctive of the latter. The chief of these deified men in the 
 Peruvian history was Viracocha, who more than once appeared 
 in human form to the Inca of the same name, saying he was the 
 
 1 Bollaert, 12-13. 2 Ib- 21-22. 3 Brinton s Relig. Sent., 240. 
 
PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 brother of Manco Capac. The Inca ordered a magnificent tem 
 ple to be constructed to this apparition. In the temple stood a 
 statue of the deity as he appeared to the Inca, in which he was 
 represented as a man with a beard. Viracocha was of large 
 stature, and his power so great that he brought down the moun 
 tains, raised the valleys, and made water spring from the rocks. 
 He taught the people to love one another. They formed idols in 
 his likeness and reared temples to his glory. He passed toward 
 the north, but their legends appear to confirm his reappearance 
 some time after on a different mission. He now healed the sick 
 and gave sight to the blind, but after having been subjected to 
 persecution he went to the sea-shore and spread his mantle 
 upon its waves, went away, and has never been seen since. 1 
 
 Another culture-hero is Ayarache, who founded Pacaritambo. 
 He was so strong he could throw down the hills. He appears 
 to have used a sling. Ayarache was at last enticed into a cave 
 by his two brothers, who immediately stopped up the mouth 
 of it with stones. In his efforts to get out, many mountains 
 and high hills fell down upon him, and thus ended Ayarache. 2 
 His two brothers, Aranca and Ayarmango, erected the town 
 of Tamboquiro, and appear to have been sorcerers. Although 
 they had dealt so treacherously with their brother, they pre 
 tended to commune with him and obey his directions, given 
 from time to time. Aranca was at last turned into a stone, but 
 Ayarmango founded the city of Cuzco, and was known there 
 after as Manco Capac. 3 He deified his two brothers. 4 
 
 All the Incas after death enjoyed deification, and their apothe 
 osis began in life. The Peruvians also adored heroes in some 
 of the provinces, which worship prevailed before the conquest 
 of the Incas. In the ancient town of Huahualla they sacrificed 
 to the mummies of Caxaparca and his son Huaratanga, both 
 dressed in the garb of warriors. 5 In Quichumarca they wor 
 shipped Huari and his two brothers. Apuyurac was wor- 
 
 4 Herrera, 285. 2 4 ib., 286. 3 4 ib., 287-89. 4 ib., 290. 
 
 s Rivero and Tschudi, Ant., 163-66. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 115 
 
 shipped in the town of Hupa, and also his son in the town of 
 Tamor. The race of Sopac worshipped Apri-Xillin and his 
 son Huayna. In the valley of Janja, Huarivilca was worshipped, 
 and a sumptuous temple constructed to him. The family deities 
 were generally the entire bodies of their ancestors, so arranged 
 in the tombs that they could see them and offer them sacrifices. 1 
 The natives of Quito adored Pacha and Eacha, who were gods, 
 but had formerly been heroes. 2 
 
 This cursory examination of the pantheons of the more civ 
 ilized nations has been made for the purpose of showing that 
 their gods were historical characters and their worship was the 
 worship of human spirits. 
 
 I will now notice the worship of idols, as it is closely con 
 nected with the subject of the worship of human spirits. Idolatry 
 in its lowest form, and its development under higher conditions 
 of civilization, can be advantageously studied among the native 
 races of America. Conspicuous by its absence among many 
 of the lower tribes, image-worship comes plainly into view 
 among those in the upper levels of savagery. The Mandans 
 howled and whined and made their prayers before puppets of 
 grass and skins. The Virginians had idols with temples set 
 apart for them, and a priesthood. To supply the demand of 
 the natives of the West India Islands for idols, one island near 
 Hayti had a population of idol-makers. In Mexico, idolatry 
 attained its full development. In the higher culture of Peru, 
 the idols of conquered provinces were carried, half trophies, 
 half hostages, to Cuzco, to rank among the inferior deities of 
 the Peruvian pantheon, while the nobility of the empire were ad 
 vancing one step-higher to the worship of the heavenly bodies. 3 
 
 Mr. Spencer thinks the savage may have been prepared to 
 suspect animation in inanimate things by discovering plants 
 and animals embedded in rock. I am persuaded that idolatry 
 owes its origin to the belief that disembodied spirits are every 
 where present, ready to transmigrate into inanimate objects, 
 
 1 Rivero and Tschudi, Ant., 169-70. 2 Bollaert, 84. 3 2 Tylor, 172-73. 
 
Il6 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 and that they will enter readily any image that bears any re 
 semblance to the body formerly inhabited by that spirit, or 
 any image containing any fragment of that former body. The 
 more civilized races made images of persons while living, or 
 soon after death, and into these were put their ashes or some 
 part of their body after death. This they thought insured the 
 presence of the spirit in that idol, and the priests strengthened 
 the credulity of the people by speaking through these images 
 in such a way as to deceive them into the belief that the images 
 spoke. 
 
 Among the more primitive peoples a rude idolatry appears. 
 When a child dies among the Ojibways they cut some of its 
 hair and make a little doll, which they call the doll of sorrow. 
 This lifeless object takes the place of the deceased child. This 
 the mother carries for a year. She places it near her at the 
 fire, and sighs often when gazing on it. She carries it wher 
 ever she goes. They think that the child s spirit has entered 
 this bundle and can be helped by its mother. Presents and 
 sacrificial gifts are made to it. Toys and useful implements 
 are tied to the doll for its use. 1 
 
 La Poterie mentions the same custom among the savages of 
 the Canadas. This is the most primitive form of idolatry. 
 
 Among the Northwestern tribes, says McKenny, " I have 
 noticed several women here carrying with them rolls of cloth 
 ing. On inquiring what these imported, I learn that they are 
 widows, who carry these bundles when their husbands die. 
 This bundle is called her husband, and she must never be seen 
 without it. If she walks out, she takes it with her. If she 
 sits down, she places it by her side. This badge of widow 
 hood she is compelled to carry until some of her husband s 
 family takes it away." 2 When presents are given round, this 
 bundle, or " husband," comes in for an equal share, as if living. 3 
 A mother, on losing her child, prepares an image of it and 
 fixes it in a cradle, and goes through the ceremony of nursing 
 
 Kohl s Kitchi-Gami, 108. 2 McKenny s Tour, 292. 3 Ib., 293. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 117 
 
 it for a year. 1 The Knistenaux, who killed their parents when 
 old, always made a bunch of feathers tied with a string into a 
 doll-shaped image of them, and treated it with superstitious 
 reverence. 2 
 
 The next step is to make images out of wood or roughly- 
 hewn stones which require but little alteration to make them 
 into the representation desired. A good many of the tribes of 
 British America and the Northern United States made these 
 rough idols and worshipped them. 
 
 Among many tribes whose art is still in a rude state, a grave- 
 post is roughly hewn into the image of the person over whose 
 body it is placed. Mr. McCoy says, " Among the Ottawas we 
 often discovered at the heads of their graves a post somewhat 
 proportioned to the size of the deceased. When any one visited 
 the grave, they rapped on the post with a stick to announce 
 their arrival to the spirit. On the upper end of this post was 
 cut a slight resemblance of the human face." The Indians not 
 far from Quebec, while the Jesuit priests were among them, 
 whenever any one died, cut his portrait and put it on the grave, 
 " anointing and greasing that man of wood as if living," says 
 Father Lalamant. Among the Algonkins a post was generally 
 placed on the graves of the dead and their portraits carved 
 thereon. 3 The Alaskans ornamented all their graves with 
 carved and painted faces. 4 This rude form of preserving images 
 of the dead represents a primitive form of idolatry, and con 
 nects it with the worship of the dead. 
 
 " Outside of the Indian graves of the Northwest are fre 
 quently found the images of those buried," says Mr. Brown, 
 who found three figures carved out of wood placed outside a 
 grave. One of the figures represented a man who had a rifle 
 over his knee ready to guard the bodies from desecration. The 
 figure of a woman was postured as if knitting a mat. 5 
 
 1 McKenny s Tour, 293-94. 2 Brinton, 275. 
 
 3 2 Charlevoix, Journal, 185. 4 Whymper, 101. 
 
 5 i Brown s Races, 109. 
 
PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 FIG. 4. 
 
 The natives of Chile decorate the graves of their chiefs with 
 figures representing the chief and his wives placed around the 
 grave. Each figure is cut from a huge log 
 of wood ten or twelve feet high. These rude 
 figures are carved by professionals, who get 
 enormous prices for their work. Sometimes 
 as high a price as an ox is given for one of 
 these rude figures. No grandee is considered 
 buried unless his grave is decorated with these 
 figures. 1 
 
 In the West Indies the tombs had planks 
 over them, some of which bore the likeness 
 of the entombed person. 2 
 
 Fig. 4 illustrates the configuration of the 
 grave-post into the likeness of the deceased. 
 It is the headstone of a Nicaraguan grave. 3 
 
 Fig. 5 is an image of the son of an Alaskan chief placed over 
 the tomb. 
 
 Images of men and women were made 
 and placed near the bodies of those de 
 posited in the bone-houses or primitive tem 
 ples of the tribes of the Southern United 
 States. " Their temples had rows of statues 
 round about them on the four sides, and a 
 row of women opposite a row of men. 
 These statues were placed opposite the dead 
 bodies" which they were made to represent 
 in life/ 
 
 Among the Isthmians the image of a great 
 warrior was made at death and carried in 
 procession to the place of burial. 5 
 
 The same custom prevailed in Peru. The images of the 
 dead were made and set up in their tombs and worshipped. 
 
 1 2 Wood s Uncivilized Races, 567 ; Smith s Araucanians, 309. 
 
 2 I Herrera, 266. 3 Pim and German s Dottings, Plate. 
 * 3 Picart, 113. 23 ib., 176. 
 
 FIG. 5. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 119 
 
 All the Incas had this honor conferred on them, and their 
 images were carried in the funeral processions, and sacrifices 
 made to them. 1 Fig. 6 is an image of 
 one of the Incas, and was an object of 
 worship. 
 
 They also made statues of their chiefs 
 during their lives, and these statues, made 
 in the likeness of the chief, were served as 
 if they had been alive, and villages were 
 set apart to provide them with necessaries. 
 
 Among the Mayas, merchants who 
 died away from home, or warriors who 
 were killed in battle whose bodies could 
 
 not be found, were represented by images which were made of 
 them, and these images received all the funeral ceremonies 
 which their bodies would have received. If any one was 
 drowned and the body lost, they made an image of it, which 
 they treated in the same manner. To these images they made 
 offerings. 
 
 Among the Mayas of Yucatan images of all those who died 
 were made and worshipped. 2 They cut off the heads of their 
 lords and chief men when they died and kept them along with 
 their statues. They made wooden statues of their dead parents, 
 and left a hollow in the neck where they put in their ashes and 
 kept them among their idols. 3 
 
 Among those tribes where cremation has supplanted inter 
 ment, a statue of the deceased is made, to contain his ashes or 
 to be placed beside the vessel containing them. 
 
 The Mexicans preserved the ashes, hair, and teeth of the 
 dead and put them in little boxes, above which was placed a 
 wooden figure shaped and adorned like the deceased. 
 
 The Aztec monarchs were cremated, and their ashes, charred 
 bones, and hair gathered together in an urn, near which was 
 placed a statue of the monarch attired in his royal habiliments. 4 
 
 1 Jos. d Acosta, book 5, chap. 6. 2 2 Bancroft, 800. 
 
 3 5 Herrera, 175. 42 Bancroft* 61 1. 
 
120 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 The Tarascan kings were cremated and their ashes and 
 valuables made into a figure which was dressed in royal habili 
 ments, with a mask for its face. 1 
 
 The Scyris had in their tombs a hollow figure of the de 
 ceased, within which were placed stones of divers colors and 
 shapes, denoting the age and other biographical data of the 
 deceased. 2 These images were objects of worship. 
 
 The Mayas made hollow clay images, or hollow statues of 
 wood, in which they placed the ashes of the burned bodies of 
 their monarchs. They offered food to these images at their 
 festivals. Thus cremation led those peoples practising it to a 
 different form of idolatry than that of making and worshipping 
 grave-posts that were carved into the image of the deceased. 
 Cremation among the more civilized peoples led them to the 
 manufacture of hollow images of the dead, capable of holding 
 their ashes, or of urns to contain the ashes, near which stood 
 the image of the deceased. 
 
 Many of these sepulchral vases, made to hold the ashes of 
 the dead, had upon the outside of them a representation of the 
 deceased, and then they became the apparent objects of wor 
 ship. On Plate III. we find such a burial-vase of the Mexicans. 
 Among all the Nahua nations, offerings of choice viands, wine, 
 and flowers were placed before these caskets containing the 
 dead. 3 The Mayas erected temples over the urns containing 
 the ashes of the dead. 4 The Peruvians placed the ashes of 
 Viracocha in a small jar of gold, and offered sacrifices to it. 5 
 The Peruvian cavaliers of royal blood, Curacas,and other mag 
 nates, were deposited in large vases of gold and silver in the 
 form of urns, which were found in the meadows and woods. 6 
 They worshipped these specimens of pottery. 
 
 One of the most famous Huacas worshipped by several prov 
 inces in Peru was in the form of a large jar surrounded by 
 eight other jars. Near it were many small rabbits which had 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 621. 2 Bollaert, 88. 3 2 Bancroft, 618. * 5 Herrera, 175. 
 s Rivero and Tschudi, Per. Ant., Tr. Hawks, 166. 6 Ib., 200-1. 
 
PLATE III, 
 
 SEPULCHRAL URN, 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 1 21 
 
 been offered in sacrifice. 1 Many of their conopas, or family 
 gods, were such clay jars, hollow within. Twin children dying 
 at an early age were placed in earthen pots and worshipped 
 as sacred beings. Thus it will be seen that the worship of 
 these hollow clay images or jars is due, not to any special 
 reverence for the image itself, but because they were used as 
 burial-urns and contained the ashes or some portion of the 
 body of the deceased. This subject is well illustrated by Fig. 
 7, representing the burial-urn of a Brazilian chief. 2 
 
 FIG. 7. 
 
 It is very difficult to determine just how far we might go in 
 making the art of the American nations tributary to the elucida 
 tion of their religious history. It is probable that all primitive 
 art reflects the religious life of the people, even if religion did 
 not originate their art. The first form of art among the Ameri 
 can aborigines, exclusive of the manufacture of their rude im 
 plements, is undoubtedly seen in their ornamentation, which 
 was fetichistic, which will be treated under the head of feti- 
 
 1 Rivero and Tschudi, 168-69. 2 Denis, Bresil, 404. 
 
122 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 chism. The next progressive step was toward idolatry, which 
 was followed by elaboration of sepulchral structures culmi 
 nating in temples. " By a superstition indigenous to all lands, 
 people without records have left their annals in their graves. 
 In the belief that their wants and occupations would be the 
 same in the spirit-land as they were here, they had their house 
 hold and personal effects interred with them. We can scarcely 
 regret the prevalence of a delusion which has been the means 
 of making us acquainted with the arts and habits of peoples 
 of whom otherwise we could have known little." J 
 
 The pottery found in the tombs is a very large part of it 
 fashioned after some object of veneration. Very little of it is 
 perfectly plain and free from a quasi-idolatrous shape or picture 
 representing some man, animal, or mythological character. A 
 Peruvian vase is of special interest on account of the light it 
 reflects upon one of the modes by which Peruvians perpetuated 
 the features and characters of prominent men. It is a vase bust, 
 representing the head of the famous cacique Ruminhauy. The 
 features are strongly developed, and with indisputable traits of 
 an individual s portrait. These baked clay busts preceded 
 marble statuary in the Old World. Thus it will be seen what a 
 prominent feature of their religious history their art history be 
 comes. The worship of urns used in urn-burial has of course 
 resulted from the association of the urn with the person de 
 posited in it. The same is true of the idols which were made 
 to hold the ashes of the dead. The worship is not at first di 
 rected toward the material part of the urn or idol, or even the 
 representation it may have upon it of the deceased, but it is 
 directed toward the spirit supposed to reside there. In the case 
 of the conopas and other images, the theory of the entry of a 
 spirit into anything representing natural objects explains the 
 apparently unreasonable worship of material things. Many 
 mythical characters appear on their vases. 
 
 Gateways to towns were often of idolatrous forms. The 
 
 1 Evv bank s Brazil, Appendix. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 123 
 
 monolithic gateway of Tiahuanaco gives us a mythological 
 group of representations of condor, tiger, serpent, and sun, sur 
 rounding a central human figure, toward which winged human- 
 headed figures are kneeling. It was the custom of pagan nations 
 to adorn the gateways of cities and entrances to temples and 
 palaces with one or more figures of deities who were the pro 
 tecting genii of the place. A former monarch was often selected 
 for this responsible position. Frequently, however, one or more 
 persons were buried alive beneath the walls of the gateway, 
 that their spirits might be ever present to guard the place. 
 
 The belief in the vitality of idols can be illustrated by many 
 curious facts. The inhabitants of Lambayeque, Peru, said they 
 came from the north, bringing with them an idol of green stone 
 called Llanpallec, which represented their ancient chief. They 
 built a temple for this idol at a place called Chot. When they 
 attempted to remove this idol from its temple after many gene 
 rations, it became very much enraged and brought on them 
 drought and famine. It was somewhat appeased by their 
 throwing the chief who had committed this sacrilege into the 
 sea. 1 
 
 The belief of idolatrous nations in that vitality of images 
 which makes them capable of feelings of pain and pleasure, and 
 which endows them frequently with a capacity for speech and 
 motion, is due to the imposture of priests. The idols of pagan 
 nations which have temples and priests attached to them are 
 generally hollow and so placed that they can be spoken through 
 by priests or others attached to their temples. Thus originated 
 the belief in oracles. This imposture of priestcraft was very 
 prevalent among many of the American peoples. The Haytian 
 idols were hollow, and so large that the priests could speak 
 through them and delude the people, who thought the idol 
 spoke. 2 The priests would often get inside of these idols in 
 order to practise this imposition. This rendered it necessary 
 to make those large idols which were used in the temples of 
 
 1 Squier s Peru, 169. 2 McCulloh s Ant. Res., 108. 
 
124 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 the more civilized American races. Many of these were found 
 in Mexico and Yucatan and the West India islands. In the 
 island of Barbadoes an enormous clay idol was found, whose 
 head alone weighed sixty pounds. 1 
 
 The Virginia Indians had an idol in one of their temples 
 which the priest moved about before the people and made it 
 answer questions. They thought it was alive. 2 
 
 An idol mentioned by Martyr, which was found in the West 
 Indies and was made of wood, was thought by the natives to 
 go about by itself. It would hide itself in the woods, and they 
 would search a great while to find it, and bring it back. 3 
 
 Says Roman Pane, the natives of Hispaniola had many idols 
 which they thought spoke to them, and when food was placed 
 before them and left there, and the priests devoured it, the idols 
 were thought to have eaten it. He mentions many such cases 
 of imposture. " Guamorete, a man of note, had a cemi (idol) in 
 his house, which, when his house was burned by his enemies, 
 got up and went a bowshot from the place, near to a water. He 
 would come down from on top of the house where he was put. 
 He had two crowns grow on his head. Another cemi had four 
 feet like a dog s, and was made of wood. He would often at 
 night go out of the house into the woods, and when brought 
 home again and bound with cords, yet he would get away 
 into the woods again ; and when the Christians came he broke 
 away and went into a morass, where they tracked him, but never 
 saw him again. There was another one which they found in a 
 ditch. It was a log which appeared to have life in it. Taking 
 it out, they built a house to it. It went out of that house sev 
 eral times and returned to the place whence they brought it. At 
 another time they bound and put it in a sack, and yet it went 
 away as before." The same author says the Indians will often 
 see a log of wood, and through some hallucination will think 
 it directs them to make it into an idol, which they immediately 
 do. In the valley of Rimac, Peru, there was an idol in the 
 
 1 I Edvvards s West Indies, 51. a 3 Picart, 113. 3 Decades, 47. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 125 
 
 figure of a man, which answered questions and became famous 
 as an oracle. Thus idols were supposed to have all the sagacity 
 and passions of human beings. 
 
 The Tarascos in their migrations appear to have been led by 
 an idol, and their city Izintzuntzan was founded upon a spot 
 pointed out by a supposed auspicious omen, for a multitude of 
 gorgeous birds congregated in the air above their idol, and 
 formed a brilliant canopy for the sacred image. 1 
 
 Uxmal is said to have been destroyed through the anger of 
 their idols, who were outraged because a new clay god was 
 made by a usurper and worshipped by the people. 2 
 
 This supposed vitality of -idols was taught by the priesthood, 
 who by this means increased their influence and power. 
 
 In Hispaniola, the Spaniards found a conspiracy between the 
 cacique and priesthood to deceive the people. Hearing that a 
 certain idol spoke to the people, the Spaniards were present at 
 one of these performances, and they found that the statue was 
 hollow, with a hollow tube connecting with it, through which 
 the priest spoke to the people. The cacique begged the Span 
 iards not to disclose this to the Indians, because by that artifice 
 he kept them in subjection. 3 
 
 Among the tribes formerly inhabiting the territory of the 
 United States idolatry did not prevail to the same extent as 
 it did among the more civilized races. Many rude idols have 
 been found, however, which were objects of worship. On the 
 Saskatchewan were found four painted posts about five feet 
 high. The features of a man were roughly carved on each post 
 and smeared with patches of vermilion and green-colored paint 
 over the cheeks, nose, and eyebrows. These were the images 
 of the dead. "When decorated with fresh paint, feathers, strips 
 of leather, and a painted robe of elk, moose, or buffalo-skin, 
 these idols inspire the most superstitious awe among the savages, 
 who carve and ornament them ; but the awe of many becomes 
 terror when these images are illumined by fire at night." 4 
 
 1 5 Bancroft, 516. 2 5 ib., 633. 3 i Herrera, 160. 4 i Hind s Nar., 402. 
 
 9 
 
126 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 In the town of Franklin, Illinois, was found a very rough 
 figure of an idol. It was a stout stick of timber, hewn out so 
 as to resemble an Indian with four faces. 1 
 
 Among the Senecas an image was discovered in 1802, which 
 was made of wood and was nearly decayed to the ground. It had 
 the form of a man, and was whimsically painted and decorated 
 with skins. The rotten condition of this god occasioned much 
 agitation among the Indians. Some were for taking it into the 
 woods and leaving it there with plenty of provisions. They 
 reluctantly consented that it should be destroyed if he who 
 destroyed it should take upon himself the responsibility of any 
 harm that might threaten the nation in consequence. This 
 fearful idol was tumbled into the river by the Christians, while 
 the Indians gazed upon it with reverential awe as it floated 
 away. A curious illustration of the idolatrous superstition of 
 the natives of North Carolina is related by Mr. Haywood. To 
 encourage the young men to be industrious in planting their 
 maize and pulse, they annually placed a kind of idol in the 
 field dressed up exactly like an Indian. This image none of 
 the young men dared approach, because the old men would not 
 allow it. They told them that it was a former warrior who 
 had died many years ago, but had now come back to see if 
 they worked well. The old men sat around the image, paying 
 it the most profound respect and maintaining silence. 2 
 
 The Northwestern tribes had idols, before which their re 
 ligious ceremonies were performed. An idea prevailed that 
 while these rites were going on a spirit entered into the wooden 
 idol.3 
 
 Rude idols have been found among most of the tribes of the 
 Algonkin race. Fig. 8 is a rough idol of the Ojibways. Among 
 the nations of Oregon every house had its idols. 4 
 
 The New Mexican tribes made images of all of their dead 
 and worshipped them. 
 
 1 Boies De Kalb County, 463. 2 Haywood s Nat. and Ab. Hist. Ten., 229. 
 3 Dall s Alaska, 389. * Dunn, 182. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 
 
 127 
 
 The Moquis had little images made of wood or clay, gaudily 
 painted and gorgeously decorated with feathers. These images 
 are suspended from the rafters of their houses by a string, and 
 are objects of worship. Fig. 9 is one of their idols. 1 
 
 FIG. 
 
 FIG. 9. 
 
 Idols were found in many parts of Georgia, although Bolzius, 
 Bartram, Adair, and others deny, either positively or inferen- 
 tially, the existence of either idols or images within the limits 
 then occupied by the Georgia Indians. Subsequent investiga 
 tions prove, by the discovered presence of the images them 
 selves, that idol-worship was here practised. The Creeks had 
 at one of their war towns a carved statue of wood, which they 
 worshipped. 2 The ornamented posts, the wooden images, and 
 figures of men and animals sketched upon the Creek houses 
 have long since perished. Next in the order of durability are 
 small images of burnt clay, which occur in various parts of the 
 
 1 Cozzens s Marvellous Country, 487; and Plate LXIL in Hayden s Geological 
 Survey of Colorado. 2 McCulloh s Ant. Res., 107. 
 
128 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 State. Three stone idols were found in the Etowah valley of 
 Georgia. Two of these represented the male human figure in 
 a sitting posture ; the third represented a female figure. Many 
 terra-cotta images were found. 1 A small shrine was found in 
 Chatooga County hewn out of the solid rock, and within which 
 was seated on a pedestal an image. 2 
 
 This removes the doubt we might have of the worship of idols 
 by some population formerly inhabiting this region of countiy. 
 Mr. Jones appears to think these are not the remains of Chero 
 kee art, but of some people who preceded them. Mr. Jones 
 mentions the existence of a few idol pipes, in which a human 
 figure was represented in a sitting posture. In their counte 
 nances the devotional idea was forcibly expressed. 3 
 
 Among the inhabitants of that region of country now called 
 Tennessee, idolatry in a rude form has left many remains of 
 itself among their antiquities. The relics, which are somewhat 
 unique and more interesting than all others in this region, are 
 stone and clay images varying in height from six inches to 
 two feet, and found in great numbers by all diligent explorers. 
 Images are frequently found in the mounds of Tennessee. 
 These images were without doubt placed upon the mounds and 
 received worship. 4 Evidences of sacrificial offerings to these 
 images are found in the graves. 
 
 The vast system of idolatry prevalent at the time of the dis 
 covery among the South American and Central American 
 tribes is testified to by all the early writers. The greater num 
 ber of historical gods of the Peruvians had figures made of 
 them in stone and wood. Some of these were of enormous 
 size. Near Hilavi such a statue was found near the sculptured 
 sepulchres three times a man s height, with two monstrous 
 figures beside it. In front of each of these idols was an altar. 
 It took thirty persons three days to destroy these images. The 
 idol Rimac was a human figure found in a magnificent temple. 
 Deputations from different countries came to worship this idol 
 
 Jones, Antiq. of Southern Indians, 432-33. a Ib., 431. 3 Ib., 402-3. 
 
 * Haywood s Nat. Ab. Hist. Tenn., 151. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 129 
 
 and bring it offerings. The idol Huaca Catequella, which fore 
 told the death of Inca Yupanqui, was famous throughout Peru. 
 The son of the Inca, out of revenge, destroyed the temple of 
 this idol, but the idol was rescued by the priests. The idol 
 Umina, with a face half human, made of an emerald, was deeply 
 venerated. 1 
 
 The Purahas, near Quito, worshipped idols of clay with a 
 human head, but with the mouth at the top of the head, for 
 convenience of pouring in the blood of the sacrificed victims. 2 
 
 Among the Mayas of Yucatan the family idols were so 
 reverenced that they were considered the most valued part of 
 the inheritance left by those who died. 3 The Brazilian tribes 
 made gigantic idols of plaited palms, and also had their family 
 idols, which often lay neglected in the corners of their houses 
 until a time of need or war came. 4 The Tupinambas had idols 
 in the image of men set up in the woods, where the sorcerers 
 offered sacrifices to them and consulted the spirits supposed to 
 reside in them. 5 They were their oracles. The missionary 
 Cardenas is said to have overthrown more than twelve thousand 
 idols among the Brazilian tribes. 6 
 
 Among the Patagonians every family had its own house 
 hold wooden image. 7 
 
 Mexico was divided into wards, and each ward had an idol- 
 god of its own, with temple and temple service. 8 
 
 Every house in Mexico had its idols, one near the place 
 where they slept, and another near the door. 
 
 Idols were so numerous on the chief island in Lake Peten 
 that it took one hundred men a whole day to destroy them.9 
 
 In Granada there was a multitude of idols to which temples 
 were dedicated. Their houses also contained idols. They 
 were so devoted to idolatry that wheresoever they went they 
 
 1 Rivero and Tschudi, 172-74. 2 Bollaert, 86. 
 
 3 Landa, 27. 4 i Southey, 62 1. 
 
 s Denis, Bresil, 20. 6 2 Southey, 382. 
 
 7 Nar. Adventure and Beagle, ed. 1839, p. 90. 
 
 8 3 Herrera, 194. 93 Bancroft, 483. 
 
1 3 o 
 
 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 carried an idol. In battle they would hold an idol with one 
 arm and fight with the other. 1 
 
 Closely connected with the subject of idolatry is that of the 
 worship of stones. These stones are sometimes reverenced on 
 account of their similarity to the human figure, or the figure of 
 some animal. Such stones are called shingabawassins by the 
 Ojibways. They have all the essential character of idols, 
 and are supposed to be the locality of some god. 2 Figs. 10 
 and 1 1 represent two of these stones. Their similarities to the 
 
 FIG. io. FIG. ii. 
 
 human or animal form are frequently noticed, and are generally 
 accounted for by a metamorphosis; they almost always have 
 some tradition connected with them, which makes them the 
 objects of superstitious fear. The Aricaras have a legend that 
 three stones in their country that resemble a man, woman, 
 and dog are a young Indian girl and her lover and the dog 
 that followed them when they left their homes because the 
 girl s parents refused their consent to their marriage. 3 They 
 were worshipped. 
 
 A curious case of metamorphosis occurred near Scar 
 borough s Hill, at Chinook Point. Two rocks are shown there 
 which are two metamorphosed men who belonged to the fabu- 
 
 1 4 Herrera, 90. 2 I Schoolcraft, 94. 
 
 3 i Lewis and Clarke, 107; Tylor s Researches, 113. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 131 
 
 lous age of giants. This tale is told of them. One of them was 
 wading in the water of Shoalwater Bay for crabs, when an 
 aquatic monster swallowed him. His brother called the giants 
 to his aid, and collected great fir-trees, dried spruce, and other 
 trees wherewith to build a fire, and brought huge stones to be 
 heated. The fire was made, the water in the bay evaporated. 
 The great sea-monster was killed, ripped open, and the man 
 released. 1 The giants were metamorphosed into these stones 
 soon after. At the mouth of .the Walla Walla two stones, 
 human-shaped, were thought to be two Kiuse girls metamor 
 phosed by a jealous husband, and were objects of worship. 
 
 The Standing Rock is a famous stone in the Indian country 
 on the Upper Missouri. It is a little boulder twenty-eight 
 inches high. The Indians look on it as sacred, and have 
 painted and adorned it with colored ribbons and tails of ani 
 mals. The following myth gives it its sacred character. A 
 young Aricara woman, wife of a celebrated brave, was spirit- 
 broken because her husband took a second wife. She went 
 out on the prairie and sat broken-hearted and refusing food 
 until she died and was turned into that rock. All of the women 
 of the tribes located thereabout repair to this rock and make 
 their offerings whenever they are afflicted with domestic diffi 
 culties. 2 
 
 In a cavern on the banks of the Kickapoo there is a gigantic 
 mass of stone presenting the appearance of a human figure. 
 The Indians say that it is a metamorphosed Indian woman, 
 who, having received several wounds in battle, was left, and 
 nearly perished of hunger. She was converted into this mon 
 ument, which they hold in great fear, and never pass without 
 offering sacrifices to it. They say it formerly had the power of 
 killing those that approached it. 3 
 
 Schoolcraft tells the following tradition of metamorphosis : 
 "An Indian, while passing across Winnebago Lake on a beau 
 tiful summer day, espied at a distance in the lake before him a 
 
 1 Swan s Washington Territory, 69. 2 Beach, 388. 3 i Keating, 251. 
 
1 32 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 beautiful female form standing in the water. Her eyes shone 
 with a brilliancy that could not be endured, and she held in 
 her hand a lump of glittering gold. He immediately paddled 
 toward the attractive object, but as he came near he could 
 perceive that it was gradually altering as to its shape and com 
 plexion ; her eyes no longer shone with brilliancy, her face lost 
 the hectic glow of life, her arms imperceptibly disappeared, and 
 when he came to the spot where she stood, it was a monument 
 of stone having a human face, with the fins and tail of a fish. 
 He sat a long while in amazement, fearful either to touch the 
 superhuman object or go away and leave it. At length, having 
 made an offering of the incense of tobacco, and addressed it as 
 the guardian angel of his country, he ventured to lay his hand 
 upon the statue to lift it into his canoe, when it disappeared." 1 
 
 The Laches worshipped every stone as a god, and said they 
 had all been men, and all men were converted into stones after 
 death, and the day was coming when all stones would be raised 
 as men. The shadows of stones were the manifestation of the 
 gods in them. 2 The inhabitants of Istlavacan had a rock three 
 feet high and one foot thick, supposed to be a distorted human 
 face, which they reverenced. 3 
 
 Many stones of the shape of men and women, found in Peru, 
 are, according to tradition, beings metamorphosed. Arriaga 
 mentions metamorphoses of men to stones, and the worship of 
 these stones. 
 
 How vividly this recalls to our minds the myth of Deucalion 
 and the derivation of the Greek word / (people), the primi 
 tive meaning of which was " stones" ! The famous Oneida 
 stone from which the Oneidas claim descent, is an illustration 
 of mythical descent from stones. Mr. Schoolcraft thinks they 
 were prompted to this absurdity by the use of metaphorical 
 language ; but I am convinced that cases of this kind have 
 arisen from a mythical metamorphosis. Much of the stone- 
 
 1 Schoolcraft s Nar. Journal, 406. 2 Piedrahita, bk. I, ch. ii. 
 
 3 3 Bancroft, 482. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 133 
 
 worship has arisen in this way, as we have seen by the myths 
 I have cited in reference to these stones. If we remember that 
 a mythical character is often the subject of such a metamor 
 phosis, and such mythical character may have been one from 
 whom a tribe claims descent, then we have all the premises for 
 such a conclusion as the Oneidas arrived at. This stone be 
 came a place for national sacrifice. 1 The Dacotahs claimed 
 descent from a stone, and offered sacrifices to it, calling it 
 grandfather. They thought the spirit of their ancestor was 
 present in this stone, which is their altar for national sacrifices. 
 The Ojibways had such stones, which they called grandfather. 
 
 Animation was ascribed to all stones that were objects of 
 worship. In cases of supposed metamorphosis, the spirit re 
 mained in the stone notwithstanding the change. 
 
 Many of the rocks which presented any similarity to man or 
 animal were supposed to be inhabited by spirits, and were held 
 in great awe by the Indians, whether a metamorphosis was as 
 cribed to them or not. Spirits transmigrated into stones, and 
 this made them objects of worship. 
 
 A curious illustration of such transmigration is found among 
 the Peruvians. A certain stone supposed to be animated by a 
 spirit, which had commanded resistance to the Inca Rocca, 
 was ordered thrown from the top of a mountain by this Inca, 
 when a parrot flew out of it and entered another stone, which 
 the Indians still point out and worship. 2 
 
 In Central America, when a lord died, a stone was put into 
 his mouth to receive his soul. 3 
 
 The Mexicans buried a small green stone with the dead, and 
 this was called the principle of his life, and into it the soul was 
 thought to pass. 
 
 The natives of Mizteca worshipped an emerald which was 
 inhabited by a spirit which had transmigrated thither. In Es- 
 meraldas there was a great emerald which belonged to the lord 
 of Manta. It contained a powerful spirit, and was an object of 
 
 1 Schoolcraft s Iroquois, 46-47. 2 Montesinos, 147. 3 Ximenez, 21 1. 
 
I 3 4 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 great veneration. On certain occasions it was displayed and 
 worshipped. It cured diseases, and pilgrimages were made 
 from all parts, of those afflicted, to sacrifice and pray to the 
 stone. 1 
 
 It would not be inconsistent for peoples holding such ideas 
 to ascribe vitality and power of activity to stones; and such is 
 the fact. There were many traditions among the Mexicans 
 about their famous stone, which was selected for a sacrificial 
 stone. On its way to Mexico, notwithstanding all the honors 
 paid it, it broke through the causeway, and carried the high- 
 priest and many others to the bottom of the lake. According 
 to tradition, it spoke frequently on the journey to that city. 2 
 
 Among the Brazilians, the most popular charms worn by the 
 Indians are stones called muira-kitans, which appear to be 
 stones cut from rocks at the bottom of lakes. There is a tra 
 dition that they were alive in the lake, and the women, by 
 giving them a drop of their blood, could catch them. 3 
 
 Among the natives of the West Indies food was regularly 
 offered to certain stones that were objects of worship, and they 
 supposed the food was eaten when it disappeared. 
 
 The Ojibways thought some of the stones that were wor 
 shipped by them moved about from place to place. 4 
 
 The following story of a Northern Indian illustrates the sup 
 posed vitality of stones and the worship paid them on this 
 account. Opposite La Pointe was an isolated boulder, which 
 was a huge erratic rock. Otamigan, an Indian well known 
 among the whites, sacrificed to this stone, and never passed it 
 without laying an offering of tobacco on it. He often went 
 to pay worship to it. His attention was attracted to it in the 
 following way. He sat down to rest himself at one time op 
 posite this rock, and as he was looking at it the rock oscillated, 
 made a bow, and advanced toward him. This transient giddi 
 ness of Otamigan produced the greatest veneration in his mind 
 
 1 Cieza, 183-84. 2 5 Bancroft, 471. 
 
 3 Smith s Brazil, 581-82. 4 McKenny s Tour, 402. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 135 
 
 for this rock, and he considered it thereafter as his protecting 
 god. 1 
 
 Among the Ojibways, in the copper region, the erratic blocks 
 of that ore were considered highly mysterious, and were raised 
 to the dignity of idols. Mr. Kohl tells a story of an Ojibway 
 chief who was willing to give him his daughter, or anything 
 else he had, but a mass of copper in a forest, which had been 
 his and his ancestors protective genius. Through it he said he 
 had won victories in battle, preserved his health, and been suc 
 cessful in the hunt. At last he consented to part with it, but 
 he sacrificed the price given to his guardian spirit, after having 
 made as sharp a bargain as he could, and laid five pounds of 
 tobacco in its place in the forest. 2 It was the spirit that in 
 habited this lump of copper that gave it its significance, and 
 when the metal was removed from its locality it lost its sacred 
 character, and the tobacco was supposed to satisfy the spirit 
 lurking about the place. 
 
 Says Allouez, " The Ottawas often find at the bottom of 
 Lake Superior pieces of pure copper weighing from ten to 
 twenty pounds. I have often seen them in the hands of the 
 savages, and, as they are superstitious, they look upon them as 
 so many divinities. For this reason they preserve these pieces 
 of copper wrapped up among their most precious movables. 
 There are some who have preserved them for more than fifty 
 years. Others have had them in their families from time im 
 memorial, and cherish them as household gods. For some 
 time there was visible a great rock entirely of copper, the top 
 of which projected above the surface of the water. This gave 
 occasion to by-passers to go and cut off pieces from it. Never 
 theless, when I passed by that place, nothing could be seen of 
 it. I believe that the storms, which here are very frequent and 
 similar to those on the sea, have covered this rock with sand. 
 Our savages wanted to persuade me that it was a divinity, and 
 had disappeared for some reason which they did not state." 
 
 1 Kohl s Kitchi-Gami, 59. a Ib., 62-64. 
 
136 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 We find among the inhabitants of both hemispheres at the 
 first dawn of civilization a peculiar predilection for stones which, 
 on account of some peculiarity of color or natural form, are 
 looked upon with superstition. West of Rock River a stone 
 was found which the Indians venerated, and had adorned with 
 paint and a feather. It was a piece of syenite that differed from 
 all the rocks in this vicinity. They made offerings to it. 1 Mr. 
 Keating mentions many other such places, all objects of wor 
 ship. The White Dog gens of the Ojibways resided near a 
 rock, which on account of its form was an object of great super 
 stition to them. 2 
 
 The Dacotahs propitiated those spirits which were supposed 
 to be embodied in oval-shaped stones by sacrifices of tobacco 
 and other trifling articles. 3 When a Dacotah is troubled in 
 spirit and desires to be delivered from real or imaginary danger, 
 he will select a stone that is round and portable, and, placing it 
 in a spot free from grass and underbrush, he will streak it with 
 red paint, and, offering to it some feathers, he will pray to it for 
 help. 4 The Ojibways regard round stones with awe. They 
 will pick them up, paint them, clear away the grass, make an 
 offering, and then pray the stone to deliver them from danger. 5 
 The Red Pipe-Stone quarry is a famous place to inspire the 
 Indians with religious feelings. There are five large erratic 
 boulders near here, where not a blade of grass is broken or 
 bent by the feet of man. The Indians venerate these so rev 
 erently that they stand at a distance and offer tobacco by throw 
 ing it toward these boulders, and then they solicit permission 
 of the spirits supposed to reside here to carry away some of 
 the stone : 6 they would not dare carry away any of it without 
 these propitiatory offerings. The Northwestern Indians had 
 stones from which they asked rain or wind, or a cessation of 
 it. 7 About fifty-five miles above Fort Gratiot was the White 
 Rock, an enormous detached mass of transition limestone 
 
 1 I Keating, 298. 2 2 ib., 149. 3 i Minn. Hist. Coll. ,461. 
 
 * Neill s Minnesota, 60. 53 Schoolcraft, 229. 6 2 Catlin, 203. 
 
 7 i Brown s Races, 59. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS. 137 
 
 standing in the lake at a distance of half a mile from the shore. 
 The White Rock is an object which had attracted the early 
 notice of the Indians, who are the first to observe the noncon 
 formities in the appearances of a country. And it continues 
 to be one of the places at which offerings are made. These 
 tributary acknowledgments are generally useless articles. There 
 does not appear to be any obligation upon individuals to make 
 them, or to renew them at any regular periods. 1 
 
 At the entrance to Lake Superior there is a high rock in the 
 shape of a man, which the Indians call the master of life. Here 
 they make their offerings by throwing tobacco into the water. 
 By this they intend to make an acknowledgment to the rock 
 for the blessings they enjoy. 2 
 
 Near Peoria there is a sacred stone resembling the figure of 
 a man. The Indians who pass by pay their adorations to it, 
 and believe it has an influence over their fortunes. 3 One on 
 Little Manitou Creek is supposed to resemble the bust of a 
 man whose head is decorated with the horns of a stag. On 
 Stone Idol Creek, some few miles from the Missouri, there are 
 two other stones resembling the human form, and a third like 
 that of a dog, all of which are objects of veneration. Another, 
 near Big Manitou Creek, is inlaid with flints of various colors 
 and covered with figures of animals. Stones were also oracles. 
 Any rock or stone of extraordinary appearance becomes the 
 object of general veneration. 4 
 
 In the country of the Mandans there is a smooth, porous 
 mineral body twenty feet in circumference, called the Great 
 Medicine Stone. To this stone a deputation is sent every spring, 
 who, after smoking and presenting the pipe before it, retire to 
 an adjacent wood and return in the morning to read the des 
 tinies of the nation, which they imagine they see written there 
 on in certain marks. 5 
 
 1 Schoolcraft s Nar. Journal, 87, seq. 2 Long s Voyages, 43. 
 
 3 Pittman s European Settlements, 42. 
 
 4 i Hind, 364 ; 2 Beltrami, 175 ; KerchevaPs Valley of Va., 48. 
 5 3 Warden s U. S., 581. 
 
I 3 8 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 In Guatemala a stone was the oracle through which a god 
 gave his decision to the people after having been consulted by 
 the judges. To the westward of Patinamit there was a mound 
 that commanded the city. On it stood a round small building 
 six feet high, in the middle of which was a pedestal formed of a 
 shining substance resembling glass. Seated around this build 
 ing, the judges heard and decided upon the causes brought 
 before them; before executing a sentence, however, it was neces 
 sary to have it confirmed by an oracle, for which purpose three 
 of the judges quitted their seats, and proceeded to a deep 
 ravine, where there was a place of worship, wherein was placed 
 a black, transparent stone. On the surface of this tablet the 
 deity was supposed to give a representation of the fate that 
 awaited the criminal. If the decision of the judges was ap 
 proved, the sentence was immediately inflicted. If nothing 
 appeared on the stone, the accused was set at liberty. This 
 oracle was also consulted in the affairs of war. 1 
 
 Thus it will be seen that stones were worshipped because 
 they were supposed to be animated by spirits, and the worship 
 was idolatrous in its nature. Before leaving the subject of 
 idolatry, let us notice its use in sorcery. All of the tribes of 
 both continents use idolatry in their sorcery. When they 
 wish to injure any one, they make an image of the person. 
 They then injure this image, expecting the person to suffer as 
 acutely as though the injury was inflicted on his body. They 
 sometimes burn these images, and then they expect the death 
 of the person. They pretend to cure disease by means of the 
 same superstition ; for, having made an effigy of the supposed 
 evil spirit producing the disease, generally thought to be an 
 animal, they will destroy this image, and thereby expect to de 
 stroy the disease. 2 
 
 When they want to overcome any one who resists their love, 
 they make an image of the person, and into this image they 
 introduce love-powders. If the image has a lock of hair or 
 
 1 Juaro s Guatemala, 384. 2 Kohl, 282. 
 
DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS, 139 
 
 any part of the person desired to be affected attached to it, 
 these powders will work their charm on the person as effectually 
 as if really taken by such person. 1 
 
 The sorcerers are often told to transfer from the sick person 
 to some other, who is the patient s enemy, the disease they are 
 called to cure. This they can always do when they can get an 
 image of that person. 2 
 
 The same superstition is resorted to in times of famine, to 
 bring animals within the power of the hunter. A little image 
 is made to represent the animal which they wish to obtain in 
 the hunt ; then the part representing the heart is punctured 
 with a sharp instrument. After this ceremony they will start 
 out with full confidence of success. 3 Sometimes simply a grass 
 or cloth image of the animal is made and hung up in his wig 
 wam. After repeating an incantation he shoots at the image, 
 and if the arrow enters it he will succeed in killing the animal. 4 
 
 To prove the universality of this curious superstition among 
 all the tribes, I will select a few authorities. Says Charlevoix, 
 "Amongst the Illinois and almost all the other nations, they 
 make small figures to represent those whose days they have a 
 mind to shorten, and which they stab to the heart. At other 
 times they take a stone, and by means of certain invoca 
 tions they pretend to form such another in the heart of their 
 enemy." 5 
 
 The Ojibways believe that by drawing the figure of any per 
 son in sand or ashes, or on clay, or by considering any object 
 as the figure of a person, and then pricking it with a sharp 
 stick, or other substance, or doing in any other manner that 
 which done to a living body would cause pain or injury, the 
 individual represented, or supposed to be represented, will 
 suffer accordingly. 6 
 
 The Malemutes of the Northwest made images to represent 
 children which they wished to have, and fondled the idol as if 
 
 1 Kohl, 396-97. 2 2 Keating, 159. 
 
 3 Tanner s Narrative, 174. 4 i Schoolcraft, 372. 
 
 5 2 Charlevoix, 1 66. 6 Henry s Captivity. 
 
1 40 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 it was a real child. 1 They expected to obtain children by this 
 means. 
 
 Another form of this superstition about the representation of 
 any person or thing was shown in their fear of having their 
 photographs taken. They refused to risk their lives before a 
 photographic apparatus. They said those who had their pho 
 tograph had their spirit, and they did not wish this to pass into 
 the keeping of others who could torment it at pleasure. 2 The 
 Yanktons accused Catlin of producing a great scarcity of buf 
 falo by putting a great many of them in his book. 3 They re 
 fused at first to be painted by him, on account of the same 
 superstition. These paintings were supposed to have their life 
 in them. He had great difficulty in overcoming this supersti 
 tion. The Araucanians would not allow their portraits to be 
 taken, lest the possessor might obtain some magical influence 
 over them. I will not dwell longer on these fetichistic concep 
 tions in this chapter, but will treat of the subject more fully in 
 the next. 
 
 1 i Bancroft, 82. 2 I ib., 245. 
 
 3 2 Catlin s Illustrations, 194. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Fetichism Scalping fetichistic in conception Inherence of spiritual force 
 Cannibalism fetichistic and a religious act Eating images of gods a rite similar 
 to the eucharistic Superstitious fears about pronouncing the names of the 
 dead Tattooing fetichistic Amulets Primitive ornamentation fetichistic. 
 
 THE fetichism of primitive peoples is not a meaningless 
 superstition, as generally represented, but has grown from the 
 roots of their religious belief. A fetich is not the inanimate, 
 powerless, material thing to them that it is to us, but is redo 
 lent with life. The idol is filled with a spirit; it speaks in 
 the oracle. So the fetich, whether a medicine-bag, or image, 
 or claw of beast or bird, is filled with a spirit. This imaginary 
 animation gives fetichism its power over the savage mind. The 
 fetichistic superstition has prolonged its life to our day. It 
 survives in amulets, charms, talismans, seal-rings, heraldry. 
 Among early peoples it originated their ornamentation with 
 feathers, teeth, shells, animal skins, and similar articles of per 
 sonal adornment, including tattooing. Idolatry and fetichism 
 are closely akin, but an idol is not, strictly speaking, a fetich ; 
 it is always an object of worship, whereas fetiches are not 
 always objects of worship, but are often connected with sorcery. 
 They are generally amuletic in their character. Their sup 
 posed supernatural power is used to ward off evil from their 
 owners or bring them good fortune ; they are also used to 
 bring evil upon others. They are generally regarded as sub 
 ject to the will and control of their owners, and are, therefore, 
 generally not objects of such reverence as inspires worship. 
 The doctrine of fetiches has led to many superstitions that may 
 properly be called fetichistic, and a few of these will explain 
 
 10 141 
 
142 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 the origin of the fetichistic sentiment. Among these were scalp 
 ing and the taking and preservation of the heads of enemies by 
 so many primitive peoples. It was thought that the posses 
 sion of any part of an enemy placed that enemy in the power 
 of the possessor. This superstition seems to be based upon 
 the belief that each portion of any animate body, or inanimate 
 body supposed to be animate, had also a portion of the spirit 
 that appertained to the whole. Hence, whoever possessed a 
 oart of the material substance possessed also a portion of the 
 Spiritual, and although it was only a portion, generally a very 
 small part, yet it gave the possessor a control over the whole, 
 which he would never have succeeded in getting in an ordi 
 nary way. This explains the whole system of sorcery as prac 
 tised among ancient peoples, and all its kindred superstitions. 
 Hence arose a desire to prevent any part of the body from 
 getting into the possession and under the control of others. 
 For this reason sorcerers and witches were anxious to get some 
 part of the person uponwhorri they wished to work their spells, 
 and enemies were very anxious to get some part of their enemy 
 into their possession. Friends were just as anxious to preserve 
 them, and would risk their lives to prevent the scalp of a tribes 
 man from falling into the enemy s hands. Individuals would 
 conceal their nail-parings and hair, and even their saliva, with 
 superstitious fear of its falling into the hands of the unfriendly. 
 Even the clothes of a person were supposed to be permeated by 
 his spiritual life. This belief in the inherence of spiritual life 
 is shown in the fact that, in washing their soiled clothes, many 
 of the tribes were very careful to dispose of the water so that 
 no one could obtain any of it. This superstition was akin to 
 the fetichistic, where a part of the soul is thought to inhere in 
 every part of the body and in everything the body touched. 
 
 Quite a curious illustration of their belief on this subject is 
 found in the marriage of the fishing-nets. The Hurons mar 
 ried their nets every year to young girls of the tribe, with much 
 more formality than that observed in human wedlock. The 
 Algonkins of the Ottawa had the same ceremony yearly, in the 
 
FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 143 
 
 middle of March, and, as it was difficult to find virgins, mere 
 children were chosen. The net was held between them, and 
 its spirit was harangued. They said the spirit of the net ap 
 peared to them when it had any complaint to make. The 
 animation ascribed to these nets was due beyond doubt to the 
 spiritual substance of the fish which was thought to inhere in 
 them. This whole ceremony is meaningless, except by this 
 inherence or transmigration of spiritual life, which explains it. 
 
 Preserving parts of dead enemies was fetichistic in concep 
 tion. The Omaguas cut off the heads of their enemies and 
 preserved them in their houses. The teeth they strung and 
 wore as necklaces. 1 The Mundrucus of Brazil kept the heads 
 of slain enemies. They had a preparatory process for preserv 
 ing them. The custom of wearing the skulls of slain enemies 
 as fetiches was the origin of trepanning. Those trepanned 
 skulls were found in Peru, and also among the Northern tribes. 
 This custom is very prevalent among the barbarous tribes on 
 the other continent, but among the Americans scalping appears 
 to have generally superseded it; yet upon the monuments of 
 the Mexican nations the entire skull is seen strung to the belts 
 of many of the heroes whose achievements are pictured thereon. 
 
 Scalping was universal among the Northern tribes, and was 
 fetichistic in origin. The Osages planted on their graves a 
 pole with an enemy s scalp hanging to the top. Their notion 
 was that by doing this the spirit of the victim became sub 
 jected to the spirit of the buried warrior. 2 Mr. Brown thinks 
 that scalping has superseded the taking of the whole head, on 
 account of the difficulty of carrying the entire head. 3 This 
 view is confirmed by the fact that many tribes scalped the heads 
 of those taken in war only when they travelled a great distance. 
 Sorcerers pretended to hold converse with the departed spirit 
 through the scalp of the deceased, 4 
 
 The Indians of the Algonkin stock living around the Great 
 
 1 3 Southey, 703. 2 I Tylor, 460. 
 
 3 i Brown s Races, 67. * I Bancroft, 569. 
 
144 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Lakes, in addition to the practice of scalping, cut fingers, arms, 
 and other limbs from their enemies, which they keep as long 
 as they can, and toward which they show as strong a spirit of 
 revenge as though the whole person was present and in life. 1 
 The Californians do not appear to scalp enemies, but the head, 
 hands, or feet are preserved as trophies. 2 The savages of New 
 Granada wore the teeth of slain enemies about their necks. 
 
 The use of parts of the human body for fetichistic purposes 
 is common. Mr. Spencer says the primitive idea that any 
 property characterizing an aggregate inheres in all parts of it, 
 implies a corollary from this belief. The soul present in the 
 body of a dead man preserved entire is also present in pre 
 served parts of his body: hence the faith in relics. The Crees 
 carried bones and hair of dead persons about for three years. 
 Several Guiana tribes had their cleaned bones distributed 
 among the relatives after death. The Eskimos, when a whaler 
 died, cut his body into small pieces and distributed them 
 among his fellow-craftsmen. These were dried and preserved 
 as fetiches ; they rubbed the points of their lances upon them 
 to bring them luck. 3 Such a weapon would reach a mortal 
 spot in a whale where another would fail. The Caribs thought 
 that the bones of the dead were the abiding-place of his soul. 
 They took bones of the dead from the grave and carefully 
 wrapped them in cotton, and thought they could answer ques 
 tions. The Mexicans had a grand master of such relics. 4 
 They thought the left arm and hand of a woman who had 
 died in childbed had special talismanic virtue. 5 
 
 The fear that some part of the body might be used by others 
 in sorcery and witchcraft led to the custom of preserving all of 
 its parts during life and also after death, lest it should get into 
 the possession of others. This superstition will be referred 
 to again in burial customs. 
 
 Cannibalism was fetichistic in its nature, and originated in 
 
 ; Kohl, 345-46. 3 Ib., 344. 3 i Bancroft, 76. 
 
 * 2 ib., 202. s 2 ib., 269. 
 
FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 145 
 
 the same superstitious idea that instigated scalping and cutting 
 off the heads and limbs of enemies. Its prevalence among all 
 primitive peoples is probable. 
 
 Among the Northern tribes of Indians there are evidences of 
 a limited cannibalism. It was practised at religious festivals to 
 some extent, and I am fully persuaded, after investigating the 
 subject pretty thoroughly, that the practice, except in a few 
 isolated cases, was based upon religious superstition. All 
 primitive peoples thought that by eating anything animate they 
 became endowed with the qualities of the thing eaten. This 
 superstition was the result of their theories of transmigration. 
 We have the very best evidence that in those cases where the 
 dead have been buried in the stomachs of their living relatives, 
 which will be noticed in the chapter on burial, the superstitious 
 idea of the transmigration of the soul into their bodies urged 
 them to the act. 
 
 Mr. Keating says the Ojibways, the Miamis, the Potawato- 
 mies, and all the other Algonkin tribes are cannibals. The 
 most frequent cause of cannibalism among them is their belief 
 that by eating an enemy they acquire a charm that makes 
 them irresistible. There is a common superstition with them 
 that he who tastes of the body of a brave man acquires a part ., 
 of his valor, and if he can eat of his heart, the centre of all 
 courage, his share of bravery is greater. Mr. Barron saw the 
 Potawatomies feast on the bodies of white men and Cherokees, 
 instigated by the same superstition. Captain Wells, who was 
 killed in the vicinity of Chicago in 1812, and was celebrated 
 for his valor among the Indian tribes, was divided into many 
 parts and sent to all the allied tribes, that all might have an 
 opportunity to get a taste of the courageous white man. 1 The 
 Thlinkeets devoured those killed in battle, in the belief that the 
 bravery of the victim thereby enters into the nature of the par 
 takers. 2 The Californian tribes ate human flesh, not as food, 
 nor for the purpose of wreaking vengeance on, or showing 
 
 1 I Keating, 101-3. 2 : Bancroft, 106. 
 
146 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 hate to, a dead adversary, but because they thought by eating 
 part of a brave man they absorbed a portion of his courage. 1 
 Mr. Ball says some of the natives of Alaska practise cannibal 
 ism, but it was not instigated by starvation. 2 
 
 Traces of cannibalism are found among all the tribes of 
 America. Mr. Parkman mentions a family of the Miamis 
 whose duty it was to devour the bodies of prisoners. The act 
 had a religious character, and was attended with ceremonial 
 observances. The Hurons had cannibal feasts, and when re 
 monstrated with by the Jesuit priests they threw a hand of a 
 victim in at their door. The Mohawks ate those captured in 
 war: the chiefs ate the head and heart, the common people 
 the arms and i trunks. Among the Blackfeet, when war is de 
 clared against other nations, the manner of expressing it is, 
 " to hang the kettle on the fire," which has its origin in the 
 barbarous custom of eating the prisoners and those that were 
 slain, after they had boiled them. Traces of cannibalism are 
 found among the Winnebagoes, Sauks, and Comanches. 3 
 
 Pyrlaeus says "the Five Nations formerly did eat human 
 flesh ; they at one time ate up a whole body of the French 
 king s soldiers." 4 
 
 Heckewelder mentions the same custom among the Iroquois. 
 He says, " Aged French Canadians have told me, many years 
 since, while I was at Detroit, that they had frequently seen the 
 Iroquois eat the flesh of those who had been slain in battle, 
 and that this was the case in the war between the French and 
 English, commonly called the War of 1756." 5 
 
 Says Megapolensis of the Delawares, " They eat captives, 
 after having burned them with a slow fire." 6 
 
 Says Roubaud of the Ottawas, " The first object which pre 
 sented itself to my eyes, on arriving at the encampment of the Ot 
 tawas, was a large fire, while the wooden spits fixed in the earth 
 
 1 i Bancroft, 380. s Alaska, 49. 
 
 3 I Keating, 233; I Schoolcraft, 135. * Heckewelder, 235. 
 
 s Ib., 37, note. 
 
 6 Megapolensis and De Vries, N. Y. Hist. Coll., 2d Series, vol. iii. 155-59. 
 
FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 147 
 
 gave signs of a feast. There was indeed one taking place. But, 
 oh, Heaven ! what a feast ! The remains of the body of an Eng 
 lishman was there, the skin stripped off, and more than one- 
 half the flesh gone. A moment after, I perceived these in 
 human beings eat with famishing avidity of this human flesh. 
 I saw them taking up this detestable broth in large spoons, and 
 apparently without being able to satisfy themselves with it. 
 They informed me that they had prepared themselves for this 
 feast by drinking from skulls filled with human blood, while 
 their smeared faces and stained lips gave evidence of the truth 
 of the story." x 
 
 Says Josselyn, " At Martha s Vineyard, certain Indians whilst 
 I was in the country seized upon a boat that put into a by-cove, 
 killed the men, and ate them up in a short time before they 
 were discovered." 2 
 
 The following description of a cannibal feast among the 
 Ojibways is given by Henry : " An invitation to a feast is given 
 by him who is the master of it. Small cuttings of cedar wood 
 of about four inches in length supply the place of cards, and 
 the bearer, by word of mouth, states the particulars. Seven 
 prisoners were killed, and shortly after two of the Indians took 
 one of the dead bodies which they chose as being the fattest, 
 cut off its head, and divided the whole into five parts, one of 
 which was put into each of five kettles hung over as many 
 fires kindled for this purpose at the door of the prison lodge. 
 An invitation came to Wawatam to assist at the feast. Wawa- 
 tam obeyed the summons, taking with him, as is usual, his dish 
 and spoon. After an absence of about half an hour, he re 
 turned, bringing in his dish a human hand and a large piece of 
 flesh. He did not appear to relish the repast, but told me that 
 it was then and always had been the custom among all the In 
 dian nations when returning from war to make a war feast from 
 among the slain." 3 There was a lake in the Red River country 
 
 Roubaud, in Kip., 155. 2 Josselyn s Two Voyages to New England, 125. 
 3 Henry s Captivity. 
 
I 4 8 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 called Lake Windigoostigon, or Cannibal Lake, in commemora 
 tion of deeds of cannibalism committed there by Ojibways in 
 1811. 
 
 Among the Ojibways early cannibalism appears to have 
 passed into their traditionary history embodied in a myth. 
 They had an imaginary being whose deeds were horrible in 
 the extreme. The ghostly man-eater, a species of vampire, 
 had his residence on an island (imaginary) in the centre of 
 Lake Superior. He had the appearance of the human form, 
 yet intangible, with long nails with which he dug up dead 
 bodies and devoured them, or robbed the burial-scaffold of its 
 burden. He travelled with lightning speed from one place to 
 another, and whenever the Indian heard strange songs above 
 his wigwam, it was the ghostly man-eater hurrying upon the 
 wings of the wind from a recent banquet to his mysterious 
 island home. This spiritual monstrosity appears to have been 
 doomed to this life as a punishment for an act of cannibalism, 
 when he killed and fed upon the body of a youth who was the 
 last remnant of a once powerful tribe. Having thus extin 
 guished the last hope of an Indian race for perpetuation by 
 this bloody act, the Ojibways have handed down his infamy 
 in their folk-lore. 1 
 
 Another mythological character which belongs to our sub 
 ject was a giant, who came from the north and sought the hos 
 pitality of an Indian village bordering on the Lake of the 
 Woods. He was entertained at their expense, and when the 
 feast was ready the giant, disdaining the wild rice and game, 
 destroyed with one exception the inhabitants who had gathered 
 at his feast, and devoured their dead bodies. The youth who 
 escaped carried revenge in his heart, and when he became a 
 great hunter he invited the cannibal giant to a feast, and into 
 his bowl of soup he placed a bitter root, which soon deprived 
 him of his strength. He prepared to sleep, and under him was 
 spread his robe of weasel-skins, and over him was thrown his 
 
 1 Lanman s Ilaw-IIoo-Hoo, 195-96; 
 
FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 149 
 
 net woven by a mammoth spider. When deep sleep had fallen 
 upon him, the guests despatched him with their clubs, and his 
 flesh became alive very soon with little animals and birds, who 
 fed upon it. 1 Truly he was a fit companion for the giant 
 Ymer of the Norse folk-lore. 
 
 The Indians of Brazil and Paraguay formerly delighted in 
 human flesh. They confessed, after the introduction of Chris 
 tianity, that the flesh of animals tasted insipid to them in com 
 parison with that of men. 2 The Botecudos sucked the blood 
 from living victims, thinking they would imbibe spiritual force. 3 . 
 
 The Brazilians had human flesh salted and smoked and hung 
 up in their houses. One man boasted that he had partaken of 
 the bodies of three hundred enemies. But it was a stronger 
 passion than hunger that gave these accursed banquets their 
 highest relish. 4 Children were raised by their captives from 
 tribal women for the express purpose of being eaten. In their 
 great cannibal feasts the women were the most ravenous canni 
 bals, and even the children had the brains and tongue allotted 
 to them. Every part of the body was devoured. 5 One of the 
 children raised from captives, whom the Portuguese offered to 
 redeem and save from a feast to which she was dedicated, pre 
 ferred, she said, to be buried in the bellies of her lords and 
 masters whom she loved. 6 ^ 
 
 Among the Brazilians, the first food given a child when 
 weaning it from its mother s milk was the flesh of an enemy. 
 The bones of those eaten were laid up in piles before their 
 houses, and the rank and estimation of a family were in propor 
 tion to the size of its heap. 8 
 
 Prisoners dedicated to a cannibal feast were treated well, had 
 attendants appointed for them and women given them. They 
 were fattened, and paraded up and down with great ceremony. 
 Every guest invited to the feast came and touched the prisoner, 
 
 1 Lanman, 235. 2 2 Dobriz., 26. 3 3 Southey, 808. 
 
 * i Southey, 17. s i ib., 218-22. 6 I ib., 640. 
 
 7 2 ib., 289. 8 I ib., 655. 
 
150 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 who was treated like a god. 1 Mr. Southey thinks the motive 
 for their cannibalism was some savage notion of superstition. 2 
 
 The priests of Guatemala ate the bodies of those who were 
 sacrificed. It was considered sacred meat. 3 
 
 Cieza, speaking of the Peruvians, says, " All the Indians of 
 this country eat human flesh." 4 Cieza saw them eat in one day 
 more than a hundred men and women they had taken in war. 5 
 Drawing blood from the nose of a child in Peru was a relic of 
 cannibalism. The more uncivilized Peruvians always ate the 
 flesh of those whom they sacrificed to their gods; 6 and the 
 bodies of the victims were cut up and exposed for sale, and 
 sold in the public markets. 7 Peruvian mythology had its giants 
 who were cannibals, who were exterminated by a resplendent 
 young man who came riding upon the clouds, shining like the 
 sun, and hurling flames of fire. 8 
 
 Cannibalism prevailed among the Mexicans. The bodies of 
 those slain on the field of battle were devoured by those 
 voracious cannibals who followed the armies to feed on the 
 dead bodies. 9 The towns had wooden cages where they kept 
 and fattened, for the purpose of eating, the captives in war. 10 
 Human flesh, exquisitely prepared, was found upon the table 
 of Montezuma, and was eaten by the Mexicans, not for the 
 purpose of allaying appetite, but from religious motives. 11 All 
 the Nahua nations practised this religious cannibalism. That 
 cannibalism as a source of food, unconnected with religious 
 rites, was ever practised, there is little evidence. Sahagun and 
 Las Casas regard the cannibalism of the Nahuas as an abhor 
 rent feature of their religion, and not as an unnatural appetite. 
 They ate the flesh of their sacrificed foes only. 12 
 
 The Mayas also ate the flesh of human victims sacrificed to 
 the gods. In Nicaragua, the high-priest received the heart, the 
 king the feet and hands, the captors took the thighs, and the 
 
 r 2 Southey, 370. 2 3 ib., 709. 3 Ximenez, 183. 
 
 Cieza, 46. $ Ib., 78. 6 Ranking, 89. 
 
 7 II)., 77. 8 I Zarate, 17. 9 i ib., 267. 
 
 10 Diaz, 496. " 2 Bancroft, 176. " 2 ib., 357-58; Diaz, 66. 
 
FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 151 
 
 tripe was given to the trumpeters. The natives of Honduras 
 said the Spaniards were too tough and bitter to be eaten. 1 " The 
 Mosquito men never gave quarter to any but women ; but as 
 many men and children as they take they tie and throw upon 
 a barbecue, as they call it, which is a rack of stakes doing the 
 office of a gridiron, and make a good fire underneath, which, 
 with the help of the sun overhead at noon, soon dresses their 
 bodies fit for their teeth, which food they esteem best of any. 
 But before this cookery, whilst the prisoner lives, they draw 
 out his finger and toe nails, and knock out his teeth with 
 stones, which teeth and nails they wear about their necks like 
 a necklace." 2 
 
 Many Brazilian tribes manifested their love for the dead by 
 reducing the bones to powder, and mingling it with a bread 
 which they then ate. Love, as well as hatred, leads to can 
 nibalism, and an Artemisia could be found in every Tapuya 
 widow. 
 
 Among the Tapuyas, when an infant died it was eaten by 
 the parents. Adults were eaten by the kindred, and their bones 
 were pounded and reserved for marriage-feasts, as being the 
 most precious thing that could be offered. 3 When they be 
 came old they offered themselves to their children, who de 
 voured them after putting them to death. They thought their 
 spiritual substance became incorporated. 4 
 
 The Xomanas and Passes burned the bones of the dead, and 
 drank the ashes, and in this way, they thought, they received 
 into their bodies the spirits of their deceased friends. 
 
 The Maypuris devoured their sick and infirm. 5 
 
 The Arawaks pounded the bones of their dead lords into 
 powder, and drank them. 
 
 The ancient Peruvians ate their deceased parents. 
 
 I have dwelt longer upon the painful subject of cannibalism 
 than might seem desirable, in order to show its religious char- 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 725. 
 
 2 Descrip. Mosquito Kingdom, Churchill s Coll. Voy., vol. vi. p. 291. 
 
 3 i Southey, 379. 4 Denis, Bresil, 9. s i Southey, 590. 
 
152 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 acter and prevalence everywhere. Instead of being confined to 
 savage peoples, as is generally supposed, it prevailed to a greater 
 extent and with more horrible rites among the most civilized. 
 Its religious inception was the cause of this. 
 
 The origin of a religious rite among the aboriginal Ameri 
 cans similar to the eucharistic among Roman Catholics is un 
 doubtedly based upon the primitive superstition, that by eating 
 a part of any animate body, or body supposed to be animate, 
 the partaker is endowed with the qualities of that body. This 
 superstition was very prevalent among the various tribes who 
 thought they became endowed with the qualities of the animal 
 eaten. It developed itself in cannibalism, which had a strangely 
 protracted life in the semi-civilization of America, and it mani 
 fested itself in the eucharistic idol and feast of the Aztecs. 
 This singular rite was called Teoqualo, that is, " the eating of 
 the god." A figure of Huitzilopochtli was made in dough, 
 and after certain ceremonies they made a pretence of killing it 
 and dividing it into morsels, which were eaten by the worship 
 pers as a sacred food. 1 
 
 The superstition underlying idolatry explains this apparently 
 meaningless rite. They supposed their idol was animate, and 
 the spiritual substance inhered in the material of the idol and 
 passed into their bodies with it and was assimilated. Thus a 
 transmigration of a portion of the spiritual substance of a god 
 was accomplished. One of these eucharistic ceremonies is thus 
 described by Herrera : " An idol made of all the varieties of 
 the seeds and grain of the country was made and moistened 
 with the blood of children and virgins ; this idol was broken 
 into small bits, and given by way of communion to men and 
 women to eat, who, to prepare for that festival, bathed and 
 dressed their heads and scarce slept all the night. They prayed, 
 and as soon as it was day were all in the temple to receive that 
 communion, with such singular silence and devotion that though 
 there was an infinite multitude there seemed to be nobody. If 
 
 1 Tylor s Anahuac, 280. 
 
FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 153 
 
 any of the idol was left, the priests ate it. Montezuma went to 
 this ceremony attended by abundance of quality and richly 
 dressed." * Mendieta mentions the same ceremony, and says, 
 " Gods were eaten in this way ; they made idols of seeds, and 
 ate them as though they were the bodies of their gods." 2 These 
 seed idols have a special significance, because the mysterious 
 vitality of a seed and its germinating power impressed itself on 
 all the American tribes, and manifested itself in many rites and 
 ceremonies. The tobacco-plant was supposed to be imbued 
 with the spiritual body of the goddess Ciuacoatl, and was eaten 
 in the eucharistic ceremony to her. The Totomacs had a com 
 munion in the following way. Every three years they killed 
 three boys and took out their hearts. From their blood, 
 mixed with certain seeds, they made a paste which was con 
 sidered a eucharist and a most sacred thing, and was partaken 
 of every six months by men above twenty-five and women 
 above sixteen. They called the paste, food of our souls. 3 
 
 The significance of this rite consisted in a supposed afflux of 
 spiritual life. A transmigration was the explanation of the 
 mystery. 
 
 Another fetichistic superstition arose from the animistic be 
 liefs of primitive peoples. Consequent upon their belief in the 
 omnipresence of spirits was a superstitious fear of having their 
 own names spoken aloud or of using the names of the dead. 
 
 The superstition prevailed among all the tribes that the 
 utterance of a word at any distance had a direct effect on the 
 object which that word stands for. They thought they could 
 be bewitched through their names as well as their images or 
 parts of their bodies. 4 
 
 The Araucanians would not allow their names to be told to 
 strangers, lest these should be used in sorcery. 5 
 
 The New Mexican tribes never made known their own names 
 or those of friends to a stranger. The Indians of British Co- 
 
 1 2 Herrera, 379. 2 Mendieta, 108. 3 Ib., 109. 
 
 * Tylor s Researches, 124. $2 Wood, 564. 
 
154 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 lumbia had a strong prejudice against telling their own names. 
 Among the Ojibways the name-superstition prevailed. Hus 
 bands and wives never told each other s names, and children 
 were told they would stop growing if they repeated their own 
 names. 1 Their names were considered sacred, and were gen 
 erally kept secret. The names by which the Indians were 
 called were generally not their true names, but were given 
 them for some characteristic peculiarity. The secret name of 
 Pocahontas was Matokes, which was concealed from the English 
 out of superstitious fear. 2 In the mythical story of Hiawatha 
 the same was true, his real name being Tarenyawagon. The 
 Abipones of Paraguay had the same superstition. Mr. Dobriz- 
 hoffer says they would knock on his door at night, and when 
 he would ask who was there no answer would come; they were 
 afraid to utter their names. Among some tribes the names of 
 all the acquaintances of a person were changed at his death, to 
 avoid, as far as possible, the recognition of the living by the 
 ghosts of the dead. The Chinooks changed their names when 
 a near relative died, under the impression that spirits would be 
 attracted back to earth if they heard familiar names. 3 The 
 Lenguas of Brazil changed their names on the death of any 
 one, for they believed that the dead knew the names of all 
 whom they had left alive, and might look for them ; for this 
 reason they changed their names, hoping that if they returned 
 they could not find them. 
 
 The Indians also refrained from mentioning the names of 
 dead persons. Among the New England tribes, if any man 
 bore the name of the dead, he immediately changed his name. 4 
 
 A superstitious fear of pronouncing the names of the dead 
 prevailed everywhere. It was a crime among the Abipones to 
 utter the name of a dead person. A mistake in doing this led 
 to bloody quarrels. 5 
 
 The Fuegians never mentioned the name of the dead. 6 
 
 1 Jones s Ojibways, 162. 2 2 Schoolcraft, 66. 
 
 3 i Bancroft, 248. < I Arnold s Rhode Island, 77. 
 
 5 2 Dobriz., 444-45. 6 Darwin s Nat. Voy., 214. 
 
FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 155 
 
 The Indians of Virginia, says Blome, did not mention the 
 name of a dead person, and those having the same name 
 changed it. Among the Western tribes they never mentioned 
 the names of their relations after they were dead. 1 
 
 Among the Northern tribes, when a death occurred, if a rela 
 tive of the deceased was absent they hung along the road by 
 which he would return something to apprise him of the fact, so 
 that he would not mention the name of the dead on his return. 
 Among the Northwestern tribes the Indians considered it a 
 sacrilege to mention the name of a person after he was dead. 2 
 
 This superstition is found in the Shawnee myth of Yellow 
 Sky, who was a daughter of the tribe, and had dreams which 
 told her she was created for an unheard-of mission. There 
 was a mystery about her being, and none could comprehend 
 the meaning of her evening songs. The paths leading to her 
 father s lodge were more beaten than those to any other. On 
 one condition alone at last she consented to become a wife. 
 That condition was, that he who became her husband should 
 never mention her name. If he did, she cautioned him, a sad 
 calamity would befall him, and he would forever thereafter regret 
 his thoughtlessness. After a time Yellow Sky sickened and 
 died, and her last words were that her husband should never 
 breathe her name. The widower for five summers lived in 
 solitude. But, alas, one day as he was upon the grave of his 
 dead Yellow Sky an Indian asked him whose it was, and he 
 forgot and uttered the forbidden name. He fell to the earth 
 in great pain, and as darkness settled round about him a trans 
 formation scene began, and next morning near the grave of 
 Yellow Sky a large buck was quietly feeding. It was the un 
 happy husband. 3 
 
 The Connecticut tribes never pronounced the names of the 
 dead. If the offence was twice repeated, death was not re 
 garded as a punishment too severe. In 1655, Philip, having 
 
 Parker s Journal, 251. 2 Harmon s Journal, 349. 
 
 3 Lanman s Haw-Hoo-Hoo, 231-32. 
 
156 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 heard that another Indian had spoken the name of a deceased 
 relative of his, came to the island of Nantucket to kill him, and 
 the English had to interfere to prevent it. 1 Among the Cali 
 fornia tribes the name of the departed was never breathed by the 
 living. If spoken accidentally, a shudder passed over all those 
 present. 2 The Atuas never mentioned the name of the dead. 
 Such an act would have been considered the greatest rudeness. 3 
 Among the Iroquois, upon the death of a person, his name 
 could not be used again in the lifetime of his oldest surviving 
 son without the consent of the latter. 4 
 
 Tattooing is fetichistic in its origin. Among all the tribes, 
 almost every Indian has the image of an animal tattooed on his 
 breast or arm, which can charm away an evil spirit or prevent 
 harm to them. 
 
 It is quite remarkable to find this superstition as prevalent 
 as it was among the more civilized tribes. 
 
 The Central Americans tattooed their breasts, arms, and 
 thighs with figures of eagles, serpents, and other animals. 5 
 
 The Nicaraguans practised the same custom. Herrera men 
 tions the custom of tattooing the skin with stags and other 
 such creatures among the natives of Honduras. 6 
 
 The Isthmians tattooed their bodies with the figures of ani 
 mals and trees. 7 
 
 The Mexicans thought themselves perfectly safe from all 
 harm when their bodies were anointed or painted with an 
 unction, called the divine medicament, composed of a mixture 
 of poisonous insects, such as scorpions and spiders. 8 
 
 Tattooing will be further noticed under animal worship. 
 
 All fetiches are supposed to have spiritual intelligent beings 
 who reside in them. In its broadest definition, therefore, feti- 
 chism would include the whole subject of primitive religion ; 
 but in order to deal with it as a separate subject it is limited 
 to those material objects which are worn or kept about the 
 
 x Beach, 301. * 4 Schoolcraft, 226. 3 Dall s Alaska, 524. 
 
 4 Morgan s Ancient Society, 79. 5 Cogolludo, book 4, chap. 5. 
 
 6 I Herrera, 262. 7 i Bancroft, 753. 8 I Clavigero, 273. 
 
FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 157 
 
 person for individual use. Fetichism, being dependent on the 
 ghost theory, has of course succeeded it in point of time. 
 
 In America we find fetichism among the rudest tribes, but 
 among the civilized Peruvians it became immensely elaborated. 
 
 It is plain that a good deal of mental activity has been pres 
 ent among a people that have elaborated the doctrine of fetich- 
 ism to any extent, as was the case among the Peruvians. 
 
 A barren mind could not conceive of an inanimate object 
 having in it some existence besides that which his senses ac 
 quaint him with. He could not imagine an invisible entity 
 within a visible one, but showing no evidence of its existence. 
 He has not the mental power to grasp such a conception. 1 
 
 A rude fetichism prevailed among the Eskimos, who loaded 
 themselves with amulets dangling about their necks and arms. 
 They consisted of bones, bills, and claws of birds, which, ac 
 cording to their opinion, had a wonderful virtue to preserve 
 those that wore them from disease and misfortune. 2 The men 
 always kept some part of the seal they had killed, lest they 
 should forfeit their luck. They were very anxious to get a 
 rag or shoe of a European, to hang about their children s 
 necks, that they might acquire European skill and ability 
 thereby. They requested Europeans to blow upon them. The 
 prows of their boats were always adorned with a fox s head, and 
 their harpoons with an eagle s beak. They piled the heads of 
 their seals before their doors, that the souls of the seals might 
 not get angry. The kayak was often adorned with a dead 
 sparrow or snipe, or the feathers or hair of some animal, to 
 ward off danger. Eagles claws were a great fetich. 3 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the souls of animals among 
 savage peoples were more potent than those of men, and ani 
 mal fetiches prevailed as early man depended upon the animal 
 world and most of his associations were with it. 
 
 The natives of the Yukon territory wear bears claws and 
 teeth, sables tails and wolves ears, porcupine quills and ermine 
 
 Spencer, 345. 2 Egede, 198. 3 i Crantz, 200. 
 
 ii 
 
1 5 8 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 skins, beavers teeth, and the bright-green scalps of the mal 
 lard. They pierce the nose to insert shells therein. 1 The 
 Innuits wear beluga teeth. Ear-rings are much worn among 
 them, and the ceremony of boring the ear is a religious one. 
 They also wear images of animals. 2 The Haidahs used small 
 owls and squirrels as amulets. Amulets made of the tusks of 
 some animal akin to the mastodon were found in many of the 
 graves of Tennessee. 3 An Indian who possessed a tooth pro 
 nounced by Professor Marsh, when in the Black Hills, to be 
 that of a brontotherium, said it belonged to a big horse struck 
 by lightning. 4 He thought it was a great fetich. The New 
 Mexicans wore feathers of birds, antelopes toes, and cranes 
 bills as charms. 5 The Isthmians wore around their necks the 
 figures of animals, and carried about their persons the claws 
 of wild beasts and feathers. 6 The Abipones wore crocodiles 
 teeth suspended from their neck, and believed they would de 
 fend them from the bites of serpents. The Haytians also used 
 such fetiches. 7 In the tombs of all the more civilized American 
 nations small images of animals intended as fetiches were 
 found. The eyes of the cuttle-fish were very popular fetiches 
 in Peru. 8 
 
 The Brazilian savages wore bones in their ears and cheeks 
 as fetiches. One of the tribes wore a parrot s feather through 
 the nose. Animal fetiches were more used than any other, on 
 account of the prevalence of the system of animal manitous 
 hereafter noticed. Among the Northern tribes, boys, when 
 arriving at puberty, selected an animal as a patron, and always 
 wore a piece of the skin or bone of that animal as an amulet, 
 and used every precaution against its loss, which would have 
 been regarded as a great calamity. The young Indian, after 
 having chosen his patron or manitou, yielded to it a sort of 
 worship, propitiated it with offerings of tobacco, thanked it in 
 prosperity, and upbraided it in disaster. The superstition be- 
 
 Dall, 95. 2 Ih., 140-41. 3 Smithsonian Rep., 1877, 274. 
 
 4 Beach, 259. s i Bancroft, 522. 6 I ib. f 752. 
 
 7 i Rafmesque, 191. 8 Bollaert, 151. 
 
FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 159 
 
 came mere fetich-worship. 1 If the animal would admit of its 
 skin being made into a bag, it became his medicine-bag. The 
 medicine-bag and its meaning and importance should be under 
 stood, as it may be said to be the key to Indian life and Indian 
 character. These bags were constructed of the skins of ani 
 mals, and ornamented in a thousand different ways as suited 
 the taste or freak of each person. Every Indian carried his 
 medicine-bag, to which he paid the greatest homage, and to 
 which he looked for safety and protection through life. Feasts 
 were often made and dogs and horses sacrificed to a man s 
 medicine-bag, and days and even weeks of fasting and penance 
 of various kinds were often suffered to appease this fetich, 
 which he imagined he had in some way offended. He looked 
 upon this as a supernatural charm or guardian, on which he 
 depended for the preservation of his life. In death it was 
 buried with him, and was thought to be as useful in the next 
 world as in this. If an Indian should sell or give away his med 
 icine-bag, he would be disgraced in his tribe. If it was taken 
 away from him in battle, he was forever subjected to the de 
 grading epithet of " a man without medicine," and he could 
 only restore his honor and replace his medicine by capturing 
 one from an enemy in battle. He could institute his medicine- 
 bag but once in life, and then by a dream. 2 They did not dare 
 touch the medicine-bags of each other, for they would injure 
 any who dared to examine their sacred contents. 3 Before they 
 went to war they examined these as carefully as our soldiers 
 would their cartridge-boxes. 4 
 
 The Tupinambas of Brazil carried their devotion to their 
 maracas farther than the North American to his medicine-bag. 
 These maracas were worshipped. They were supposed to give 
 oracles. They sacrificed human beings to them. They were 
 supposed to be inhabited by a spirit. 5 
 
 These maracas were gourds with pebbles in them. They 
 
 1 Parkman s Jes., Ixxi. 2 I Catlin, 36-37. 3 i ib., 154-55. 
 
 4 Kohl, 344. s i Southey, 202. 
 
l6o PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 were so sacred none but their owners could look at them. 
 Offerings of game and honey were made to them. 1 They per 
 formed sacred dances to them. The maraca was made of a 
 fruit so called, was hollow, and had a stick running through it, 
 and on the top of this stick was a tuft of human hair, which 
 undoubtedly gave it its sacred character. Every man of those 
 tribes on the Orinoco had one of these. 2 
 
 The medicine-bag, or maraca, did not exclude the use of other 
 fetiches. Sometimes as many as twenty amulets were found 
 within a medicine-bag. Among the Northern tribes a child s 
 cradle was hung with fetiches to ward off evil. 3 
 
 The Iroquois wore amulets as a defence against witchcraft 
 and sorcery. They were worn on the breast, or suspended 
 from the neck or ears. They were sometimes representations 
 of a human face, but generally a part of some animal. 4 
 
 A great part of their philosophy of medicine consisted of 
 amulets. They believed the possession of certain articles about 
 the person rendered the body invulnerable. Some of them 
 were kept in the medicine-sack, some worn as ornaments. Sea- 
 shells have always been very popular amulets. The sea appears 
 to have been invested with mystical powers, and any of its in 
 habitants shared the mystery, a very reasonable superstition, it 
 would appear, when we look at these colored, glittering, and 
 beautifully-formed objects. Their wampum-strings were always 
 sacred in their eyes, and were a token of the sacred character 
 of treaties. Amulets used in life were buried with the dead. 5 
 
 Among the Peruvians the conopas were the individual deities. 
 If a person found anything that was of peculiar color or figure, 
 it was a conopa, and became a fetich to them. They worshipped 
 them. The bezoar stones, which were very popular conopas, 
 were often found with blood on them, implying a bloody sacri 
 fice. These conopas descended from father to son. 6 They 
 protected their estates against thieves by laying down tortoise- 
 
 1 I Southey, 379. 2 I ib., 187-88. 3 Kohl, 8. 
 
 < Schoolcraft s Iroquois, 137-38. 5 i Schoolcraft, 86. 6 Ardaga, 14-15. 
 
FETICHISTIC SUPERSTITIONS. 161 
 
 shells. No one dared enter an estate where there was one of 
 these shells. 1 Flamingoes were used to preserve dwellings 
 from harm. Each Peruvian might have as many fetiches as he 
 pleased. The number was not restricted, as in Mexico, where 
 the king might have six, a noble four, and a plebeian only two. 
 They made little images of llamas, alpacas, vicunas, huanacas, 
 deer, monkeys, parrots, lizards, and other animals, and carried 
 and worshipped them. Some of them had little cavities in the 
 back, in which sacrifices were placed. 2 
 
 Among the Mexicans, " travellers carried a black stick which 
 was a fetich, for they thought it preserved them from all harm, 
 and when they made a halt they worshipped it." 3 
 
 The Northern tribes used banners as fetiches, on which was 
 a picture of the totemic animal of the tribe. Many heraldic 
 devices, which will be noticed under animal worship, were 
 sketched on skins of animals. An animal chosen as a crest 
 must not be killed or ill treated in the presence of any wearing 
 its figure. 
 
 The supposition that the animate creation could be subjected 
 to the control of any who possessed a part has survived even 
 among the most civilized of the American peoples. The super 
 stition has been extended to include a belief which has devel 
 oped therefrom, that by keeping in possession the bones of an 
 individual of a species, the other members of the species could 
 be influenced thereby. 
 
 The natives of Honduras kept the bones of deer in their 
 houses, thinking it gave them power over the deer. If they 
 lost them they would kill no more deer. 4 
 
 The prevalence of these superstitions relating to parts of the 
 bodies of animate creation would develop a desire to preserve 
 with sacred care the bones of the dead, for by obtaining a part 
 of the body of a deceased person the possessor had control 
 over the spirit of the deceased. 
 
 1 Oliva, 118-19. a Rivero and Tschudi, 171-74. 
 
 3 i Clavigero, 388. 4 4 Herrera, 142. 
 
1 62 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Again, it was the universal desire of primitive peoples to have 
 their bodies kept intact, with the expectation of reanimating 
 them at some future time. The perfection of this reanimated 
 body was prevented, they thought, if the parts were separated. 
 Hence we are led to the consideration of the mortuary customs 
 of the aborigines, and the ceremonies connected therewith, 
 which will elucidate their worship of the dead. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 RITES AND CEREMONIES CONNECTED WITH THE DEAD. 
 
 Burial-customs Care of the dead Interment Suspension Cremation Tombs 
 the primitive altars The mounds, their builders and uses Burial-towers 
 Resurrection of the dead Sacrifice jFood-offerings the primitive form- Human 
 sacrifices Tombs the primitive temples. 
 
 BURIAL-CUSTOMS and ceremonies are closely connected with 
 the subject of the worship of human spirits. In the perform 
 ance of this " last act" we can find valuable evidence to aid in 
 our researches on primitive religion. The rites and ceremonies 
 attending the disposition of the dead were religious in their 
 nature, and religious rites are unconscious commentaries on 
 religious beliefs. 
 
 The great care of primitive peoples in preserving the bodies 
 of the dead has been instigated by many of their superstitions, 
 prominent among which was their belief in a resurrection. 
 The doctrine of the resurrection was the most deeply-rooted 
 and wide-spread conviction of the Indian mind. It is indis- 
 solubly connected with their highest theories of a future life. 
 The Delawares told Loskiel, " We Indians shall not forever die. 
 Even the grains of corn grow up and become living things." 
 The Indians thought the soul would return to the bones and 
 be clothed again with flesh. 1 
 
 Their belief that dreams were produced by the soul s de 
 parture from and return to the body was akin to their belief in 
 resurrection. The only difference between sleep and death 
 to the primitive mind consisted in the extent of time the soul 
 was absent. In both the soul would return; in both the body 
 
 1 Brinton, 272-73. 
 
1 64 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 would reawake. The custom which we have noticed of bury 
 ing the dead quickly after death in many tribes, and with no 
 medical skill to know whether life was extinct, resulted often 
 in the return of the supposed dead man to life, and thus afforded 
 practical proof of a resurrection to the savage mind. This doc 
 trine of a resurrection manifested itself in Oriental art in the 
 production of the topes. In Egypt the pyramids are an evidence 
 of it. In Greek literature Antigone is an expression of this 
 thought. 
 
 The same superstitious care of the bodies of the dead which 
 has inspired so many classical tales is found among even the 
 rudest of the American tribes. Says Del Techo of those tribes 
 inhabiting Brazil and its vicinity, " They carefully keep the 
 bones of their relatives ; nor is there any affront they avenge 
 with so much war and slaughter as when you upbraid them 
 that the bones of their ancestors have been lost for want of 
 looking after." 1 Mr. Humboldt says, in speaking of the cave 
 of Ataruipe, in Guiana, which he thought to be the grave of an 
 extinct tribe, " We counted about six hundred well-preserved 
 skeletons placed in as many caskets formed of the stalks of 
 palm-leaves. These skeletons were so perfect that not a rib or 
 finger was wanting." 2 Among the Northern tribes the bones 
 of the dead were preserved with scrupulous care, and if one was 
 missing it would be looked for till found. Even the comfort 
 of the body was looked after. Says Arriaga of the Peruvians, 
 " They are convinced that corpses feel, eat, and drink, and will 
 rise again, and are much better satisfied with vaults, where they 
 do not suffer with a load of earth placed upon them." 3 They 
 so skilfully embalmed the bodies of their deceased Incas that 
 they were as successful as the Egyptians in perpetuating the 
 existence of the body beyond the limits assigned to it by 
 nature. 4 
 
 Among the tribes of North America, unless the rites of burial 
 
 1 4 Churchill, Coll. Voy., 705. a Views of Nature, 171. 
 
 3 Arriaga, 40-41. 4 I Prescott s Peru, 33-34. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 165 
 
 were properly performed, many of them thought the spirits of 
 the dead wandered upon the earth in great unhappiness. Hence 
 arose their solicitude to get possession of the bodies of the 
 slain. 1 Among the Ottawas a great famine was thought to 
 have been produced on account of the failure of some of their 
 tribesmen to perform these burial-rites. After having repaired 
 their fault they were blessed with an abundance of provisions. 2 
 
 Many of the nomadic tribes carried their dead with them in 
 their migrations. Heckewelder gives a curious instance of this 
 in the following words : 
 
 " These Nanticokes had the singular custom of removing the 
 bones of their deceased friends from the old burial-place to a 
 place of deposit in the country they now dwell in. In earlier 
 times they were known to go from Wyoming and Chemenk to 
 fetch the bones of their dead from the Eastern Shore of Mary 
 land, even when the bodies were in a putrid state, so that they 
 had to take off the flesh and scrape the bones clean before they 
 could carry them along. I well remember having seen them 
 between the years 1750 and 1760 loaded with such bones, 
 which, having flesh on them, caused a disagreeable stench as 
 they passed through the town of Bethlehem." 3 
 
 This disposition of each tribe to cling to the earthly remains 
 of their kindred would originate the custom of burial in gentes 
 or families. We find a good deal of evidence to show that this 
 was done in early times. Mr. Morgan thinks that formerly a 
 tendency existed to bury in this way. This practice he dis 
 covered at Lewiston among the Tuscaroras, where the beaver, 
 bear, and gray-wolf gentes buried separately. The Choctaws 
 and Cherokees kept separate and apart the bones of each gens, 
 and the ark containing the bones had the family totem marked 
 upon it. Among the Onondagas and Oneidas the practice sur 
 vived to recent times. 4 Among the Hurons the same practice 
 prevailed. In the Jesuit Relations an elaborate annual cumula- 
 
 1 Morgan s League, 175. 2 Kip s Jesuit Missionaries, 33. 
 
 3 Heckewelder, 75, seq. * Morgan s Ancient Society, 83-84. 
 
1 66 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 tive burial of the bear gens of the Hurons is described. Among 
 the tribes of South America, where hut-burial was so prevalent 
 as it was, the house of each family became its burial-place. 
 
 The place of sepulture and the manner of disposing of the 
 dead vary greatly according to locality. The influence of cli 
 mate is apparent, also the occupation of the people, also the 
 degree of progress they have made from savagery. The Eskimos 
 prefer an elevated and remote situation for the tomb, and a 
 woman waving a light follows the corpse, which has been taken 
 out of the house through a window, and not the usual en 
 trance ; or, if living in tents, an opening is made in the back 
 part of the tent. On the way to the place of interment she 
 cries, " Here thou hast nothing more to hope for ! " x A super 
 stitious fear of the spirit of the dead is here plainly shown in 
 the custom of carrying the body out of another beside the 
 ordinary exit, and also in their address to the dead, which is 
 not certainly very hospitable. Sometimes the body is buried 
 in the ground, beneath a covering of fur or sods, over which 
 heavy stones are placed as a protection against foxes and birds. 2 
 The Eskimos do not generally, however, inter the dead, but ele 
 vate them above the earth. In the Yukon territory the body 
 is doubled up in a box, and elevated above the ground on four 
 posts. 3 Sometimes it is enclosed in a standing posture in a 
 circle of sticks, looking much like a cask. 4 The Ingalik graves 
 sometimes look like an old-fashioned bedstead, with four posts 
 supporting the box or coffin. The Tuski carry the dead out 
 through a hole cut in the back of the hut, which is immediately 
 closed up, that the spirit may not find its way back. Crema 
 tion sometimes occurs among them, but the dead are generally 
 suspended above ground, because if buried the bears would dig 
 them up. 5 Some are, however, buried with the head above 
 the surface. 6 
 
 The external surroundings have had much influence among 
 
 1 I Crantz, 217. 2 Lyon s Journal, 371. 
 
 3 Ball s Alaska, 17. Ih., 95. 
 
 s Ib., 382. 6 Hooper s Tuski, 221. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 1 6; 
 
 wild tribes upon their burial-customs. Where there is no soil, 
 as in many places, interment is impracticable. Where there 
 are no trees and but little drift-wood, cremation is impossible, 
 and the natives are compelled to expose their dead on some 
 hill-side. In the Yukon valley, just below the surface, the soil 
 is permanently frozen and excavation extremely difficult, but 
 timber abounds, and the bodies are placed in wooden coffins 
 and suspended on posts out of the reach of wild beasts. Where 
 the soil is unfrozen and there are no obstacles to digging, in 
 terment is practised. Among the Kaniag and Aleut branches 
 of the Eskimos the dead were mummified. The body was pre 
 pared by making an opening in the pelvic region and removing 
 the internal organs, and the cavity was stuffed with dry grass 
 and placed in running water to wash away the fatty portions, 
 and the body after preparation wrapped in several folds of skins 
 and furs, and then consigned to caves and rock shelters, which 
 were shunned by the living. There was a cave on the Four 
 Mountain Islands, which was the mausoleum of a chief and 
 three children, since which the place has been abandoned by 
 the natives. Those Kadiaks who hunted the whale formed a 
 caste by themselves, and their bodies were preserved with re 
 ligious care and secreted in caves only known to the posses 
 sors, because if not kept secret they would be stolen by other 
 whalers to cut up for fetichistic purposes. The Aleuts often 
 laid the dead in the clefts of the rocks, but they were generally 
 placed in boat-shaped coffins and suspended to poles. Chil 
 dren were sometimes kept in the house, where the fond mother 
 would continue to watch carefully over them and wipe away 
 the mould. 1 The Thlinkeets suspended their shamans in boxes, 
 but, with that exception, buried their dead. Before burning a 
 warrior, however, they cut off his head and kept it in a box, 
 which was placed over the box containing his ashes. 2 
 
 The Santees made rude attempts at embalming, but usually 
 exposed the body until the flesh could be scraped off, when the 
 
 1 Ball s Alaska, 390. 2 I Bancroft, 113. 
 
1 68 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 flesh was burned ; then the bones were carefully preserved in a 
 wooden box and oiled every year. They have preserved them 
 in some instances for many ages. When an Indian was slain in 
 battle, however, the body was generally covered with a tumu 
 lus of stones and sticks. 1 The Root-diggers seem to have prac 
 tised cremation, 2 which appears to have been almost universal 
 among the California tribes. They assigned as the reason for 
 this custom the prevention of putrefaction and destruction of 
 the body by insects. 3 A few mummies in remarkable preserva 
 tion have been found among the Chinooks and Flatheads. 
 They were generally placed in canoes on elevated ground, with 
 all their implements around them. 4 
 
 The Mandans never bury the dead, but place the bodies on 
 scaffolds just out of the reach of wolves and dogs. Near the 
 village there was always a group of these scaffolds, resembling 
 a city of the dead. The body was carefully and thoroughly 
 bandaged, and then placed upon a scaffold facing the east. The 
 mourners spent much of their time under these scaffolds. 
 When the scaffolds fell, all the bones but the skulls were buried. 
 These were collected and placed in circles of a hundred or 
 more on the prairie. 
 
 Among the tribes about the Santa Fe trail suspension in high 
 trees is very common. If buried, the wolves dug them up. 5 
 The same practice prevails among the Dacotahs and Western 
 Ojibways. The bones and hairs are gathered, after the flesh is 
 gone, and interred. Suspension was practised by many of the 
 tribes on the Columbia River, the body having first been placed 
 in a canoe. 6 
 
 Although the Dacotahs practise suspension usually, they 
 sometimes inter, and in a sitting posture, as a sign that the 
 man has been killed in war. The common practice among the 
 Indians of relating the brave deeds of such and addressing the 
 corpse probably suggested the placing them in a convenient pos- 
 
 1 4 Schoolcraft, 156. 2 4 ib., 225. 3 5 ib., 217. 
 
 * 5 ib., 693. s i ib., 262. 6 I ib., 217. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 169 
 
 ture for these ceremonies. Once a year the Dacotahs gather 
 the bones of the dead for general burial. When they inter, 
 they say that the little red squirrel sometimes devours the 
 corpse, and for this reason they will not eat that animal. Of 
 this curious reason for the abstention from animal flesh I will 
 speak further under the head of animal worship. A remarkable 
 mode of burial was seen in the neighborhood of Kenosha, Wis 
 consin. Two Indians were set in the ground in a standing or 
 upright posture, and all of their bodies above their waists pro 
 truded above the surface of the ground, where they could see 
 what was going on. The progress of decay had already de 
 prived one of the bodies of its head when seen by the whites. 
 
 When a Comanche warrior dies, he is buried on the summit 
 of a high hill in a sitting posture, with his face to the east, and 
 his buffalo robe and all his scanty wardrobe with him. His best 
 horses also are killed, and the remainder of his animals have 
 their manes and tails shaved close, and the women of the family 
 crop their hair, as a symbol of affliction and mourning. After 
 the death, the relatives and friends of the deceased assemble 
 morning and evening outside the camp, where they cry and 
 cut themselves with knives for half an hour or more, and this 
 sometimes lasts for a month. When an ordinary person dies, 
 the corpse is buried immediately. The death of a young war 
 rior is always greatly lamented, and the mourning ceremonies 
 continue a long time; but when an old man dies they only 
 mourn for him a few days. 1 
 
 Says La Hontan of the Northern nations, " As soon as a 
 savage dies he is dressed as neatly as can be, and his relations 
 and slaves (captives) come and mourn over him. When the 
 corpse is dressed, they set it upon a mat in the same posture as 
 if the person were alive, and his relations being set around him, 
 every one in his turn addresses him with a harangue, recount 
 ing all his exploits as well as those of his ancestors. He that 
 speaks last expresses himself to this purpose: You sit now 
 
 1 Marcy s Army Life on the Border, 56. 
 
I yo PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 along with us, and have the same shape that we have; you 
 want neither arms, nor head, nor legs, but at the same time you 
 cease to be, and begin to evaporate like the smoke of a pipe. 
 Who is it that talked with us but two days ago ? Sure twas 
 not you, for then you would speak to us still. It must there 
 fore be your soul, which is now lodged in the great country of 
 souls along with those of our nation. After they have made 
 an end of their harangues, the male relations remove to make 
 room for the female friends, who make him the like compli 
 ment. This done, they shut the corpse up twenty-four hours 
 in the hut for the dead, and during that time are employed in 
 dances and feasts, which are far from being a mournful show. 
 After the twenty-four hours are expired, the slaves of the de 
 ceased person carry his corpse upon their backs to the burying- 
 place, where it is laid upon stakes that are ten feet high, in a 
 double coffin of bark, with his arms and some pipes, with 
 tobacco and Indian corn put up in the same coffin. When the 
 slaves are carrying the corpse to the burying-place, the male and 
 female relations accompany them, dancing all the while, and the 
 rest of the slaves of the deceased person carry some baggage, 
 which the relations present to the dead person and lay upon 
 his coffin." J 
 
 The Assiniboins, like several other tribes of_the great 
 American deserts^jiever bury their dead, but suspend them by 
 thongs of leather between the branches of the great trees, or 
 expose them on scaffoldings sufficiently high to place the body 
 out of reach of the voracious wild animals. The feet of the 
 corpses are turned toward the rising sun, and when the trees 
 or scaffoldings fall through old age, the bones are collected and 
 buried religiously within a circle formed of heads. This sacred 
 deposit is guarded, as among the Mandans, by medicine-trees 
 or posts, from which amulets or medicine-bags are suspended. 
 
 The practice of suspension undoubtedly arose from a desire 
 to prevent animals from devouring the dead. Carelessness 
 
 1 2 La Hontan, 54, 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 171 
 
 about the preservation of the dead seldom occurs among the 
 Northern tribes. There are only a few instances mentioned 
 among all the tribes of America where an attempt was not 
 made to prevent the destruction of the dead by animals. 
 
 The Chippewyans had a great aversion to being buried in 
 the ground. The idea of being eaten by the worms was hor 
 rible to them. They enclosed the body in hollow wood, which 
 they hung to trees. The widow was obliged to remain near 
 the body for one year, to keep away animals. When nothing 
 but the bones were left they were burned, and the ashes kept in 
 a small box. 1 If their dead had been wicked or unpopular in 
 life, then such care would not be bestowed upon them, but they 
 would be burned forthwith. 2 
 
 The Ojibways interred with the head toward the west, and 
 built a tomb of poles placed lengthways. If the deceased was 
 a husband, the widow ran zigzag toward home, dodging be 
 hind trees to elude the spirit of her dead husband. For several 
 nights they rattled at the door, in order to frighten away his 
 spirit. Some hung up scarecrows to flutter in the wind, im 
 agining the spirit to be as timid as themselves. 3 When the 
 ground was frozen and it was almost impossible to penetrate 
 the surface, they wrapped the corpse in skins or bark and hung 
 it on a tree beyond the reach of wolves and foxes. When the 
 bones fell to the ground they were gathered and buried. 4 
 
 It will thus be seen that among the Northern tribes all the 
 various kinds of burial were resorted to, yet interments were 
 less frequent, because during many months in the year they 
 could not be made. In many cases those accustomed to inter 
 in the summer would burn or otherwise dispose of the dead 
 in winter. Cremation appears to have been the most usual 
 method of disposing of the dead among most of these Northern 
 tribes. The reasons that led to this were that it was the easiest 
 and quickest mode of disposing of the more destructible parts 
 
 1 Smithsonian Rep., 1866, 319. 2 Ib., 326. 
 
 3 Jones s Ojibways, 98-100. 4 Ib., 100. 
 
I -2 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 of the body, and the indestructible were reduced to less bulk, 
 so that they might be disposed of or carried more easily. Their 
 flesh was thus saved from the devouring worm, or from being 
 eaten by the birds or other animals. The curious custom pre 
 vailed to some extent of drinking the ashes of relatives, by 
 which superstitious practice the spirit of the deceased, or a part 
 of it, was supposed to be absorbed and assimilated by the spirit 
 of the person drinking the ashes. For the same reason these 
 : e often smeared, when moistened, over the bodies of 
 the living. Among the California tribes cremation was almost 
 universal. The weird and showy spectacle undoubtedly added 
 much to the interest taken in cremation, as I find among tribes 
 using this method that the attendance was generally large at 
 ceremonies. Another advantage of cremation was that 
 thereby the personal effects of the deceased, which were gen 
 erally sacrificed, were so disposed of that they could not be 
 stolen, as they frequently were when deposited with the body 
 in exposed places. 
 
 Passing to the customs of the Southern tribes, we find them 
 vary much from those of the North, where a rude fear of spirits 
 but has not developed into worship. 
 
 The Mosquitos deposit the body in a canoe, in which they 
 place a spear, bow, and paddle. If a widow survives, she sup 
 plies her dead husband with food for a year, after w ? hich she 
 carries his bones on her back in the daytime and sleeps with 
 them at night for another year. After this they are deposited 
 in the house. 1 
 
 Among the wild tribes of Central America interment and 
 cremation were both practised. The custom prevailed to some 
 extent of placing the body in a hut or primitive temple and 
 there offering sacrifices to it as long as anything but the bones 
 remained. In the higher civilizations of America a more elab 
 orate system of sacrifices was gradually being developed, and 
 great monuments and temples were built over the remains of 
 
 1 I Bancroft, 744. 
 
B URIAL- CUSTOMS. 1 73 
 
 dead heroes. In Peru, embalmment was a common mode of 
 preserving the dead caciques. It was also practised to some 
 extent in the provinces of Central America, where slow fires of 
 herbs were built under the body ; it was thus gradually dried, 
 until only skin and bones remained. These were then dressed 
 and adorned with ornaments of gold, jewels, and feathers, and 
 placed in an apartment of his palace, where the remains of his 
 ancestors were kept. Quinantzin, monarch of Tezcuco, who 
 died after a long and prosperous reign, in the thirteenth cen 
 tury, was burned with great pomp and ceremony, and his ashes 
 placed in an emerald urn. The Aztecs were very particular 
 about the disposal of their dead. The monarchs were often 
 embalmed by taking out the bowels and replacing them with 
 aromatic substances. The process was not complete, and only 
 served temporarily while the tedious ceremonies of having the 
 dead equipped properly for the long journey were being per 
 formed. Hence no remains of mummies are found. 1 The 
 body was then burned Cremation was a very ancient custom 
 among the Nahua nations. It appears to have been practised 
 
 in the early times by the migrating tribes. The ashes could 
 thus be easily carried, and the bodies preserved from desecra 
 tion! The Chichemecs burned their kings who were killed in 
 battle, and thus their ashes were carried home with convenience 
 and safety. There is much cvHence to show that the Toltecs 
 _practised_ mtejment in ordinary cases, and that the Aztecs in- 
 produced the general use of cremation. The later usage was 
 to burn all except those who died a violent death or of certain 
 diseases, and those under seventeen years of age. The Tlascal- 
 tecs and Aztecs practised cremation. 2 The altar devoted to the 
 burning was doubtless one attached to the temple of the deity 
 who presided over the dead. 3 Upon this altar the body was 
 laid in full array, with all those things set apart to him for his 
 future use, and the funeral pyre was started. A few devoted 
 themselves to following the deceased into the other world, to 
 
 1 I Bancroft, 779. 2 2 ib., 609. 3 Ib. 
 
 12 
 
174 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 minister to his wants. The number continually increased dur 
 ing the bloody rule of the Aztecs, until, at the funeral of Neza- 
 hualpilli, royal sage of Tezcuco, in 1515, two hundred males 
 and one hundred females were immolated. After the body had 
 been burned, the ashes, bones, and jewelry were placed in an 
 urn with the hair of the deceased. 1 They were often, however, 
 placed in an image of the deceased. 
 
 Among the Toltecs, wTiere~trre~ practice of interment was 
 common, large vaults of stone and lime were used. Among 
 the Aztecs the funerals of the subjects were attended with less 
 pomp than those of the rulers and privileged classes. They 
 were wrapped in mantles bearing the image of their professional 
 deity upon them, the warrior with the mantle of the war god, 
 the merchant and artisan with that of the patron deity of his 
 trade. The drunkard would, in addition, be covered with the 
 robe of the god of wine, and the adulterer with the robe of the 
 god of lasciviousness. If burned, the robes were generally 
 given to the temples ; but if buried, placed with the body. 
 People who had died a violent death, or with leprosy, tumors, 
 itch, gout, dropsy, and women who died in childbed, were not 
 burned, but interred in special graves. 2 These exceptions to the 
 general rule of cremation were probably due to the impure 
 condition of the body, which was not in a fit condition to be so 
 soon spiritualized. A trader who died on a journey was placed 
 in a basket and hung on a pole or tree. 3 ^When the death was 
 reported, however, to his family, the funeral ceremonies were 
 conducted with full pomp over the image of the deceased, 
 which was made for the occasion. Among those people who 
 differed from the Aztecs in funeral ceremonies were the Teo 
 Chichemecs, who interred their dead. In Goazacoalco it was 
 the custom to place the bones in a basket as soon as the flesh 
 was gone and hang them up on a tree, so that the spirit might 
 have no trouble in finding them. 4 Suspensions were, however, 
 rare among the Nahua nations. The Miztecs, in Oajaca, where 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 6IO-II. 2 2 ib., 615-16. 3 2 ib., 616. 2 ib., 619. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 175 
 
 cremation does not seem to have obtained, after much cere 
 mony, interred the dead in natural or artificial caves. The 
 bones in most such cases appear, however, to have been re 
 moved to the house and temples when the flesh was gone. 
 The Mayas disposed of the bodies of their dead by both burial 
 and cremation. In Vera Paz, and probably throughout Guate 
 mala, the body was placed in the grave in a sitting posture, 
 with the knees drawn up to the face. Their lords of provinces 
 were gorgeously dressed for the ceremony and burial. Their 
 interment was generally on the top of a hill, and a mound raised 
 over them. The common people had mounds raised over them 
 also, and the height of these mounds was proportioned to the 
 rank of the defunct. 1 This last fact will be enlarged upon when 
 those monuments of the American tribes which appertain to 
 their religious life are examined. Among the Yucatecs, only . 
 the poorer classes buried their dead. Their bodies were gen 
 erally interred in the house, which was then forsaken by its 
 inmates. 2 Such a custom as this would impoverish and retain 
 in poverty the people who practised it, and it is probable that 
 the absence of the ruins of all buildings except the temples 
 and palaces of the lords, which has so puzzled the antiquary, is 
 due to this custom, which was so common among the nomadic 
 tribes, but can be looked upon only as a survival from bar 
 barism among the civilized nations of Central America. The 
 Pipiles interred the dead in the house they lived in, and the 
 high-priest was buried in a vault of his own palace. 3 Among 
 the higher classes in Yucatan, cremation was practised, and the 
 ashes deposited in the image of the deceased, which was then 
 placed in a temple. 
 
 The Tupinambas of Brazil tied their dead fast, that they 
 might not be able to get up and annoy their friends with their 
 visits. The bod} was placed in a pit dug" in the hut. Here it 
 was swung in a hammock, and surrounded with provisions 
 which the soul could eat when it pleased. 4 In the case of chiefs 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 800. 2 Ib. 3 Ib. 4 i Southey, 248. 
 
i;6 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 the body was generally anointed with honey and clothed with 
 a coat of feathers. The vault was roofed over, and the family 
 continued to live over it as before. 1 One burial-place was 
 found among them where they were interred and their long 
 hair left above ground. 2 The Xomanas and Passes burned the 
 dead and drank the ashes, thinking they received the spirit of 
 the deceased by this act. 3 The Guaranies buried their dead in 
 urns, which were generally placed underneath the cabin floor. 
 When they buried outside the cabin, a mound was raised over 
 the place. 4 The Retoronos, Pechuyos, and Guarayos interred 
 the dead, but when the flesh had decayed dug up the bones and 
 reduced them to powder, which was mingled with maize in a 
 cake, which w-as then eaten. 5 The Tapuyas buried their dead 
 in their own stomachs. The infant was eaten by the parents, 
 the adult by all his relatives. The bones were reserved for 
 marriage-feasts, when they were powdered, and taken as the 
 most precious thing that could be offered. The reader will 
 probably infer the incentive to this custom. Whilst this 
 species of cannibalism among the Tapuyas was the last dem 
 onstration of love, among the Tupis it was confined to their 
 enemies, whom they devoured as the strongest mark of hatred. 6 
 The tribes on the Orinoco preserved the bodies of their dead 
 in baskets, after having placed them in the river over-night for 
 the purpose of having the carib-fish strip off the flesh. 7 Urn- 
 burial was used by those skilled in pottery. Some of these 
 urns were large enough to receive these bodies erect. 8 The 
 Mbayas interred the dead, unless the death happened at a dis 
 tance from home, when they hung the body in a tree for several 
 months, where it became as dry as parchment and was then 
 removed. 9 Among the Patagonians the customs vary consider 
 ably, but interment was the most common practice. The body 
 was wrapped up and carried to the grave, which was a hole 
 dug in the earth. If a warrior, this was made so that the grave 
 
 1 i Southey, 248. 2 3 ib., 318. 3 3 ib., 722. 
 
 *3ib., 165. s 3 ib., 204. 6 lib., 379. 
 
 7 I ib., 631. 8 I ib., 165. 9 i ib., 392. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 177 
 
 could be opened yearly and the skeleton cleaned and reclothed 
 by an old matron whose special duty it was to perform this 
 office for the dead. Suspension of the body on platforms, how 
 ever, was not uncommon until the flesh separated from the 
 bones. 1 The Mapuches interred the dead, and with the face to 
 the west, their spirit-land. 2 
 
 The Abipones pull out the heart and tongue of the dead and 
 boil them and feed them to the dogs, that the author of his 
 death may soon die also, for they think death is always pro 
 duced by sorcery. The body is then wrapped in a hide and 
 bound with leather thongs, and carried quickly out of the 
 house and interred in a grave, which is covered with prickly 
 boughs to keep off tigers. Around the grave are placed 
 various useful articles. Their favorite place of burial is a wood, 
 whose umbrageous shade is thought to be delightful. The 
 sacred character of woods and groves in warm countries is a 
 subject of deep interest if connected with this custom of burial, 
 as it undoubtedly is. The forests on the banks of the Parana, 
 when re-echoing the sounds of their voices, are thought by the 
 Abipones to be haunted by the spirits of the dead. They are 
 very zealous in preserving the bones of those slain on the field 
 of baffle, and, having obtained the body, strip off the flesh, 
 which they bury in the ground, and carry the bones home 
 with reverence. They venerate the burial-places of their an 
 cestors. 3 
 
 The caves of Hayti were much used in early times for burial 
 of the dead, and afterward as temples; 4 cremation, however, 
 succeeded this mode of burial, the second Bohito having, 
 according to the legends, introduced this custom, which was 
 considered an improvement. 5 
 
 Many of the Guiana tribes carefully preserved the bones of 
 thejdead after the women had picked off all the flesh. Some 
 times the body was immersed in the water until the bones had 
 
 1 2 Wood, 542. 2 2 ib., 565. 3 i Dobrizhoffer, 271. 
 
 4 i Rafinesque, 170. 5 i ib., 191. 
 
1 78 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 been picked clean by fish, when they were carefully dried and 
 suspended in the roof of the habitation. 1 Sometimes the body 
 was buried in the house and a wide plank put over the place. 2 
 Those slain in war were interred by heaping over them a mound. 3 
 The high-priests of the Pipiles were buried sitting on stools in 
 their own houses. 4 
 
 In Florida the natives buried in the temples, in which there 
 were wooden chests containing the bodies of the dead. 5 In one 
 mausoleum at Talomeco, which was one hundred paces in 
 length and forty in breadth, with lofty roofs of reed, there were 
 benches upon which were placed the wooden chests, skilfully 
 wrought, in which reposed the bodies of the priests and chiefs. 6 
 The same custom prevailed among the Southeastern tribes of 
 the United States, where the temples were dedicated to the pres 
 ervation of the bodies of their chiefs. Early temples arose in 
 this way, and the survival of such sacred burials in our day is 
 seen in the Catholic altar, built upon and sanctified by the bones 
 of saints, and also in the Mohammedan shrine. Among the 
 natives of Alabama, temples were discovered in their chief 
 towns, in which the dead were deposited in baskets and boxes. 7 
 Says Mr. Pickett, "These bone-houses were the miniature 
 temples of the Indians." 8 
 
 Among some of these Southern tribes a mound was erected 
 over chiefs and priests. On the sea-coast even the common 
 people had a shell-mound thrown over them. In the interior 
 shell-mounds were not used, but large earth mounds take their 
 place, which were dedicated to the inhumation of the general 
 dead. Many small mounds occur, in which one or more bodies 
 were found. These were undoubtedly used for the burial of 
 a single chief or priest, as above stated. The erection of large 
 mounds has been gradually discontinued since the advent of 
 Europeans. Some of the tribes, however, have continued the 
 practice. The Yemassees slain by the Creeks in their last de- 
 
 1 Brett, 154. a Ib., 188. 3 Ib., 341. * 4 Herrera, 155. 
 
 s 5 ib. f 315, 318. 6 Jones s Antiquities, 26. 
 
 7 i Pickett s Alabama, 169. 8 I ib., 170. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 179 
 
 cisive battle were interred, and many small mounds raised over 
 them. 1 
 
 The Carolina tribes interred the dead at first in an artificial 
 vault. When the flesh was gone they took up the bones and 
 placed them in the temple. A fee was charged for this admit 
 tance to the temple. These bones were carried with them on 
 their journeys. 2 The Choctaws placed their dead upon scaffolds 
 until the flesh decayed, when the bones were taken down and 
 put in a chest, which was deposited in a bone-house, with 
 which each town was provided. 3 When the bone-house was 
 full, the boxes were taken out and piled up, and a mound raised 
 over them, forming a pyramid. 4 The chiefs of the Cherokees 
 were placed in a sitting posture on the surface of the earth, and 
 a mound erected over them. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that many of the mounds among these 
 Southern tribes were erected over the dead by the Indians in 
 habiting the country after the discovery. So materially have 
 the customs and institutions of the Indians been changed since 
 the discovery, that it has been not only doubted, but even 
 denied by many writers, that these mounds were constructed by 
 the immediate ancestors of the present Indians. It appears, 
 however, from many respectable authorities, that many tribes 
 still continue to raise a tumulus over the dead, the magnitude 
 of which is often proportioned to the rank and celebrity of the 
 deceased. These mounds are scattered at intervals over the 
 surface of both Americas, and neither by their size nor by their 
 contents impress us, says Mr. Bradford, " with a high opinion 
 of the civilization of their authors." 5 
 
 " Some have supposed that the number and magnitude of the 
 mounds would indicate the existence of a race of men more 
 industrious than our modern Indians. A little reflection will 
 show that the amount of labor required in their erection did 
 not surpass the common industry of the savages. Suppose a 
 
 1 Bartram s Travels, 139. 2 Lawson s Carolina, 181. 
 
 3 Roman s East and West Florida, 89-90. 4 Bartram, 516. 
 
 s Bradford s Antiquities, 18. 
 
I So PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 mound to be forty feet in diameter at its base, and to rise by 
 steps one foot in height and a foot and a half in depth to the 
 height of thirteen feet, with a level surface on the summit four 
 feet in diameter. It would contain about six thousand two 
 hundred and thirty-three cubic feet of earth, or a fraction less 
 than two hundred and thirty-one cubic yards. To deposit on 
 the mound one cubic yard of earth would be a moderate day s 
 labor for one man. Therefore the erection of the mound under 
 consideration would employ two hundred and thirty-one per 
 sons one day only. Among the Indians the women would 
 perform as much of this kind of work as the men. Within the 
 Indian territory we have ninety-four thousand inhabitants. One- 
 fifth of these or more are competent to labor. This gives eigh 
 teen thousand eight hundred laborers. If each of these would, 
 in the course of twelve months, bestow only as much labor on 
 the erection of mounds as would amount to one day, eighty-one 
 mounds would be built in one year. And if the work should 
 progress at the same rate with an equal number of inhabitants 
 for three centuries, twenty-four thousand three hundred mounds 
 would be constructed within the Indian territory. A few re 
 flections of this kind must satisfy any one that the Indians could 
 have erected these mounds." r 
 
 M. Malte-Brun, speaking of the earthworks in Ohio and the 
 Northwest, says there is nothing to indicate on the part of the 
 people who originated these works a greater degree of power 
 than we should find possessed at this very day by the Iroquois 
 or Ojibways, if they enjoyed entire liberty and were at a dis 
 tance from the Anglo-Americans. Says Mr. Melish, " I saw 
 no reason to refer the erection of the mounds to a different race 
 or a different state of civilization than what is found among the 
 Indian tribes at present in North America. As to their inge 
 nuity, I really see nothing to lead us beyond the present race 
 of Indians." 2 
 
 The mounds show no more art than might be expected from 
 
 1 McCoy s Baptist Missions, 27. 3 2 Melish s Travels, 104. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 181 
 
 the present Indians. They are mere erections of earth, exhibit 
 ing no other trace of skill than that most of them are of regular 
 forms contained under circular or right lines. Iron tools were 
 not used in the formation of them. The only circumstance 
 which strongly discredits their having been formed by the pro 
 genitors of the present Indians is the immensity of the size of 
 some of them beyond what could be expected from the sparse 
 population and the indolence of the present race. 1 
 
 La Trobe says, " The degree of civilization necessary for con 
 struction of mounds has always been falsely estimated. Their 
 being constructed of the superficial earth thrown into a heap, 
 the rare occurrence of stone-work of the rudest kind, the com 
 parative insignificance of implements and ornaments in them, 
 all militate against the idea of their having been erected by a 
 people much more civilized than the present Indians, and no 
 more civilized than the Natches." 2 
 
 Mr. Brown, in the " Western Gazetteer," says, " We obtained 
 ample testimony that these masses of earth [meaning the 
 mounds] were the work of a savage people." 3 The mounds 
 at Butte des Morts were of recent origin. The great hill of 
 the dead was raised by their survivors over the bodies of one 
 thousand warriors who perished in a battle in I/O6. 4 Each of 
 the other mounds was raised over the grave of some renowned 
 chief who fell in that battle. 5 
 
 Mr. Lapham is of opinion that the skeletons in the mounds 
 could not be very old, and that all traces of a skeleton would 
 be gone in a few centuries, and hence concludes that there is 
 no probability that the mounds have an antiquity of many 
 hundred years. 6 
 
 The present tribes continued after the discovery the practice 
 of mound-building so far as to erect a conical tumulus over 
 their dead. Among the natives of South Carolina, the bones 
 of the dead, with the articles to be interred with them, were 
 
 1 I Flint s Geography. a 2 La Trobe s Rambles N. A., 241-43. 
 
 3 Western Gazetteer, 58. * Allouez, 3 Smith s Wisconsin, 262. 
 
 s i Wis. Hist. Coll., 192. 6 i ib., 29. 
 
1 82 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 placed upon the surface of the ground; then they were covered 
 to the depth of several inches with a mixture, of charcoal and 
 ashes, which was covered by clay, piled upon it until a mound 
 was formed several feet in height. The storms of centuries 
 would only serve to beat more firmly together the mass of 
 clay and indestructible carbon, which thus formed a protection 
 to its contents. 1 
 
 Mr. Battey says that whilst among the Indians on Sulphur 
 Creek, he noticed a small mound of fresh earth surmounted by 
 a buffalo s skull, which had just been erected over the grave of 
 a young child. 2 
 
 Mr. Brinton thinks the Florida mounds and all those in the 
 Atlantic States, and most of those in the Mississippi Valley, 
 were the production of the identical nations found there by 
 the whites. 3 Many cases of mound-burial occurred after the 
 discovery. It was customary among the tribes on St. John s 
 River, when a chief died and his corpse was interred, to raise a 
 mound above the grave, and place upon its summit the conch- 
 shell from which he used to drink. 4 A good many instances 
 are found of the prevalence of the same custom among the 
 tribes of the Northern United States after the advent of whites. 
 The Indians of Canada erected a sort of pyramid over an 
 illustrious personage. 5 Those Indians dwelling in the country 
 now embraced within the territory of the State of New Jersey 
 and its vicinity buried their dead in a sitting posture and cov 
 ered the grave with a pyramid, or mound of earth. 6 Within 
 a short time the Leavenworth Ledger, Kansas, announced the 
 death and burial of a young Indian chief twelve years of 
 age. He was placed in a sitting posture upon the surface 
 of the earth, surrounded by all his personal effects, and a 
 mound was then thrown over the whole. Mr. Featherston- 
 haugh noticed a mound among the Osages which had just 
 been raised over a chief, and enlarged from time to time till 
 
 1 I Logan s Upper South Carolina, 222. a Quaker among the Indians, 142. 
 
 3 Brinton s Florida, 176. * Basanier, Hist. Not., IO, seq. 
 
 s i Jes. Rel., 19. Smith s N. J., 13. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 183 
 
 very large. 1 Mr. Squier also noticed one of modern date in 
 Belmont County, Ohio. 2 
 
 Mr. Bierce mentions another recent case of mound-con 
 struction, an Indian named Nicksaw, who was buried where 
 he was killed and a mound raised over him. 3 
 
 The Dacotahs erected a mound ten feet high over the body 
 of the son of one of their chiefs, who was recently killed in 
 trying to make the famous leap at the Red Pipe-Stone Quarry. 4 
 
 One of the largest mounds in the country of the Osages, 
 says Mr. Beck, " has been thrown up on the Osage River with 
 in the last thirty or forty years by the Osages in honor of one 
 of their deceased chiefs." This fact proves conclusively the 
 original object of these mounds, and refutes the theory that 
 they must necessarily have been erected by a race of men more 
 civilized than the present tribes of Indians. Were it necessary, 
 numerous other facts might be adduced to prove that many of 
 the mounds are no other than the tombs of their great men, and 
 are of recent origin. 5 
 
 It is related by intelligent Indian traders that a custom once 
 prevailed among certain tribes, on the burial of a chief or brave 
 of distinction, to consider his grave as entitled to the tribute 
 of a portion of earth from each passer-by, which the traveller 
 sedulously carried with him on his journey. Hence the first 
 grave formed a nucleus, around which, in the accumulation of 
 the accustomed tributes of respect thus paid, a mound was soon 
 formed. It also became an honorable distinction for the dead 
 to be buried by the side of the chiefs so deposited in the first 
 mound; and as the custom of earthy tribute continued, the 
 mound increased in size, and the irregularity in the shape and 
 size of the burial-places may thus in a measure be explained. 6 
 
 After a battle the slain are collected in one spot, and a large 
 mound of earth is heaped over them. Some of these mounds 
 are very large. There was one on the road from St. Augustine 
 
 1 Travels, 70. a Aboriginal Monuments of N. Y., 107. 
 
 3 Summit County, 138. * 2 Catlin s Illus., 170. 
 
 5 Beck s Gazetteer, 308. 6 3 Smith s Hist. Wis., 245, seq. 
 
1 84 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 to Tomaka, which must have covered two acres of ground. 
 Barrows of this kind are numerous over the whole American 
 continent, 1 and contain vast numbers of the dead. The cus 
 tom of burying the remains of many individuals in one spot 
 and heaping over them a mound of earth was common in re 
 mote times among the wandering tribes around Lakes Huron 
 and Superior. The dead were laid upon the bare rock, and 
 covered with stones to protect the body from wild animals. 
 After a certain number of years the tribe made a gathering of 
 their dead and bore the bones to a suitable resting-place, where 
 earth existed in sufficient abundance to admit of a mound 
 being made without difficulty. This would be easier in the 
 valleys of rivers. 2 
 
 Cumulative burials instigated the erection of many of the 
 large mounds. A mound at Vincennes, Indiana, showed un 
 doubted signs of cumulative burial. In it was found a bed of 
 human bones closely packed and pressed together and pro 
 miscuously mingled. A mound at Merom, Indiana, had three 
 layers of human bones. This cumulative burial was very 
 prevalent among the different tribes. We have already noticed 
 it among the tribes of the Southern United States. It was the 
 custom also among those of the Northern States, especially the 
 Hurons and Iroquois, to gather together annually the bones of 
 the dead from the scaffolds, trees, houses, temples, rock shelters, 
 or any other places where the bodies may have been deposited, 
 and bury them all in one place. This has undoubtedly been 
 the cause and occasion of erecting many of the large mounds. 
 In a mound in the township of Beverly, Upper Canada, a 
 tumulus was discovered containing the remains of about one 
 thousand Indians, with all their arms and cooking-vessels. 3 A 
 mound at St. Louis thirty-five feet high was thrown over a 
 trench containing many human bones. 
 
 It was the custom among the tribes of Georgia, when the 
 
 1 Prince of Econchatti, 70-72. a I Hind s Nar., 90-91. 
 
 3 Mclntosh s Book of Indians, 312. 
 
B URIAL- CUSTOMS. 1 85 
 
 accumulation of bones was great, to have a general inhumation, 
 when a mound was erected over them. 1 
 
 The shell-mounds along the coast appear to have been ex 
 tensively used as tumuli for the dead. One of these on Stall- 
 ing s Island in the Savannah River, fifteen feet high and three 
 hundred long, contained hundreds of skeletons. 2 
 
 In Shenandoah County, on Mr. Steenburger s land, are the 
 remains of an Indian mound. When first seen, it was eighteen 
 or twenty feet high and fifty to sixty yards in circumference. 
 This mound was literally filled with human skeletons. 3 On 
 the land of Mr. Noah Keyser, near the mouth of the Hawks- 
 bill Creek, stand the remains of a large mound. This, though 
 reduced by ploughing, is yet some twelve or fourteen feet high 
 and sixty yards round at the base. It is found to be literally 
 filled with human skeletons, and at every fresh ploughing a fresh 
 layer of bones is brought to the surface. 4 
 
 In Chile, the bones of the dead are kept until the time of 
 yearly burial, when the skeletons are placed in a sitting posture 
 in a row, with all their weapons around them, and earth is then 
 thrown over them. Sacrifices are brought by the people to 
 this mausoleum, where a priestess offers them to the dead. 5 
 
 Many instances are given of the erection over the dead of 
 small mounds of stones, commonly called cairns. Mianton- 
 nomah is buried in the east part of Norwich, at a place called 
 Sachem s Plain, from the event of his death, and is buried on 
 the spot where he was slain. But a few years since, a large 
 heap of stones, thrown together by the wandering Indians, 
 according to the custom of their country, and as a melancholy 
 mark of the love the Narragansetts had for their fallen chief, 
 lay on his grave. 6 
 
 The Patagonians raised stone-heaps over the dead, the size 
 of which depended upon the importance of the deceased. 7 
 
 Sometimes the tumuli were made of dried twigs arranged 
 
 1 Jones s Antiquities, 191-92. 2 Ib., 197-98. 
 
 3 Kercheval s Valley of Virginia, 50. 4 Ib., 57. 
 
 5 2 Molina, 380-81. 6 Gardener s Pequot War. ^ Musters, 91. 
 
1 86 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 in a conical pile, which was occasionally ten feet high and 
 twenty-five in circumference. The Pimos buried their dead 
 in the sitting posture, and raised a mound of sticks and stones 
 over them. 1 
 
 Mr. Macauley says the Iroquois raised heaps of stones over 
 the bodies of distinguished chiefs. 2 
 
 Thus it will be seen that many burial-mounds of earth or 
 other material have been erected among the tribes of the United 
 States since the advent of whites. There is much evidence to 
 show that in Mexico, Central America, and South America 
 mounds have been erected over the dead by the natives in 
 habiting those countries within the historic period and since 
 the discovery. In Guatemala they buried their dead by raising 
 over them mounds of earth corresponding in height with the 
 importance of the deceased. 3 
 
 The Indians of Quito, says Ulloa, threw so much earth on 
 the body as to form a tumulus in imitation of nature with its 
 mountains and eminences. The magnitude of these indicated 
 the dignity or riches of the person interred. 4 Within the 
 jurisdiction of Antioquia they piled up such masses of earth in 
 making their tombs that they looked like small hills. 5 Other 
 Peruvian tombs were mounds of conical or quadrilateral shape 
 heaped up during the mourning period. The size of the tumu 
 lus shows the fortune of the deceased. 6 Says Mr. Prescott of 
 the Peruvians, " Vast mounds of an irregular or more frequently 
 oblong shape, penetrated by galleries, were raised over the 
 dead, whose dried bodies have been found generally in a sitting 
 posture." 7 
 
 Most of the graves near Truxillo externally exhibit the 
 figure of a loaf of sugar and are hollow within. 8 
 
 Graves similar to these are found in the valley of Espiritu 
 Santo, which have been erected in recent times. 
 
 1 Brown, Apache Country, 113. a 2 History of New York, 239. 
 
 3 Ximenez, 213. * I Ulloa, 461. 
 
 5 Cieza, ch. 63. 6 Joaq. Acosta, 126. 
 
 7 i Prescott s Peru, 90. 8 2 Biblioteca Peruana, 160. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 187 
 
 The general erection of tumuli over the dead, the construction 
 of vast terraced pyramidal piles for sacred purposes, seem to 
 have marked the steps of that primitive people vaguely de 
 nominated the Toltecs, whose more imposing monuments still 
 rear their spectral fronts among the dense tropical forests of 
 Central America and Yucatan, but whose ruder because 
 earlier structures throng the fertile alluvions which border 
 the great Mississippi and its giant tributaries, silent but most 
 conclusive illustrations of the grand law of development. 1 
 
 Peru, Mexico, and Yucatan contain so many sepulchral 
 mounds it would be tedious to describe them. A large group 
 in Yucatan, near the ruins of Ichmal, extended for miles 
 around in every direction as far as the eye could reach. Some 
 were forty feet high. When several of them were opened, they 
 were found to contain rooms in which were sitting the skele 
 tons of the dead. 2 Near Otumba, Mexico, around the pyramid 
 of the sun, were grouped many small conical burial-mounds.3 
 The plains near Cayambe, Peru, are covered with sepulchral 
 tumuli. The Indians laid a body without burial on the ground, 
 and after protecting it with a cover of stones dirt was heaped 
 over it. 4 
 
 In three Kentucky mounds evidences of cremation appear. 
 They seem to have been erected over the ashes and calcined 
 bones of the dead. A large mound at Marietta, Ohio, covered 
 blackened earth, charcoal, and a stone coffin, dark and stained 
 with smoke, which demonstrated that the funeral obsequies 
 had been celebrated with fire. Another near Marietta enclosed 
 calcined human remains. 5 
 
 It is extremely doubtful whether a great error has not been 
 made by many able American archaeologists in denominating 
 a class of artificial mounds altar-mounds. Many things have 
 tended to lead them into this error. The burial-customs of the 
 aboriginal Americans have not been thoroughly investigated. 
 
 1 Squier s New Mexico and California. 2 Norman s Yucatan, 146. 
 
 3 Bullock s Mexico, 411. 4 i Ulloa, 266. 
 
 5 Bradford s Antiquities, 52-53. 
 
1 88 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 A supposed great antiquity has been ascribed to them; and a 
 special race of mound-builders has been created to furnish 
 builders for these great monuments of what has been called an 
 extinct race. Whence they came, and where they have gone, 
 has puzzled the brain of many an antiquarian. This imaginary 
 people, with an elaborate ritual of sacrifice offered on the altars 
 so carefully covered with an abundance of earth to protect 
 them from the sacrilegious hands of barbarian intruders, will, 
 however, eventually be resolved into a very primitive people, 
 and their sacrificial altars turned into cremation-pyres, where 
 the bodies of the dead were burned with their worldly effects, 
 and a tumulus erected over their remains. Upon most of these 
 supposed altars human bones have been found ; in a few, how 
 ever, their absence is noted by explorers. They may have 
 been reduced to ashes ; but it is not necessary to account for 
 their absence in this way alone, for the custom, as we have 
 seen, was very prevalent of preserving the bones after crema 
 tion and removing them, and among many of the tribes they 
 were reduced to a powder, which was used in some liquid as a 
 drinking potion for the relatives. The altar-mound theorists 
 have had to account for the presence of human bones by the 
 horrible rite of human sacrifice. The conclusion that the 
 mounds of this class were devoted to this superstitious rite 
 does not appear to be satisfactory. They rather appear to in 
 dicate that cremation was practised. The sacrificial origin of 
 these mounds has been inferred from the fact that articles of 
 only one class occur in them. This would only indicate that a 
 division of labor was established ; because with their belief in 
 a future life, and a continuance of all the employments of the 
 present life, many of the products of any skilful person and 
 material for new labor would be deposited with such a person. 
 On this subject of sacrifice, running as it does through all their 
 ceremonial life, I would refer the reader to that part of this 
 work devoted to that subject. Evidences have been found of 
 cremation in Florida mounds. 
 
 Quite a number of mounds near Mount Carroll, Carroll 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 189 
 
 County, Illinois, were opened, and calcined human bones with 
 charcoal and ashes found in each of them. There was an In 
 dian tradition that they were cremation-mounds. 1 In Virginia, 
 a number of stone-heaps are found, oven-like, containing the 
 bones of the dead and bearing evident marks of fire. The 
 stone-heaps are covered with earth. There is a tradition that 
 it was the universal custom at one time to consume the bodies 
 of the dead with fire. This may account for the existence of 
 nothing but ashes in some of the mounds that have been 
 opened. 2 Quite a number of such have been found in Minnesota, 
 some also with calcined human bones and clay, showing marks 
 of intense heat. 3 Sometimes the bodies were burned, and the 
 ashes placed in urns and deposited in mounds. In Dubuque 
 County, Iowa, an urn was taken from a small mound containing 
 ashes ; another, from a mound near the State line of Illinois 
 and Wisconsin, contained about a half-bushel of ashes. Urn- 
 burials are rare in this part of the country, however. 4 
 
 A mound in Wisconsin contained much charcoal and burnt 
 clay, and stones almost calcined into quick-lime by the great 
 heat. Some of the bones of a human being were found, but 
 most of the skeleton had evidently been consumed at the time 
 of the interment. 5 
 
 Near Red River settlement a burial-mound was excavated, 
 and four or five skulls found on a floor of hard mud which 
 showed evidences of fire. 6 
 
 Says Mr. Atwater of the Western mounds, " Nearly all the 
 bodies buried in the mounds were burnt first, before the mounds 
 were reared." 7 
 
 Mr. Evans, who appears to have spent much time in inves 
 tigating this matter, says, " I have penetrated the centres of 
 many mounds, and the ashes and charcoal and human remains 
 lying in successive strata in the mounds, showing the action 
 
 1 Smithsonian Rep., 1877, p. 255. 2 Da-coo-dah, 57. 
 
 3 Ib., 83. 4 Ib., 204-10. 
 
 s Lapham s Ant., 28. 6 Smith. Rep., 1867, p. 399. 
 
 7 Atwater s Antiquities, 381. 
 13 
 
190 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 of fire, have induced me to believe that the mound-builders 
 practised cremation, and after the rites were performed the re 
 mains were covered with earth, each succeeding funeral pyre 
 adding to the height of the mound. The strata of ashes and 
 charcoal which I found in all the mounds I examined indicated 
 that successive fires had been kindled, and when the substances 
 were reduced to ashes they were covered with earth." 1 
 
 In some of the burial-mounds the presence of a layer of 
 baked clay above the human remains leads to the conjecture 
 that fires were sometimes built for the purpose of hardening 
 this layer of clay. 2 
 
 In a mound at Cincinnati, human bones were found imbedded 
 in ashes and charcoal, the unfailing signs of the burning of the 
 deceased. 3 
 
 A large cremation-furnace, eighteen feet long and six feet 
 wide, was found in a mound, fifteen feet high, near Lancaster, 
 Fairfield County, Ohio. In a huge vessel upon this furnace 
 twelve human skeletons were found, surrounded with ashes and 
 charcoal. In the Chilhowee valley, Tennessee, cysts were found 
 containing human bones and ashes, so placed as to indicate 
 that fire had been used at the burial. In some of the mounds 
 near New Harmony, Indiana, the same unmistakable evidences 
 of cremation appeared. There can be no doubt that many of 
 those mounds called altar-mounds in the books on the antiqui 
 ties of America are none other than cremation-mounds. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the custom of raising mounds over 
 the dead survived the advent of Europeans, and that many of 
 those mounds denominated altar-mounds were thrown over the 
 remains of those dead that had been burned, according to the 
 prevailing custom among a large part of the aboriginal tribes. 
 Cumulative burials necessitated the magnitude of many mounds, 
 and the multitude of those thus cared for inspired the labor 
 necessary. 
 
 Among the American sepulchral monuments, the chulpas, or 
 
 1 Chicago Tribune. * Short, 37-39. 3 Bradford s Ant., 53. 
 
B URIAL- CUSTOMS. 
 
 191 
 
 FIG. 12. 
 
 burial-towers of Peru, are among the most interesting of all the 
 antiquities of this continent connected with sepulture. Pri 
 marily these chulpas consisted of cysts or excavations walled 
 with stones, over which was built a tower with an opening 
 barely large enough to admit the body of a man on a level with 
 the surface of the ground. This opening was toward the east. 
 These chulpas varied in height from ten to twenty-six feet, and 
 were often ornamented with stucco-work. Some are round and 
 some square, 1 but the interior plan is pretty much the same in 
 all. Upon the floor human bones and remains of pottery are 
 found. These tombs are common in the Titicaca region, and 
 usually stand in groups of from twenty to one hundred. There 
 is a large group of them at Sillustani. Fig. 12 is one of these 
 chulpas, from Rivero and Tschudi s " Peruvian Antiquities." 
 These chulpas resemble the Oriental topes. In some of them 
 an entire family appear to have 
 been buried, as many as twelve 
 skeletons being found in them. 
 Some of them, however, which 
 had never been opened before, 
 were opened by Mr. Squier and 
 only one skeleton was found. 2 
 He describes them as follows : 
 " In some provinces they have 
 for sepulchres high towers, hol 
 low below. In some parts they 
 are round, in some square. 
 They are built half a league or 
 more from their towns, so that 
 they appear like other and very 
 populous villages. The dead, 
 wrapped up in skins of the llama, 
 are deposited in them in a sit 
 ting posture. The doors of the tombs are then closed." Mr. 
 
 1 Squier s Peru, 243-44. 
 
 2 Ib., 388. 
 
1 92 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Squier thinks the chulpas were built and used by the Aymara 
 race only. 1 
 
 The rock-tombs of Peru are another interesting feature in 
 its antiquities. The faces of many of the high cliffs in the 
 mountainous parts are full of ancient tombs excavated in the 
 rock, within which the dead were placed, and then walled up 
 with stones and stuccoed over and painted. The region of 
 Ollantaytambo is rich in these rock-tombs. In many a niche 
 and crevice tier on tier of these tombs are seen plastered up 
 like nests of the mud-swallows. The " steeps of Lamentation 
 are literally speckled with the white faces of these tombs. Some 
 are solitary cells, others populous chambers. In this dry at 
 mosphere the bodies are preserved surrounded with a few rude 
 household-utensils." 2 At Chimu is found a necropolis consist 
 ing of chambers or vaults enclosed in a mound, each vault 
 containing niches wherein were found skeletons elaborately 
 clothed and plumed. The tombs of men of note " were above 
 the ground, built with unburnt bricks, and round, like little 
 pigeon-houses, five or six feet in diameter and twelve or four 
 teen in height, arched like the top of an oven, in which the 
 dead were placed sitting and then they were walled up. In 
 travelling through the country there are still many to be seen, 
 even of those before the conquest by the Spaniards." 3 
 
 The kings of Quito were buried in a pyramid, in which their 
 embalmed corpses were arranged in order, with their earthly 
 effects around them. The manner of burying the vassals was 
 different. In the south the nobles and magnates were placed 
 in urns, and these urns deposited in the woods and forests. 
 The common people were interred, or left in caves or rock pro 
 tections. The openings to all the sepulchres are to the west. 
 In some the opening is small, and only made as a conduit for 
 drink and food leading to vases placed in the sepulchre for 
 their reception. Embalmment of the dead was confined to the 
 Inca class. The mummified bodies so numerous throughout 
 
 1 Squier s Peru, 389. 2 Ib., 531-32. 3 Frezier s Voyage, 178. 
 
B URIAL- CUSTOMS. 
 
 193 
 
 Peru owe their preservation to atmospheric and other in 
 fluences. 1 
 
 The object among all the American tribes, in all their various 
 burial-customs, was to preserve the bones of the dead. The 
 belief underlying all these customs was that the soul, or a part 
 of the soul, dwelt in the_ bones. Language illustrates this 
 theory. The Iroquois word for bone is esken ; for soul, 
 atisken, literally, that which is within the bone. In an Atha 
 pascan dialect, bone is yani, soul is i-yani. Mythology adds 
 more decisive testimony. In one of the Aztec legends, after 
 one of the destructions of the world, Xolotl descended to 
 Mictlan, the realm of the dead, and brought thence a bone of 
 the perished race. This, sprinkled with blood, grew on the 
 fourth day into a youth, the father of the present race. Among 
 the Quiches, the hero-gods Hunahpu and Xblanque succumbed 
 to the darksome powers of death. Their bodies were burned, 
 and their bones ground to powder and thrown into the waters; 
 but these ashes, sinking to the bottom of the stream, were, in 
 the twinkling of an eye, changed into handsome youths, with 
 the same features as before. Among many of the tribes the 
 practice of pulverizing the bones of the dead and mixing them 
 with the food was defended by asserting that the souls of the 
 dead remained in the bones and lived again in the living. Even 
 the animals were supposed to follow the same law. Hardly 
 any of the hunting tribes, before their manners were vitiated 
 by foreign influence, permitted the bones of game to be broken 
 or left carelessly about the encampment. They were left in 
 heaps or thrown into the water. The Yuricares of Bolivia 
 carried this superstition to such an inconvenient extent that 
 they preserved even small fish-bones from harm, saying the fish 
 would desert the rivers unless this was done. The traveller on 
 our prairies often notices the buffalo-skulls arranged in circles 
 and symmetrical piles by the careful hands of the native 
 hunters. Among the Peruvians, so careful were they lest any 
 
 1 Rivero and Tschudi, 200-9. 
 
I 9 4 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 of the body should be lost, they preserved even the parings of 
 the nails and clippings of the hair. Among the Choctaws the 
 spirits of the dead will return to the bones in the bone-mounds, 
 and flesh will knit together their loose joints, and they shall 
 again inhabit their ancient territory. The Peruvians expected 
 the mummified body to be again inhabited by its soul. 1 
 
 This belief can be traced among all the primitive peoples of 
 
 the world. Among the Tartars the pyramid of horses heads 
 
 found by Pallas is analogous to bone-pyramids of the buffalo 
 and deer in America. The Hebrew rabbis taught that the 
 coccyx remained at death the germ of a second life, and would 
 develop into the purified body as the plant from the seed. 
 
 Among the Iroquois the spirit stayed near the body for a 
 time, and, unless burial was performed, was very unhappy ; and 
 among the Brazilian tribes the spirits of the dead were not at 
 rest when the body was unburied, and, if they had had a Creon, 
 an Antigone would have undoubtedly arisen to perform the 
 sacred rites of burial. It will be noticed, then, that there was 
 no uniform custom prevalent among the American nations_i_n_ 
 their mode of burial, but that diversity of custom prevailed in 
 many instances in the same tribe, that climate and the nature 
 of the soil, and other natural influences, together with thepur-_ 
 suits of the various peoples, had their effect on the formation 
 of burial-customs, and these a reflex action again on their re 
 ligious beliefs and superstitions. Yet through it all there are 
 plain indications of a belief that the preservation of the bones 
 of the dead in their integrity was necessary to the peace and 
 happiness of the departed spirit. Hence the security of these 
 was sought in all their various customs. In the suspension 
 of the bodies in trees or on scaffolds or otherwise, their preser 
 vation, after the dissolution of the flesh, was attended to. Jn_ 
 cremation, the residuum of calcined bones was preserved by 
 interment or a deposit in urns or images of the deceased, or 
 by heaping a mound over them. Interment in the earth had 
 
 1 Brinton, 276-80. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 195 
 
 the same object in view, as also in caves and_other secret_and 
 protected places. Thus security is sought in secrecy or by in 
 accessibility, or both. Among the Chibchas, sepulchres were 
 concealed by trees planted for that purpose. The greatest 
 danger to the remains of the dead arose from the depredations 
 of animals, yet enemies outside or inside the tribe or clan or 
 family were much feared, the possession of any part of a living 
 or dead person by one seeking revenge being looked upon with 
 exceeding great superstitious fear. The origin and progress of 
 sorcery are traceable to this superstition. Among all primitive 
 peoples, where a belief in the renewal of life or the resurrection 
 exists, the peace and happiness of the spirit, which remains in 
 or about the body, depend upon success in preventing the body 
 or any part of it from being devoured or destroyed in any 
 manner. Of course, among peoples to whom the art of pre 
 serving the bodies of the dead by embalming or other means 
 was unknown, the destructibility of all but the skeleton or 
 bones was recognized as unavoidable, and their superstition 
 must be modified to that extent. It maintained itself and in 
 creased in strength as to the indestructible parts, even including 
 the nails and hair, through all the stages of savagery and bar 
 barism and into our modern civilization. The caciques of 
 Bogota were protected from desecration by diverting the course 
 of a river and making the grave in its bed, and then letting the 
 stream return to its natural course. Alaric, the leader of the 
 Goths, was secretly buried in the same manner. The imposing ^ 
 pyramids of Mexico, Peru, and the sepulchral mounds of both 
 Americas were intended for, and became, obstacles to the dese 
 cration of the remains of distinguished dead, as well as memorials 
 of their greatness ; but the temples of the more civilized nations 
 mark the highest stage of the progress of this idea in America, 
 
 as elsewhere. In these temples the interment of heroes took 
 l - c\.*veJ v*\* v 
 
 place, and a priestly hierarchy arose to guard and attend at the -f * e * 
 sacred precincts of their shrines, and offer sacrifice to iheir idol 
 likenesses stuffed with their ashes and bones. In addition to ( ^ 
 their religious care in the preservation of the dead, their com- 
 
196 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 fort was also regarded. Hence protections against pressing 
 earth or stones were provided for ; also a way for the spirit to 
 have access to the body was considered of vital importance by 
 most of the aborigines. Embalming and the other customs 
 have the same purpose in view, namely, the arrest of decay. 
 It is quite curious to find embalmment and its antithesis^crfir 
 mation, practised in the same tribe ; yet, since the principal idea 
 underlying both practices is the same, namely, the preservation 
 of all the parts of the dead, there is no inconsistency here. 
 In both, the destructible parts of the body are preserved to a 
 great extent, for what fire destroys is supposed to be demate- 
 rialized and ushered quickly into the world of spirits. Hence 
 it became a very common instrument in sending to the dead the 
 sacrifices offered by their living friends, and the Algonkin 
 would throw his choicest bit of venison into the fire and send it 
 to his hungry spirit-relative, before a morsel had been touched 
 by the living, with as much religious fervor as would the Greek 
 offer a bullock on the sacrificial altar or the Chinaman of our 
 day burn paper houses and money for use in the spirit-world. 
 It must be borne in mind that this spirit-world was in earlier 
 times in and among the living world, and not banished, as in 
 our modern civilization, to some unknown far-off country 
 " from whose bourn no traveller returns." Thus, whether cre^ 
 mation or embalmment took place, the spirit was ready _and 
 waiting for a rehabitation of its fleshly tenement-house, ncme 
 the less real because the flames had wafted it into the shadow- 
 land. With the belief that reanimation will be prevented if the 
 other self finds a mutilated corpse, or none at all, there goes 
 the belief that to insure reanimation putrefaction must be 
 stopped. Naturally there arises_the inference that if destruction, 
 of the body by animals or otherwise prevents revival, decompo 
 sition of it may prevent revival. That this idea is not found 
 among men in very low states is undoubtedly due to the fact 
 that no methods of arresting decomposition have been dis 
 covered by them. Hence cremation is found among lower 
 tribes, and survives when this more approved method is dis- 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 197 
 
 covered ; and even among those who are acquainted with the 
 process much greater care is taken to preserve the bodies of 
 kings and distinguished men than the mass of the people. 
 Hence the latter are often carelessly looked after. Distinctions 
 of caste, which are apt to arise in the higher stages of human 
 progress under certain conditions of development, tend to 
 destroy the belief in the immortality of the lower class. Such 
 glaring examples of this are found in some of the more ad 
 vanced American nations that immortality has been denied to 
 all but a few of the upper class. Hence, while great care is 
 taken in the preservation of their bodies by the erection over 
 them of pyramids and temples, the common people die with 
 " none so poor as to do them reverence." 
 
 The belief in the resurrection of the body was universal_ 
 among primitive peoples, and owed its origin often to cases of 
 resuscitation. Among the tribes of the West there was a super 
 stition against touching dead bodies, or those supposed to be 
 dead ; and hence there have been many cases where the natives 
 have been buried alive. Two cases of this kind are mentioned 
 by Lee and Frost among the natives of Oregon. 1 Among 
 these tribes there are a few resurrection-traditions, growing 
 undoubtedly out of this careless habit. The Virginians had 
 fictions concerning the resurrection of certain persons from the 
 dead. Hariot gives two instances of this. He says, " They told 
 me that a wicked man having been dead and buried, the next 
 day the earth of the grave was seen to move, whereupon, being 
 taken up again, he told where his soul had been, and that he 
 was very near entering into Popogusso, had not one of the gods 
 saved him and given him leave to return again and teach his 
 friends what they should do to avoid that terrible place of 
 torment. Another revival from the dead occurred the same 
 year, and it was told me for strange news that one being dead, 
 buried, and taken up again as the first, showed that although 
 his body had laid dead in the grave, yet his soul was alive, and 
 
 1 Ten Years in Oregon, 321. 
 
198 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 had travelled far in the long, broad way, on both sides whereof 
 grew most delicate and pleasant trees, bearing more rare and 
 excellent fruits than ever he had seen before. He at length 
 came to most fair houses, near which he met his father that had 
 been dead before, who gave him great charge to go back again 
 and show his friends what good they were to do to enjoy the 
 pleasures of that place." x 
 
 In cases of the falling sickness, catalepsy, or any diseases 
 where the person is in a lethargic state, the savage believes 
 that the soul has left the body and returns to it again when 
 revival takes place. This has perhaps suggested in many cases 
 their belief in a resurrection. The Ojibways say of such 
 cases that the soul could not get into the spirit-land and 
 had to come back. They conceive the person to be dead, 
 and the revival is a resurrection. The savage believes that 
 the insensibility of death is, like all the other insensibilities, 
 only temporary. 2 
 
 Among the Eskimos, if a man wished to become of the 
 highest order of priests, it was requisite that he should be 
 drowned and eaten by sea-monsters ; then, when his bones were 
 washed ashore, his spirit, which had spent all this time gather 
 ing information about the secrets of the invisible world, would 
 return to them, and he would rejoin his tribe. 3 
 
 There are curious traditions of resurrections among them. 
 An Eskimo female carried home a bird, and, having cut it up, 
 found in its crop the bones of her lost brother. She singled 
 these all out and kept them together, when, behold, they 
 moved. The brother quickly revived, and seemed entirely 
 unhurt. 4 An Eskimo man and wife who were old and unable 
 to provide for themselves, in their extremity decided to go to 
 the tomb of their dead foster-son. The grave was opened and 
 the body appealed to, when, lo, it began to move. The son 
 arose from the dead, went home with them, got a kayak, and 
 
 1 Harlot, ap. 3 Hakluyt, 277, seq. a I Spencer, Soc., 167. 
 
 3 Brinton, 299. 4 Rink s Trad., 260. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 199 
 
 thereafter provided for his aged parents. 1 Many stories are 
 told of such resurrections among the Eskimos. In one case 
 a son revived three times, after as many burials. 
 
 The natives of Canada had a universally received tradition 
 that their dead bodies were to rise again. 2 
 
 The Peruvians thought the bodies of the dead arose from 
 their graves. Some of them asserted that they had seen them 
 walking about after burial. 3 Atahuallpa requested the Span 
 iards that he might be hanged instead of burned. He said then 
 his body would rise again. 4 The Chibchas also believed that 
 the dead would be raised. 5 The natives of Quimbaya thought 
 that the bodies of the dead would come to life again. 6 Those 
 of Guazacualco thought the dead would rise again; and there 
 fore hung their bones to the bough of a tree, that they might 
 be easily found. 7 Among many of the tribes of South America 
 it was within the power of the sorcerers, they thought, to bring 
 the dead to life. 8 
 
 The Bois Brule tribe carried their belief in the resurrection 
 so far that if a leg or a foot should be separated from the rest 
 of the body the stray member would be hunted for till found. 9 
 All of the aborigines preserved with almost as much care the 
 bones of animals. They said these bones contained the spirits 
 of the slain animals, and that some time in the future they 
 would rise, reclothe themselves with flesh, and stock the earth 
 anew. 10 
 
 The Minetarees believe that the bones of the bisons which 
 they have slain and divested of flesh rise again with new flesh 
 and life the succeeding June. They have a curious myth bear 
 ing upon this subject of animal resurrection. They say one of 
 their boys, supposed to have been killed, was found in a buffalo. 
 He had killed it, and, as a refuge against an inclement night, 
 
 1 Rink s Trad., 298. a I Warburton s Canada, 196. 
 
 3 Cieza, 160-61. * Pizarro (Rep., 247). 
 
 5 P. Simon, 243. 6 5 Herrera, 202. 
 
 7 4 ib., 126. 8 Miiller, Amer. Urreligionen, 287. 
 
 9 2 Beltrami, 394. 10 Brinton, 278. 
 
200 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 took shelter within its body in place of the viscera which he 
 had taken out. During the night the flesh of the bison grew 
 over the side, the animal came to life, and the boy had lived 
 there for one year before he was found. 1 
 
 So thoroughly are the Minetarees convinced of the truth of 
 the resurrection, that they have a tradition that the tribe came 
 from under ground. These traditions of underground origin 
 are very common among the American tribes, and have origi 
 nated on account of their belief in the resurrection, accom 
 panied by the tribal custom of interment. Some of the South 
 ern tribes of the United States had traditions of underground 
 origin. The most curious instance is that of the Muscogees, 
 who thought that they had emerged from two mounds in the 
 forks of Red River. 2 
 
 The Navajos had a tradition of underground origiiL__ When 
 confined under the surface of the earth, they were aided in 
 emerging therefrom by the locust, who bored the first hole, 
 which was so small, however, that the badger had to make it 
 larger. The badger was the first to crawl out, in a miry spot, 
 and his fore-legs were so covered with mud that they have re 
 mained stained ever since. After arriving on the surface of 
 the earth, they had to call the wolf, the bat, and the squirrel to 
 their aid in procuring fire. The wolf tied some inflammable 
 wood to its tail, and held it over the crater of a volcano until it 
 ignited. The bat then fanned the flame with its wings, while 
 the squirrel carried the fire to the Navajos. 3 
 
 The Zunis vary the legend about their emergingJron^jLhe 
 earth. The woodpecker attempted to peck a hole through for 
 them, but failed, when an eagle, with a blow of its beak, broke 
 the crust of the earth, and the bear forced its way through, 
 leaving a hole for the Indians. 4 
 
 """Sacrifice was the most interesting rite attending the burial 
 I of the dead, and is illustrative of the worship of spirits. All 
 
 1 I Long s Exp., 257. " I Stevens s Ga., 51. 
 
 3 Cozzens s Marvellous Country, 132. * Ib., 346-48. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 2OI 
 
 primitive peoples make offerings of meat, drink, and all otlier 
 useful things to the dead. The Coras of Mexico, after a man s 
 death, placed meat upon sticks about the burial-place. The 
 Nootkans burned salmon and venison at the graves of the ! 
 dead. Among the Mosquito Indians, the widow was compelled 
 to supply the grave of her husband with provisions for a year 
 after his death. The Pueblo Indians placed corn-bread and 
 meat in places supposed to be haunted by the dead. Blankets 
 were burned at the funerals of the Ahts, that the soul might not 
 be sent shivering to the next world. 1 The Ukiahs and Sanels 
 of California placed food in those places supposed to be the 
 favored haunts of the dead. 2 Among the Algonkin tribes the 
 female relatives went to the grave frequently, and made offerings 
 of bread, meat, clothing, tobacco, and even watermelons, for as 
 long a period as a year after interment. 3 The Illinois buried 
 corn with their dead, together with a pot to boil it in. They 
 thought they might be hungry without a supply of provisions. 4 
 Mr. Riggs says the idea of sacrifice was at the foundation of 
 all the ancient ceremonies of the Dacotahs. Sacrifices were 
 universally made to the spirits of their dead. Food was given 
 for their use. The offerings were often left on the graves. 
 There was no sacrificial priesthood among them, but each one 
 made his own offerings. Among the Iroquois, when an Indian 
 was about to die, they cut the throats of all the dogs they could 
 catch, that the souls of these animals might accompany him. 
 They stripped themselves of everything that was most valuable, 
 to adorn the dead. They deprived themselves of food to carry 
 it to their sepulchres or other places which they fancied were 
 haunted by their souls. When a post was set uj^oji Jhej^raye 
 adorned with the portrait of the deceased, they hung their 
 offerings upon it. They carried fresh provisions to the grave 
 every morning, and when the dogs devoured them they im 
 agined they had been eaten by the souls of the deceased. The 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 521. 2 3 ib., 524. 3 i London s Narratives, 341, 350. 
 
 * JoutePs Journal, 164. 
 
202 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Potawatomies left food at the grave when they visited it. A 
 fire was lighted at the head of the grave. 1 
 
 The idea among all the tribes was that the sacrifices were 
 used. The Algonkins told Father Le Jeune that they found 
 meat which had been left for souls that had been gnawed by 
 them. The Caribs said they heard the spirits moving the ves 
 sels and champing the food set for them, and this they believed 
 though nothing appeared to be touched. 2 Mr. Miiller says they 
 thought the spirit of the food was appropriated by the spirits of 
 the dead, though it had no appearance of having been touched. 
 
 Among the tribes of South America sacrificial offerings of 
 the same kind were made to the dead. The Araucanians sup 
 plied provisions to the dead for their supposed journey. The 
 natives of Brazil carried provisions every day to their dead. 3 
 The natives of Panama presented food to the dead, and carried 
 a yearly sacrifice of maize to their graves. 4 The Chibchas 
 placed food in the graves with their dead. 5 Among some of 
 the tribes of Peru, wives stayed several days at their husbands 
 graves to cook for them. They poured chicha on their bodies. 6 
 The children would carry stores of food and clothing to the 
 tombs of their parents. 7 In Peruvian graves, corn, potatoes, 
 cocoa, and nuts were found in abundance. 
 
 At the time of the discovery, the Mayas of Yucatan offered 
 animals of all kinds and provisions of every sort to the dead. 8 
 The mouths of their dead were stuffed with ground maize. In 
 their religious festivals food was always offered the dead. 
 Among the mountain-tribes of Yucatan, chocolate and large 
 maize tortillas were placed about the dead when buried. 9 The 
 Zapotecs placed food in the grave or in its immediate vicinity. 10 
 The Isthmians filled the graves of their dead lords with jars of 
 maize, fruit, and wine ; even flowers were offered. 11 
 
 I Keating, 113. 2 2 Tylor, 388. 
 
 3 4 Herrera, 97. * 3 Picart, 175. 
 
 s Hollaert, 14. 6 Frezier s Voyage, 58. 
 
 7 Markham s Cuzco, 126. 8 Lancia, 28. 
 
 9 Cogulludo, bk. 12, ch. 7. I0 I Bancroft, 667. " I ib., 783. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 203 
 
 The periodical renewal of these sacrifices that were sup 
 posed to supply the wants of the dead is found among nearly 
 all the tribes. At the annual cumulative burial-ceremony of 
 the Northern tribes, when the bodies have been ranged in 
 order, broth is offered to these skeletons, and many presents 
 are offered them. The Peruvians often opened the tombs of 
 the dead and renewed the offerings of food and clothing. 1 At 
 certain seasons of the year the bodies of their chiefs were 
 carried to the fields and sheep offered to them. 2 
 
 Among the Mexicans a daily sacrifice of food and flowers 
 was placed on the tombs of the dead for twenty days after 
 death. 3 The honors paid their dead ancestors continued for 
 many years after their death, and did not cease with their fune 
 rals. An annual feast was celebrated for the dead, when the 
 houses were richly decorated and food of all kinds prepared, 
 as though the spirits would come and partake of it. The 
 members of the family carried torches during this ceremony. 
 THe spirits were thought to extract all the nutritive qualities 
 of the food. 4 The continuance of this custom for three cen 
 turies after the conquest is noticed by the Abbe Brasseur. 
 Even recently the Indians in the interior of Yucatan place 
 out-of-doors, under a tree, a portion of their food for their 
 deceased friends to eat, and they say that the portion thus set 
 apart is always eaten. 5 
 
 Thus among these more civilized races we find the same 
 primitive ideas of sacrifice as among those in savagery and 
 barbarism ; but it was supplemented by an elaborate sacrificial 
 ritual in the worship of their monarchs and heroes. 
 
 Of all the food-offerings made to the dead, those of mothers 
 to their children were the simplest and showed the primitive 
 idea of sacrifice. Among the Iroquois, mothers have been 
 known to keep the dead bodies of their children by them for 
 years and continually feed them with their milk. 6 
 
 1 Cieza, 228-29. 2 Ib., 227. 3 Motolinia, 31. 
 
 * 3 Brasseur, Hist., 23-24. s i Stephens s Yucatan, 45. 
 6 2 Charlevoix, Journal, 185, seq. 
 
204 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Among the Californian tribes, mothers dropped their milk on 
 the lips of their dead children, that they might have sustenance 
 till they reached a place of rest. 1 They sprinkled nourishing 
 milk on the graves of their dead babes for some time after their 
 burial. 2 The Nicaraguan mothers withheld their milk from 
 other children for four days after the death of their own babe, 
 that it might be supplied. 3 Among many tribes, when a child 
 died a dog was sacrificed, to guide its wandering steps to the 
 spirit-land. They thought children did not have sufficient 
 understanding to find the way. 
 
 These simple offerings were not acts of worship, but illustrate 
 the primitive forms of sacrifice before it became an act of 
 homage. Fear soon became the instigating cause of these offer 
 ings, and many tales are told among all the tribes of the pun 
 ishments inflicted upon those who failed to make the offerings, 
 whether intentionally or not. They generally put them in the 
 fire. Occasionally they visited the graves of the dead and made 
 their offerings there. 4 They thought a neglect of this duty 
 brought upon them the vengeance of the spirits. Whenever 
 a burying-ground or grave was passed, something was offered ; 
 and it was considered a wicked act to neglect this attention to 
 the dead. The following is an amusing illustration of the origin 
 and strength of this religious sentiment. An Ojibway was once 
 passing an Indian burial-ground at dusk with a kettle of whiskey 
 in his hands ; he felt his duty to his ancestors, but, rather than 
 part with his precious drink by pouring out a small libation, he 
 grasped his whiskey the firmer and hurried on. His guilty con 
 science worked on his imagination, and a ghostly pursuer was 
 after him and gaining rapidly. He determined to make a desper 
 ate struggle to keep his whiskey, and he turned to grasp his pur 
 suer. But, lo ! he did not hold in his arms his ghostly pursuer, 
 but a tall bunch of rushes into which it had transformed itself. 
 When an Indian falls into the fire and gets burned, he believes 
 
 1 I Bancroft, 590. 2 3 ib., 524. 
 
 3 3 ib., 543. 4 Jones, Ojibways, 101. 
 
B URIAL- CUSTOMS. 205 
 
 that the spirits of the dead have pushed him in, to punish him 
 for neglect of those pious offerings due to them. 1 
 
 Among all primitive peoples the doctrine of sacrifices is 
 based on utilitarian principles : the things offered are supposed 
 to be used by the dead and to be necessary to their happiness.. 
 Among the more uncivilized American tribes all or nearly all 
 the property of the deceased was offered in sacrifice, or, more 
 correctly speaking, was sent to him in the next world. Gitchi 
 Gauzini, an Ojibway chief, after a severe illness, was thought to 
 be dead. He, however, revived after four days, and gave an 
 account of his journey to the spirit-land, in which he met hosts 
 of spirits travelling thither laden with pipes, kettles, and pro 
 visions. Women had basket-work, paddles, and other female 
 utensils. 2 This indicates the nature of their faith in the utility 
 and existence of these sacrificial offerings in the spirit-world. 
 
 The natives of Canada think the souls of their kettles and 
 other utensils follow the dead into the next world. 3 
 
 " Do not lay such heavy burdens 
 On the graves of those you bury ; 
 Not such weight of furs and wampum, 
 Not such weight of pots and kettles ; 
 For the spirits faint beneath them ; 
 Only give them food to carry, 
 Only give them fire to light them." 
 
 LONGFELLOW, 
 
 In a Peruvian tomb, alongside of a female there lay an un 
 finished piece of weaving stretched upon its frame and with its 
 yarn of various colors still bright. The needle of thorn was in 
 it, and beside it several balls of yarn. It was laid beside her 
 under the belief that she would resume her task in a future 
 life.* 
 
 The natives of the West India islands put all the wealth of 
 the dead into their tombs, and women and servants sacrificed 
 themselves. Among the Patagonians all the property of the 
 
 1 i Schoolcraft, 139. 2 2 Tylor, 481-82. 
 
 3 3 Picart, 99. 4 2 Wilson s Prehist. Man, 141. 
 
206 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 deceased is laid with him in the grave. If he has horses, they 
 are killed, stuffed, and held up on sticks around the grave. 1 
 The Araucanians buried with the dead all their property. 
 
 Among the Mosquitos the hatchets, harpoons, and lances 
 of the dead, with plenty of provisions, were buried with them. 
 Even the boat of the deceased was cut up and placed over the 
 grave. 2 
 
 The Omahas sacrificed to the dead their bison robes and 
 moccasins. 3 The Western tribes always placed the weapons 
 of the deceased with him, thinking that he would use them. 4 
 Mr. Winslow said that the Narragansetts offered nearly all their 
 riches by casting them into a great fire. 
 
 Among the Delawares, says Gabriel Thomas, kettles and all 
 the property of the deceased were buried with them. 5 The 
 natives of West New Jersey, says the same author, buried all 
 the house-utensils of the deceased, and even money, with him, 
 thinking he would use it in the next world. 6 
 
 All of the tribes admitted that the bodies, skins, dishes, and 
 other articles offered to the dead remained in this world, but 
 the spirit went to the next world. The phantoms of the articles 
 left at the grave entered the spirit-land. 7 
 
 Those tribes which practised cremation thought the flames 
 spiritualized their sacrifices. 
 
 Many of the Indians during their life provided for an abun 
 dance in the next world. A Potawatomie requested that he 
 should be deposited in a log in the forks of a road between 
 Detroit and Chicago, in order that he might receive plenty of 
 tobacco from travellers. 8 
 
 The Hurons thought that at the annual collection and in 
 humation of the bones of those who had died during the year, 
 the souls of the dead started for the land of shades, carrying 
 with them the spirits of the wampum-belts, beaver-skins, bows 
 
 1 2 Wood s Uncivilized Races, 542. a 6 Churchill s Coll. Voy., 295. 
 
 3 2 Long s Exp., 2. 4 Lyon s Journal, 374. 
 
 5 Gabriel Thomas, Penn., 50. 6 West New Jersey, 2. 
 
 7 Dodge s Plains, 284. 8 McCoy s Baptist Missions, 136. 
 
B URIAL- CUSTOMS. 207 
 
 and arrows, pipes, kettles, and beads buried with them in their 
 graves. 1 
 
 This belief in the delay of the departure of the spirits for a 
 spirit-land was due to the lingering hope and expectation that 
 the dead might return to the living, until the disintegration of 
 the body dispelled that hope. 
 
 In addition to their own property, provisions of all kinds 
 were supplied. Seeds were often tied to the dead by tribes 
 who practised agriculture to any extent : these he was ex 
 pected to plant in the spirit-land and raise a crop therefrom. 
 Numerous flocks of llamas were pastured and raised in Peru 
 for the purposes of sacrifice. About two hundred thousand of 
 these animals were sacrificed annually in the city of Cuzco 
 alone. Alpacas, vicunas, and guanacos were also offered in 
 large numbers. Among wild animals, foxes, rabbits, apes, deer, 
 tapirs, tigers, serpents, lizards, humming-birds, parrots, cuckoos 
 flamingoes, and even flies were offered, and also all the useful 
 vegetable products. 2 
 
 If anything which could be of use to the dead was retained, 
 it was thought to be a great wrong done to the deceased. This 
 destruction of property at death was a serious check to the 
 progress of early peoples toward civilization. 
 
 The extravagance manifested in the sacrificial destruction 
 of property reached its height among the nations of Central 
 America and Mexico. 
 
 The Guatemalans made costly sacrifices whenever they dedi 
 cated a house to the guardian spirit or spirits thereof, and 
 sprinkled the blood of animals on the door-posts and walls. 3 
 The one who offered the most sacrifices at one of the Mexican 
 festivals was especially honored all the year after. 4 The Mex 
 icans would not even pluck leaves or foliage without offering a 
 portion of them to spirits. 5 In Granada, their idols, represent 
 ing men, were found with their mouths full of flowers, which 
 
 1 Parkman, Jesuits, Ixxxi. 2 Rivero and Tschudi, 196-98. 
 
 3 Ximenez, 188. 4 3 Herrera, 1 21. 
 
 5 Worsley s View, 175, 
 
208 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 were offerings from the natives. 1 This aesthetic worship was 
 uncommon, and affords a pleasing contrast to most of their 
 ceremonial. 
 
 In Peru, the substitution of the images of the things sacri 
 ficed was displacing to some extent their human and animal 
 sacrifices. These sacrifices were, however, continued to the 
 time of the conquest and long thereafter. When sacrifice de 
 generated into an act of homage, it became a ceremonial rite 
 of worship. This was not its primitive meaning. The sacri 
 fice of property that was of little or no use gradually supplanted 
 the primitive sacrifice, and even systematic efforts to defraud 
 the dead and reduce sacrifice to a mere formality prevailed 
 among the civilized American aborigines as well as among 
 the ancient peoples of the Old World, where cheap imitations 
 of expensive articles were made for the purposes of sacrifice. 
 
 Human sacrifices prevailed to a certain extent in both 
 Americas. It is quite a remarkable fact that they prevailed to 
 a much greater extent among the civilized races than among 
 the uncivilized ; yet there are some traces of it among the latter. 
 Mrs. Eastman mentions a case of human sacrifices among the 
 Dacotahs, and Mr. Keating says there were traditions about 
 human sacrifices among the Ojibways, among whom the cruel 
 rite seems to have expired in a myth. An epidemic appears 
 to have swept over their tribe, which they ascribed to the pun 
 ishment sent by spiritual influences on account of their wicked 
 ness. All other efforts failing, it was decided that the most 
 beautiful girl of the tribe should enter a canoe, push into the 
 channel just above the Sault, and throw away her paddle. The 
 morning of the day appointed for the solemn sacrifice dawned, 
 and loud and dismal was the wail of sorrow which broke upon 
 the silent air. The beautiful sacrifice was surrounded with her 
 long-loved companions, who decked her hair and neck with 
 the brightest shells and most beautiful feathers. The time ap 
 pointed for the sacrifice was the sunset hour, and, as the day 
 
 1 Boyle s Camp Notes, 84. 
 
B URIAL- CUSTOMS. 209 
 
 rapidly waned, the gloom which pervaded the entire village 
 increased. The time approached ; the Indian maiden was led 
 to the canoe, when, lo ! a strange echo came over the waters, 
 and a black speck was seen coming from the setting sun. It 
 was a small canoe, which swept mysteriously over the watery 
 waste. It contained a fairy-like being who stood with her arms 
 folded and her eyes fixed upon the heavens. As she moved 
 directly toward the rapids, her song was, " I come from the 
 spirit-land to stay the plague and save the life of the beautiful 
 Ojibway." The canoe and its spirit voyager passed into the 
 foam of the cataract and were lost forever. 1 
 
 Human sacrifice was practised among the Miamis, for we 
 are told by Mr. Drake that Little Turtle, the famous Miami 
 chief, " did more than any other to abolish human sacrifices 
 among his people." 2 
 
 There are many evidences of the practice of human sacrifice 
 among those tribes living on the Ohio, Cumberland, and Ten 
 nessee Rivers. 3 Father Jogues mentions the sacrifice of a 
 woman among the tribes of New York, and De Vries mentions 
 another instance of this practice among them. 4 The tribes of 
 British America practised human sacrifice to a limited extent. 
 The Pawnees offered human victims at their annual ceremony 
 immediately preceding their horticultural operations. 5 It was 
 among this tribe that Petashaleroo struck the final blow at 
 human sacrifices, by rescuing his intended bride, who had been 
 chosen as a victim. 
 
 Human sacrifices never prevailed to any extent among the 
 barbarous tribes of the North. Very few cases of compulsory 
 human sacrifice are found. Among* these primitive tribes vol 
 untary sacrifice was more frequent. Suicides often occurred, 
 that the person committing this self-sacrifice might follow 
 the deceased into the next world. The Carriers sometimes 
 burned the widow at the funeral ceremonies of her husband. 6 
 
 1 Lanman s Haw-Hoo-Noo, 227-28. 2 Indian Biography, ist ed., 158. 
 
 3 Haywood s Ab. Hist. Term., 140. 4 3 N. Y. Hist. Coll., 56, 203. 
 
 s 3 Long s Exp., 80. 6 West s Journal, 141. 
 
210 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Among some of the tribes west of the Rocky Mountains the 
 sacrifice of the wife took place at the funeral of her husband. 1 
 Sutteeism was also practised among the Tlascalans. 2 
 
 Among the tribes farther south, human sacrifice prevailed to 
 a greater extent. When De Soto died, two young men were 
 killed to wait upon him in the spirit-world. 3 Among the 
 Floridians slaves were burned with their chiefs, to wait upon 
 them in the next world. The Gent of Elvas mentions human 
 sacrifices among the Calloosas, and also among the tribes 
 around St. John s River. Says Charlevoix, describing the 
 human sacrifices among the Natches at the obsequies of a 
 female chief, " The husband of this woman not being noble, 
 that is to say, of the family of the great chief, his eldest son 
 strangled him according to custom ; then they cleared the 
 cabin of all it contained, and they erected in it a kind of tri 
 umphal car, in which the body of the deceased woman and 
 that of her husband were placed. A moment after, they 
 ranged round these carcasses twelve little children, which their 
 parents had strangled. This being done, they erected in 
 the public place fourteen scaffolds, adorned with branches of 
 trees and cloths, on which they had painted various figures. 
 These scaffolds were designed for as many persons who were 
 to accompany the woman chief into the other world. They 
 apply sometimes ten years beforehand to obtain this favor. 
 They appear on their scaffolds dressed in their richest habits, 
 holding in their right hand a great shell. During the eight 
 days that precede their death, some wear a red ribbon around 
 one of their legs, and during all this time everybody strives 
 who shall be the first to feast them. . . . On the occasion 
 I am speaking of, the fathers and mothers who had strangled 
 their children took them up in their hands and ranged them 
 selves on both sides of the cabin ; the fourteen persons who 
 were also destined to die placed themselves in the same 
 
 I Bancroft, 440. 2 2 Herrera, 303. 
 
 3 Foster s Prehistotic Races, 316. 
 
B URIAL- CUSTOMS. 2 1 1 
 
 manner. At last they began the procession. The fathers 
 and mothers who carried the dead children appeared first, 
 marching two and two, and came immediately before the bier, 
 on which was the body of the woman chief, which four men 
 carried on their shoulders. All the others came after, in the 
 same order as the first. At every ten paces the fathers and 
 mothers let their children fall upon the ground ; those who 
 carried the bier walked upon them, then turned quite round 
 them ; so that when the procession arrived at the temple these 
 little bodies were all in pieces. While they buried the body 
 of the woman chief in the temple, they undressed the fourteen 
 persons who were to die ; they made them sit on the ground 
 before the door, each having two savages by him. Then they 
 put a cord about his neck and covered his head with a roe 
 buck s skin. They made him swallow three pills of tobacco 
 and drink a glass of water, and the relations of the woman chief 
 drew the two ends of the cord, singing till he was strangled. 
 After this they threw all the carcasses into the same pit, which 
 they covered with earth." J 
 
 Among the rude tribes of South America voluntary sacri 
 fices were common. Many of the Brazilians killed themselves 
 on the graves of their chiefs. Among the Itatines a number 
 of the relatives of the deceased person would commit suicide 
 by throwing themselves from a precipice, in order to accom 
 pany the deceased to another world. A Mbaya woman, when 
 she found that a chief s daughter received no sacrifices at her 
 funeral, celebrated by a Catholic priest, whose faith she had 
 espoused, asked a fellow-savage to knock her on the head, that 
 she might go and serve the damsel. This he did quickly and 
 without hesitation. 
 
 The Guaycurus of South America butchered a certain num 
 ber of men and women on the death of a person of distinction, 
 in order that they might bear him company into the other 
 world. It is evident that human sacrifices were made that the 
 
 1 2 Charlevoix s Journal, 162. 
 
212 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 spirits of the victims might serve the spirits of those to whom 
 they were offered. 
 
 A New Mexican king, mentioned by Gage, had a cup-bearer, 
 cook, and laundress sacrificed at his death. 1 
 
 In Mexico, the chaplain of a great magnate who died was 
 killed to officiate for him in the other world. 2 This was a very 
 extraordinary piece of self-sacrifice on the part of a pagan 
 priesthood, who have generally arranged religious worship in 
 such a way that they are not sacrificed to the people, but the 
 people to them. The usual victims at their sacrifices were 
 captives, slaves, and criminals. 
 
 The sacrificial system of the Mexicans was very elaborate. 
 They were more civilized in one sense than the Northern 
 tribes, but more inhuman in the sacrifice of human beings. 
 They sacrificed slaves to the dead on the fifth, twentieth, for 
 tieth, sixtieth, and eightieth days after burial. 
 
 The manner of conducting human sacrifices in Mexico was 
 revolting in its details. The victim was stretched upon the 
 altar and held by four priests, while a fifth placed an instrument 
 in the shape of a coiled serpent about his neck. The high- 
 priest then approached, cut open his breast, tore out the bleed 
 ing heart while still palpitating, and offered it to the idol. The 
 head was then cut off, and, after some preparation, placed in a 
 charnel-house of skulls, and the body was thrown down the 
 stairway leading to the temple. The bodies thus thrown down 
 were picked up and carried away to be eaten. In some of the 
 provinces these bodies were cut up and sold in the meat-mar 
 kets. 3 The idols were daily sprinkled with the blood of human 
 beings. 4 Clavigero says that twenty thousand human beings 
 were annually sacrificed throughout the Mexican empire. 5 
 Herrera estimates the number much higher. 
 
 The Mayas of Yucatan offered human sacrifices in times of 
 distress. Among them, however, the substitution of figures of 
 
 1 New Survey, 158. 2 3 Herrera, 220. 
 
 3 i Clavigero, 279. 4 Gage, New Survey, 115. 
 
 5 i Clavigero, 281. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 213 
 
 the heart seems to have begun to receive favor in the place 
 of human sacrifices. With them the sacrifice of human beings 
 appears to have been associated in many instances with the 
 idea that they would act as intercessors, and they were sent as 
 messengers to the spirit-world to make known the wants of the 
 people. In Yucatan, where Cukulcan opposed human sacrifice, 
 his influence operated as a check upon this inhuman rite ; but 
 they sent young virgins occasionally into the presence of the 
 gods to intercede for needed blessings. That they were in 
 tended as intercessors only i| shown by a curious incident. 
 One of the intended victims threatened to invoke the most 
 terrible evils upon the people, instead of blessings, if they 
 sacrificed her against her will. The perplexed priests let the 
 girl go. 1 Slaves were sacrificed in large numbers. 2 
 
 Holocausts of victims were sacrificed in the sanguinary 
 funeral rites of the Incas. On the death of Huayna Capac 
 the human victims numbered over a thousand. 3 The Inca 
 Yupanqui shut up a great many women and servants in the 
 tomb of his father, to die there, as a sacrifice to him. 4 The 
 Yuncas of Peru buried with a chief his wives and other persons 
 with whom he had much friendship. If there was no room 
 in the tomb, his companions had to be buried in holes around 
 the tomb. They would often commit suicide on his grave. 5 
 
 Among the coast people of Peru, human sacrifices were 
 offered at the sepulchres of the dead. 6 Human sacrifices were 
 made to the animal deities of the Peruvians. 7 It was the cus 
 tom when they gave the borla to the new Inca to sacrifice two 
 hundred boys from four to ten years old. Girls also were 
 taken from the monasteries for sacrifice. It will thus be seen 
 how prevalent human sacrifices were throughout Peru, many 
 authors to the contrary notwithstanding. Huascar became 
 very unpopular among his subjects because, being tired of 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 471. 2 Fancourt s Yucatan, 116. 
 
 3 Ranking s Peru, 229-30. 4 4 Herrera, 298. 
 
 5 Cieza, 223. 6 Xeres, Rep., 32. 
 
 7 Ranking, 89, 94. 
 
214 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 seeing the great part of his empire in the hands of the dead, 
 he ordered that all corpses should be buried. The easy con 
 quest by the Spaniards is ascribed to this alienation of the 
 people 1 because the worship of the dead was interfered with 
 and human sacrifices prevented. 
 
 The Quiches of Guatemala offered human sacrifices to their 
 idols. 2 The intercessory character of many of their sacrifices 
 is evident from their sculptures. 3 
 
 The Pipiles of Salvador had human sacrifices annually, and 
 with the blood of the victims they sprinkled the walls of the 
 temples. If any blood was left over, they poured it back 
 into the body of the victim. For success in war, captives were 
 sacrificed. 4 
 
 The custom of offering captives as sacrifices was preva 
 lent among all those guilty of human sacrifices. The Arau- 
 canians of Chile sacrificed prisoners of war to the manes of 
 their warriors killed in the war. 5 The Peruvians, before the 
 Incas, sacrificed men and women who were captives taken in 
 war. " They opened their breast while yet alive, and took out 
 heart and lungs, and anointed the idol with their blood, and 
 watched the omens in the heart and lungs to see whether it 
 was accepted. They then ate the sacrificed Indian with relish 
 and delight." 6 
 
 The sacrifice of children prevailed among both the civilized 
 and uncivilized peoples. Among the latter they were seldom 
 sacrificed, except when the death of the mother occurred when 
 the child was so young that its care was considered a burden, 
 and it was sent into the next world to receive maternal care. 
 The sacrifice of children grew, however, into great proportions 
 among the more advanced nations. 
 
 The following description of these sacrifices in Culhuacan is 
 taken from Martyr : 
 
 " Let every godly man close the mouth of his stomake, lest 
 
 1 P. Pizarro, 238-40. 3 Ximenez, 183. 
 
 3 See Habel s Sculptures. 4 Palacio, 65. 
 
 s 2 Molina s Chile, 78. 6 I Garcilasso, Commentaries, 50. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 215 
 
 he be desturbed. They offer younge children of bothe kyndes 
 to their Idoles of marble and earth. Amonge their Idoles of 
 marble there standeth a lyon havynge a hole throwgh the necke, 
 into the whiche they poure the bludde of the miserable sacri 
 fice, that it maye from thence runne down into a syncke of 
 marble. They cutte not their throtes, but open the very brestes 
 and take owtt their hartes yet pantynge with the hotte bludde, 
 whereof they anoynte the lyppes of theyre Idoles and suffer 
 the resydue to faule into the synke. This doone, they burne 
 the harte and bowels, supposynge the smoke thereof to be 
 acceptable to their Goddes. Of their Idoles one is made to the 
 shape of a man bowynge downe his head and lookynge toward 
 the synke of bludde, as it were acceptyng the offeringe of the 
 slayne sacrifyce. They eate the fleshe of the armes, thighes, 
 and legges. They founde a streame of congealed bludde as 
 thoughe it had runne from a bouchery." 
 
 The inhabitants of Cozumella " sacrifyce children of both . 
 kyndes to theyr Zemes, which are the images of their familiar 
 and domesticall spirites whych theye honour as Goddes." * 
 
 Children were sacrificed, says Molina, at all the chief huacas 
 of the provinces of Peru. 2 Young children and boys were 
 sacrificed to two huacas at Hunoyan. 3 When the Indians were 
 ill, their own children were sometimes offered as a sacrifice to 
 Viracocha. 4 
 
 The sculpture of the ruined temples at Palenque presents 
 many representations of the sacrifice of children. Female 
 figures erect, adorned with jewels and ornaments, are found, 
 each figure with a child in her arms, not in the attitude of 
 receiving a mother s nourishment, but held by the parent in 
 such a manner as if in sorrowful contemplation of her infant 
 victim. Other female figures are represented seated and in the 
 most melancholy postures, with downcast heads and looks as 
 if mourning for that loss which had made them motherless. 
 
 1 Martyr s Decades, 156. 2 Narrative, 58-59. 
 
 3 Arriaga, 265. 4 J O s. D Acosta, bk. 5, chap. 19. 
 
216 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 In an inner apartment, believed to be the sanctum of a temple, 
 is sculptured (in basso) the resemblance of the dread altar, por 
 traying the entrance of the fiery furnace, for even the bars and 
 grating are distinctly visible. A large and monstrous mask, or 
 demoniac face, is directly above the fire-grating, representing that 
 of the remorseless deity. On either side of the altar-furnace are 
 stationed a young and an elderly priest of sacrifice, both stand 
 ing erect upon crushed and prostrate human beings ; the priests 
 have their hands and arms elevated, and each holds an infant 
 raised up toward the demon deity, as if in the act of present 
 ing the victims. The sculptured mask has a hideous face, dis 
 torted eyes, a ravenous and distended mouth, and its tongue 
 hanging out, as if athirst for infant blood, thus presenting a 
 perfect portraiture of the child-craving appetite of the god. The 
 sculpture described is, as we have stated, upon the stuccoed 
 walls of Palenque, and we believe was placed there as a record 
 of a religious custom practised anterior to the walls being 
 stuccoed. 1 
 
 The Chibchas of Bogota offered sacrifices of children to the 
 sun. Their caciques had a receptacle on the beams of their 
 houses, into which they placed a boy who had been killed for 
 a sacrifice. His blood trickled down the posts of the house. 2 
 
 A few instances of the sacrifice of children as an act of wor 
 ship appear among the tribes of the territory now embraced 
 within the United States. " The Florida savages sacrificed 
 their first-born." 3 The Eskimos sacrificed the favorite child 
 on the grave of its deceased parent. 4 
 
 Self-mutilation was another form of sacrifice. The funereal 
 mourners, generally the relatives of the deceased, cut off fingers, 
 knocked out teeth, punctured flesh, and did many other acts 
 wholly unutilitarian, but which manifested the great sorrow 
 felt by the survivors, and thus were supposed to be pleasing 
 to the dead. 
 
 1 Jones, Ancient America, 141, seq. 2 P. Simon, 248-49. 
 
 3 3 Picart, 129. 4 ChappelPs Voyage, 190. 
 
BURIAL-CUSTOMS. 217 
 
 Describing the death of A-ra-poo-ash, chief of the Crows, 
 and the exhibitions of grief on the part of his nation that fol 
 lowed, Bonner, in his life of Beckworth, says, 1 quoting Beck- 
 worth s language, " Every warrior immediately set up the 
 most dismal cryings that I have ever heard in my life. I des 
 patched a herald to the village to inform them of the head 
 chief s death. When we drew in sight of the village, we found 
 every lodge laid prostrate. We entered amid shrieks, cries, 
 and yells. Blood was streaming from every conceivable part 
 of the bodies of all who were old enough to comprehend their 
 loss. Hundreds of fingers were dismembered ; hair torn from 
 the head lay in profusion about the paths. A herald having 
 been despatched to our other village to acquaint them with 
 the death of our head chief and request them to assemble at 
 the Rosebud, in conformity with this summons over ten thou 
 sand Crows met at the place indicated. Such a scene of dis 
 orderly, vociferous mourning no imagination can conceive nor 
 any pen portray. Long Hair cut off a large roll of his hair, 
 a thing he was never known to do before. The cutting and 
 hacking of human flesh exceeded all my previous experience : 
 fingers were dismembered as readily as twigs, and blood was 
 poured out like water. Many of the warriors would cut two 
 gashes nearly the entire length of their arm, then, separating 
 the skin from the flesh at one end, would grasp it in their 
 other hand and rip it asunder to the shoulder." 
 
 Among the Dacotahs, " when a death happens in a family, 
 no matter how well they are clothed, the good clothes are 
 stripped off and given away, and the worst old rags substituted 
 in their place. They gash their legs and arms, and leave them 
 to get well without the least attention. Some of them carry 
 their grief so far as to raise the skin of their arms and pierce 
 holes with their knives and put pegs through them. They 
 continue their mourning about a year." 2 
 
 Says Belden, " The practice of disfiguration prevails exten- 
 
 1 P. 264, seq. 2 2 Wis. Hist. Coll., 180. 
 
218 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 sively among nearly all the Western tribes. One day an In 
 dian boy was thrown from his pony with such violence that 
 he died. His mother and sisters, as a sign of their grief, cut 
 off a finger each at the first joint. I have seen the Crows gash 
 their arms, legs, bodies, and faces when their friends died. At 
 Fort Phil Kearney it is said that hundreds of fingers were 
 cut off, and gashes innumerable made on their persons, by the 
 friends of the dead. When a warrior is killed, his pony is 
 gashed in the sides and on the legs with knives, to make him 
 feel sorry for the death of his master." J 
 
 The same custom prevailed among all the Northern tribes. 
 Among the Mexicans their self-mutilations were as cruel as 
 their bodies would bear, for, in their pious fanaticism, "they 
 mangled their flesh as if it had been insensible, and let their 
 blood run in profusion." They pierced themselves with the 
 sharp spines of the aloe, and then bathed their bloody bodies 
 in a pond at the great temple, which was called Ezapan, be 
 cause always discolored with blood. 2 
 
 In the pictographs in Lord Kingsborough s "Antiquities of 
 Mexico" there are many representations of mourners thrusting 
 a weapon through their tongues; and among the uncivilized 
 tribes of South America the same practice prevailed. Among 
 all the Brazilian tribes mutilations were a part of the funeral 
 ceremonial. Some cut off fingers at the death of a kinsman, 3 
 others toes. The Mumanes, if all their fingers had been cut off, 
 began on their toes. 4 
 
 The most common mutilation in these mourning ceremonies^ 
 was cutting the hair. Among the Peruvians, even the plucking __ 
 out of an eyebrow and blowing it into the air was thought to 
 be an acceptable offering. 
 
 Under the head of sacrifices and burial-ceremonies we have 
 seen that the tombs of all of the American tribes have been 
 their temples. Said Prudentius, the Roman bard, " there were 
 
 1 Belden, 1 60, seq. 2 I Clavigero, 283-85. 
 
 3 i Southey, 345. 
 
 * I ib., 417; D Orbigny, L Homme Am6ricain, 238. 
 
B URIAL- CUSTOMS. 
 
 219 
 
 as many temples of gods as sepulchres," implying that they 
 were the same and identical among the ancient classical 
 nations. The Collas of Peru took more care of their tombs 
 than of the houses of the living. These tombs were small 
 towers, the magnitude of which depended on the rank and 
 wealth of the deceased. 1 
 
 Many of the Peruvian tombs were places of worship. The 
 burial-towers of Peru were often sprinkled with the blood of 
 sacrifices, and most of the huacas, or sacred places, were the 
 tombs of the dead. Many of the tribes of South America 
 built a rough hut for the reception of the skeletons of the dead, 
 and these were their temples. Mr. Stedman mentions one 
 which contained four hundred skeletons, which were hung up 
 therein. 2 
 
 Columbus mentions a sepulchre as large as a house, built on 
 a mountain and elaborately sculptured. A body lay therein, 
 which was uncovered. 3 
 
 " De Soto," says Biedma, in his narrative, " opened a large 
 temple built in the woods, in which were buried the chiefs of 
 the country." 
 
 The Virginia kings, after their bodies were prepared by a 
 species of mummification, were laid upon a shelf in the temple, 
 where a priest remained in constant attendance night and day. 4 
 
 " The traditional name of the ancient burial-mounds among 
 the Choctaws was Nanne-Yah, the hills or mounts of God, 
 a name almost identical, it is said, with that of the Mexican 
 pyramids. Who can fail to perceive that the same principles 
 of architecture have governed the construction of both, and 
 that the temple-mound of Kentucky is but a ruder form of the 
 Mexican teocalli ?" 5 
 
 The tribes in the United States were well acquainted with 
 the character of the sepulchral mounds. These mounds were 
 regarded with great reverence, and were frequently resorted 
 
 1 Cieza, 364. 2 I Surinam, 400. 
 
 3 Select Letters, 192. 4 Beverly, 47, 
 
 5 i Collins s Kentucky, 385. 
 
220 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 to by the Indians as places sacred to their devotional exer 
 cises. 1 
 
 In Mexico and the States of Central America, and in Peru, 
 where the temples had attained a magnitude and beauty of 
 architecture rarely surpassed anywhere among the pagan 
 peoples, their use as tombs had not become obsolete. In the 
 great temple at Cuzco, an array of Incas, seated in all their 
 rich vestments, was the most striking feature of its interior. In 
 Mexico, the kings and lords, after having been prepared for 
 burial, were placed in some temple. Even the idols found in 
 these temples were generally the images of the dead, and often 
 contained their ashes. Among the Iroquois a fire is built at 
 the head of the grave of the dead, immediately after the burial, 
 around which the relatives and friends sit for nine successive 
 nights. 2 Thus tombs have always been regarded as sacred to 
 religious devotions. 
 
 Tire utilitarian view of sacrifice has now almost passed away. 
 The God of the Christian world asks naught but the sacrifice 
 of a broken and contrite heart. But the method of worshipping 
 him in the Roman Catholic Church by the sacrifice of the mass 
 has its prototype in the funeral rite of the savage. The fire on 
 the grave of the savage for the spirit to warm itself by and cook 
 its food survives in the light on the graves of Catholic Europe 
 on All Souls day and in the light on the sacrificial altar of the 
 Roman Church. The mutilation in the primitive funeral cere 
 mony now appears in the cropped hair and lacerating garments 
 of religious devoteeism. Among the more civilized races of 
 America, the simpler forms of sacrifice survived amid an elab 
 orate sacrificial ritual. 
 
 1 Hunter s Memoirs, 307, seq. a Life of Mary Jamison, 107. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 
 
 Its animistic origin Immortality of the spirits of animals Transmigration of 
 human souls into animals Omens Manitology Totemism Animal names 
 given to human beings Traditionary descent of tribes from animals To 
 temism in art Heraldry Totemic writing Tattooing Probable totemic origin 
 of the animal mounds Traditionary descent of animals from the human race 
 Metamorphosis Animal dress Worship of animals Fabulous animals 
 Animals in the role of creators. 
 
 THE worship of animals has been supposed by many my- 
 thologists to have originated in symbolism. This explanation 
 of it is wholly unsatisfactory. Symbolism is unknown to a 
 very primitive people, and it is among them that animal-wor 
 ship is universal. Again, this symbolism, which is used as an 
 explanation of animal-worship among the advanced nations, 
 such as the Egyptians, must itself be explained. The basis of 
 the science of Naology, as the derivation of the word implies, 
 must be the representation of an idea by a sign; the origin 
 of animal symbolism in mythology can be found in totemism. 
 Among the natives of America, animal-worship has originated 
 in animism, or spirit-worship. Among primitive peoples all 
 animals are supposed to be endowed with souls. In many 
 cases the souls of human beings have transmigrated into ani 
 mals. Hence among many of our wildest tribes a likeness has 
 been recognized between an animal and some deceased relative 
 or friend, and the animal has been addressed as the person 
 would have been, and has been honored on account of such 
 resemblance with an adoration which, among primitive peoples, 
 is equivalent to worship. In the cosmogony of many of the 
 tribes, animals have figured as the progenitors of the tribe, and 
 
 15 221 
 
222 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 in a few tribal traditions they appear as creators. This creation 
 in some cases is fiatic in its nature, but usually it can be traced 
 to a belief in a natural descent from the animal which stands 
 as a progenitor of the tribe and is therefore held in great vene 
 ration as an ancestor. Here we have a point of contact with 
 ancestral worship. This very curious and primitive belief in 
 descent from animals has originated from the totemic system 
 upon which their social system rests. The division of a tribe 
 into the families of the bear, turtle, crane, etc., indicates a time 
 when families claiming descent from ancestors bearing those 
 names have banded themselves together for their common in 
 terest, generally for defence. That an ancestor should be 
 named the bear or turtle or crane, indicates a time still farther 
 back when the name was given him for some good reason. 
 A great many ethnologists have supposed those names were 
 given to designate a quality or characteristic of the individual : 
 a very slow man would be called a turtle ; a man with very 
 long legs, a crane. Although there is no doubt that such nick 
 naming as this has occurred, and has originated many such 
 names, yet the totemic system has a much broader and deeper 
 foundation than this, upon which their social structure is built. 
 Totemism is explained by manitology, or the worship of mani- 
 tous. The manitou is a personal deity, almost always an ani 
 mal, chosen by each individual at that most important period 
 of his life when he becomes of age. This animal manitou is 
 always pointed out to the individual in a dream which is pro 
 duced by the greatest religious act of his life, the first fast 
 The animal then becomes an object of worship, and its skin or 
 stuffed body is carried about the person as a fetich, or its likeness 
 painted on the body or sculptured on the weapons. Heraldry, 
 animal dress, tattooing, and the metamorphoses of men to ani 
 mals and animals to men thus originate. The prevalence of the 
 animal forms in primitive art can here find explanation. Hence 
 the animal appears as the manitou, or personal fetich, and then 
 develops into the totem, or sacred animal of the gens or family 
 which descends from that person. Under favorable conditions 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 
 
 223 
 
 it then appears as the creator, in which capacity it gradually 
 assumes a fabulous nature, and is the author of all changes in 
 the economy of the universe as far as known to the peoples 
 among whom the myths occur. From animals the natives 
 have descended, according to tradition. Upon animals they 
 depend for their earthly blessings, and look to them in a wor 
 ship which will be noticed throughout this chapter. In the 
 future life they also figure in as important a role as in this. In 
 art they appear as idols. Their figures are sculptured and 
 painted on houses, temples, and natural rocks. They are tat 
 tooed upon the bodies. Their skins are worn as medicine- 
 sacks and also as garments. In this latter capacity they have 
 tended to produce the curious legends of metamorphosis 
 noticed in this chapter and elsewhere. Their cries and actions, 
 voluntary and involuntary, become the omens of the savage 
 tribes, and originate the divination and augury of the more 
 civilized. Dreams are their revelations to man. Disease is 
 produced by their angry spirits, which are everywhere present 
 and ready to avenge an act of impiety to their kind. Hence 
 all the tribes worshipped the commonest animals. They sup 
 posed that all animals of land, air, and water were endowed 
 with immortal spirits and could punish those who maltreated 
 them. When they worshipped any of these they imagined 
 that they would obtain the aid of their spirits. 
 
 The immortality of the souls of all animals is as thoroughly 
 and universally believed as that of human souls. The subject 
 has received so much consideration in other parts of this work 
 that only a few authorities will be introduced here. Among 
 the natives of Canada the spirits of animals were thought to be 
 immortal. 1 Among the Western tribes, says Mr. Dodge, the 
 phantoms of all animals are supposed to go to the happy hunt 
 ing-grounds. The Indians have not yet separated themselves 
 from the whole animated creation, and do not exclude animals 
 from their world of spirits. 2 Says Mr. Buchanan, " The Knis- 
 
 1 I Jes. Rel., 13. 2 Buchanan, 181. 
 
224 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 tenaux have a place assigned to animal spirits, and on this side 
 of the land of the dead Knistenaux. Their spirits have to pass 
 through the land of animal spirits, when the shades of the ani 
 mals can avenge their wrongs." z Chateaubriand says that all 
 the Indians granted immortality to the spirits of insects, reptiles, 
 fishes, and birds. 2 
 
 All of the Indians fancied that the souls of animals came to 
 see how their bodies were treated, and afterward acquainted 
 both the living and the dead with the facts ; and that if they 
 were ill treated they would not suffer themselves to be any 
 longer taken, either in this world or the next. 3 
 
 The intelligence of these spiritual agents and their interest in 
 human affairs, according to the theories of the aborigines, were 
 demonstrated in omens, animal oracles, and augury. 
 
 The Aztecs, in their migration, appear to have received their 
 oracles from a bird, crying tilini, tilini, " let us go, let us go." 
 This led them from place to place. The importance of the 
 little bird tilini-tochan, whose note is still heard in Mexico, 
 tends to show how great an influence the animal world has had 
 in the history of primitive peoples. The Aztecs founded 
 Tenochtitlan in obedience to an oracle bidding them go until 
 they found an eagle on a tuna-tree. The conditions were met 
 when they came upon the site of the above city, for there sat 
 an eagle upon a tuna-tree growing out of a rock, with her 
 wings displayed facing the sun, and with a beautiful bird in her 
 talons. They prostrated themselves before this eagle, which 
 bowed her head in recognition of them. Their arms and those 
 of the Mexicans at this day are an eagle in a tuna-tree. 
 
 Among hunting tribes the cawing of a crow at night would 
 cause a large party of warriors to run for home and give up an 
 expedition. The Comanches regarded the wolf as a brother, 
 and said that it warned them of danger. If one sprang up 
 before them in their journeys and barked or howled, they 
 
 1 Buchanan, 275. 2 2 Chateaubriand s Travels, 38. 
 
 3 2 Picart, 85. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 22$ 
 
 would turn aside, and travel no more in that direction that 
 day. 1 The Pecos said an eagle conversed with them and fore 
 told the arrival of the white men. 2 The Ojibways believed 
 much in omens. The barking of foxes and of wolves, the 
 bleating of deer, the screeching of owls, the flight of uncom 
 mon kinds of birds, the moaning noise of a partridge, were 
 ominous of ill. The two last were certain omens of death. 
 But the sailing of an eagle to and fro, and the noise of a raven, 
 were omens of good. 3 The inhabitants of St. Catherine s 
 Island, on the coast of California, had two crows in the court 
 of their temple, which were their oracles. They were thrown 
 into great alarm because they were killed by the Spaniards. 4 
 
 When the mankawis, a species of quail, perch at night upon 
 a cabin belonging to a Seminole, the inhabitant of that cabin 
 prepares for death. If a white bird sports aloof in the air, this 
 indicates a storm. If it flies in the evening before the traveller, 
 throwing itself from one wing upon the other, as if frightened, 
 it forebodes danger. 5 
 
 Among the Mayas the songs of birds and cries of animals 
 were omens. 6 
 
 Among the Northern tribes the march is regulated by a 
 sorcerer according to good or bad omens. If the sorcerer but 
 cries out at night that he has seen a spider on a willow-leaf, the 
 army must break up. 7 If they hear the howling of a large 
 wolf which they call the medicine-wolf, when travelling, sad 
 ness is at once visible in their countenances, for it is considered 
 as foreboding some calamity near at hand. 8 
 
 Small ducks, among the Abipones, which flew about together 
 at night, making a loud hiss, were omens of evil, and were 
 believed to be spirits of the dead.9 Among the Brazilian tribes 
 the screaming of vultures was an omen of death. The Para- 
 
 1 Battey s Quaker, etc., 333. 2 Davis, El Gringo, 153. 
 
 3 Autobiography of Kah-Ge-Ga-Bow, 48. jj McCulloh, Ant., 112. 
 5 I Chateaubriand s Travels, 246. 6 2 Brasseur, Hist. Mexico, 51. 
 
 7 2 Chateaubriand s Travels, 21. 8 Parker s Journal, 243, seq. 
 
 9 i Dobrizhoffer, 331 ; 2 ib., 270. 
 
226 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 guayans consulted the songs of birds and cries of animals as 
 auguries to guide their conduct. 1 
 
 The Peruvian priests inspected the entrails of beasts for 
 omens. 2 When the animals were opened and the lungs were 
 palpitating, it was favorable. 3 
 
 The llama was used at the sacrifice at the feast of Raymi, 
 to get the auguries. When the body was opened, the priest 
 sought, in the appearances which it exhibited, to read the lesson 
 of the mysterious future. 4 
 
 Let us now pass to the consideration of the subject of mani- 
 tology, or the worship of manitous among the tribes, and 
 make it introductory to the subject of totemism. After our 
 consideration of these two subjects we will understand their 
 animal-worship. 
 
 The most prominent belief in the Indian religion was their 
 doctrine of manitous, or what may be denominated manitology. 
 All the tribes had some equivalent for this, although the word 
 used is Algonkin. The word manitou did not mean the Deity 
 or Great Spirit, as has been erroneously asserted : it was con 
 fined to a spiritual and mysterious power thought to reside in 
 some material form. The Potawatomie had his tutelary spirit, 
 generally in the shape of some animal he had met in his dreams. 
 To this animal he addressed his prayers and stated his wants ; 
 he consulted it in all difficulties, and frequently conceived that 
 he had derived relief from it. Of course he abstained from 
 eating the animal, and would rather starve than sacrilegiously 
 feed upon his animal idol. He knew that others had different 
 manitous, and did not feel bound to protect his animal from his 
 companions, for he thought there was no virtue in the animal 
 for anybody but himself. 5 Among the Illinois, each man had a 
 manitou, which was some animal about which he had dreamed, 
 and in which he placed all his confidence for success. 6 
 
 1 Caddell s Hist. Missions, Japan and Paraguay, 30. 
 a i Zarate, 52. 3 2 Garcilasso, 161. 
 
 * i Prescott, Peru, 106. s i Keating, nS. 
 
 6 Marquette, Recit de Voyage, 57. 
 
ANIAfAL- WORSHIP. 227 
 
 The power of these manitous to deliver them from danger is 
 well illustrated in the following tale : 
 
 A canoe full of Ojibways was once pursued by enemies. 
 They endeavored to escape, but found the enemy gaining on 
 them rapidly. At last they began calling on their manitous. 
 One called upon the sturgeon, and their speed was soon equal 
 to that fish s, and the enemy were left far behind. But the stur 
 geon was a short-winded fish, and soon became tired, and the 
 enemy gained on them. All the manitous but one were tried 
 in vain, and they began to give themselves up for lost, when a 
 young man whom they had disregarded called upon his mani- 
 tou, which happened to be the saw-bill (duck), and held its 
 skin by the neck in the water. Immediately the canoe began 
 to glide swiftly away at the usual speed of a saw-bill, and the 
 enemy were left far behind and gave up the chase. 1 
 
 The initial fast at the age of puberty which every Indian 
 underwent was for the purpose of individually becoming aware 
 of this personal manitou. When revealed in dreams, his pur 
 pose was accomplished, and he adopted that revelation, which 
 was generally some bird or animal, as his personal or guardian 
 manitou. There was no exigency in life in which it could not 
 help him. The misfortune was that these manitous were not 
 of equal power. Hence the Indian was never sure that his 
 neighbor was not under the guardianship of a manitou stronger 
 than his own. 2 
 
 Each primitive Indian had his guardian manitou, to whom 
 he looked for counsel, guidance, and protection. These spiritual 
 allies were gained by the following process. At the age of 
 fourteen or fifteen the Indian boy retired to some solitary place 
 and remained for days without food. Superstitious expectancy 
 and the exhaustion of abstinence rarely failed of their results. 
 His sleep was haunted by visions, and the form which first or 
 most often appeared was that of his guardian manitou (almost 
 always an animal). An eagle or bear was the vision of a des- 
 
 1 Jones, Ojibways, 89, go. 2 I Schoolcraft, 34. 
 
228 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 lined warrior ; a wolf, of a hunter ; a serpent, of a medicine-man. 
 The Indian henceforth wore about his person the object re 
 vealed in his dream, or some portion of it, within which was 
 thought to reside its spirit. The Indian yielded to it a sort of 
 worship and made offerings to it. The superstition now be 
 came mere fetich-worship. 1 
 
 It is astonishing what an influence this superstition had on 
 the daily life of the Indian. Mr. Cass knew an old Dacotah 
 chief who had never been to war because he had dreamed of 
 an antelope, the peace spirit of his people. 
 
 When the tribes pitched their tents they took very little 
 care to guard against a surprise, because they placed great con 
 fidence in their manitous, which they always carried with them, 
 and which they were persuaded took upon themselves the office 
 of sentinels, and they slept very securely under their protection. 
 These manitous were called by some tribes wakons, that is, 
 spirits. 2 
 
 The Arkansas, next to the Natches the most civilized of 
 the aborigines of the United States, had manitous which they 
 always consulted. Their manitou was sometimes an animal, 
 sometimes a bird, and to it they attributed all their good or 
 bad luck.3 
 
 The early missionaries found great difficulty in inducing the 
 natives to give up these guardian spirits, which they thought 
 visited them and gave them valuable information. 4 
 
 These manitous often had sacrifices offered to them. Says 
 Marest, " The Illinois worship manitous, which are the skins 
 of beasts or birds. They hang them up in their wigwams and 
 offer to them sacrifices." 5 A famous sagamore of a tribe in 
 Maine had a marten s skin for his manitou, which if laid under 
 the head brought dreams at night, and to which he offered 
 sacrifices. 6 
 
 After an animal had become a manitou the individual would 
 
 1 Parkman, Jesuits, Ixxi. 2 Lewis and Clarke, Lond. ed., Si. 
 
 a 3 French s Hist. Coll., 127. * Jones s Ojibways, 270. 
 
 5 Kip s Jes. Mis., 200. 6 2 Maine Hist. Coll., 94. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 
 
 229 
 
 not kill it. Beltrami gives an incident illustrative of this. 
 He says, " One day when I was fishing, a Sioux was greatly 
 offended at my asking him to get me some frogs for bait. The 
 frog, it appeared, was his manitou. . . . If an Indian does kill 
 his manitou by accident, he begs for pardon, and says, It is 
 better that you should have been killed by me than by any 
 other man, for he would sell your skin, whereas I shall keep it 
 with the greatest devotion ; and accordingly it takes its station 
 among the divinities in the medicine-bag." z 
 
 The Californians had about the same system of manitology 
 as the tribes east of the Rocky Mountains. At an early age 
 they were placed under the protection of a tutelar divinity, 
 which was supposed to take the form of some animal. To dis 
 cover the particular beast which was to guide his future des 
 tinies, the child was intoxicated by a plant called pibat, and 
 kept three or four days without food until he saw his divinity, 
 which was immediately tattooed on the breast and arms of the 
 novitiate. 2 
 
 The Zapotecs had a very curious manner of selecting a 
 manitou for a child at its birth. When a woman was about to 
 be delivered, the relatives assembled in the hut and commenced 
 to draw on the floor figures of different animals, rubbing each 
 one out as fast as completed. The one that remained at the 
 time of the birth was called the child s second self, and as soon 
 as grown up he procured the animal, and believed his health 
 and existence bound up with it. 3 Another manner of obtaining 
 a manitou among the Zapotecs was to assign to the child the 
 first bird or beast that appeared after the birth of the child. 4 
 
 In Yucatan it was customary to leave an infant alone in a 
 place sprinkled with ashes. Next morning the ashes were ex 
 amined, and if the footprints of any animal were found on 
 them, that animal was chosen as the deity of the infant. 5 
 
 It will be noticed that the manner of choosing the manitou 
 
 2 Beltrami, 229. 2 I Bancroft, 414. 3 i ib., 661. 
 
 4 2 ib., 277. s 2 ib., 181. 
 
230 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 or guardian spirit has changed a little among the civilized 
 tribes, but the same faith in their power as spiritual agents sur 
 vived. The natives of Honduras thought their destiny was so 
 leagued with these guardian spirits that whenever anything 
 happened to the animal it happened to them also. 1 
 
 The Quiches of Guatemala, Herrera quaintly enough writes, 
 "are deluded by the devil to believe that their life depend- 
 eth upon the life of such and such a beast which they take 
 with them as their familiar spirit, and think when the beast 
 dieth they must die. When he is chased, then their hearts 
 pant ; when he is faint, they are faint." 2 
 
 The Indians could see no difference between their system of 
 manitous and those of the white race, for they say the Bos 
 ton people have for their manitou the eagle, and the English 
 people a lion. 
 
 From the selection and worship of manitous by the indi 
 vidual we will pass to the subject of totemism. We will not 
 look upon the subject from the social stand-point, except as far 
 as may be necessary to explain the religious nature of the sub 
 ject. The totemic social system has been most ably elucidated 
 among the natives of America by Mr. Morgan, who has pursued 
 the study of the subject among other races sufficiently to point 
 to a time when all the races of the earth have had this primi 
 tive social system among them. As introductory to the sub 
 ject of totemism, let me say that among all those tribes which 
 had not emerged from barbarism, names of animals were given 
 to many members of the tribes. There is some evidence to 
 show that this habit has survived even among the more civil 
 ized, and there are traditions which point to the prevalence of 
 the custom in the past history of all the American tribes. 
 
 Among the Lenape legends, warriors named White Eagle, 
 White Owl and Snow-Bird, Strong Buffalo, Big Owl, White 
 Crane, Strong Wolf, White Lynx, Blue-Bird, Big Beaver, 
 Water Turtle, figure in their early history. 3 Many of the 
 
 1 4 Herrera, 138. a 4 ib., 334. 3 i Rafmesque, 131-34. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 
 
 231 
 
 Northwestern Indians were named after beasts. 1 In Chile, as 
 among the North Americans, each family was distinguished by 
 the name of an animal, among which were the tiger, lion, 
 guanaco, and ostrich. 2 
 
 In Brazil there was a tribe called Achkeres, who took their 
 name from the cayman, an animal of which they stood in 
 strange fear. They thought it killed with its breath, and 
 killed all with its sight, and the only way it could be killed was 
 by holding a reflector before it, when it killed itself. 3 The 
 natives of Guiana gave animal names to many of their chil 
 dren : Red and Blue Macaw were favorites. 4 Many of the 
 Zapotecans were named after animals. 5 The cacique of Coa- 
 tlan was called Dog. 6 These names were sometimes given from 
 the personal manitou, and sometimes from the possession by 
 the person of qualities similar to those of the animal. Mr. 
 Bates, while on the Amazon, had two attendants named Tor 
 toise, who were descended from a father who had received that 
 nickname on account of his slowness. Here we see the first 
 step toward the formation of a tortoise family and tribe. Let 
 the tradition of the ancestor fail to keep clearly in view the fact 
 that he was a man called after some animal, let him be habitu 
 ally spoken of just as when alive, and the natural mistake of 
 taking the name literally will bring with it the belief in descent 
 from the actual animal. 
 
 It is in this way that we can find an explanation of the myth 
 ical descents of so many of the tribes from animals; and I will 
 introduce here a few of these traditionary descents. Falkner 
 describes the Patagonians as possessing a multiplicity of ani 
 mal deities, each of whom they believe to preside over a family 
 of Indians of which he is supposed to have been the creator. 
 Some are of the caste of the tiger, some of the guanaco, and 
 others of the ostrich. Ross says the tribes north of the Colum 
 bia pretend to be derived from a musk-rat. The Haidahs stead- 
 
 Harmon, 347. 2 2 Molina, 378., 3 i Southey, 156-57. 
 
 Brett, 290. 5 3 Herrera, 267. 6 3 ib., 268. 
 

 232 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 fastly maintain that they are descended from the crows, and 
 the Ahts say that men first existed as birds, animals, and fishes. 
 The Chippewyans derive their origin from the dog, and at one 
 time were so strongly imbued with respect for their canine 
 ancestry that they ceased employing dogs in drawing their 
 sledges. 1 
 
 The California Indians, who claim to have descended from 
 the prairie-wolf, explain the loss of their tails by saying they 
 have been erased and destroyed by the habit they acquired of 
 sitting upright. Those of them who claim descent from the 
 bear assert that bears in old times walked on their hind legs 
 like men. 
 
 The Kickapoos thought their ancestors had tails, and when 
 they lost them the impudent fox sent every morning to ask 
 how their tails were, and the bear shook his fat sides at the 
 joke. 2 
 
 The Flat-Heads believed in animal descent, and peopled their 
 paradise with their grandfathers the spiders, who were exceed 
 ingly useful, according to their conception, for they spun threads 
 to let the dead down to earth again. 
 
 The Chinooks are descended from a large bird, which they 
 called Hahness. When one of their old men was cutting- a 
 
 o 
 
 salmon across the side, it was metamorphosed into an immense 
 bird, which flew away and alighted on the Saddleback Moun 
 tains, near Columbia River, where its nest was made and eggs 
 laid, and from these eggs sprang mankind. 3 
 
 The Crane tribe of the Ojibways have the following legend 
 of their origin. Two cranes flew down to the earth and spent 
 a long time visiting different parts of the continent. They 
 went over the prairie, and tasted buffalo-meat, but came to the 
 conclusion it would not last. They passed over the forests, 
 and tasted the elk, deer, and other animals, but were afraid the 
 sources would fail. When they came to the rapids at the out- 
 
 I Spencer, Soc., 363. 2 3 Jones, Traditions, 176. 
 
 3 Swan s Washington Territory, 203-4. 
 
ANIMAL-WORSHIP. 233 
 
 let of Lake Superior, and found fish in abundance in the noisy 
 waters, which could be taken with ease, they were satisfied, and 
 folded their wings close to their bodies, alighted on the chosen 
 spot, and were at once transformed into a man and woman. 1 
 
 The Delawares thought that their ancestors lived for a time 
 in certain terrestrial animals, such as the ground-hog, the rab 
 bit, the tortoise. 2 The tortoise gens claimed a superiority and 
 ascendency over all the others, because their ancestor the great 
 tortoise, who had become a fabled monster in their mythology, 
 bore their world on his back. 3 Upon this subject Mr. Hecke- 
 welder says, "That the Indians, from the earliest times, consid 
 ered themselves in a manner connected with certain animals, is 
 evident from various customs still preserved among them, and 
 from the names of those animals which they have collectively 
 as well as individually assumed. They are as proud of their 
 origin from the tortoise, the turkey, and the wolf as the nobles 
 of Europe are of their descent from the feudal barons of ancient 
 times." 
 
 The Ottawas claimed their origin from three families. Some 
 were from the family of the great hare. They pretended that 
 the great hare was a man of prodigious size ; that he could 
 spread nets in the water at eighteen fathoms depth, while the 
 water scarcely came to his armpits. The second family of the 
 Ottawas claimed to be derived from the carp. Their tradition 
 was, that a carp having deposited its eggs on the borders of 
 a river, and the sun having darted its rays upon them, they 
 were formed into a woman, from whom they were descended. 
 The third family of the Ottawas attributed their origin to 
 the bear, but without explaining in what manner they were 
 derived. 4 
 
 The lowas thought they were descended from animals. The 
 Mandans had an Indian name of great length, which when 
 translated would be " people of the pheasants." The Choctaws 
 
 1 Beach, Mis., 175. 2 Heckewelder, 241. 
 
 3 i Yates and Moulton s N. Y., 31-32. 4 Rasles, in Kip s Jes. Mis., 32. 
 
234 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 have a crawfish gens, which believe they came up out of the 
 mud and were a species of crawfish, and they went on their 
 hands and feet at first. When the Choctaws chased them, they 
 would run down through the mud and get away from them. 
 Finally some of them were caught and treated kindly by the 
 Choctaws, and they became the present crawfish family. 1 The 
 Potoyantes believe they are descended from the coyotes. 2 
 
 The natives in the neighborhood of Mt. Shasta have a tra 
 dition that the grizzly bears formerly walked on their hind feet 
 like men, and talked, and were the ancestors of the Indians ; 
 and the Indians will not kill them ; but if an Indian is killed by 
 a bear the spot becomes memorable, and each one casts a stone 
 on the spot till a monument is reared. 3 The Cayuses, Nez 
 Perces, and Walla Wallas sprang from the beaver. 4 
 
 A tribe of Lacandones, near Palenque, was named the Snakes, 
 and the great mythical hero, Votan, declared himself a snake 
 and descendant of the snakes. 5 Many of the Indians of Peru 
 claimed descent from animals, some from the bear, others from 
 the tiger, eagle, condor, or other animal. 6 
 
 Among the natives of Brazil, belief in descent from animals 
 survived in the curious custom of cutting a stick at a wedding. 
 The father performed this ceremony, imagining that he cut off 
 the tails of any future grandchildren. 7 
 
 Mythologies are full of stories, says Mr. Spencer, where 
 beasts, birds, and fishes have played intelligent parts in human 
 affairs, and have befriended human beings by giving them in 
 formation, by guiding them, or by deceiving them. Belief in 
 actual descent from an animal, strange as we may think it, is 
 one by no means incongruous to the savage. 8 
 
 The traditionary unions of animals and human beings were 
 common in the folk-lore of all the tribes. In a great deluge, 
 an Ojibway woman was saved by catching hold of a large bird 
 
 1 2 Catlin, 128. 2 3 Bancroft, 88. 3 3 ib., 93. 
 
 4 3 ib., 95. s 3 ib., 451. 6 i Garcilasso, 75. 
 
 7 i Tylor, 384. 8 Spencer, Recent Discoveries, 42. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 235 
 
 that was flying over. She was carried to the top of a high 
 cliff, near which she had twins by her savior the war-eagle. 1 
 
 The Osages believe the first man of their nation married a 
 beaver, by whom he had many children, from whom the Osages 
 have descended. They never kill the beaver, for they would 
 think they were killing their own people. 2 
 
 The Quiches had a legend that mankind descended from a 
 woman and a dog who could transform himself into a hand 
 some youth. The Apaches have a tradition that a bear went 
 into the palace of Montezuma and stole one of his daughters 
 and had children by her. 3 
 
 These myths of descent from the union of an animal and a 
 human being are very common. Some of the composite forms 
 of animal and human beings to be found among their fabulous 
 animals, which will be noticed hereafter, and which are com 
 mon subjects chosen for representation by their artists, are 
 explicable by this theory of descents. 
 
 The Aleuts claim descent from a dog of the female sex 
 which was visited by an old man from the North. Trie result 
 was the birth of two creatures, male and female, each half man, 
 half dog. 4 Many of those composite figures which appear in 
 the mythology of savage as well as civilized races of the pagan 
 world, and which have been represented in their art, undoubt 
 edly have their explanation in the totemic social system. To 
 illustrate : if a member of a wolf gens should marry and have 
 offspring with a member of a crawfish gens, and the offspring 
 should attain celebrity and pass into their traditionary history 
 with his parentage unforgotten, yet growing more indistinct as 
 the twilight of time gathers around it and all recollections 
 merge themselves in the prominent figure, soon there would 
 be a hero tale, transparent with the characteristics of the wolf 
 and the crawfish. Among the Indians men and animals were 
 closely akin, and a belief prevailed that men themselves owed 
 their first parentage to beasts, birds, or reptiles, and the names 
 
 1 2 Catlin, 168. 2 2 ib., 319. 3 5 Schoolcraft, 211. * 3 Bancroft, 104. 
 
236 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 of the totemic clans, borrowed in nearly every case from ani 
 mals, are the reflection of this idea. 
 
 Papago traditions reach back to a time when men and beasts 
 talked together and used one language. In early times men 
 and beasts associated together in friendly intercourse. A 
 famous chief of the Kootanies had a beautiful daughter, and 
 all the young warriors, hunters, and fishers came courting her, 
 but the father would only give his child to one who should split 
 the tines of an elk-horn asunder with his hands. The story is 
 told in the following language. The news went forth, and the 
 competitors began to assemble, until the lodge was full. The 
 bears sat growling in one corner, and the wolves in another. 
 The raccoons and deer tried in vain, and went back disheartened. 
 The salmon finally came along, while the lodge resounded with 
 jeers and laughter at the bare idea of his attempting it after 
 the flower of Indian athletes had failed; but Kewuk (salmon) 
 was the girl s sweetheart, and her prayers had gone forth in his 
 behalf. The tines split asunder, and she was Kewuk s bride. 
 The rivals were bitter with envy, and skulked away to their 
 lodges ; but the wolf was determined to effect by foul means 
 what he could not accomplish by fair. Watching his oppor 
 tunity, he seized her and fled ; but she tore pieces from her 
 dress and left them on the bushes, marking the path, along 
 which Kewuk pursued in hot haste and recovered his bride. 
 The young wolfs father, however, set out with his son to seize 
 again the bride, and they gaining rapidly on Kewuk, overloaded 
 with his precious burden, he jumped into a river at hand and 
 was turned into a salmon, and thus escaped. 1 This myth shows 
 evident traces of totemism, and the animals therein are human 
 beings bearing animal names. There is a tradition among the 
 Neeshenams which illustrates this subject. It is the tradition of 
 the coyote s elopement. The coyote and the bat were one day 
 gathering the soft-shelled nuts of the sugar-pine, when there 
 came along two women who were the wives of pigeons. The 
 
 1 I Brown s Races, 138. 
 
ANIMAL-WORSHIP. 237 
 
 coyote upon this took a handful of pitch and besmeared the 
 bat s eyes so that it could not see ; meantime, the coyote eloped 
 with the two women. 
 
 The supposed descent from animals has originated many 
 superstitions found among all the tribes about killing and eat 
 ing animals. The Indians of Queen Charlotte s Island believe 
 they are descended from crows, and never kill one. They be 
 smear themselves with black paint to preserve the native tra 
 dition of descent. 1 
 
 Many tribes on the Pacific slope ate no flesh, but regarded 
 everything of the meat kind with a superstitious fear. 2 They 
 carried the superstition of abstaining from flesh about as far 
 as the Brahmins. The Yakuts were divided into eight tribes, 
 each of which had a bird or animal which they regarded as 
 sacred and would not eat. 3 The Dacotahs dared neither kill 
 nor eat their totemic animals. The Navajos never ate the flesh 
 of the gray squirrel. 4 The Crow Indians would not trap or 
 hunt the bear, and would not touch its flesh for food. 5 The 
 Sioux would not kill the prairie-dog. If they saw anybody kill 
 one, they ran away. 6 The Apaches had a superstitious preju 
 dice against eating bear s meat, 7 as had also the Navajos. 8 The 
 Kaluschians of the Northwest coast will not eat the whale. It 
 seems to be forbidden them. 9 When, through necessity or 
 accident, one of those animals from which they should abstain 
 is killed, religious ceremonies are performed to appease its 
 spirit. 
 
 Manitology and nicknaming have both tended to develop 
 totemism. The totem is a symbolic device, generally an ani 
 mal, which represents that all those having it have descended 
 from one common ancestor. It has developed into the heraldic 
 device of the family. It is not generally the object of religious 
 
 1 Poole s Queen Charl. Islands, 136. 2 I Thatcher s Indian Traits, 71, seq. 
 
 3 Ball s Alaska, 522. 4 4 Schoolcraft, 214. 
 
 5 Belclen, 137. 6 Ib., 138. 
 
 7^i Bartlett s Personal Narrative, 321. 8 2 Domenech, 402. 
 9 McCulloh, 79. 
 16 
 
238 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 worship, because each member has chosen his own manitou on 
 arriving at age. The totem has, however, great religious sig 
 nificance, and should have a prominent place in the study of 
 their superstitions. 
 
 The totemism of the American tribes has manifested itself 
 in much of their art. Among the Haidah, Sitka, and Chim- 
 sean Indians, a pillar elaborately carved out of a cedar-tree, or 
 occasionally of stone, and sometimes fifty feet high, is built 
 before each house, and represents the totems or manitous of 
 all those living within the house. .Since several families gen 
 erally inhabit one of these houses in common, the totem of 
 each family is represented, and hence we obtain those curious 
 combinations of figures that characterize much of the architec 
 ture of this region. The same peculiarity is noticed in other 
 parts of America, especially in the remains of the Central 
 American States, where the complex system of configuration 
 in the pillars and also the walls of their ruins has undoubtedly 
 had the same origin, with perhaps the additional pictographic 
 representations that may be descriptive of them. 
 
 At Fort Tongas, in Alaska, Rev. Dr. Jackson mentions the 
 existence of a whole forest of crest- or totem-poles. " Many 
 of them were from sixty to seventy feet high, and carved from 
 top to bottom with a succession of figures representing the 
 eagle, wolf, bear, frog, whale, and other animals." x 
 
 The Nootkans also have a rude system of heraldry, by which 
 some animal is adopted as a family crest, and its figure painted 
 on canoes and paddles or embroidered on their blankets. The 
 Thlinkeets adorned the fronts of their principal dwellings and 
 their canoes with figures representing the heads of crows, sea- 
 lions, and bears. 2 These are their totems, and each family 
 adorned their house and canoe with the bird or beast designat 
 ing their clan. Hence we see how the medicine-bag or mani 
 tou, at first a personal fetich, expands till the idea of a family 
 or tribe manitou, or totem, exhibits itself, and the tribal fetich 
 
 1 Alaska, 263. 2 I Bancroft, 107. 
 
o 
 
 V 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 
 
 239 
 
 manifests itself in primitive decorative art, which began with 
 ornamenting household utensils, canoes, and huts with heraldic 
 devices. The use of the totem in art prevailed among the 
 Southern as well as the Northern tribes. The coyote, which 
 figures so extensively in the myths of -the savage tribes west of 
 the Rocky Mountains, appears in Nahua art. An image of a 
 coyote hewn from the rock was found at the country residence 
 of King Nezahualcoyotl, whose name signified hungry fox. 
 Near this was the colossal figure of a winged beast, bearing in 
 its mouth a sculptured portrait of the king. 1 
 
 The figures or emblems connected with the signatures of the 
 Indians were called totems, and were the signs of the gentes or 
 families into which the nations were divided. They were not 
 the personal emblems of the chiefs. These figures were gen 
 erally some bird, beast, or reptile. The Indians in their earliest 
 intercourse with the whites resorted to the use of hieroglyphics. 
 Some of those made use of in the treaty made at Falmouth 
 with the Penobscot, Norridgwock, and other Indians in 1649 
 were very curious. They signed with the figure of the body 
 of the totemic animal ; Nattoonos by the representation of a 
 fish, Seboowosset by that of a fly, and others by various other 
 strange and uncouth drawings. The treaties and petitions of 
 tribes were a species of such hieroglyphic representations, as 
 represented on Plate IV., which was a petition sent to Congress 
 by a Western tribe, which was divided into the totemic families 
 represented by the bear, marten, and other animals therein 
 figured. Totemism is thus seen to be closely connected with 
 the pictography and hieroglyphic writing used in America by 
 the natives. 
 
 Tattooing, or painting the figures of animals upon their 
 bodies, was an almost universal custom throughout both 
 Americas. It is probably the most primitive form of decora 
 tive art, and is fetichistic in conception. The tattooing, of 
 which the Indians were so fond, and which had a religious 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 170. 
 
240 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 significance among them, was gradually given up as they 
 adopted the dress and customs of the whites. Yet there were 
 many instances of their clinging to the idea, by ornamenting 
 their dress with the pictures of animals. The famous Philip 
 wore a belt curiously embroidered with figures of birds and 
 beasts, and the band of his cap was adorned in the same man 
 ner. The Dacotahs were tattooed with animals, which they 
 thought charmed away all evil. 1 
 
 The tattoo-marks of the Haidahs appeared to be both totemic 
 and connected with their manitology. Occasionally a fabulous 
 being with no prototype in natural history will be selected, un 
 doubtedly the product of a dream or of a very fanciful imagi 
 nation. Animals are the subjects tattooed generally, and of 
 these the bear, frog, codfish, and mythological thunder-bird 
 are the most common. 
 
 The same custom prevailed among the Canadian tribes, 
 whose breasts, arms, and legs were tattooed with sharp needles 
 or pointed bones, the colors being carefully rubbed in. " The 
 manitou and the animal chosen as the symbol of his tribe are 
 first painted on the person, then all his most remarkable ex 
 ploits and the enemies he has slain or scalped : so that his 
 body displays a pictorial history of his life." 2 . Among the 
 New England nations " the better sort of Indians bear on their 
 cheeks certain portraitures of beasts, as beavers, deer, moose, 
 wolves, eagles, hawks, etc." 3 A woman of Queen Charlotte s 
 Island had half her body tattooed with fish, beasts, etc., and 
 said that the representation of a halibut would protect her and 
 her kin from drowning at sea. 4 The first objects delineated 
 on the skin of the Indian in tattooing were his guardian 
 spirit and the guardian spirit of his tribe. 5 These spirits were 
 then supposed to be enlisted in his behalf. 
 
 The natives of Yucatan and Nicaragua, who were naked, 
 
 1 Eastman s Legends of Sioux, 74. 2 I Wai-burton s Conq. of Can., 200. 
 
 3 Wood s N. E. Pros., 74. * Poole s Queen Charl. Islands, 311. 
 
 s i Hugh Murray s British America, 54. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 24 1 
 
 tattooed the body with serpents and birds. 1 Tattooing was a 
 profession among them. 2 
 
 Tattooing was a form of animal-worship. Mr. Agassiz says 
 that tattooing was a religious institution among the Brazilians. 3 
 
 Among the Mexicans and other civilized nations, who were not 
 naked, the custom of tattooing survived in the banners, flags, 
 armorial bearings, crests, and other insignia, upon which appear 
 animal forms. They had flags upon which were inscribed ani 
 mals. The armorial ensign of the Mexicans was an eagle, with 
 its wings spread, in the act of darting on a tiger; that of 
 Tlascala, an eagle ; that of Ocotcholco, a green bird on a rock ; 
 that of Tizatlan, a heron on a rock ; that of Tepeticpac, a wolf. 4 
 
 The connection of the animal-mounds of Wisconsin with the 
 existing totemic system of the Indians is too strong to escape 
 attention. By the system of names imposed upon the men 
 composing the Ojibway, Iroquois, Cherokee, and other nations, 
 a fox, a bear, a turtle, is fixed on as a badge or stem from 
 which the descendants may trace their parentage. To do this 
 the figure of the animal is employed as an heraldic sign or 
 surname. This sign, which by no means gives the individual 
 name of the person, is called in the Algonkin languages town 
 mark or totem. A tribe could leave no more permanent trace 
 of an esteemed sachem or honored individual than by the 
 erection of one of these monuments. The fox, bear, wolf, 
 and eagle are clearly recognizable in the devices of these 
 mounds, 5 and, besides these, among the animal-mounds of Wis 
 consin are lizards and turtles, serpents, elks, elephants, buffaloes, 
 and cranes. We may therefore suppose that Red men for 
 merly occupied Wisconsin whose superstitious ceremonies and 
 belief required the erection of the mounds delineated. Among 
 the Ottawas there was a tradition that a mountain, shaped like 
 a beaver, on the northern shore of Lake Nipissing, contained 
 buried beneath it the great beaver. They never passed it with- 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 733. 2 Ib. 3 Brazil, 318. 
 
 4 i Clavigero, 368-69. s i School craft, 52. 
 
242 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 out offering something. 1 Animal-shaped mounds are found 
 elsewhere. 
 
 There are huacas in Peru which represent animals. 2 In Put 
 nam County, Georgia, there is a bird-shaped structure com 
 posed of boulders of quartz rock, none of them so large that an 
 individual could not have carried them. It represents an eagle 
 with its head turned toward the east. Another similar one is 
 found in the same county, one hundred and two feet in length, 
 and from tip to tip of wings one hundred and thirty-two feet. 
 Mr. C. C. Jones thinks both of them are monuments of the 
 dead. 3 In the Newark, Ohio, works, a bird-mound was found 
 with length of body one hundred and fifty-five feet and two 
 hundred feet from tip to tip of spread wings. 4 
 
 The general drift of many of the myths of descent of man 
 from animals would indicate a wide-spread belief in the theory 
 of an evolution of mankind from animals. The process of 
 evolution is thus described by an Iroquois myth, which says 
 that men were metamorphosed from little worms, into which 
 entered spirits. The worms, with the spirits in them, grew, 
 putting forth little arms and legs, and moved the light earth 
 that covered them. 5 
 
 It will be seen, however, that traditions are not wanting 
 whose teaching is precisely the reverse. The Salish, Nisqual- 
 lies, and Yokimas all hold that beasts are descended from 
 human originals. 6 
 
 In an Iroquois tradition, a woman brought forth a deer, bear, 
 and wolf, and again cohabited with these animals. She thus 
 became pregnant, and bore divers sorts of creatures at one 
 birth. From this arose the variety not only of animals, but 
 also of men, in color either black, white, or sallow, in disposi 
 tion either timid as the deer, revengeful as bears, or rapacious 
 as wolves.? 
 
 1 3 Jones, Trad., 69. 2 A. Oliva, 121 ; Arriaga, 12. 
 
 3 Smithsonian Report, 1877, 281-82. * McLean, Mound-Builders, 35. 
 
 s Miner s History of Wyoming, 22. 6 3 Bancroft, 97. 
 
 7 Montanus, Tr. in Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. iv., 83. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 243 
 
 Connected closely wich the subject of the traditionary descent 
 of Indians from animals, and the superstitions growing out of 
 such belief, is the traditionary descent of animals from the 
 human race. 
 
 The Indians living around Lake Pepin thought the animals 
 and fish were once human and endued with speech, and held 
 counsel together until they began to prey upon each other; 
 the otter brought the discord by eating a few fish. 1 The Daco- 
 tahs believed that beavers were once people and endowed with 
 language, but lost their speech. The Black-Feet Indians also 
 believed that the beavers were a fallen race of Indians. 2 The 
 Moquis, who were divided into gentes bearing animal names, 
 thought that after death they would change back into their 
 original forms, and become bears, deer, and prairie-wolves. 3 
 
 The belief in the descent of animals from human beings has 
 received an impetus from their various tales of metamorphosis. 
 In the animal kingdom the metamorphoses which actually 
 occur are at first sight more marvellous than many which are 
 only supposed to occur. The contrasts between the maggot and 
 a fly, an egg and a bird, a tadpole and a frog, are greater than 
 the contrasts between human beings and many animals, or be 
 tween many different varieties of animals. The savage mind 
 yields therefore unhesitatingly to anything which suggests that 
 a creature has assumed a different shape. In Brazil, the people 
 universally believe that the humming-bird is transmutable into 
 the hawk-moth. The belief that human spirits disguised 
 themselves temporarily as brutes was very prevalent. The 
 Thlinkeets of North America would kill some animals only 
 in case of great necessity, for they supposed human spirits 
 assumed these animal forms at pleasure and frequently. 
 
 Myths of descent and metamorphosis are found in the folk 
 lore of both Americas. 
 
 The Potawatomies claimed descent from a wolf. By meta- 
 
 McLeod s Wisconsin, 277. 2 Slight s Researches, 103. 
 
 3 Marcy s Army Life on the Border, 109. 
 
244 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 morphosis the bones of a dead wolf were transformed into a 
 woman, the mother of their race. 1 
 
 In Algonkin mythology, the animal creation is supposed to 
 have been metamorphoses of human beings. The Ojibways 
 think the white-fish sprang from the brains of a woman who 
 dropped into the water. 2 
 
 The Flat-Head Indians (a tribe on the Columbia River) 
 entertain a curious tradition with respect to beavers. They 
 firmly believe that these animals are a fallen race of Indians, 
 who were metamorphosed to their present shape and state, but 
 that in due time they will be restored to their humanity. They 
 allege that beavers have the power of speech, and that they 
 have heard them talk with each other. 3 
 
 The Ojibways remembered the name of the member of the 
 human race who was changed into a beaver. It was Amik. 4 
 
 The Flat-Heads have a tradition that a warrior of the early 
 day found his wife unfaithful, whereupon she fled away, was 
 turned into the speckled duck, and dives at the sight of a 
 human being. 
 
 Those tribes that have progressed and remember a former 
 condition of greater savagery always describe that condition 
 as one wherein they were animals. Of course the language is 
 metaphorical at first; but this metaphorical language, in con 
 nection with the many animal superstitions that have survived 
 their lower state, tends to make fiction grow into reality. A 
 number of travellers have acknowledged that they never clearly 
 understood whether the Indians believed that at one time all 
 men were in the form of beasts or whether they were in the form 
 of men, but with the nature, habits, and disposition of animals. 
 
 The Eskimos have many stories of metamorphoses of human 
 beings into animals. 5 The dolphins are supposed to be a family 
 of metamorphosed brothers. Their folk-lore abounds in stories 
 
 1 Haw-Hoo-Noo, 242. 2 3 Schoolcraft, 526. 
 
 3 2 Turner s Traits, 87. * 3 Schoolcraft, 562. 
 
 $ Rink s Trad., 145. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 245 
 
 of reindeer, foxes, and hares which have assumed human form 
 and then changed back again when their object was accom 
 plished. 1 
 
 The Thlinkeets have a tradition that when the sun first shone 
 on the earth, human beings ran into the mountains, woods, and 
 waters, and became animals and fish. 2 They think their shamans 
 can metamorphose themselves into animals at pleasure. 3 
 
 Quawteaht, an apotheosized man of the Northwest, metamor 
 phosed all who refused him what he asked. He converted 
 a canoe-man into a beaver for refusing to ferry him over a 
 lake. A fisherman on the Coquitlan River was turned into a 
 pillar of stone for refusing him salmon, and there the rock 
 stands to this day, the monument of an inhospitable man. A 
 woman was transformed into a raven for refusing him berries, 
 and a boy was swallowed by a whale, vomited up again, and 
 changed into a mink, because he refused him sea-eggs. He 
 turned a whole tribe of Indians into wolves in a fit of anger. 
 
 Among the Ahts, the loon and the crow were metamor 
 phosed fishermen, who quarrelled and were thus changed by 
 Quawteaht, who put an end in this way to their quarrel; and 
 the only complaint is the mournful voice of the loon across the 
 silent lake, as the poor fisherman tries to make his wrongs 
 known. 
 
 The natives of Vancouver s Island will not kill the ogress 
 squirrel, on account of the following tradition of metamor 
 phosis. There once lived an old woman with finger-nails like 
 claws. She ate children ; and many were the broken hearts 
 and empty cradles produced by her depredations. At the 
 prayer of a red mother, says the tradition, her little child slips 
 from the ogress s grip, not a child, but metamorphosed into the 
 loveliest little squirrel, bearing those four dark lines along its 
 back where her cruel claws made their mark. 4 After death, 
 the Pimos believe that their souls go to the banks of the Col 
 orado, their ancient dwelling-place, and there take refuge in 
 
 Rink, 450. 2 Ball s Alaska, 422. 3 Ib., 423. * 3 Bancroft, 130. 
 
246 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 the great sand-hills, where they are metamorphosed into owls, 
 bats, wolves, and other animals. 1 
 
 Lycanthropy was common among many tribes of the North 
 west. 
 
 " Ah, ye wolves, in all your ranging 
 I have found you kind and true, 
 More than man, and now I m changing, 
 And will soon be one of you." 
 
 Many traditions of metamorphosis of men into wolves appear 
 in the folk-lore of the Northwest. The Ahts have victims of 
 a lycanthropy. They say that men go into the mountains to 
 seek their manitous and associate with wolves, and after a time 
 turn into wolves. 2 In British Columbia many a wolf-circle 
 gathered around a fire on the mountain-side, with their skins 
 hung up to dry on sticks, has been seen by the imaginative 
 savages inhabiting that region. 3 The folk-lore of all the tribes 
 is full of the traditions of changes of human beings into various 
 animals. 
 
 An ogress in the folk-lore of the Northwest coast, who lived 
 on children and went about with a basket to gather them up 
 and take them home to roast, was circumvented by a parcel of 
 youngsters, who pushed her into the fire she had prepared for 
 them. Her ashes were turned into mosquitoes, who now eat 
 mankind. 4 This tale probably represents all that is left of can 
 nibalism among the tribes whose folk-lore it adorns. 
 
 Among the Nisqually folk-tales is one of a man and his wife 
 who were metamorphosed, the man into the heron, which is 
 called grandfather by them, and the woman into the horned 
 grebe. 5 
 
 The Ojibways thought the robin was a metamorphosed 
 woman, who painted her breast and flew away laughing for joy 
 and telling her friends she would be back in the spring. 6 
 
 1 2 Bartlett s Nar., 222. a Sproat, 173. 
 
 3 i Brown s Races, 118. 4 i ib., 140. 
 
 s i ib., 150. 6 Jones s Ojibways, 65. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 247 
 
 Another tradition says that an Indian lad who was fasting for 
 his manitou reduced himself to such a pass that life was so 
 nearly extinct that the only sign it showed was the gentle 
 heaving of his breast His father came with food, but, alas ! too 
 late ; for he found, on looking up, a beautiful robin-redbreast, 
 which looked at his father and said, " Mourn not my change; 
 for I shall be happier now and always the friend of men. My 
 food is now in the fields, and my path is in the air ;" and away 
 he flew to the woods. 1 
 
 The voluntary assumptions of new forms by amphibious 
 animals are frequently found, and are suggested by their mys 
 terious adaptation to the different elements. 
 
 A mythical female character among the Ojibways was a bea 
 ver who assumed the form of a woman and married an Ojibway 
 named Otterheart. They lived happily together, but Otterheart 
 did not know why his wife would not eat the beaver he brought 
 to the lodge. But, alas ! the beaver woman stumbled and fell 
 into the water one day, and was immediately changed back 
 into a beaver. Her child on her back underwent a like meta 
 morphosis. In despair, Otterheart followed the course of the 
 stream till he reached a beaver-pond, and there he saw his 
 wife, who had her beaverling bound to her back. Otterheart 
 pleaded with her to return to him, but she could not. 2 
 
 The Zunis have a tradition of an Indian who was turned into 
 a fish because he had desecrated their sacred spring by bathing 
 in it.3 
 
 Many metamorphoses appear among the Haytian folk-tales. 
 A number of fishermen were turned into plum-trees ; a chief 
 of the Hiana became a nightingale ; a messenger of the king 
 of Caziba was turned into a singing-bird. The change of 
 children into opossums is mentioned; but, as there are no 
 opossums in Hayti, the myth must have had its origin among 
 the Caribs of South America. 4 
 
 1 2 Schoolcraft, 230. 2 Kohl s Kitchi-Gami, 100-104. 
 
 3 Cozzens, 310. 4 i Rafinesque, 179-82. 
 
248 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Among all the tribes, their wizards and witches are supposed 
 to be able to turn themselves into bears, wolves, foxes, owls, 
 bats, and snakes. Such metamorphoses they pretend to accom 
 plish by putting on the skins of these animals and howling in 
 imitation of the creature they represent. They say they often 
 pursue a witch, but all at once they will see an animal walking 
 along as innocently as a lamb. 1 
 
 We find here the germ of many metamorphoses in the abo 
 riginal mythology. That great body of impostors among 
 all primitive peoples, called sorcerers, doctors, medicine-men, 
 witches, etc., have practised upon the credulity of the masses 
 by assuming the animal dress and appearance and imitating 
 them in action and voice. They were enabled, of course, to 
 practise this imposture successfully only because the savage 
 mind was predisposed to believe in the transmigration of souls. 
 They thought it no strange thing for the spirit of man or ani 
 mal to enter into anything in nature it chose ; that they always 
 entered into the bodies of the living when sickness came upon 
 them. That a sorcerer for whom they had great superstitious 
 reverence, clad in the skin of a bear, and imitating it with great 
 success and practising upon the deluded many tricks of the 
 trade, should be transformed into that animal, would require no 
 great stretch of the imagination, and was a metamorphosis in 
 ideality. That he should suddenly doff" his animal skin and 
 appear as a man would be a metamorphosis in reality. 
 
 The Eskimos thought they could get inside of a walrus-skin 
 and then they could lead the life of a walrus. 2 
 
 The Iroquois thought their wizards could turn into a fox or 
 wolf and run very swiftly, or into a turkey or owl and fly away, 
 when they wished to escape their pursuers. 3 
 
 The same belief is found among the more civilized tribes. 
 The Nicaraguans thought their sorcerers could assume animal 
 forms, and they were much feared on this account. To 
 
 Jones s Ojibways, 145. 2 Rink s Traditions, 124. 
 
 3 Schoolcraft s Iroquois, 87. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 249 
 
 strengthen this belief they disguised themselves in the skins of 
 beasts. 1 
 
 Mendieta says that among the Mexicans there were sorcerers 
 and witches who were thought to transform themselves into 
 animals. Herrera tells us that the people of Honduras said 
 that sorcerers ranged on the mountain like tigers, killing men, 
 till they were taken and hanged. Piedrahita says the Chibchas 
 pretended to have great sorcerers, who might be transformed 
 into tigers and bears and devour men. The same power of 
 metamorphosis was thought to be possessed by the sorcerers of 
 Peru, who could take upon themselves whatsoever shape they 
 chose, and fly through the air whithersoever they pleased. 2 
 The same mysterious power was ascribed to potentates among 
 the civilized nations. Malivalxochitl, a famous Chichemec 
 princess, is said to have had the power of transforming herself 
 into any shape at will. 3 A certain Chibcha ruler was believed 
 to have had a long tail, which he dragged on the soil after the 
 manner of a tiger. 4 The power of metamorphosing others was 
 ascribed to many kings. The whole line of Tunja kings had 
 the power of changing men into animals, and their sorcerers 
 transformed themselves into bears and tigers. 5 Xolotl, the 
 Chichemec culture-hero, changed himself into a fish in order to 
 escape death, but was at last killed by the god of the air. 6 
 The wife of Yappan, a famous Mexican anchorite, was meta 
 morphosed into a scorpion by Jaotl, a messenger of the gods, 
 who was himself metamorphosed into a locust for exceeding 
 the bounds of his commission. 7 
 
 As the subject of animal dress is closely connected with that 
 of metamorphosis, and as the custom of arraying themselves in 
 the skins of animals has survived from the primitive custom of 
 dressing themselves in the skins of beasts, and appears in most 
 of the religious exercises of the tribes in all stages of progress, 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 496. 2 4 Herrera, 353. 
 
 3 4 Bancroft, 327. * I Spencer, Soc., 348-50. 
 
 s P. Simon, 245. 6 4 Schoolcraft, 561. 
 
 7 I Clavigero, 260. 
 
250 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 I will give a few of these customs. At many of their re 
 ligious ceremonies the Peruvian tribes arrayed themselves in 
 the skins of various animals. At the Capac Raymi festival 
 they put on the skins of animals, arranging the head and neck 
 so as to cover their own. 1 Falcons were worn on the heads of 
 the dancers and singers in nearly all their festivals. 2 The Chu- 
 gatshes make a conical hat of wood, in representation of the 
 head of some fish or bird. 3 The Thlinkeets wear wooden masks 
 a great deal, ingeniously carved and painted in colors to repre 
 sent the head of some bird or beast. They were always worn 
 in battle formerly, but now their use is generally confined to 
 festive occasions. In rainy weather they wear a hat ornamented 
 with painted figures and pictures of animals. 4 The Lacandones, 
 when going to war, wore on their shoulders the skin of a tiger 
 or some other fierce animal. In Chiapas, the natives wore 
 deer-skins, and also the Mijes. 5 The Mosquitos wore armor 
 of tigers skins in war. 6 The natives of Honduras disguised 
 themselves with the skins of animals, whose actions and cries 
 they imitated. 7 
 
 Herrera says the Mexicans clothed themselves in skins of 
 tigers, lions, and other fierce creatures. 8 The Mexican warriors 
 usually encased their heads with a wooden covering, fashioned 
 in the shape of tigers or serpents heads, with the mouth open 
 and large teeth to inspire terror, and very animated in appear 
 ance. 9 The eagle tribe among the Aztecs wore a helmet in 
 the form of an eagle s head, and the tigers wore armor spotted 
 like the skin of the animal whose name they bore. 10 Many of 
 the warriors had monsters and other heraldic devices painted 
 on their backs, 11 and upon their heads the representation of 
 some animal, bird, or serpent. 12 They wore arm and leg guards 
 made to represent the head of a tiger, serpent, or monster. 13 
 
 1 Molina, Nar., p. 45. 2 Avija, Nar., 131. 3 i Bancroft, 74. 
 
 4 i ib., 101. s i ib., 648. 6 i il>., 723. 
 
 7 i ib., 736. 8 3 Herrera, 225. 9 I Clavigero, 366. 
 
 10 2 Bancroft, 403. " 2 ib., 405. " 2 ib., 406. 
 
 3 2 ib., 407. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 2 5 1 
 
 
 
 In many of their animal-dances, all the tribes are accus 
 tomed to clothe themselves in animal dress and assume animal 
 characters. 
 
 The Sioux have a bear-dance previous to starting on a bear- 
 hunt, in which they sing to the bear-spirit. 1 This dance has 
 religious significance, and may properly be termed a worship. 
 They are clothed in bear-skins, or at least some portion of 
 one, and imitate closely the movements of that animal. They 
 never neglect this ceremony, for if they did they would have no 
 success. 
 
 The eagle-dance among the Choctaws is a very pretty scene 
 gotten up in honor of that bird, for which they have religious 
 regard. They are decorated with eagles feathers, and the 
 dance is different from any other, consisting in hops and jumps, 
 in imitation of that bird. 2 
 
 " The Tonkawas," says Marcy, " like all the aborigines of 
 this continent, likewise had their national dances for different 
 important occasions, and among these ceremonies was one 
 which seemed very curious and entirely different from any 
 other I had heard of It was called the wolf-dance, and was 
 intended to commemorate the history of their origin and crea 
 tion. Their traditions have handed down to them the idea 
 that the original progenitor of the Tonkawas was brought into 
 this world through the agency of the wolves. The dance is 
 always conducted with the utmost solemnity and secrecy. . . . 
 About fifty warriors, all dressed in wolf-skins from head to foot, 
 so as to represent the animal very perfectly, made their entrance 
 upon all-fours in single file, and passed around the lodge, howl 
 ing, growling, and making other demonstrations peculiar to 
 that carnivorous quadruped. After this had continued for 
 some time, they began to put down their noses and sniff the 
 earth in every direction, until at length one of them suddenly 
 stopped, uttered a shrill cry, and commenced scratching the 
 ground at a particular spot. The others immediately gathered 
 
 1 I Cntlin, 245. 2 2 ib., 127. 
 
252 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 around, and all set to work scratching up the earth with their 
 hands, imitating the motions of the wolf in so doing, and in a 
 few minutes . . . they exhumed from the spot a genuine live 
 Tonkawa, who had previously been interred for the perform 
 ance. As soon as they had unearthed this strange biped, they 
 ran around scenting his person and examining him throughout 
 with the greatest apparent delight and curiosity. The advent 
 of this curious and novel creature was an occasion of no ordi 
 nary moment to them, and a council of venerable and sage old 
 wolves was at once assembled to determine what disposition 
 should be made of him. The Tonkawa addressed them as fol 
 lows : You have taken me from the spirit-land, where I was 
 contented and happy, and brought me into this world, where I 
 am a stranger, and I know not what I shall do for subsistence 
 and clothing. It is better you should place me back where 
 you found me, otherwise I shall freeze or starve. After mature 
 deliberation, the council declined returning him to the earth, 
 and advised him to gain a livelihood as the wolves did ; to go 
 out into the wilderness and rob, kill, and steal whenever oppor 
 tunity presented. They then placed a bow and arrows in his 
 hands, and told him with these he must furnish himself with 
 food and clothing; that he could wander about from place to 
 place like the wolves, but that he must never build a house or 
 cultivate the soil ; that if he did he would surely die." x 
 
 " The Nootkans have," says Cook, " a truly savage and in 
 congruous appearance when they assume what they call their 
 monstrous decorations. These consist of an endless variety of 
 carved wooden masks or visors applied on the face or to the 
 upper part of the head or forehead. Some of these resemble 
 the heads of birds, particularly of eagles, and many the heads 
 of land and sea animals, such as wolves, deers, porpoises, and 
 others ; but in general these representations much exceed the 
 natural size." 2 
 
 Boiler describes the religious dances of Western tribes, in 
 
 1 Marcy s Army Life on the Border, 174, seq. 2 6 Cook s Voyages, 281. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 2 5 3 
 
 which they appear as bulls, antelopes, and frogs, and appearing 
 with as much resemblance to those animals as possible. 1 
 
 Processions of masked men among the Brazilian tribes are 
 described by Denis, in which they assumed as a head-dress the 
 head of some animal. They also wore the entire skins of 
 animals. 
 
 In addition to the custom of arraying themselves in animal 
 skins and imitating the animals, I would attribute as another 
 cause for the origin of myths of metamorphosis the superstition 
 that by eating an animal the partaker was endued with the 
 qualities of the animal eaten. A few myths are found to sub 
 stantiate this theory. I will notice only one of them, that of 
 the priests of Xaratanga, who in a drunken frenzy ate a ser 
 pent that was brought them in the place of fish, and were 
 immediately turned into serpents and plunged into a lake and 
 disappeared. 2 
 
 Fear of the avenging spirits of animals has instigated much 
 of their worship. They think the souls of animals are ready 
 in the next world to take revenge upon those who have killed 
 them, and must be appeased. The Dacotah hunter will pay 
 religious devotions to the spirit of the beast whose body lies 
 dead at his feet, and on which he and his family will feast that 
 night. 3 Among all the Algonkin tribes, when a bear was 
 killed, the hunter put the end of his lighted pipe between his 
 teeth, blew into the bowl, and, thus filling the mouth and throat 
 of the beast with smoke, conjured its spirit to bear him no 
 malice for what he had done to the body, and not to oppose 
 him in his future huntings. A remarkable illustration of this 
 appears in the following account by Henry. He says, "A 
 bear having been shot, all my assistants approached, and all 
 took his head into their hands, stroking and kissing it several 
 times, begging a thousand pardons for taking away its life, call 
 ing it their relation and grandmother. As soon as we reached 
 the lodge, the bear s head was adorned with all the trinkets in 
 
 1 Boiler s Eight Years, 102-8. 2 5 Bancroft, 517. 3 Riggs, 59. 
 
 17 
 
254 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 the possession of the family, such as silver arm-bands and 
 wrist-bands and belts of wampum, and then laid upon a scaffold 
 set up for its reception within the lodge. Near the nose was 
 placed a large quantity of tobacco. The next morning no 
 sooner appeared than preparations were made for a feast to the 
 manes. The lodge was cleaned and swept, and the head of the 
 bear lifted up, and a new blanket, which had never been used 
 before, spread under it. The pipes were now lit, and tobacco- 
 smoke was blown into the nostrils of the bear, telling me to do 
 the same, and thus appease the anger of the bear on account 
 of having killed her." An address to the bear and a feast 
 closed the ceremony. 
 
 The Southern Californians have a curious illustration of this 
 superstitious fear of the spirits of animals, which compels them 
 to hunt in pairs. Many believe that if a hunter should eat 
 meat or fish he himself procured, his luck would leave him, and 
 so they go in pairs and exchange their game when the day is 
 over, each taking what the other has killed. 1 They think 
 they will escape the vengeance of the slaughtered animals by 
 this bit of trickery. At the annual fishing-season the mikon, 
 a small silvery fish which fills the Nasse River in March, is 
 propitiated by annual ceremonies. After these religious cere 
 monies to the fish, the slaughter begins without further scruple. 2 
 
 An imaginary transmigration of a human soul into an animal 
 renders it an object of worship. The souls of wicked men were 
 supposed by the Brazilians to have entered those birds that 
 inhabited the cavern of Guacharo and made a mournful cry, 3 
 and these birds were religiously feared. The coast tribes of the 
 Del Norte country think the tarantula contains a malicious 
 human spirit. The Moquis, who were divided into the deer, 
 the bear, the hare, the prairie-wolf, and the rattlesnake gens, be 
 lieved that their families descended from these animals, and 
 that after death they transmigrated into the form of that animal 
 
 Bancroft, 417-18. 2 i ib., 485. 
 
 3 2 De Pons, Travels, 254-55. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 25 5 
 
 from which they originally sprang. 1 Hence they worshipped 
 these animals. The Ahts believed that the birds and beasts of 
 old had the spirits of the Indians dwelling in them, 2 and, hence, 
 were worthy of reverence. The Indians dwelling about the 
 Falls of St. Anthony supposed the spirits of their dead warriors 
 inhabited the eagles which frequented the place, 3 and these 
 eagles were objects of their worship. The most beautiful 
 woman of the Knistenaux, named " Foot of the Fawn," died in 
 childbirth, and the babe with her. Soon thereafter two doves 
 appeared, one full-grown and one a little one. They were the 
 spirits of the mother and child. The Indians would gather 
 about the tree on which they were perched, with reverential 
 love, and worship them as the spirit of the woman and child. 4 
 The Tapuyas thought evil spirits appeared in the shape of flies, 
 toads, cats, and they worshipped the most inferior animals on 
 account of this supposed transmigration. 5 Thus it will be seen 
 that the supposed transmigration of souls is the reason for 
 animal-worship in many cases. If this belief has originated 
 animal-worship, it explains the worship of every variety of the 
 animal life. 
 
 It has been thought by most mythologists that only those 
 animals that have been useful to mankind have been objects of 
 worship. We find, however, in America that no animal is too 
 insignificant to escape the superstitious fear of savages. Among 
 some of the Western tribes a little bird called the road-runner 
 is an object of reverence. 6 
 
 The Virginia Indians had great reverence for a small bird 
 called Pawcorance, that flies in the woods and in its note con 
 tinually sounds that name. This bird flies alone, and is heard 
 only in twilight. They say, says Beverly, that " this is the 
 soul of one of their princes, and on that score they would not 
 hurt it for the world; but there was once a profane Indian in 
 
 1 Cozzens s Marvellous Country, 465. 2 Sproat, 210. 
 
 3 3 Jones s Traditions, 117. 43 ib., 370-71. 
 
 s Vasconcelles, 72. 6 Dodge s Plains, 279. 
 
256 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 the upper parts of James River who, after abundance of fears 
 and scruples, was at last bribed to kill one of them with his 
 gun, but the Indians say he paid dear for his presumption, for 
 in a few days after he was taken away and never heard of 
 again." J Among the Peruvians the little bird alma perdida is 
 an object of superstitious reverence. 2 
 
 The hare was an object of superstitious reverence among the 
 Indians of the North, and around it cluster many myths in the 
 Old World. The superstition about the evil omen of a hare 
 crossing your path, for instance, is very ancient. The ancient 
 inhabitants of Ireland killed all the hares they found among 
 their cattle on May-day, believing them witches who had de 
 signs on the butter. A Calmuck regards the rabbits in the 
 same light, and many primitive people use them for divinations 
 and refuse to eat their flesh. Caesar gives account of the horror 
 in which this animal was held by the Britons of his day. The 
 animal was sculptured on the sacrificial stone in ancient Mexico, 
 and was the " sign" of the divine years in the Mexican calendar, 
 while the celebrations and sacrifices in its honor were the most 
 numerous of all. Superstitions, therefore, seem to have been 
 attached to this little beast from the lowest state of primitive 
 savagery up to the present height of civilization. Wabasso, 
 who fled to the north as soon as he saw the light, and was 
 changed into a white rabbit, under that form became canonized. 
 
 The Indians on the Orinoco rendered honors of divinity to 
 toads in order to obtain rain. The animals were beaten if the 
 prayers were not answered. 3 Among the Araucanians of Chile 
 the land toad was called lord of the waters. The Creeks and 
 Cherokees had a great annual festival, the prominent feature of 
 which was the tadpole dance. A small tribe in Guiana were 
 named Maopityans, or Frog Indians, from mao, frog, and pity an, 
 people. Their illustrious ancestor, the frog, was worshipped. 
 Among the Chibchas the frog had its place in their heaven. 
 
 Beverly s Virginia, 184. a Markham s Cuzco, 267. 
 
 3 i De Pons, 198. 
 
ANIMAL-WORSHIP, 257 
 
 The Chibchas had an annual ceremony connected with their 
 calendar, in which the toad had a prominent place. It held a 
 prominent place among their divinities. When springing, it 
 represents the sign Ata ; when engraved with a tail, it repre 
 sents 12, because it has left the rest of the months behind. 
 On some stones the toad is seen without feet, and probably 
 represents the sign Gurta. The toad is used often in composite 
 figures, such as a man with the head of a toad, a tailed toad, 
 and the body of a toad with a tunic. 1 
 
 The frog also held a place among the divinities of the Tol- 
 tecs. Frog-shaped idols were found at Tulla, the ancient 
 capital of the Toltecs. These croaking annoyers of some 
 marshy neighborhood were undoubtedly raised to the dignity 
 of divinities, and propitiated by the offer of an occasional sacri 
 fice. And so, perhaps, was the grasshopper, images of which, 
 cut out of red marble and beautifully polished, were found. It 
 was said to be the god of Chapultepec. 2 
 
 The Peruvians near the sea-coast worshipped sardines ; also 
 the golden fish, on account of its beauty, and crabs and craw 
 fish where they were abundant. 3 Every small insect was an 
 object of superstitious fear. 
 
 The Omahaws worshipped a sacred shell which was en 
 veloped in the skin of an elk. This shell, which descended 
 from their ancestors, was not suffered to touch the earth. It 
 had a temple and a person to take care of it. Those who 
 should happen to see the shell became totally blind. They 
 offered sacrifices to it and consulted it before making expe 
 ditions. It was carried on a man s back to national hunts. 4 
 Their ascription of human spirits to shells has found expres 
 sion in that mythical character Aisemid, the little shell man of 
 Indian lodge-lore, who carried on his back a curious little shell 
 that had magic powers. The sorcerers often ascribed their 
 powers to sea-shells, and no small part of their paraphernalia 
 
 1 Bollaert, 47-49. 2 Mayer s Mexico As It Was, 275-76. 
 
 3 i Garcilasso s Com., 49, 50. * 2 Long s Exp., 47, 48. 
 
258 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 was found in conchology. 1 Sea-shells were found in many of 
 the graves, and were undoubtedly objects of a superstitious wor 
 ship. 2 Thus it will be seen that even shells shared the super 
 stitious reverence entertained for animals, and that the most 
 worthless and diminutive animals have been objects of super 
 stitious worship. 
 
 Among all the tribes, animals of an unusual size were sup 
 posed to be inhabited by powerful spirits, and were objects of 
 worship. 3 
 
 Beltrami gives the following instance of such worship. He 
 says, " The Tortoise Lake," so called by the Indians, " took its 
 name from a tortoise of extraordinary size which the Indians 
 found there about a century ago. They fed it with everything 
 they could offer it most delicious, and long worshipped it as a 
 great manitou." 4 
 
 Buffaloes were objects of worship among those inhabiting the 
 buffalo country. Among the savages of the West every one 
 had one or more buffalo heads, which they worshipped. 5 A 
 buffalo s head on a mound of earth was a place where incanta 
 tions took place. 6 Their lodges had an elevation on which 
 were placed buffalo heads. 7 Says Bradbury, " On some bluffs 
 in the Mandan country I observed fourteen buffalo skulls 
 placed in a row. The cavities of the eyes and the nostrils 
 were rilled with a species of artemisia common on the prairies. 
 On my return I caused our interpreter to inquire into the 
 reason for this, and found that it was an honor conferred on 
 the buffaloes which they had killed, in order to appease their 
 spirits and prevent them from apprising the living buffaloes of 
 the danger they ran in approaching the neighborhood." ! The 
 Indians of South Carolina worshipped the panther, and called 
 it the cat of God, and selected it as one of their great religious 
 emblems. Their male children were made to sleep upon its 
 
 1 4 Schoolcraft, 490. a Bollaert, 179. 
 
 3 Harmon s Journal, 364; Lewis and Clarke, 107. * 2 Beltrami, 417. 
 
 5 Brackenridge s Views, 71. 6 Ib., 244. 
 
 7 Ib., 248. 8 Bradbury s Travels, 125. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 2 5 9 
 
 skin from infancy to manhood, that they might imbibe from it 
 some portion of the cunning, strength, and prodigious spring 
 of the animal to which it belonged. For the same superstitious 
 reason their female offspring were reared on the soft skins of 
 fawns and buffalo calves, that they might become gentle and 
 obedient. 1 
 
 The Moxos of Brazil worshipped the jaguar. It was neces 
 sary for their priests to have been attacked and wounded by a 
 jaguar before they could be initiated to their office. When 
 scratched or wounded by this animal, they were supposed to 
 have its mark set upon them, and were thus designated for its 
 service. It was not even necessary for the aspirant to have a 
 witness to the assault. 2 
 
 The Brazilians believed that a garment made of the skin of a 
 jaguar was impenetrable and that they could not be hurt when 
 clothed with one. 3 
 
 This was a fetichistic superstition, as the skin could be easily 
 penetrated by their weapons. 
 
 The Peruvians worshipped all the animals they were ac 
 quainted with. In the great temple of Pachacamac they held a 
 fox in great veneration and worshipped it. 4 The Indians before 
 the Incas would not fly if the fierce animals they worshipped 
 crossed their path, but went down on the ground and wor 
 shipped them, and even allowed themselves to be killed and 
 eaten. 5 
 
 The early Peruvians fought many battles to maintain the 
 privilege of worshipping their animal deities, and only adopted 
 the worship of the sun after conquest. 
 
 The Mexicans had chapels to the tiger, eagle, and serpent, 
 and a tomb to the bones of a wolf, which were discovered 
 therein deposited in a coffin. The Mexicans worshipped the 
 horse of Cortez and made an image of it, and this god was 
 named Tziminchak. 
 
 1 i Logan s Hist, of Upper South Carolina, 54. 2 3 Southey, 202. 
 
 3 3 ib., 669. 4 Cieza, 183. 5 i Garcilasso, 47. 
 
260 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 The builders of Copan worshipped monkeys. Fragments 
 of colossal apes were found upon monuments. 1 
 
 White animals were special objects of superstitious fear. 
 The Lipans revered with superstitious fear a white wild stallion 
 on a prairie of Texas. The Peruvians regarded white sheep as 
 sacred animals and objects to be worshipped. Judge Hender 
 son, in his article before the Anthropological section of the 
 American Association for the Advancement of Science, says, 
 " Among the Apaches of the West white birds were regarded 
 as possessing souls of divine origin, and to the Indians of the 
 plains the white buffalo is a sacred object, like the white ele 
 phant of Siam ; while some of the California tribes consider a 
 white wolf-skin a badge of chieftainship. This was carried to 
 a great extent in the robes of the high-priests of the Cherokees, 
 and they also wrapped their dead in pure white deer-skins." 
 The Dacotahs believed that the white buffalo, not often seen, 
 possessed a supernatural power. They cut off its head and 
 placed it in their lodge, making of it a household deity. 2 
 
 " Long before whites set foot in the Housatonic Valley, the 
 Indians used to notice a deer of spotless white which came to 
 Onota to drink. Against this gentle creature no red man s 
 arrow was ever pointed, for in their simple faith they believed 
 she brought good fortune to the dwellers in the valley. So 
 long as the snow-white doe came to drink at Onota, so long 
 famine should not blight the Indian s harvest, nor pestilence 
 come nigh his lodge, nor foe lay waste his country. He who 
 had dared harm her would have met swift punishment. Year 
 after year, soon as the white blossoms clothed the cherry, the 
 sacred deer came to drink at her chosen fountain, bringing 
 good omens to all, especially the maiden who first spied her. 
 Finally, she brought with her a fawn of more faultless purity and 
 grace than herself, and that year more than the usual plenty and 
 happiness reigned around the lake. After the coming of the 
 whites, a desire seized a Frenchman to present the skin of the 
 
 1 i Stephens s Central America, 136. a Eastman s Chicora, 67. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 26 1 
 
 white deer to the French king 1 , and, after many fruitless en 
 deavors to procure it through the Indians, it was at last 
 obtained by a large price offered to one while under the influence 
 of fire-water, who, when discovered, suffered speedy punish 
 ment. Many were the efforts to avert punishment, but pros 
 perity departed, and the Indians slowly wasted away." x 
 
 Beyond all others two subdivisions of the animal kingdom 
 have riveted the attention of men by their unusual powers, and 
 entered into their mythology. These are the bird and the ser 
 pent. "The bird has the incomprehensible power of flight. It 
 floats in the atmosphere, rides on the winds. It flies proudly 
 over the mountains and moors, where he toils wearily along. 
 He sees no more enviable creature. All living beings, say the 
 Eskimos, have faculty of soul, but especially the birds. The 
 flight and note of birds have ever been anxiously observed as 
 omens of grave import. In Peru and Mexico there was a college 
 of augurs, who practised divination by watching the course and 
 professing to interpret the songs of fowls." 2 The eagle was 
 everywhere worshipped. Among the Araucanians the namcu, 
 or sea-eagle, was the object of much of their worship. 3 
 
 Mr. Cass says of the natives of Michigan, "the calumet eagle 
 is held in great veneration by the Indians, and a horse is some 
 times given for a feather." 4 
 
 The eagle was considered by many tribes as their sacred 
 bird. Its images carved in wood, or its stuffed skin, surmounted 
 their council lodges. None but an approved warrior dare wear 
 it among the Cherokees ; and the Dacotahs allowed such an 
 honor only to him who had first touched the corpse of the 
 common foe. The Natches and Arkansas seem to have paid 
 it religious honors and installed it in their most sacred shrines. 
 The Californians worshipped one with great ceremony yearly. 5 
 
 The Delawares believed that a guardian spirit in the form of 
 
 1 Taghconick, 113-16. 2 Brinton s Myths, 105-6. 
 
 3 2 Wood s Uncivilized Races, 564. 4 Cass, Indians, 69. 
 
 s Brinton, 1 10. 
 
262 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 a great eagle watched over them, hovering in the sky far out 
 of sight. Sometimes, when well pleased with them, he would 
 wheel down into the lower regions, and might be seen circling 
 with wide-spread wings against the white clouds. At such 
 times the seasons were propitious, the corn grew finely, and they 
 had great success in hunting. Sometimes, however, he was 
 angry, and then he vented his rage in the thunder, which was 
 his voice, and the lightning, which was the flashing of his eye. 
 The Delawares made sacrifices to this spirit, who occasionally 
 dropped a feather from his wing in token of satisfaction. These 
 feathers made the wearer invisible and invulnerable. The In 
 dians generally considered the feathers of the eagle as possessed 
 of occult and sovereign virtues. At one time a party of Dela 
 wares were driven by the Pawnees to the summit of a high hill 
 in their hunting-grounds. Here the chief warrior, driven almost 
 to despair, sacrificed his horse to the tutelar spirit. Suddenly 
 an eagle, rushing down from the sky, bore off the victim in his 
 talons, and, mounting into the air, dropped a feather from his 
 wing. The chief caught it up with joy, and, leading his followers 
 down the hill, cut through the enemy without any one of his 
 party receiving a wound. 1 
 
 Owls were often worshipped. The Lummi, inhabiting the 
 mainland opposite Vancouver s Island, will never kill an owl. 2 
 The owl among the Aztecs, Quiches and Mayas, Peruvians, 
 Araucanians, and Algonkins was thought to have some rela 
 tion to the dead. The Ojibways called the bridge they thought 
 the spirits of the dead had to pass, the owl bridge. The Creek 
 priests carried a stuffed owl with them as the badge of their 
 profession. The Arickaras placed one in their council lodge, 
 and the culture-hero of the Monquins of California was repre 
 sented, like Athene, as having one for his companion. The 
 natives of the Antilles wore tunics with figures of these birds 
 embroidered on them. 3 
 
 Irving, Tour on the Prairies, 92, seq. a I Bancroft, 219. 
 
 sBrinton, no-li. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 263 
 
 Among the Zufiis, owls of pottery were very common ob 
 jects of worship. Says Brinton, the Indians were of opinion 
 that there were great numbers of inferior deities, and that the 
 irrational animals were engaged in viewing their actions. The 
 eagle for this purpose with her keen eye soared about in the 
 day, and the owl with her nightly eye was perched on the trees 
 around their camp. Therefore when they observed the eagle 
 or the owl near, they immediately offered sacrifice or burned 
 tobacco. 
 
 Other birds shared in the worship of the tribes. The Aztecs 
 reverenced a bird called Quetzal, a variety of paroquet. Neither 
 Hurons nor Mandans would kill doves, for they believed they 
 were inhabited by the souls of the departed. 1 The Floridians 
 had a sacred bird called Tonatsuli. 2 The name denoted a 
 sweet singer. It was probably the mocking-bird. 3 Crows were 
 held in veneration by the Indians of Rhode Island, and were 
 rarely killed. They had a tradition that a crow first brought to 
 them a grain of corn in one ear and a bean in the other from 
 the southwest, and from that seed came all their corn and 
 beans. 4 The Kutchin would pray to a passing crow for meat. 5 
 The Caribs thought that bats were deities whose office it was 
 to watch during the night. 6 
 
 "Of all animals," says Brinton, "the serpent is the most 
 mysterious. Alone of all creatures it swiftly progresses with 
 out feet, fins, or wings. Said wise King Solomon, There be 
 three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which 
 I know not, and the chief of them are the way of an eagle, and 
 the way of a serpent on a rock. It seems to be associated in 
 its winding course to rivers. The Kennebec, a stream in Maine, 
 in the Algonkin means snake, and the Antietam, in Maryland, 
 in Jroquois has the same significance. How easily might 
 savages, construing the figure literally, make the serpent a 
 
 1 Brinton s Myths, 111-12. 2 Brinton s Florida, 107. 
 
 3 i Bancroft, 520. 4 i Arnold s Rhode Island, 80. 
 
 s Smithsonian Rep., 66, 325. 6 3 Picart, 137. 
 
264 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 water-god !" This they did to a certain extent Among sev 
 eral tribes the words for spirit and snake are similar, as among 
 the Dacotahs, Shawnees, and Sauks. In the Crow dialect of 
 the Dacotah laliise is snake, Isahe spirit. 1 It has in association 
 of ideas become connected with the lightning. The Algonkins 
 thought the lightning was an immense serpent. The Shawnees 
 called the thunder the hissing of the great snake; and Tlaloc, 
 the Toltec thunder-god, held a serpent of gold in his hand to 
 represent the lightning. The Caribs spoke of the god of the 
 thunder-storm as a great serpent, and in the central region of 
 the volcanic island of Dominica dwelt a monstrous serpent. 
 Racumon, the great serpent, was brother of Lavacon, the ele 
 mental bird. 2 In the Ojibway mythology the serpent robs the 
 thunder-birds nests. 
 
 The Potawatomies entertained a high degree of veneration 
 for the rattlesnake. They seldom killed one, and if they did 
 it was accompanied with forms and ceremonies, and a sacrifice 
 was left near the carcass. The fang was said to be a charm 
 against rheumatism. 3 
 
 Says Henry, " I once saw a rattlesnake which, as I was about 
 to kill, the Indians [Ojibways] surrounded, addressing it by 
 turns and calling it their grandfather. During this part of the 
 ceremony they filled their pipes, and now each blew the smoke 
 toward the snake. After remaining coiled and receiving incense 
 for the space of half an hour, it stretched itself along the ground 
 in visible good humor. At last it moved slowly away, the In 
 dians following it and still addressing it by the title of grand 
 father, beseeching it to take care of their families during their 
 absence. They further requested that he would remain and 
 inhabit their country. The next day, a storm arising while we 
 were out on the lake, the Indians prayed and offered sacrifices 
 to the god-rattlesnake. One of the chiefs took a dog, and, 
 after tying its fore-legs together, threw it overboard, at the 
 same time calling on the snake to preserve us from being 
 
 1 Brinton, 114-15. a Ib., 120-21. 3 i Keating, 127. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 265 
 
 drowned, and desiring him to satisfy his hunger with the car 
 cass of the dog. The wind increased. Another chief sacrificed 
 another dog, with the addition of some tobacco. In the prayer 
 which accompanied these gifts he besought the snake, as be 
 fore, not to avenge upon the Indians the insult which he had 
 received from myself in my design to put him to death." 
 
 Carver says he was told a remarkable story concerning one 
 of these reptiles. An Indian belonging to the Menomonee 
 nation, having taken one of them, found means to tame it, and, 
 when he had done this, treated it as a deity, calling it his great 
 father, and carrying it with him in a box wherever he went. 
 This the Indian had done for several summers. 1 The Winneba- 
 goes reverenced and never killed the rattlesnake. The Indians 
 of Florida venerated the rattlesnake, and would not kill one, 
 for fear its spirit would incite its kindred to revenge its death. 
 The Cherokees worshipped the rattlesnake. This worship paid 
 to the rattlesnake was universal among all the tribes; but worship 
 was not conferred exclusively upon that serpent. All the snakes 
 of the country enjoyed a share of it, though in a less degree. 
 The Indians suffered them all to live unmolested, on which ac 
 count they became very numerous. 2 In Brazil, in a large town of 
 eight thousand cabins, Don Alvarez found a tower which con 
 tained a serpent twenty-seven feet long, with a very large head. 
 The Indians worshipped this serpent as a divinity, and fed it 
 with human flesh. The Peruvians worshipped adders. 3 Many 
 images of serpents were found in South America, before which 
 the inhabitants knelt in adoration. 
 
 In Mexico, many sculptured images of serpents are found. 
 There is one noble specimen of the great serpent idol, almost 
 perfect, and of fine workmanship. This monstrous divinity is 
 represented in the act of swallowing a human victim, which is 
 seen crushed and struggling in its horrid jaws. 4 In the town 
 of Tenayuco, Diaz found so many enormous figures of serpents 
 
 1 Carver s Travels, 47. 2 I Logan s Upper South Carolina, 89. 
 
 3 i Garcilasso, 188. Bullock, 328. 
 
266 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 which the inhabitants worshipped as gods that he named it the 
 town of Serpents. 1 
 
 It is evident that although some animals may have received 
 a preference, yet all animals shared in the superstitious worship 
 of primitive peoples, and this broad universality of their wor 
 ship militates against any other theory of its origin except that 
 based upon the transmigration of souls. If all animal life was 
 accounted for by transmigration, then all animal life would be 
 surrounded with superstitious fear, which was the fact. The 
 religious ceremonies of the Ojibways consisted chiefly in songs 
 and speeches to birds and beasts. The Cceur-d Aleins rendered 
 divine worship to all the animals they knew. 2 The Wyandots 
 and Ottawas thought that all the animals were divinities, who 
 watched the actions of men, and should receive worship. 
 
 Among all the tribes of both Americas the animal form is a 
 prominent feature in their primitive art. 
 
 In the mounds are found many animal images ; the sculp 
 tured figures of birds, serpents, and frogs are most common. 3 
 Nearly every animal known to natural history is represented. 
 The tortoise, which was a symbol of the Tyrian colony of 
 Thebes, in Greece, and the serpent, are ever recurring upon 
 American ruins. At Uxmal is a building called " the house 
 of the turtles," from a row of tortoises around the cornice. 
 Divers turtles in stone have also been discovered among the 
 ruins. In a large box filled with terra-cotta antiquities once 
 offered to Mr. Wilson, about three-fourths of the whole collec 
 tion were serpents and turtles. 4 
 
 In the vases found in the sacred spring of the Zufiis, a vast 
 amount of labor was found to have been spent in decorating 
 their interior and exterior with animals. Horned frogs and 
 tadpoles alternate on the inner surface. Several of the figures 
 would serve as spirited specimens of diablerie. In a large vase, 
 
 1 Diaz, 260. 2 De Smet, Ind. Sketches, 16. 
 
 3 Squier and Davis, Aborig. Mon., 259, 268. 
 * Wilson s Conquest of Mexico, 161-62. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 267 
 
 which was an offering to the spirit of the spring 1 , a frog was 
 in the act of leaping from the vessel as if disturbed by some 
 one s approach. The outline of this vessel is identical with 
 that of the classical caldrons of antiquity and of our own 
 times. This introduction of figures of water-animals on vases 
 dedicated to the genii of fountains is peculiarly appropriate. 
 In another vase are figures of crested serpents, probably repre 
 senting some water-snake, and very similar to those found in 
 the ruins of Pompeii. In still another vase the figures of but 
 terflies appear. 
 
 The elephant appears in American art three times : once in 
 the elephant head of Palenque, where its head forms the head 
 dress of a bas-relief figure ; again in the large animal mound of 
 Wisconsin, and again in the pipe recently discovered in Iowa. 
 On the stem of this pipe a very perfect representation of this 
 animal appears. 1 
 
 Among the most civilized nations transmigration and meta 
 morphoses filled their pantheon with animal gods and mythical 
 beings which assumed animal or composite forms. All of these 
 aided to give color and form to the art of those races which, 
 emerging from the primitive condition that originated and fos 
 tered these ideas, had not thrown them off. Animal forms 
 appear everywhere in their art. About one-third of the Nica- 
 raguan statues in stone represent animals and monsters. A 
 very remarkable feature of the art of the civilized nations of 
 Mexico, and especially Nicaragua, is that most of their statuary 
 exhibits the human form connected with the animal. The 
 human form clothed in animal dress is very frequently found. 
 
 In many of the bas-reliefs and pictographic representations 
 the head-dress is the head of some animal, and occasionally a 
 composite figure surrounded by much ornamental work. There 
 can be little doubt that these designs were intended to repre 
 sent and satisfy the primitive styles which we have found 
 among the barbarous tribes, and surviving to some extent 
 
 1 Short, 530-31. 
 
268 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 among the civilized races. These styles of animal dress had 
 their origin in real life. The warrior donned the skin of the 
 tiger or other animal to render himself terrible in war. The 
 sorcerer clothed himself in the skin of some animal revered by 
 his tribe to inspire them with reverence for himself. Each in 
 dividual carried his personal manitou, generally the skin of 
 some animal. Each gens was represented by a totemic badge, 
 generally some animal. In the pictography of the Codices in 
 Lord Kingsborough s Mexican Antiquities, we have composite 
 figures of tigers with human hands, and other combinations of 
 animal and human form frequently occurring. 
 
 The same superstitious ideas that in art found representation 
 in composite forms would in tradition find expression in myths 
 of fabulous animals. Some of these animals assumed unnatural 
 forms, others did unnatural acts. Among many of the American 
 tribes animals have taken an important part in their cosmogony. 
 In the cosmogony of the Gallinomeros of California, animals 
 were in existence before there was light. One of the catastro 
 phes that happened in this darkness resulted in light being 
 produced. The hawk happening by chance to fly into the face 
 of the coyote, there followed mutual apologies, and afterward 
 a long discussion on the emergency of the situation. The 
 coyote got ready a ball of inflammable material and some 
 pieces of flint, which the hawk took and flew with them into 
 the sky, where he struck fire with the flints and lighted his 
 ball, and sent it whirling along in a fierce red glow, as it con 
 tinues to the present day, for it was the sun. 1 In the Chibcha 
 cosmogony the blackbird plays a prominent part in scattering 
 light all over the world. 2 
 
 The great hero-deity of the Thlinkeets, Yehl the crow, 
 their creator brooded over dark chaos, and beat back its 
 waters with its black wings. A myth of the Tolowas, in ac 
 counting for the manner in which the tribe obtained fire, said 
 that the spiders wove a gossamer balloon out of their webs 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 85, 86. 2 P. Simon, 241 ; Bollaert, n. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 269 
 
 and started on a perilous journey to the moon, from which they 
 expected to obtain the fire and return to the earth with it. The 
 Cahroc folk-lore is full of the good deeds of the coyote. It 
 was he that opened up the Klamath for the salmon at the 
 solicitation of the starving people, and when the dam was 
 opened the green waters rushed through all ashinewith salmon. 
 " The adulations of flatterers and sycophants puffed up the 
 coyote to such a degree that he determined to have a dance 
 through heaven itself; and whom should he choose as his 
 partner but a star, which, after much solicitation, engaged with 
 him in the dance. But its giddy mazes were too much for the 
 poor coyote, who slipped his hold. Terrible was the fall, but 
 after ten long snows he strikes the earth, and is smashed as 
 flat as a willow mat." J The following myth of the origin of 
 fish in Clear Lake makes the coyote play the role of creator 
 again. He filled himself with the water of Clear Lake, after 
 eating a great quantity of grasshoppers, and lay down to sleep, 
 when he was thrust through with a spear, and all the water and 
 grasshoppers ran out and down into the lake basin, and the 
 insects became fish. 2 
 
 A Shasta legend makes a ground-mole the creator of the 
 world, which was heaved into existence by the " rooting under 
 neath somewhere" of that a,nimal. 3 The Pima creator was the 
 butterfly, the prettiest fancy of all. It was a metamorphose, how 
 ever, that gave the little creature such power. Their evil spirit 
 seems to have been the eagle, to whose instrumentality they 
 ascribed the deluge. The only man saved took revenge when 
 the waters subsided by climbing to the eagle s nest and slaying 
 it. About its nest he found the bodies of a great multitude of 
 those the eagle had destroyed. He found a woman the mon 
 ster had taken to wife, and a child, from whom descended the 
 ancient people called Hohocam, who were led in their wander 
 ings by an eagle and passed into Mexico. 4 
 
 In Indian folk-lore, the winds are generally produced by 
 
 3 Bancroft, 138-39. 2 3 ib., 86, 87. 3 3 ib., 547. 4 3 ib., 79. 
 
 18 
 
270 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 birds. The owl creates the north wind, the butterfly the south. 1 
 Among the Iroquois, the wind was thought to be produced by 
 a water-lizard which crawled out of its pool. 2 The Piutes had 
 a fabulous serpent deity in Pyramid Lake. The wind, when 
 it swept down among the nine islands of the lake, drove the 
 waters into the most fantastic swirls and eddies in localities 
 when the rest of the lake was placid. This, said the Piutes, 
 was the snake causing the lake to boil like a pot. Among the 
 Northern tribes about the Great Lakes, the god of water de 
 scribed by Perrot was of composite form, lived in a cavern, and 
 produced the winds by shaking his monstrous tail. 3 Pre-eminent 
 in the Ojibway tales about water-animals was the toad (frog), 
 by which they said a deluge was produced. A huge toad had 
 a quarrel with some land-animal with horns. The toad had the 
 whole management of the waters, and appears to have presided 
 over them with great satisfaction to the Indian race until this 
 fight arose, when, failing to swallow its antagonist, the latter 
 rushed upon it and pierced a hole in its side, out of which the 
 waters gushed in floods and overflowed the earth. Manabozho, 
 the great hare, who was living at that time, fled for refuge to 
 the mountains, carrying some animals with him. When the 
 mountain-tops were flooded, he took to a tree, and with the 
 aid of various animals he recreated the earth. The most use 
 ful of these animals was the musk-rat, which went to the bottom 
 of the waters and brought him earth. 4 The traditional deluge 
 of the Crees was caused by a quarrel of a large fish with one 
 of their demi-gods, in which it attempted to drown the god. 5 
 
 Traditions of the production of convulsive changes in the 
 earth s surface by fabulous animals are frequent. There is a 
 legend of Aputaput Fall, Oregon, in which a beaver of enormous 
 size, when pursued by the hunters, tore away the banks of 
 Pelouse River, and in its final struggle produced the cataract. 6 
 
 1 5 Schoolcraft, 420. 2 Parkman s Jesuits, Ixxxviii. 
 
 3 Memoirs,. 20. * Jones, Ojibways, 33-35. 
 
 s Hartwig s Polar World, 325. 6 4 Wilkes, Ex. Exp., 467. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 271 
 
 A fabulous animal of the Algonkins was the great beaver, which 
 was one of the most powerful of the manitous. It was he who 
 formed Lake Nipissing. The cataracts in the Cutaway River, 
 which issues from the Nipissing, are the relics of dikes thrown 
 up by the great beaver to form that lake ; but he died in the 
 midst of the undertaking. He is buried at the top of the 
 mountain to which he has given his form. No native passes 
 the foot of his tomb .without smoking in honor of him. 1 The 
 Kaniagmuts say that the island of Kadiak was separated from 
 Alaska by a large otter which pushed its way through from 
 Cook s Inlet. 2 The Salish Indians have a fabulous toad, which, 
 when pursued, in its efforts to escape destruction played havoc 
 with terrestrial objects, but succeeded in springing upon the 
 face of the moon. 
 
 Among some of the Western Indians there is a tradition of 
 an immense eagle which hovers in the air out of sight, and 
 carries a lake on his back, full of water. When this aerial 
 monster flaps his wings, loud peals of thunder roll over the 
 prairie. When he winks his eyes, it lightens. When he wags 
 his tail, the waters of the lake overflow and produce rain. 3 
 
 In the myths of nearly all the tribes the thunder and light 
 ning are thought to be produced by either a bird or a serpent. 
 In many of them a fabulous animal, by the name of the thunder- 
 bird, becomes a well-defined personality. In some myths the 
 thunder and lightning are the result of a struggle between the 
 serpent and the thunder-bird. The serpent produces the light 
 ning s flash from its forked tongue, whilst robbing the thunder- 
 bird s nest. The thunder is the flapping of the wings of the 
 bird in the struggle. These fanciful myths about animals can 
 be referred generally to a simpler germ from which they have 
 sprung, and have gradually been clothed with the imagery of 
 an uncultivated mind, to which nothing is incredible. 
 
 In a Thlinkeet myth, the soul of an ancestor appears in the 
 thunder-bird. In the Thlinkeet deluge, a brother and sister were 
 
 1 2 Chateaubriand s Travels, 41. 2 Ball s Alaska, 405. 3 Boiler, 257. 
 
2/2 
 
 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 forced to separate by the flood, and the parting word of the 
 brother was that his sister should never see him again, but 
 should hear his voice. He then clothed himself in the skin of a 
 great bird and flew away southwest. " The sister was swallowed 
 in a great hole or crater near Sitka ; but when the storm sweeps 
 down over the country about her subterranean home, the light 
 ning of the thunder-bird s eyes gleams down her crater window, 
 and the thundering of his wings re-echoes throughout all her 
 subterranean halls." J Fig. 1 3 is a representation of the thunder- 
 bird of the Haidahs. 2 
 
 FIG. 13. 
 
 The Ojibways had their thunder-bird. When seen flying by 
 day, it foreboded misfortune. These fabulous birds were sup 
 posed to have their nests somewhere. A great Ojibway 
 warrior was returning late one night from the hunt, when one 
 of these monstrous birds caught him, and arose and flew west 
 ward to a high hill, where he was left in the nest of the young 
 birds. They immediately began to peck at this delicate morsel 
 that had been provided for them. The warrior summoned up 
 courage, and determined to defend himself from these young 
 thunder-birds ; but whenever they winked a flash of lightning 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 103-4. 
 
 2 Swan, Haidah Indians, Smith. Contrib., No. 267. 
 
ANIMAL-WORSHIP. 273 
 
 would pass from their eyes and burn him. By the most won 
 derful deeds of valor known to Indian folk-lore, he mastered the 
 tender birds, took their hearts, and when he got home made a 
 delicious broil of them. Since this experience with the warrior 
 these birds do not trouble the Indians, but live on snakes and 
 fish. Their nests are now in the Rocky Mountains, but they 
 are heard at times passing east to the sea. 1 
 
 There are among the different families of a tribe different 
 ideas of the size of this mythical bird, for among the Ojibways 
 another tradition says that the thunder-bird is about as large 
 as the end of the little finger, and cannot reproduce her own 
 species, and is eternal. Her mate is a serpent, whose fiery 
 tongue destroys the young ones as they are hatched. She sits 
 on her eggs during fair weather and hatches her brood at the 
 approach of a storm. 2 We have here a very pretty mytho 
 logical sister for the halcyon of the Greek mythology. 
 
 A large bird, according to tradition, used to slay the buffaloes 
 of early day, and sit on the ledge of the Red Rocks, on top 
 of Coteau des Prairies, and eat them. Their blood ran down 
 the rocks and made them red. This bird had its nest near 
 by, and when serpents crawled in to molest the eggs they would 
 hatch out in a clap of thunder. 3 
 
 According to Dacotah tradition, they won a battle against 
 the lowas by aid of a thunder-bird. Their thunder-bird was a 
 winged monster, which bore down on the Iowa village in a 
 most terrible and godlike manner. Tempests howled, light 
 nings flashed, the thunder uttered its voice, and the earth trem 
 bled. A bolt was hurled at the lowas, which ploughed the 
 earth and formed that deep ravine near the village of Oak 
 Grove. 4 
 
 " A bird of thunder was once killed, the Dacotahs assert, 
 near Kaposia. Its face resembled the human countenance. 
 Its nose was hooked like the bill of an eagle. Its wings had 
 
 1 Copway s Ojibways, 109-13. a 2 Catlin, 111., 164. 
 
 3 2 ib., 1 68. * I Minnesota Hist. Coll., 145. 
 
274 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 four joints, and were zigzag like the lightning. About thirty 
 miles from Big Stone Lake, near the head-waters of the Minne 
 sota, there are several small lakes bordered with oak-trees. 
 This is the supposed birthplace of the thunder-bird, and is 
 called the nest of thunder." 1 The Dacotahs show at this place 
 the footprints of the thunder-bird twenty-five miles apart. 
 
 Tupan, the thunder-bird of the Tupi tribe of Brazil, flapped 
 his celestial wings and flashed light therefrom, and his name 
 still stands among the Christianized natives as the equivalent 
 of God. 2 The Caribs thought the thunder-cloud was a bird, 
 and that it produced the lightning in true Carib fashion by 
 blowing it through a hollow reed, just as they do their poisoned 
 darts. 3 The thunder-bird appears upon the Guatemalan sculp 
 tures. The natives of the Isthmus of Darien have a tradition 
 of two birds with maiden faces that came with a storm from 
 the east. They seized men and women and carried them off 
 to their mountain nest. At last they made an image of a man 
 and fastened it into the ground. One of the birds swooped 
 down upon this, and fastened its talons so that they could not 
 be released, and they killed it. 4 
 
 A tradition very similar to this was found among the Illinois, 
 which I will give in the language of Mr. Jones. " In the reign 
 of the illustrious Owatoga, chief of the Illinois, they were ter 
 rified with a fearful visitation from a thunder-bird. There ap 
 peared upon the inaccessible cliffs, where it made its home, an 
 immense and hideous animal, half bird, half beast, which, from 
 the circumstance of its having wings, they called the Piasau 
 bird. This name, like all Indian names, is significant of the 
 character of the monster which it designates : it means the man- 
 destroying bird. This bird is described as being of gigantic size, 
 capable of bearing off with ease in its talons a horse or buffalo. 
 Its head and beak were like those of the vulture, with eyes of 
 the most dazzling brilliancy ; its wings black as the raven and 
 
 * Neill s Minnesota, 58. 2 2 Tylor, 262-63. 
 
 3 Brinton, 108. 4 3 Bancroft, 500. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 275 
 
 clothed with thunder, making a most fearful noise in its heavy 
 flight; its legs four in number, and talons like those of a mighty 
 eagle; its body similar to that of the dragon, ending with a 
 tail of huge dimensions like a scorpion s. Its body was gor 
 geously colored with every hue, and in its flight it made a most 
 imposing spectacle, inspiring terror, awe, and wonder. Such 
 was this strange visitor which had taken up its abode in their 
 sacred cliffs; and while their priests were studying the omen, 
 whether it should be for good or for evil, all doubt was dissi 
 pated by the sudden descent of the bird into their midst, which 
 seized one of their bravest warriors in its talons and bore him 
 as a prey to its wild eyrie in the rocks. Never again was the 
 unfortunate victim seen by his friends. But the sacrifice was 
 not complete. Brave after brave, and women and children not 
 a few, were borne off in succession by the fierce devourer, 
 whose appetite seemed but to be whetted to a keener set the 
 more it tasted of human blood. Such was the fearful state of 
 things, when the brave Owatoga, chief of this mighty tribe, 
 sought out his priests, and with them, retiring to a secret place, 
 fasted many days and with all the mummery of their religion. 
 At length, in a trance, it was revealed to Owatoga that the 
 terrible visitant who had hitherto eluded their utmost sagacity 
 might be destroyed. The mode was this. First, a noble victim 
 was to be selected from among the bravest warriors of the tribe, 
 who, by religious rites, was to be sanctified for the sacrifice. 
 Secondly, twenty equally brave, with their stoutest bows and 
 sharpest arrows, were to conceal themselves near the spot of 
 sacrifice. The victim was to be led forth and singly to take his 
 stand upon an exposed point of the rock, where the ravenous 
 bird would be likely to notice and seize upon him. At the 
 moment of descent the concealed warriors were to let fly their 
 arrows, with the assurance that he would fall. . . . Owatoga 
 appeared at the head of his tribe as the voluntary victim. . . . 
 Soon was the ill-omened bird seen hovering over the place, and, 
 after wheeling about for a few moments high above the head of 
 the devoted chief, nearing at each gyration the unquailing vie- 
 
276 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 tim, suddenly he came thundering down toward his prize. In 
 an instant the barbed arrows from twenty sure bows buried 
 themselves to the feather in the body of the common foe, and 
 he fell quivering and dead at the feet of the noble chieftain, 
 himself escaping unscathed. ... It was determined to per 
 petuate the event by engraving the picture of the Piasau bird 
 upon the smooth-sided limestone cliffs which tower above the 
 river. There it was done, and stained with the fast and fade 
 less colors whose subtle compounding the Indian only knows, 
 and which remain plainly visible to the present day. The spot 
 became sacred from that time, and no Indian ascended or de 
 scended the Father of Waters for many a year without dis 
 charging his arrow at the image of the warrior-destroying 
 bird." 1 
 
 Of the worship of compound monsters, impossible hybrid 
 animals and forms that are half human, half brutal, Mr. Spencer 
 says, " When a chief nicknamed the wolf carries away from 
 an adjacent tribe a wife who is remembered either under the 
 animal name of her tribe or as a woman, it will happen that if 
 her son distinguishes himself, the remembrance of him among 
 his descendants will be that he was born of a wolf and some 
 other animal, or of a wolf and a woman. We need not be 
 surprised, then, at finding among the Egyptians the goddess 
 Pasht represented as a woman with a lion s head, and the god 
 Month as a man with the head of a hawk." Gods having the 
 form of a man with an eagle s tail, or uniting a human bust to 
 the body of a fish, no longer appear such unaccountable con 
 ceptions. 2 
 
 Many nondescript animals are pictured on the exposed sur 
 faces of rocks throughout the length and breadth of both 
 Americas. Where they are isolated and not a part of a picto- 
 graphic system of writing, they are probably drawn as objects 
 of worship. Specimens of these are described by Father Mar- 
 quette and Hennepin in the following language: "As we 
 
 1 Jones s Illinois and the West, 53-59. a Spencer s Rec. Dis., 46, seq. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 277 
 
 coasted along rocks frightful for their height and length, we 
 saw two monsters painted on one of these rocks which startled 
 us at first, and on which the boldest Indian dare not gaze long. 
 They are as large as a calf, with horns on the head like a deer, 
 a fearful look, red eyes, bearded like a tiger, the face somewhat 
 like a man s, the body covered with scales, and the tail so long 
 that it twice makes the turn of the body, passing over the head 
 and down between the legs, and ending at last in a fish s tail. 
 Green, red, and a kind of black are the colors employed. On 
 the whole, these two monsters are so well painted that we could 
 not believe any Indian to have been the designer, as good 
 painters in France would find it hard to do as well ; besides 
 this, they are so high up on the rock that it is hard to get con 
 veniently at them to paint them." 1 
 
 Says Hennepin, " I had quite forgot to relate that the Illinois 
 had told us that toward the cape which I have called in my 
 map St. Anthony, near the nation of the Messorites [Missouris], 
 there were some tritons and other sea-monsters painted, which 
 the boldest men durst not look upon, there being some enchant 
 ment in their face. I thought this was a. story ; but when we 
 came near the place they had mentioned, we saw, instead of 
 these monsters, a horse and some other beasts painted upon the 
 rock with red colors by the savages. The Illinois had told us 
 likewise that the rock on which these dreadful monsters stood 
 was so steep that no man could climb up to it ; but had we not 
 been afraid of the savages more than of the monsters, we had 
 certainly got up to them. There is a common tradition among 
 that people that a great number of Miamis were drowned in 
 that place, being pursued by the savages of Matsigamea ; and 
 since that time the savages going by the rock use to smoke 
 and offer tobacco to those beasts, to appease, as they say, the 
 manitou." 2 
 
 Mermaid-myths are found in some localities. The Ottawas 
 
 1 Marquette s Narrative, in Shea s Discovery, 39. 
 
 2 Hennepin s New Discovery, 135-36. 
 
2 7 8 
 
 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 FIG. 14. 
 
 had a mermaid which was a woman from the waist up, but two 
 fishes below. Her hands and arms were covered with scales- 
 Her face was very beautiful. She was named " the daughter 
 of the flood." The natives of the Arctic regions have a female 
 spirit who is the protectress of sea-animals. She can make 
 them plenty or scarce as she pleases. The sorcerers say, how 
 ever, that they are able to compel her to let go the sea-animals 
 by cutting off her nails. Whole herds of walrus rise to the 
 surface when a knuckle is detached. Her name is Nooliayoo, 
 and she represents the mermaid-myths of those Northern 
 parts. The Indians are said to be descended from her union 
 with a malformed dog which watched the door of her house. 2 
 Many of these composite forms appear 
 in the mythology of the Haidahs. Oo- 
 lala was half man and half bird, that 
 lived in the mountains, and was greatly 
 feared by the natives. Tchimose was a 
 mythological creature supposed to live 
 in the ocean, and was represented as in 
 Fig. 14, taken from the book entitled 
 " Swan s Haidah Indians," published by 
 the Smithsonian Institution. The Ojib- 
 ways have a composite mythological 
 figure called Ne-ban-a-baig, partaking 
 of the double nature of man and fish, a 
 notion which, except as to sex, has its analogy in the mermaid 
 of Western Europe. These animals, according to their tradi 
 tions, inhabit the upper lakes. A gens claim descent from 
 this fabulous animal, and they have made a totem of it : their 
 word for it might be translated the man-fish totem. It is repre 
 sented on Plate IV. The sacred animal of the Winnebagoes 
 was a nondescript and composite figure, seen only by medicine 
 men after severe fasting. Fig. 15 is a representation of this 
 animal. 
 
 3 Jones, Traditions, 126. 
 
 2 Lyon s Journal, 362-63. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 
 
 279 
 
 The finding of the bones of the mastodon, or of those of 
 other animals akin to it in size, by the Indians from time to 
 
 FIG. 15. 
 
 time, has not had the tendency to check their disposition to 
 make for themselves fabulous animal gods. On the contrary, 
 they looked upon all relics of this nature with superstitious 
 reverence. The Dacotahs had legends of large animals which 
 they had preserved to keep away sickness and dangers. 1 Mas 
 todons bones have been found in Wisconsin mounds. The 
 natives of British America preserved the bones of mammoths 
 found on Shell Creek, and regarded them as the bones of a 
 manitou. 2 
 
 A meagre acquaintance with these large animals has tended to 
 produce superstitious feelings in the minds of these uncultured 
 peoples, and has originated undoubtedly many of their myths 
 about fabulous animals. There can be but little doubt that the 
 mastodon had existed within the recollection of the oldest 
 members of some of the present tribes, or their ancestors, at 
 the time of the advent of the whites. Mexican sepulchres have 
 been opened containing the skeletons of the mammoth or of 
 some similar animal. These tombs appeared to have been 
 specially prepared for their reception, and they were buried 
 apparently with the same care as men. Says Mr. Winchell on 
 this subject, " I have observed the bones of the mastodon and 
 
 Eastman s Legends, 228. 
 
 I Hind s Narrative, 313. 
 
28o PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 elephant imbedded in peat at depths so shallow that I could 
 readily believe the animal to have occupied the country during 
 its possession by the Indians." 1 "Judging from geological 
 data, the appearance of man in America was later than in the 
 Old World, but even in America the race has probably looked 
 upon the later representatives of the mastodon and mammoth 
 tribes. I have myself exhumed mastodon bones from a bed of 
 peat not more than three feet deep, which could be easily accu 
 mulated in five hundred years. The Indians have traditions of 
 the same." 2 Says Du Pratz, "Some years ago the skeletons 
 of two large elephants and two small ones were discovered in 
 the marsh near the river Ohio, and they were not much con 
 sumed." 3 The discovery by Mr. Koch of a mastodon, which 
 had near it weapons and other evidences of having been at 
 tacked and killed by Indians at a not very distant day, bears 
 evidence to the same effect. There are many traditions, among 
 different tribes, of these monstrous animals. The tribes of New 
 York had a tradition of a remarkable and ferocious animal, the 
 Yagesho, which existed in the northern parts of New York 
 about three centuries ago. " It was much superior to the 
 largest bear, remarkably long-bodied, broad down by its shoul 
 ders, but narrow just at its hind legs. It had a large head and 
 fearful look. Its legs were short and thick. Its paws (with 
 claws nearly as long as an Indian s finger) spread very wide. 
 It was almost bare of hair, except the head and the tender part 
 of its legs. Several of these animals had been destroyed by the 
 Indians, but the one of which the following account is given 
 had escaped them, and for years had destroyed many In 
 dians. It would catch and kill the largest bears and devour 
 them. The men assembled to deliberate on the plan of killing 
 him. This beast lived near Lake Hoosink, and got the scent 
 of the party detached to decoy him, and rushed upon them. 
 Arrows and stones were discharged at him until he dropped 
 down and died. His head was cut off and carried in triumph 
 
 1 Winchell s Sketches, 350. a Ib., 240. 3 2 Louisiana, 130. 
 
ANIMAL-WORSHIP. 281 
 
 to their village and exalted on a pole. The Mahicanni claim 
 the honor of this act." J 
 
 The tradition of the flying heads among the Iroquois, which 
 greatly disturbed their quiet and defied all human power suc 
 cessfully to combat, may be enumerated among their singular 
 fancies. These heads, of monstrous size, enveloped in beards and 
 hair of flaming fire, rushed through the air like shooting stars 
 or falling meteors, threatening the destruction of their nation. 
 The priests, prophets, and medicine-men were alike unsuccess 
 ful in subduing these supernatural monsters. The frontispiece 
 is a representation of one of them. The Quis-Quis, or great 
 hog, was another monster which gave the Onondagas great 
 trouble, as did also the great bear, the horned water-serpent, and 
 many other equally fabulous inventions. 2 There is a myth that 
 a young Iroquois found a two-headed serpent when he was out 
 hunting and brought it to his lodge and fed it. After some time 
 it grew so large it rested on the beams of the lodge, and the 
 hunters had to feed it with deer. It at last went out-doors and 
 maintained itself on a hill. Finally it surrounded the nation 
 with its folds, and, as they attempted to escape, devoured them 
 all but one man and his sister. In a dream it was revealed to 
 him that if he would fledge his arrows with the hair of his 
 sister and shoot at the heart of the monster he would conquer. 
 He obeyed, and the wound was mortal, and the serpent rolled 
 down the hill into the lake, where he vomited up all the people 
 he had eaten. 3 
 
 All animals with which they were unacquainted would pro 
 duce superstitious fear among the Indians when seen for the 
 first time. A very curious illustration of this is told by Catlin. 
 In a Minnitaree village a great sensation was produced by the 
 appearance (to use the language of the Indians) of " a small 
 animal not far differing in size from a ground-squirrel, but with 
 
 1 Yates and Moulton s New York, Pt. I, notes, pp. 9-10. 
 
 2 Plate in Cusick s Six Nations; I Clark s Onondaga, 143. 
 
 3 Schoolcraft s Iroquois, 6l. 
 
282 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 a long, round tail." This unknown animal showed himself 
 slyly about a chiefs wigwam, peeping out from under the pots 
 and kettles. They looked upon it as great medicine, and so 
 sacred no one dared kill it ; but hundreds came to watch and 
 look at it. After councils had been called and solemn decrees 
 issued for its countenance and protection, a fur-trader came 
 among them and pronounced it a rat, which had been intro 
 duced by whites. 1 At the mouth of the Q Appelle River, an 
 Indian, in June, 1858, set his net and caught a large fish of a 
 kind different from any with which he was familiar. He imme 
 diately pronounced it to be a manitou, and, carefully restoring 
 it to the water again, at once sacrificed five valuable dogs to 
 appease the anger of the supposed deity. 2 
 
 No doubt many of the fabulous animals of uncultured peo 
 ples are the appearances of their disordered imaginations in 
 dreams. An Ojibway, in obedience to a dream which recurred 
 ten successive nights, arose on the eleventh and issued forth 
 with his magic staff to the side of a stream, whose waters he 
 touched. They began gradually moving beneath the influence 
 until a violent whirlpool arose, which drew into its coils the fish 
 and other water-animals, such as frogs, toads, lizards, and aquatic 
 birds and insects, which passed before the astonished eyes of 
 the enchanter. At length he stood in the midst of the com 
 motion, like Goethe s apprentice to the magician, and, although 
 a strange horror crept over him, he insisted that the king of 
 fishes should appear. Forced by the magic spell, he came, 
 and, emerging from the lake in the shape of a mighty serpent, 
 it gave him a powder like the vermilion with which the In 
 dians paint their faces. This powder cured all diseases, and 
 made him a mighty doctor among his nation. But his dis 
 tinction was purchased at the price of his children, who were 
 sacrificed one by one to the water-god in accordance with his 
 promise. 3 The following is a Mexican tradition : " Certain 
 fishermen near the Lake of Mexico took a monstrous fowl of 
 
 1 I Catlin s 111., 194-95. 2 2 Hind s Nar., 134-35. 3 Kohl, 422-25. 
 
ANIMAL-WORSHIP. 283 
 
 extraordinary make and bigness. Its deformity was horrible, 
 and on its head was a shining plate like a looking-glass, from 
 which the sun reflected a dim light. Montezuma, drawing 
 near, saw within it a representation of night and a heaven cov 
 ered with stars. Looking a second time in the glass, he saw 
 an army of men, coming from the east, making a terrible 
 slaughter of his subjects. When the magician priests came 
 to examine and had tried experiments, it escaped with aston 
 ishing flight." 1 One of the fabulous animals of the Mexicans 
 was Xochitonal, a great crocodile, who guarded the path to 
 the spirit-land. 2 
 
 Local manitous generally assume a monstrous form, and 
 might be called unnatural gods. The figure of a large bird 
 is the most common. The spirit of Rock Island was a white 
 bird with wings like a swan, but ten times larger. 3 In Cox s 
 Recollections of Wabash Valley we find the following account 
 of one of these fabulous animals of the Potawatomies. " There 
 was a tradition existing among the Potawatomie Indians that 
 there was a monster in the shape of a serpent in Lake Manitou. 
 Their superstitious dread of this lake was such that they would 
 not hunt upon its borders nor fish in its waters, for fear of in 
 curring the anger of the evil spirit that made its home in this 
 little woodland lake. . . . When the government officers were 
 about erecting the Potawatomie mills, the Indians strenuously 
 objected to the erection of a dam at the outlet of the lake, lest 
 its accumulated waters might disturb and overflow the sub 
 terranean chambers of the serpent, and the exasperated demon 
 rush forth from his watery dominions and take indiscriminate 
 vengeance on all those who resided near the sacred lake." 4 
 
 Among the South American nations these unnatural forms 
 of man and beast are represented in their art. Numerous idols 
 were found everywhere with the form of man and animal com- 
 
 1 I De Soils, Conq., 144. 2 3 Bancroft, 537. 
 
 3 Autobiography of Blackhawk, 70. 
 
 * Cox s Recollections of Wabash Valley, 136. 
 
284 
 
 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 bined, and were the objects of a degrading worship that often 
 descended to human sacrifice. A scene illustrative of this is 
 represented in Fig. 16, which is taken from Zarate s Peru. 
 
 Fir,. 1 6. 
 
 The Araucanians of Chile have fabulous creatures called 
 ulmenes, which are the genii of their mythology. They are 
 male and female, and attach themselves to individuals as guar 
 dian spirits. 1 Among the Brazilian tribes curious fables of 
 animals are related, from which we can readily see that they 
 ascribe to them monstrous forms and unnatural deeds. The 
 tortoise figures extensively in races and other athletic sports. 
 They have a bird of evil eye which kills with a look. The 
 ground under its nest is white with human bones. There is a 
 myth that a hunter once killed one of these and cut off its head 
 without the eye being turned upon him. He killed his game 
 thereafter by turning the evil eye upon it. His wife, not dream 
 ing of its destructive power, however, once turned it toward 
 her husband and killed him, and then accidentally turned it 
 toward herself and died. They believe in the existence of 
 an enormous water-serpent, whose track marked out the lakes 
 
 2 Molina, 86. 
 
ANIMAL- WORSHIP. 2 8 5 
 
 and channels. 1 A mythical monster called the Curupira (prob 
 ably a man-shaped ape) is the dread of the timid. These fabu 
 lous animals are the guardian deities of the forests, and go 
 about beating on the trees just before a tempest to see if they 
 are strong enough to withstand it. 2 Mr. Tylor mentions a tra 
 dition among the Brazilians of an ape which had been found to 
 be an extinct species. 3 The natives living near the river Casa- 
 nare had a tradition of a serpent with numerous heads which 
 had devoured many of the inhabitants. 4 The natives living 
 near the river Huallaga had a tradition of a vulture-like animal 
 who preyed upon wanderers. 5 The Peruvians named their 
 sacred Titicaca from titi, a cat, and caca, a rock. They have 
 a myth that on the rock in the island of the same name there 
 lived and sat in ancient times a cat with fire shooting from its 
 eyes. 6 
 
 Occasionally a myth pretends to account for the form and 
 color of different animals. The two following myths are curi 
 ous illustrations of this. The red fox got its black legs by 
 being thrown into a cauldron where the food was cooking for 
 a grand feast, to which he was invited by a host whom he had 
 formerly insulted. He got out with his legs burnt. 7 The 
 mythical hero Manabozho was walking along the banks, and, 
 seeing a flock of ducks enjoying themselves on the blue waters, 
 he called them. Some favored going to him, some not; but at 
 last they all trooped after him with many pleasant quackings 
 and entered his lodge. Placing himself in the centre, he 
 ranged the ducks in a circle around him. He had a sack 
 around his neck. "Now," said he, "you must all shut your 
 eyes tight and not open them under any circumstances. I will 
 take my Indian flute and play upon it, and when I give the word 
 you may open your eyes and commence dancing." The ducks 
 shut their eyes and waited, all impatient for the dancing to 
 
 1 Smith s Brazil, 559-60. 2 Ib., 564. 
 
 3 Researches, 314. 4 Ursua and Aguire s Ex. Int., 10. 
 
 s Ib., 45. 6 Markham s Travels, 114. 
 
 7 Kinzie s Waubun, 368-70. 
 19 
 
286 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 begin. Presently a sound was heard like a smothered quack, 
 but the ducks did not dare to open their eyes. Again the 
 sound of the flute would be interrupted by the gurgling cry of 
 " quack." There was one duck at this juncture that could not 
 resist opening one eye, when, lo ! the deity was seen seizing 
 each duck nearest him, throttling it, and stuffing it into the 
 bag on his shoulder. Edging a little out of the circle, it cried, 
 " Open your eyes," and flew. Manabozho grasped her back 
 with l}is hand, but she escaped with her back shaped as now, 
 and her neck unnaturally stretched forward. The same plight 
 came upon many others at the same time. 1 
 
 1 Kinzie s Waubun, 312-14. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WORSHIP OF TREES AND PLANTS. 
 
 Worship of trees Their supposed vitality explained by animism Supposed 
 descent of human beings from trees Worship of plants Personality ascribed 
 to them Origin of plants from human bodies Those having medical prop 
 erties supposed to be endowed with supernatural powers. 
 
 THE worship of trees and plants is found in America. The 
 vegetable kingdom shared with other natural objects the super 
 stitious belief in the animation of all nature by spirits. One of 
 the causes that probably led to the prevalence of the super 
 stition as to trees is the primitive custom of burying or sus 
 pending the dead in trees. We have heretofore noticed this 
 custom among many of the tribes. The probabilities are that 
 under certain conditions they have all practised this custom 
 more or less. In nature-worship, the precipice, waterfall, or 
 dangerous locality of any kind, which has become a place of 
 Indian devotion, has connected with it a story of being haunted 
 by the spirit of some unfortunate tribesman who has lost his 
 life there. The spirits of the dead remain about the place 
 where death has overtaken them, or where the body or any 
 portion of it is placed. Customs such as that of the Nicara- 
 guans, of suspending the heads of sacrificed captives in trees, 1 
 would tend to induce a superstitious fear of such trees. Some 
 of the Northwestern Indians thought that those who died a 
 natural death would be compelled to dwell among the branches 
 of tall trees. 2 
 
 The Ojibways believed that trees had souls, and in pagan 
 times they seldom cut down green or living trees, " for they 
 thought it put them to pain. They pretended to hear the wail- 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 746. 2 Barrett Lenard s Travels, 54. 
 
 287 
 
288 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 ing of the trees when they suffered in this way." x On account 
 of these noises, real or imaginary, trees have had spirits assigned 
 them and worship offered to them. A mountain-ash in the 
 vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie, which made a noise, had offerings 
 piled up around it. 2 If a tree should emit from its hollow 
 trunk or branches a sound during a calm state of the atmos 
 phere, or should any one fancy such sounds, the tree would be 
 at once reported, and soon come to be regarded as the residence 
 of some local god. 3 Mr. Kohl mentions an Ojibway Indian 
 who had chosen a tamarack-tree for his protector because 
 he fancied he heard a remarkable rustling in its branches. 4 
 This was ample evidence that a spirit was domiciled in the 
 tree. Mr. Schoolcraft mentions a hollow tree from the recesses 
 of which, Indian tradition said, there issued on a calm day a 
 sound like the voice of a spirit or manitou. It resembled the 
 sounds of their own drum. It was therefore considered as the 
 residence of some powerful spirit, and deemed sacred. To 
 mark their regard for the place, they began to deposit at its 
 foot boughs and twigs of the same species of tree as they 
 passed it from year to year on their way to and from their 
 hunting-grounds. 5 
 
 Roman Pane says of the West India tribes " that if an Indian 
 going through a wood would perceive a motion in the trees 
 which he thought supernatural, frightened at the prodigy, he 
 would address himself to that tree which shook the most. 
 The trees generally did not condescend to confabulate with 
 them, but ordered them to go to a boie, or priest, who would 
 order them to sacrifice to their new deity." He also says, " The 
 natives of the Antilles used to believe that certain trees sent 
 for sorcerers, to whom they gave orders how to shape their 
 trunks into idols, and then, being installed in temple huts, they 
 received prayer and inspired the priests with oracles." 
 
 1 Jones s Ojibways, 104. a Schoolcraft s Oneota, 191. 
 
 3 2 Schoolcraft, Ind., 224-25. 4 Kohl s Kitchi-Gami, 59. 
 
 s Schoolcraft s Thirty Years, 99. 
 
WORSHIP OF TREES AND PLANTS. 289 
 
 This mysterious spiritual vitality ascribed to trees has even 
 led to a belief in the descent of the human race from trees. 
 The natives about Saginaw had a tradition of a boy who sprang 
 from a tree within which was buried one of their tribe. A 
 descent from trees can be traced among the traditions of many 
 tribes. The founders of the Miztec monarchy descended from 
 two majestic trees that stood in a gorge of the mountains of 
 Apoala. 1 The Zapotecs attributed their origin to trees, and 
 their cypresses and palms often received offerings of incense 
 and other gifts. 2 The Caribs had a gens called the cabato- 
 tree. 3 The Chiapanese had a tradition that they sprang from 
 the roots of a silk-cotton-tree. 4 
 
 In the pictography of the Indians the trees supposed to be 
 inhabited by a spirit find representation in anthropomorphic 
 forms. In a folk-tale of the Ojibways the maiden Leelinau, 
 whenever she could leave her father s lodge, would fly to remote 
 haunts and recesses in the woods, or sit in lonely reverie upon 
 some high promontory of rock overlooking the lake. In such 
 places she would often, with her face turned upward, linger 
 long in contemplation of the air, as if she were invoking her 
 guardian spirit and beseeching him to lighten her sadness. 
 But, amid all the leafy haunts, none drew her steps toward it so 
 often as a forest of pines on the open shore, called Manitowok, 
 or the Sacred Wood. It was one of those hallowed places 
 which are the resort of the little wild men of the woods and of 
 the turtle-spirits, or fairies, which delight in romantic scenes. 
 Owing to this circumstance, its green retirement was seldom 
 visited by Indians, who feared to fall under the influence of its 
 .mischievous inhabitants; and whenever they were compelled 
 by stress of weather to make a landing on this part of the coast, 
 they never failed to leave an offering of tobacco, or some other 
 token, to show that they desired to stand well with the pro 
 prietors of the fairy-ground. 
 
 1 5 Bancroft, 527. 2 3 ih., 459. 
 
 3 i Rafinesque, 195. 45 Bancroft, 605. 
 
290 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 It had been her custom to pass many of her hours in her 
 favorite place of retirement, under a broad-topped young pine, 
 whose leaves whispered in every wind that blew, but most of 
 all in that gentle murmur of the air at the evening hour, dear 
 to lovers, when the twilight steals on. Thither she now re 
 paired, and, while reclining pensively against the young pine- 
 tree, she fancied that she heard a voice addressing her. At 
 first it was scarcely more than a sigh ; presently it grew more 
 clear, and she heard it distinctly whisper, " Maiden! think me not 
 a tree, but thine own dear lover, fond to be with thee in my tall 
 and blooming strength, with the bright green nodding plume 
 that waves above thee. Thou art leaning on my breast, Lee- 
 linau ; lean forever there, and be at peace. Fly from men who 
 are false and cruel, and quit the tumult of their dusty strife for 
 this quiet, lonely shade. Over thee I my arms will fling, fairer 
 than the lodge s roof. I will breathe a perfume like that of 
 flowers over thy happy evening rest. In my bark canoe I ll 
 waft thee o er the waters of the sky-blue lake. I will deck the 
 folds of thy mantle with the sun s last rays. Come, and on the 
 mountain free, rove, a fairy bright, with me !" Leelinau drank 
 in with eager ear these magical words. Her heart was fixed. 
 No warrior s son should clasp her hand. She wasted away 
 until she disappeared from her father s lodge forever ; but her 
 figure is frequently seen, accompanied by her fairy lover, glid 
 ing through the forest of young pines. Such stories as these 
 are frequent in Indian lodge-lore, and represent that phase of 
 their imagination which gives a spiritual life and form to plants 
 and trees. 
 
 The Ojibways considered curious trees as gods. 1 A con 
 verted Ojibway confessed that at one time, when in danger of 
 perishing in the woods with cold, he prayed to the trees stand 
 ing around him to save him, but the trees stood still and made 
 no effort in his behalf. He was glad that he had been brought 
 to know the vanity of such things. 2 On Grand River stood a 
 
 Jones s Ojibways, 85. 2 Ib., 88. 
 
WORSHIP OF TREES AND PLANTS. 291 
 
 lofty pine-tree with a large, spreading, closely-matted top. This 
 tree was taller than any other in view, and made a great god 
 for one of their Indians, who with his family made periodical 
 visits to it, with prayer and sacrifice. The best of his game 
 was offered at the foot of this tree, and it was boiled for the 
 convenience of this god. 1 
 
 Many trees were worshipped by the Dacotahs, and among 
 them the medicine-wood, which gets its name from a super 
 stition that it was a genius to protect or punish them according 
 to their merits or demerits. 2 They hung small red capotes 
 upon trees as a sacrifice. 3 Mr. Pike, speaking of an immense 
 plane-tree seen by him, says, " This plane, which is perhaps the 
 colossus of the whole vegetable kingdom, the Indians adored 
 as a manitou." 4 
 
 Charlevoix mentions an instance of tree-worship. He says, 
 " Formerly the Indians in the neighborhood of Acadia had in 
 their country, near the sea-shore, a tree extremely ancient, of 
 which they relate many wonders and which was always laden 
 with offerings. After the sea had laid open its whole root, it 
 still supported itself a long time almost in the air against the 
 violence of the winds and waves, which confirmed those In 
 dians in the notion that this tree must be the abode of some 
 powerful spirit, nor was its fall even capable of undeceiving 
 them, so that as long as the smallest part of its branches ap 
 peared above the water, they paid it the same honors as whilst 
 it stood." 5 
 
 The natives of Carolina, says Lawson, held the yaupon, or 
 tea-plant, in veneration above all plants they were acquainted 
 with, and they say the discovery thereof was by an infirm In 
 dian that labored under the burden of many rugged distempers 
 and could not be cured by all their doctors. One day he fell 
 asleep and dreamed that if he took a decoction of the tree that 
 
 1 Jones s Ojibways, 254. 2 6 Wise. Hist. Coll., 205. 
 
 3 Pike s Expedition, 31. * Ib., 396. 
 
 s 2 Charlevoix s Voyage, 149. 
 
292 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 grew at his head he would be cured. Upon this he awoke, and 
 saw the yaupon, or cassena-tree, which was not there when he 
 fell asleep. He followed the direction of his dream, and became 
 perfectly well in a short time. 1 On the banks of the river 
 Chata Uche stood a wild fig-tree, which the Indians had conse 
 crated as an object of worship. The Creeks had a sacred tree 
 on which they hung strips of buffalo flesh. 2 
 
 The cult existed in Mexico and the Central American states. 
 The Mayas recognized divinities in trees. 3 A gigantic ancient 
 cypress in Mexico had offerings attached to its boughs, of 
 teeth and locks of hair in great numbers. The Tepanecs wor 
 shipped and offered sacrifice to trees. 4 The ticara or wild cala 
 bash-tree was an object of religious veneration to the Guate 
 malans. 5 Darwin saw a tree near Siena de la Ventana which 
 the Indians reverenced as the altar of Walleechu. Offerings of 
 cigars, bread, and meat were suspended upon it by threads. 
 There was a little hole to pour libations in. The tree was sur 
 rounded by bleached bones of horses that had been sacrificed. 
 The tree was a landmark in a dangerous passage. 6 The Chib- 
 chas had a tree called huaycan (holy wood). It is a large tree, 
 and its wood does not rot under water. According to their 
 traditions, the earth was supported by pillars of this wood. 
 The Peruvians used this wood for making their idols. 7 Tree- 
 worship was found among the Brazilian tribes. The Calcha- 
 quis of Brazil worshipped certain trees, which were trimmed 
 with feathers. 8 The Indians frequently adorn them with feath 
 ers. The same is true of many tribes inhabiting those parts of 
 Brazil in which trees obtain a magnitude that inspires them 
 with veneration. 
 
 A western tribe of North America, called the Achonawi, 
 ascribed a fabulous origin to trees, for they thought that the 
 feathers of eagles, when they dropped and stuck in the earth, 
 
 1 Lawson s N. C., 359-60. 2 Lubbock, Origin, 196. 
 
 3 2 Bancroft, 688. * 2 ib., 330. 
 
 s Boyle s Camp Notes, 49. 6 Darwin s Nat. Voyage, 68-69. 
 
 7 Bollaert, 13. 8 3 Southey, 395. 
 
WORSHIP OF TREES AND PLANTS. 293 
 
 grew tall trees. They thought all trees were mysterious, be 
 cause fire proceeded from their wood when rubbed. 1 
 
 The transmigration and presence of spirits in plants explain 
 the worship of this subdivision of the vegetable kingdom. 
 Many traditions illustrate this subject. The Brazilians have a 
 mythological character called Mani : she was a child who died 
 and was buried in the house of her mother. Soon a plant 
 sprang out of the grave, which grew, flourished, and bore fruit. 
 This plant was the mandioca, named from mani, and oca 
 (house). They thought they saw the body of Mani in the 
 root. 2 The Ojibways have a legend in which one of their num 
 ber, in a dreamy state, saw a handsome young man dressed in 
 green robes with green plumes on his head, who returned 
 thrice and wrestled with him. In the last struggle the visiting 
 youth was thrown and killed, and his body was buried. The 
 Indian watched the grave and kept it clean, not letting even 
 the wild flower grow there. Soon he saw the green plumes 
 coming out of the ground, at first in spiral points, and then 
 rising in green stalks, and soon silken fringes and yellow tassels 
 appeared. The majestic plant waved its taper leaves and dis 
 played its bright plumes. Its name was Mondamin, the Indian 
 corn. 3 
 
 Among the Virginia tribes the red clover was thought to 
 have sprung from and be colored by the blood of the red men 
 slain in battle. The pantheistic tendency of the transmigration 
 theory is shown in many of the agricultural ceremonies of the 
 tribes. One of these illustrates the far-reaching extent of their 
 philosophy. When a child s umbilical cord was cut, it was 
 over an ear of corn, which was immediately sown and culti 
 vated as a sacred thing. The perpetuity of this spiritual life 
 and force, and its never-ending circle of existence, is the secret 
 of this primitive superstition. 
 
 The Pawnees sacrificed a female slave at their agricultural 
 
 1 3 Ethnology of Powell Exp., 273, 287. 2 Smith s Brazil, 586. 
 
 3 2 Schoolcraft, 231-32. 
 
294 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 ceremonies, and, while the flesh was warm, stripped it from the 
 bones in small pieces, which were put into a basket and carried 
 to the corn-field, where a drop of blood was squeezed upon the 
 grains of corn that were deposited in the ground. 1 
 
 A personality was ascribed to plants. Mr. Kohl tells a very 
 interesting traditionary story. One year there was an extraor 
 dinary abundance of corn, and they let it lie about and rot, 
 and the children fought each other with the stalks and then 
 threw them in the mud. Very soon want overtook them, and 
 a famine threatened them, and in their distress one of the tribe, 
 who had taken no part in the indignities offered the corn, had a 
 communication with the spirit of the corn, who consented to 
 make a revelation to him. As he was walking alone he came 
 to a meadow, and in its centre a mound, on which stood a birch- 
 bark lodge, from which cries and groans issued. On entering, 
 he found a poor dried-up manikin, who complained of his 
 wretched condition, due to the ill-treatment of the Indians. 
 He hurried to his tribe and told them, and they sacrificed to 
 the spirit of the corn, which was appeased, and returned them 
 good crops thereafter. 2 
 
 The Miamis have a tradition similar to this, except that the 
 corn-spirit was angry in their case because they had thrown 
 corn-cobs at each other in play. The corn-spirit pretended to 
 have suffered serious injury in his body on account of this 
 cruel sport. 3 
 
 The Iroquois acknowledged the existence of spirits in trees 
 and plants, and had three mythological characters, who were 
 sisters, the spirits of the maize, of the bean, and of the squash. 
 The Iroquois say that the spirit of corn, the spirit of beans, 
 and the spirit of squashes are supposed to have the forms of 
 beautiful females. 
 
 Many tribes when they gathered herbs sacrificed to the spirit 
 by leaving some in the place left vacant. 4 
 
 1 5 Schoolcraft, 78. 2 Kohl s Kitchi-Gami, 266-68. 
 
 3 5 Schoolcraft, 195. Harmon s Journal, 374. 
 
WORSHIP OF TREES AND PLANTS. 295 
 
 Mr. Rafinesque has, as is his custom, put one of his large 
 names on the plant branch of mythology, and called it Phyto- 
 morphy. Among the most prominent of the plants worshipped 
 in the Antilles he mentions mushrooms, pines, opuntias, zapos, 
 and zeybas. 1 Among the Virginia tribes the mysterious growth 
 of toadstools was ascribed to supernatural agency, and they 
 became objects of worship. The divinities supposed to reside 
 in them were painted on the outside. 
 
 Among savage peoples, those plants that produce great 
 nervous excitement, or a lethargic state, are supposed to con 
 tain a supernatural being. In Peru, tobacco has been called 
 the sacred herb, and throughout all America it has been looked 
 upon with reverence. In Peru, coca is another plant which 
 they look upon with superstitious veneration. It has an in 
 vigorating effect. It is pretended that the use of the coca 
 that herb so famous in the histories of Peru adds much to the 
 strength of the Indians. Others affirm that they use it as a 
 charm. When, for instance, the mine of ore is too hard, they 
 throw upon it a handful of that herb chewed, and immediately 
 get out the ore with more ease and in a greater quantity. 
 Fishermen also put some of that herb, chewed, to their hook 
 when they can take no fish, and they are said to have better 
 success thereafter. 2 It sustained an important part in the re 
 ligion of the Incas. In all ceremonies, whether religious or 
 warlike, it was introduced for producing smoke at the great 
 offerings, or as the sacrifice itself. During divine worship the 
 priests chewed coca-leaves, and unless they were supplied with 
 them it was believed that the favor of the gods could not be 
 propitiated. It was also deemed necessary that the supplicator 
 should approach the priests with coca in his mouth. It was 
 believed that any business undertaken without the benediction 
 of coca-leaves could not prosper, and to the shrub itself wor 
 ship was rendered. During an interval of more than three 
 hundred years Christianity has not been able to subdue the 
 
 1 2 Rafinesque, 208. 2 Frezier s Voyage, 269. 
 
296 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 deep-rooted idolatry, for everywhere we find traces of belief in 
 the mysterious power of this plant. The excavators in the 
 mines of Cerro de Pasco throw masticated coca on hard veins 
 of metal, in the belief that it softens the ore and renders it more 
 easy to work. The origin of this custom is easily explained 
 when it is recollected that in the time of the Incas it was 
 believed that the coyas, or the deities of metals, rendered the 
 mountains impenetrable if they were not propitiated by the 
 odor of coca. The Indians, even at the present time, put coca- 
 leaves into the mouths of dead persons to secure to them a 
 favorable reception on their entrance into another world ; and 
 when a Peruvian Indian, on a journey, falls in with a mummy, 
 he, with timid reverence, presents to it some coca-leaves as his 
 pious offering. 1 
 
 The following religious ceremony to the Irish potato, which 
 was first discovered in Peru, shows the regard entertained for 
 it. Cieza, describing the ceremony, says, "About noon they 
 began to sound drums. When the caciques were seated in the 
 plaza, a boy, richly dressed, went up to each cacique. On the 
 left hand of each boy walked a girl beautifully dressed. From 
 their shoulders a lion-skin hung down. Behind them came 
 many women as attendants ; then came six .Indian laborers, 
 each with a plough on his shoulders. Then followed six others 
 with bags of potatoes. When they were near the chiefs, the 
 ploughs and potatoes were put on the ground, and a dance 
 performed around them. Then a year-old lamb, all of one 
 color, was brought and thrown on the ground, and its bowels 
 torn out and given to the sorcerer, and the blood was poured 
 quickly among the potatoes." 2 
 
 In Oajaca, priests devoted themselves to the maize-god. At 
 harvest-time, a procession ceremonially visited the corn-fields 
 and selected the fairest and best-filled ear. This they bore to 
 the village, placed it on an altar decked with flowers, sang and 
 danced before it, wrapped it in a white cloth, then, with renewed 
 
 t 
 1 Tschudi s Travels in Peru, 317, seq. a Cieza, 412-13. 
 
WORSHIP OF TREES AND PLANTS. 297 
 
 procession and solemn rites, the magic ear was buried in the 
 midst of the corn-fields in a a small hole lined with stones. The 
 next year this was dug up, and its decayed remains distributed 
 to the populace as talismans against all kinds of evil. 1 
 
 Among the Chibchas, plants that affected the system were 
 objects of superstitious reverence : the coca was used as an in 
 spiring agent by the priests, and the people chewed and smoked 
 tobacco to produce the power of divination. 2 
 
 The Americans have used plants in their totemic system, 
 although these cases are rare. The Pueblos have a gens called 
 the tobacco-plant, and also one called the red grass race. The 
 Brazilian Indians have the mandioca race, and among the Ara- 
 waks individuals are named tobacco, tobacco-leaf, and tobacco- 
 flower. One of the Peruvian Incas was called after the Peru 
 vian name of the tobacco-plant. The Salish, Nisquallis, and 
 Yokimas have traditions in which edible roots have descended 
 from human ancestors, 3 which is explicable, of course, by their 
 system of transmigration. The Potawatomies had five primi 
 tive men, one of whom was named smoking-weed, another 
 pumpkin, another melon, another bean, and the other yellow 
 maize. 4 The first four were rejected lovers, but the last was 
 accepted by the primitive female from whom the Potawatomies 
 were descended. 5 The Ojibways had many roots of virtue in 
 disease, over which spirits were supposed to preside, and they 
 were also fetiches, which they carried in time of war. 6 
 
 The inhabitants of the province of Culhuacan have a great 
 veneration for the hidden virtues of poisonous plants, and be 
 lieve if they crush or destroy one some harm will happen to 
 them. It is a common custom to hang a small bag containing 
 poisonous herbs around the neck of a child, as a talisman 
 against diseases or attacks from wild beasts. 7 
 
 Sanchoniathon, in his historic fragment, thinks the order of 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 350. 2 I Spencer, Soc., 377-78. 
 
 3 i ib., 383-84. 4 Lanman s Haw-Hoo-Noo, 242. 
 
 s i Schoolcraft, 320. 6 Copway, 149. 
 
 7 i Bancroft, 587-88. 
 
298 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 religious development shows that plants first received worship, 
 next the sun, then man. Although the evidence we now have 
 does not confirm his assertion, yet the worship of plants is per 
 haps synchronous with that of many other natural objects, ani 
 mate and inanimate. It did not prevail to any extent until 
 some medical knowledge had been acquired. Most of the 
 plants for which the Indians had superstitious feeling were those 
 with medical qualities. Many of their healing plants were held 
 in religious veneration, such as snake-root (a sure remedy 
 for the bite of rattlesnakes), sassafras, colt s-foot, ladyslipper, 
 liverwort, milk-weed, white pond-lily (the origin of which is 
 told in a beautiful myth hereafter), also lobelia, winter-green, 
 butternut, slippery elm, hemlock, sumach, wild cherry, and 
 especially the wild parsnip, a deadly poison. Many of these 
 were kept in their medicine-bags as fetiches ; but this supersti 
 tion has arisen from their medicinal use. Many plants were 
 supposed to possess the power of bewitching them and of per 
 forming extraordinary cures and of charming the pretty Indian 
 girls. 1 They had a mixture called the hunter s medicine, which 
 they would place in the track of an animal, and they had faith 
 to believe that the animal would appear to them, influenced 
 by the charm, even though two or three days journey off. If 
 put in their gun-barrel, the first shot would be sure to hit. The 
 warriors also had an herb mixture which makes their bodies 
 invulnerable. A love-powder brings into complete subjection 
 to their wishes any of the opposite sex. 2 
 
 The Creeks had seven sacred plants, including the yaupon 
 and blue flag, which had intoxicating and narcotic effects. 
 Among the Mexicans the snake plant was sacred, and among 
 the Californians the chucuaco. 3 
 
 The seneka and convolvulus of the Carolinas grow wherever 
 there are rattlesnakes. The Indians say that a great spirit, 
 taking compassion on the bare-legged warriors of the red skin, 
 sowed those salutary plants, which are a remedy for their bite, 
 
 1 Copway, 88. a Jones s Ojibways, 153-55. 3 Brinton s Myths, 292. 
 
WORSHIP OF TREES AND PLANTS. 
 
 299 
 
 FIG. 17. 
 
 in spite of the remonstrances of the souls of the serpents. By 
 rubbing themselves with the convolvulus they can handle these 
 reptiles with impunity. 1 Athaensic planted the flea-bane in the 
 islands of Lake Erie. If a warrior looked at that herb he was 
 seized with a fever, and if he touched it a subtle fire ran upon 
 his skin. The natives regarded it 
 with superstitious fear. The Osages 
 had an annual religious ceremony in 
 which freshly-cut grass placed in 
 bunches forming a magic circle re 
 ceived the worship of the men of 
 the tribe. 2 
 
 The buffalo grass of the Ojibways 
 had magic properties; it preserved 
 them in battle ; they rubbed their 
 bodies with a decoction of it. They 
 carried the plant in their medicine- 
 bags. 
 
 The god of the grass, represented 
 in Fig. 17, was said to make them crazy. The figure suggests 
 its anthropomorphic character. The manitou plant was ven 
 erated by the inhabitants of the distant provinces of Mexico, 3 
 and received its name from its supposed supernatural charac 
 ter. Bonpland mentions the same worship by the Indians of 
 Toluca. 4 
 
 It will thus be seen that the vegetable kingdom shared in 
 the worship of all of the American tribes, savage and civil 
 ized. Trees and those plants having medical properties ob 
 tained most of their worship. The cause of their being held in 
 veneration is found in their belief that they were animated by 
 spirits. 
 
 1 I Chateaubriand, 180. 
 3 2 Lyon s Mexico, 123. 
 
 2 3 Schoolcraft, 491. 
 4 Plantes Equinox., 123. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WORSHIP AT HAUNTED LOCALITIES. 
 
 The worship of remarkable natural objects Worship of mountains and dangerous 
 places Their supposed frequentation by spirits Worship of volcanoes Echoes 
 and other noises supposed to be the voices of spirits Traditions of descents of 
 tribes from mountains Metamorphosis Worship of islands Traditions of the 
 origin of islands Origin of the belief that the world was supported on the backs 
 of animals Worship of springs and fountains Traditionary tribal descents 
 from them Their healing properties supernatural Worship of rivers and lakes 
 Places of refuge. 
 
 THE worship of natural objects, such as mountains, rocky 
 defiles, valleys, streams, or other places in nature that were 
 in any way remarkable, prevailed among all the American 
 tribes : they were thought to be haunted by spirits. Among 
 all the tribes any remarkable features in natural scenery or 
 dangerous places became objects of superstitious dread and 
 veneration because they were supposed to be abodes of gods. 
 In former days, long before the sublime and stupendous Falls 
 of Niagara became a place of fashionable resort, the Red men 
 would draw near to this awful cataract with timid steps, invok 
 ing most solemnly the mighty spirit which they imagined must 
 certainly reside there. When journeys by water were under 
 taken, sacrifices would be offered to the lake or river for a safe 
 voyage. 1 The Sauks and Foxes rarely passed any extraordinary 
 cave, rock, hill, or other object without leaving behind them 
 some tobacco for the use of the spirit which they supposed 
 lived there. 2 The Southern nations on the Mississippi River 
 believed everything in nature had a spirit : one presided over 
 the air. They invoked the rivers, floods, and dreadful cascades. 
 
 Jones s Ojibways, 96. Drake s Life of Blackhawk, 39. 
 
 300 
 
WORSHIP AT HAUNTED LOCALITIES. 301 
 
 If they met with any torrent, they threw to it beaver-skins, 
 tobacco, and other offerings. 1 The Quiches had a multitude 
 of genii, who presided over the objects of nature. The places 
 where they most loved to linger were dark, quiet spots in 
 grottos, or at the foot of some steep precipice, or on the top 
 of a mountain, or at some spring; and here the simple native 
 came to offer his sacrifice. 2 Among the tribes of British 
 America, rivers and mountains were supposed to be inhabited 
 by spirits, says Mr. Harmon, and for this reason these objects 
 were adored. The Chibchas of Bogota worshipped lakes, rivers, 
 rocks, and hills, not because they regarded these objects as 
 gods, but because some spirit was thought to be present at 
 these places. Each man had such a place for his worship and 
 offerings. 3 In the city of Cuzco there were four hundred sacred 
 places, such as springs, fountains, and wells. 4 Throughout Peru, 
 such places as springs, fountains, valleys, and hills were made 
 objects of worship. 5 It was their custom, says Molina, when any 
 natural object excelled its kind, to worship it. Arriaga says they 
 made images of their mountains and worshipped them. He 
 mentions their worship of the Snow Mountains. If a hill was 
 so steep and inaccessible that its top could not be reached, the 
 sacrifice offered to the hill was hurled to the top with a sling. 6 
 Snails were offered as sacrifices to the mountains. 
 
 Impassable or dangerous places had small temples erected 
 to the spirit haunting the place, and in these temples offerings 
 were made. Often the temples were so inaccessible that offer 
 ings were projected into them by various means. Fig. 18 is 
 one of these rock temples. In Rivero and Tschudi s folio 
 volume of plates, illustrations of these temples or fanes to 
 the spirits of precipices are found. Mr. Squier is of opinion 
 that these small round structures, perched like toy-houses on 
 some of the rocks in the remarkable passes of the Andes, 
 
 1 3 Picart, 84. 2 3 Bancroft, 481. 
 
 3 P. Simon, 249. 4 Ondegardo, Narr., 154. 
 
 5 Ib., 155. 6 Molina, Narr., 55. 
 
 20 
 
302 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 near Ollantaytambo, were shrines erected to the spirit of 
 the place to protect it from land-slides. 1 
 
 Isolated rocks were held in 
 great veneration by the ancient 
 Peruvians, and had offerings 
 made to them or the spirit sup 
 posed to dwell in them. Mr. 
 Squier saw hundreds of such 
 rocks on the highways of the 
 sierra, to which the Indians 
 took off their hats, and offer 
 ings of some kind were left generally. 2 
 
 The popular religion of the Andean people consisted in the 
 belief that all objects in nature had a soul which presided 
 over them, and to which men might pray for help. This 
 worship of nature was combined with worship of ancestors, 
 the nature-gods being called Huaca, and the ancestral deities 
 Pacamia. 3 
 
 All sounds that issued from caverns were thought to be pro 
 duced by their spiritual inhabitants. The Sonora Indians say 
 that departed souls dwell among the caves and nooks of their 
 cliffs, and that echoes often heard there are their voices. 4 The 
 caverns or hollow rocks in the mountains which surround 
 Burlington Bay were once noted as being the abodes of the 
 gods. When explosions were heard, caused by the bursting 
 of sulphurous gas from the rocks around the head-waters of 
 Lake Ontario, the superstitious Indians attributed them to the 
 breathing of the manitous. 
 
 Mountains have always been favorite places of worship. 
 The Choles of Itza kept a perpetual fire burning on the largest 
 of their mountains. The Mexicans had many great peaks 
 which were hedged about by a divinity. 5 In the Yosemite 
 
 1 Squier s Peru, 509-10. a Ib., 520. 
 
 3 Markham s Introduction to Narratives, II, 12. 
 
 * Alger s Doctrine, 208. 5 3 Bancroft, 122-23. 
 
WORSHIP AT HAUNTED LOCALITIES. 
 
 303 
 
 country one of the lofty peaks was named after a mythical 
 heroine, the beautiful Tisayac. Their once famous chief, Toto- 
 komila, when hunting, met a spirit maid, the guardian angel of 
 the locality. A passionate love arose in his heart, but when he 
 reached forth his hand for hers she was lifted above his sight. 
 Totokomila wandered here and there seeking that wonderful 
 vision that had made all else worthless in his sight. All was 
 allowed to go to waste by him, and the fair valley was desolate, 
 and even the waters were dried up. But Tisayac visited her 
 valley again. Lighting upon the dome, the granite was riven 
 beneath her feet, and a beautiful lake was formed between the 
 cloven walls, and a river issued to feed the valley forever. 
 Then sang the birds as of old, and the odors of flowers rose 
 like a pleasant incense, and the trees put forth their buds. 
 Tisayac went away, but the people called the dome by her 
 name. Totokomila never returned from a hopeless search for 
 her, but a high rock guarding the entrance to the valley was 
 named after him. 1 The Chinooks have a mountain named 
 Ikanam, after one of their gods who lives there and inspires 
 in their minds superstitious reverence for the place. Among 
 some of the tribes thunder was supposed to be produced by 
 the spirits of the mountains. 2 Almost all the mountains and 
 high places throughout both Americas are supposed to be the 
 dwelling-places of spirits and spirit forms, and their tops are 
 the scene of much fairy revelry. Among the Aricaras, near 
 the mouth of White River, in the midst of an extensive plain, 
 stood a hill called the mountain of spirits, which were little 
 devils in human shape eighteen inches high, armed with bows 
 and arrows, with which they defended their mountain home. 
 A sacred place among the Western tribes was the Red Pipe- 
 Stone Quarry. They always offered prayers before approaching 
 this sacred place, which was guarded by two female spirits. A 
 celebrated rock in Oregon was a place of pilgrimage for all the 
 surrounding tribes. 3 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 125-26. 2 Loskiel, 31. 3 Peschel s Races, 249. 
 
304 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 " Dead Mountain stands at the head of the Mojave Valley, 
 and is regarded with reverence by the Indians, who believe it 
 to be the abode of their departed spirits. They thought any 
 one who dared visit it would be instantly struck dead. 1 The 
 Indians seat themselves and earnestly observe the Dead Moun 
 tain. When its hoary crest is draped in a light floating haze, 
 and misty wreaths are winding like phantoms among its peaks, 
 the wondering watchers see the spirits of departed Mojaves 
 hovering about their legendary abode, and gaze reverently at 
 the shadowy forms that circle around the haunted summit." 2 
 
 The enchanted mountain in Georgia was a place held in su 
 perstitious fear by the Indians. They had many traditions 
 about it. It was thought to be the sanctuary of a great spirit 
 that controlled the world from its lofty summit. The tracks 
 of man and beast imbedded in the rocky top of this mountain 
 were regarded with awe. 
 
 The following tale is told of a haunted hill in the country of 
 the Assiniboins. Many summers ago, a party of Assiniboins 
 pounced on a small band of Crees in the neighborhood of Wol 
 verine Knoll. Among the victors was the former wife of one 
 of the vanquished, who had been previously captured by her 
 present husband. This woman directed every effort in the 
 fight to take the life of her first husband, but he escaped and 
 concealed himself on this knoll. Wolverine for this was his 
 name fell asleep, and was discovered by this virago, who 
 killed him and presented his scalp to her Assiniboin husband. 
 The knoll was afterward called after him. The Indians assert 
 that the ghosts of the murderess and her victim are often to be 
 seen from a considerable distance struggling together on the 
 very summit of the height. 3 
 
 The worship of mountains was prevalent among the natives 
 of Victoria, and pilgrimages were made to them at stated times 
 in the year. 4 
 
 1 Ives s Rep., 75 ; Newberry s Rep., 32. 2 Ives s Rep., 80. 
 
 3 Simpson s Overland Journey, 52. Jackson s Alaska, 305. 
 
WORSHIP AT HAUNTED LOCALITIES. 305 
 
 " The Black Hills are chiefly composed of sandstone, and 
 are in many places broken into the most fantastic forms. The 
 wandering tribes of the prairies, who often behold clouds 
 gathering around the summits of these hills, and lightning 
 flashing and thunder pealing from them when all the neighbor 
 ing plains are serene and sunny, consider them the abode of 
 the genii or thunder-spirits, who fabricate storms and tempests. 
 On entering their defiles, therefore, they often hang offerings 
 on the trees or place them on the rocks to propitiate the in 
 visible lords of the mountains." 1 
 
 Says Mr. Brinton, " Strange as a fairy-tale is Bristock s 
 description of the rites of the religion of the holy mountain 
 Olaimi, among the Appalachians. It had two sacred caverns, 
 the innermost two hundred feet square and one hundred in 
 height, wherein were the emblematic vase, ever filled with 
 crystal water that trickled in the rock, and the grand altar of 
 one round stone, on which incense, spices, and aromatic shrubs 
 were the only offerings." 
 
 The Guanches worshipped the mountain of Tirmak, and 
 enthusiasts offered themselves as sacrifices to it. 2 
 
 Metamorphosis accounts for some of the superstitions about 
 mountains. Two mountains in Oregon, called the Old Man and 
 the Old Woman, were supposed to be two Indians changed 
 into these mountains by Talapus, one of their gods, in a fit of 
 anger. 3 
 
 One of the loftiest summits of the Rocky Mountains had a 
 personality assigned to it which can only be explained by meta 
 morphosis, for the natives have a tradition that it gave birth to 
 the progenitor of all the bisons. 4 
 
 An illustration of the origin of this curious belief can be 
 found among the natives of Maine, for the following tradition 
 of metamorphosis was found among them. They had a tra 
 dition that Mount Kineo had anciently been a cow- moose, 
 
 1 Astoria, 285. 2 Peschel s Races, 250. 
 
 3 Lee and Frost s Ten Years in Oregon, 202. 4 Eastman s Chicora, 55. 
 
306 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 and that a mighty Indian hunter succeeded in killing this 
 queen of the moose tribe with great difficulty, while her calf 
 was killed somewhere among the islands in Penobscot Bay. 
 This mountain still had the form of the moose in a reclining 
 posture, its precipitous side presenting the outline of her head. 1 
 Another tradition of metamorphosis is told by Mr. Irving. 
 " In one part of the great salt plains of the Saline River is a 
 large rock of pure salt of dazzling whiteness, which is highly 
 prized by the Indians, and to which is attached the following 
 story. Many years since, long before the whites had extended 
 their march beyond the banks of the Mississippi River, a tribe 
 of Indians resided upon the Platte near its junction with the 
 Saline. Among these was one, the chief warrior of the nation, 
 celebrated throughout all the neighboring country for his fierce 
 disposition. . . . They gloried in him as their leader, but shrank 
 from all fellowship with him. His lodge was deserted, and 
 even in the midst of his own nation he was alone ; yet there 
 was one being that clung to him and loved him in defiance of 
 the sternness of his rugged nature. It was the daughter of the 
 chief of the village, a beautiful girl, and graceful as one of the 
 fawns of her own prairie. . . . She became his wife, and he loved 
 her with all the fierce energy of his nature. It was a new feel 
 ing to him. It stole like a sunbeam over the dark passions of 
 his heart. . . . Her sway over him was unbounded. He was as 
 a tiger tamed. . . . She died ; he buried her ; he uttered no wail, 
 he shed no tear. He returned to his lonely lodge and forbade 
 all entrance. No sound of grief was heard from it; all was 
 silent as the tomb. The morning came, and with its earliest 
 dawn he left the lodge. ... A month elapsed, and he returned, 
 bringing with him a large lump of white salt. In a few words 
 he told his tale. He had travelled many miles over the prairie. 
 The sun had set in the west, and the moon was just rising above 
 the verge of the horizon. The Indian was weary, and threw him 
 self on the grass. He had not slept long when he was awakened 
 
 1 Thoreau s Maine Woods, 176. 
 
WORSHIP AT HAUNTED LOCALITIES. 307 
 
 by the low wailing of a female. He started up, and at a little 
 distance, by the light of the moon, beheld an old and decrepit 
 hag brandishing a tomahawk over the head of a young female 
 who was kneeling imploring mercy. He approached them, but 
 they seemed unconscious of his presence. The young female, 
 finding her prayers unheeded, sprang up, and made a desperate 
 attempt to get possession of the tomahawk. A furious struggle 
 ensued, but the old woman was victorious. Twisting one hand 
 in the long black hair of her victim, she raised the weapon in 
 her other, and prepared to strike. The face of the young 
 female was turned to the light, and the warrior beheld with 
 horror the features of his deceased wife. In an instant he 
 sprang forward, and his tomahawk was buried in the skull of 
 the old squaw. But ere he had time to clasp the form of his 
 wife the ground opened, both sank from his sight, and on the 
 spot appeared a rock of white salt. He had broken a piece 
 from it and brought it to his tribe. This tradition is still cur 
 rent among the different tribes of Indians frequenting that por 
 tion of the country. They also imagine that the rock is still 
 under the custody of the old squaw, and that the only way to 
 obtain a portion of it is to attack her. For this reason, before 
 attempting to collect salt, they beat the ground with clubs and 
 tomahawks, and each blow is considered as inflicted upon the 
 person of the hag. The ceremony is continued until they 
 imagine she has been sufficiently belabored to resign her 
 treasure without opposition." z 
 
 Potosi was an object of veneration to the Peruvians, and 
 a smaller hill near by, called Little Potosi, was thought to 
 be its son. This personification of material natural objects, 
 and the tendency to ascribe to them the power of producing 
 their kind, has grown out of traditionary metamorphosis and 
 descents of human beings from these objects. Such tradi 
 tions are very common among all of the tribes. The Green- 
 landers thought they sprang from little hillocks, 2 and hence 
 
 1 i Irving s Indian Sketches, 117, seq. 2 Egede, 198. 
 
308 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 peopled them with spirits and had many superstitious traditions 
 about them. 
 
 The tradition of the Seneca Indians in regard to their origin 
 is that they broke out of the earth from a large mountain at the 
 head of Canandaigua Lake, and that mountain they still ven 
 erate as the place of their birth. 1 They had a superstitious 
 reverence for this mountain. 
 
 Volcanoes have always been objects of superstitious fear. 
 They were supposed to be produced by subterranean gods 
 who reside in the interior of the earth. The Koniagas think 
 that when the craters of Alaska send forth fire and smoke the 
 gods are cooking their food and heating their sweat-houses. 2 
 Mount Hood was supposed to be an extinct volcano, and native 
 traditions peopled it with men destitute of the powers of vision. 3 
 The Indians in the neighborhood of Mount Shasta say that 
 their great spirit hollowed out that mountain, and used it for a 
 wigwam for himself, and the smoke used to be seen curling out 
 of the mountain-top, but his hearth-fire is alight no longer, now 
 that the white man is in the land. Many thousand snows ago, 
 a storm arose, shaking the huge lodge to its base. The spirit 
 commanded his daughter to go up and bid the wind be still. 
 The eager child hastened up to the hole in the roof, but, ven 
 turing too far out, the storm caught her by her long hair, and 
 blew her down the side of the mountain. From her sprang 
 the human race. Her wigwam was Little Mount Shasta ; but 
 the spirit of the big mountain at last found his daughter, 
 shut the door of her wigwam, the Little Mount Shasta, and 
 they passed away, and have never been seen since. 4 
 
 The Indians of Nicaragua offered human sacrifices to their 
 volcano Masaya, flinging the bodies into the crater; and it 
 has been convenient for their Roman Catholic teachers to turn 
 it into a hell and send their penitents to the top to catch a 
 glimpse of it. Around the edge of the crater were* placed 
 
 1 Life of Mary Jamison, p. 95, seq. 2 3 Bancroft, 120-22. 
 
 3 Lee and Frost, 57. * 3 Bancroft, 91-93. 
 
WORSHIP AT HAUNTED LOCALITIES. 309 
 
 earthen vessels of food. They did not worship the volcano 
 itself, but a deity residing in it, who occasionally appeared in 
 the form of a hideous old woman. 1 Those inhabitants of Val- 
 divia living near volcanoes offered sacrifices to them, and the 
 Quiches had an annual religious festival to their volcano 
 Quetzaltenango. 
 
 Ravines and mountain-recesses share this superstitious fear. 
 There is a curious myth about one of the gorges of the Col 
 orado. It was supposed to have been made by the trail of one 
 of their gods, who afterward rolled a river into the gorge, that 
 no one might follow his track. They do not dare enter this 
 gorge now, on account of this myth. 2 Among the Western 
 tribes, the Rocky Mountains were the limits of their known 
 world, and their vast recesses are the abodes of gods and spirits. 
 It is the paradise of many of the tribes. 3 
 
 A famous place of sacrifice among the New England tribes 
 was a rocky cavern of an unsearchable profundity, into which 
 offerings were thrown. 4 
 
 Islands are places of resort for spirits, and generally have 
 connected with them traditions which inspire fear among the 
 natives. 
 
 The Indians would not venture near Manitobah Island. 
 The origin of their superstition in relation to this place was 
 due to the sounds produced by the waves as they beat upon 
 the beach at the foot of the cliffs near its northern extremity. 
 During the night, when a gentle breeze was blowing from the 
 north, the various sounds heard on the island were quite suf 
 ficient to strike awe into the minds of the superstitious Indians. 
 These sounds frequently resembled the ringing of distant bells: 
 so close, indeed, was the resemblance that travellers would 
 awake during the night with the impression that they were 
 listening to chimes. When the breeze subsided, and the waves 
 played gently on the beach, a low wailing sound would be 
 
 1 2 Tylor, 207. 2 Powell s Exploration, 7. 
 
 3 i Domenech s Deserts, 283. 4 Joslyn s Two Voyages, 133. 
 
310 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 heard three hundred yards from the cliffs. The Indians always 
 objected to land or remain on this fairy island. 1 
 
 Father Dablon tells the following legend : " Certain Indians, 
 lost in a fog, landed on the island Missipicooatong, supposed 
 to be a floating island. When departing, they were going to 
 take with them lumps of copper which they had found, when 
 a loud and angry voice, ascribed to Missibizzi, the goblin 
 spirit of the waters, was heard exclaiming, What thieves are 
 these that carry off my children s cradles and playthings ? 
 One of the Indians died immediately from fear, and two others 
 soon after. The fourth only survived long enough to reach 
 home. After this the Indians steered far off the site of the 
 haunted island." 
 
 The Isle of Yellow Sands derives its chief interest from the 
 traditions and fanciful tales which the Indians relate concerning 
 its mineral treasures and their supernatural guardians. They 
 pretend that its shores are covered with a heavy, shining, yellow 
 sand, which they are persuaded is gold, but that the guar 
 dian spirit of the island will not permit any to be carried away. 
 To enforce his commands, he has drawn together upon it 
 myriads of eagles, hawks, and other birds of prey, who, by 
 their cries, warn him of any intrusions upon the domain, and 
 assist with their claws and beaks to expel the enemy. He has 
 also called from the depths of the lake large serpents of the 
 most hideous forms, who lie thickly coiled upon the golden 
 sands and hiss defiance to the steps of the intruder. A great 
 many years ago, they say, some people of their nation, driven 
 by stress of weather upon the enchanted island, put a large 
 quantity of the glittering treasure in their canoes and attempted 
 to carry it off; but a gigantic spirit strode into the water and 
 in a tone of thunder commanded them to bring it back. 
 Terrified, they obeyed, and were suffered to depart, but have 
 never since attempted to land upon the island. 2 
 
 1 2 Hind s Narr., 70, 71. 
 
 2 Schoolcraft s Nar. Jour., 197 ; Carver s Travels, 
 
WORSHIP AT HA UN TED L O CALITIES. 3 1 1 
 
 " Listen, white man, go not there ! 
 Unseen spirits stalk the air; 
 Ravenous birds their influence lend, 
 Snakes defy, and kites defend. . . . 
 Touch not, then, the guarded lands 
 Of the Isle of Yellow Sands." 
 
 The little island of Hennepin was looked upon with veneration 
 on account of a legend that it is the abode of a spirit. Sometimes 
 in the morning may be seen above the great falls the ghost of an 
 Indian woman carrying an infant in her arms, whom she presses 
 to her breast; meanwhile she sings and steers a skiff made of 
 bark, which is soon swallowed up in the foaming waters. 1 
 
 The islands of Titicaca and Coati were both sacred, one to 
 the sun, the other to the moon. 2 There is a tradition that 
 formerly a puma appeared at night on the crest of Titicaca that 
 had a jewel in its head so bright it flashed light far and wide 
 over the lake. 3 There is also a gate through which pilgrims 
 have to pass, called Puma-punco, or Puma door. 4 On the 
 northern end of the island, high up where the fret of the waves 
 is scarcely heard and the eye ranges over the broad blue waters 
 and from the glittering crests of the Andes to those of the 
 Cordillera, is the spot most celebrated and sacred in Peru. No 
 bird would light or animal venture upon this rock, nor would a 
 human being dare set his foot thereon. It is plated with gold 
 and silver, and a veil of the richest cloth was thrown over it. 5 
 
 Even animation is ascribed to some islands, and this concep 
 tion survives in the many myths, the world over, wherein islands 
 and even the earth are supported on the back of some animated 
 being. The following curious tradition illustrates this subject 
 among the American tribes. The island of Mackinac is named 
 from a mammoth turtle, which, according to tradition, while 
 on its travels was killed by ice, and was left a black spot on 
 the waste of frozen waters. When spring returned, earth 
 gathered around the shell of the turtle, and an island was born 
 
 1 I Domenech s Deserts, 332-33. a Squier s Peru, 359. 
 
 3 Ib., 332. 4 ib., 334. s II)., 336. 
 
312 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 and nursed in the bosom of the beautiful blue waves. Some 
 Delaware Indians imagined that the earth swam in the sea ; 
 others, that an enormous tortoise carried the world on its back. 1 
 There was an island on the northeast shore of Lake Huron 
 which presented the appearance of a turtle with its head to 
 ward the west. The Indians made offerings to it as they 
 passed, and placed them near its head. 2 This, perhaps, induced 
 the Ojibways in their pictography to adopt the turtle as the 
 symbol of land. The West India Islands were thought to be 
 animated. The island of Hayti was a turtle with its head 
 toward the east. 3 There was the same tradition of Porto Rico ; 
 and this idea was represented in many of their sculptured 
 stones. The Tlascaltecs believed that the world was borne up 
 by certain divinities, who, when tired, relieved each other. 
 When they were shifting the burden from shoulder to shoulder, 
 earthquakes were liable to occur. The Mayas of Yucatan also 
 thought the world was held up by four brothers. The Southern 
 Californians increased the number to seven. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that in the New World as well as the 
 Old, untutored man was moved by the same principle of grati 
 tude to express his thankfulness for water, and, as he knows 
 not to whom he is indebted, he imagines spirits preside over 
 fountains, lakes, and streams of water. The Peruvians wor 
 shipped those great fountains and rivers which supplied water 
 for irrigating their crops. 4 
 
 The tribes of Central America, Mexico, and New Mexico 
 had their sacred springs, which played as prominent a part in 
 their mythology as they did in that of Greece and Rome, and 
 many sacrifices were offered to the naiads of the New World. 
 At the sacred spring of Zuni, vases were kept in which offer 
 ings were placed, and death would overtake any one touching 
 these or their contents. Into the water of this sacred spring 
 frogs, tortoises, and snakes alone must enter, animals sacred 
 
 1 Loskiel, 30. a Jones s Ojibways, 255. 
 
 3 i Rafinesque, 169-70. * I Garcilasso, 49. 
 
WORSHIP AT HAUNTED LOCALITIES. 
 
 313 
 
 to water. 1 Any desecration of its sacred precincts would be 
 punished by the spirit presiding there. 
 
 We find in America the worship of streams of water, but 
 among savage worshippers their ideas had not been generalized 
 sufficiently to arrive at the conception of a deity presiding 
 over water as an element. No Neptune appears even among 
 the most civilized nations. Sacred springs are frequent. In 
 Nebel s plate of a fountain in the living rock at Tusapan we 
 have an image of the spirit of the spring. The statue is sev 
 enty-nine feet high, sculptured in the living rock, through 
 which formerly ran the waters of a natural spring. 
 
 Near Fort Defiance, in the country of the Navajos, is a 
 spring which the natives approach with much reverence, and at 
 which they perform certain mystical ceremonies. This spring, 
 they say, was once a boiling spring, but at present it boils only 
 when approached by bad men, or when its ceremonies are 
 neglected. They say the water will sometimes leap twenty feet 
 from its bed to catch and overwhelm a bad Indian. The cere 
 monies consisted in making an offering of vegetable or mineral 
 substances. They knelt by the spring-side, placed their closed 
 hands in the water up to the elbows, and after a brief interval 
 opened the hands and dropped their contents. Then the hands 
 were slowly withdrawn. 2 
 
 In Idaho there is a famous soda spring, of whose origin the 
 Snakes have the following tradition. A Shoshone and Co- 
 manche chief quarrelled, and the Shoshone was knocked into 
 the water when he stooped to drink. The murdered man fell 
 forward into the spring, and immediately great bubbles and 
 spirts of gas shot up from the pool, and amid a cloud of vapor 
 appeared the great ancestor of the Comanche and Shoshone 
 nations, Waukanaga, and with curses on his lips dashed out the 
 brains of the Comanche, who fell beside his victim into the 
 spring. Since that the spring has been as it is now. 3 
 
 The Indians of Colorado regard the springs that bubble up 
 
 1 I Bell s New Tracks, 165. 2 4 Schoolcraft, 213. 3 3 Bancroft, 94. 
 
PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 from the ground two miles from Colorado City with awe and 
 reverence. They believe that spirits trouble the waters by 
 breathing in them. An abundance of sacrifices were found in 
 the waters and were hung to the adjacent trees, 1 as offerings 
 to the springs. A charmed spot to the natives of this region 
 of country was that which includes the medicinal springs and 
 seething geysers. They brought their sick thither to be cured. 
 The whole region was enchanted ground. Water that bubbled 
 and boiled without visible cause was a mystery to them. 2 
 
 The Arapahoes regard with awe the medicine-waters of their 
 fountains, as being the abode of a spirit who breathes through 
 the transparent water and thus causes the perturbations of its 
 surface. Says Ruxton, " At the time of my visit the basin 
 of a spring was filled with beads and wampum, while the sur 
 rounding trees were hung with strips of deer-skin and moc 
 casins." 3 
 
 The spring at Saratoga, now called the Deep Rock, was re 
 garded with superstitious reverence in the early days by the 
 natives inhabiting the neighborhood. It was supposed to have 
 a healing power that was the gift of supernatural agents, and 
 the sick were brought to it in large numbers. 
 
 One of the remarkable myths of the New World was that of 
 the fountain of life. From the tropical forests of Central 
 America to the coral-bound Antilles, the natives told the Span 
 iards marvellous tales of a fountain whose magic waters would 
 heal the sick, rejuvenate the aged, and confer an ever-youthful 
 immortality. It may probably have originated from the adora 
 tion of some of the very remarkable springs abundant upon 
 the peninsula, round which were found signs of a dense early 
 population. The later Indians of Florida seem to have pre 
 served certain relics of a superstitious veneration of the aqueous 
 element. That such magnificent springs as occur in Florida 
 
 x Richardson s Beyond the Mississippi, 276. 
 
 2 3 Amer. Ethnol. Powell s Ex., 200-203. 
 
 3 Ruxton s Adventures, 243 ; 3 Bancroft, 94. 
 
WORSHIP AT HA UN TED L O C A LI TIES. 3 1 5 
 
 should have become objects of especial veneration is a most 
 natural consequence of such belief. 1 
 
 " Many of the tribes visit the spring whence they have 
 been supplied with water, during the winter, at the breaking 
 out of the ice, and there offer up their grateful worship to it for 
 having preserved them in health and safety and having supplied 
 their wants. This pious homage is performed with much cere 
 mony and devotion." 2 
 
 The Mayas had sacred springs supposed to be inhabited by 
 divinities who had children through union with human beings. 
 Traditions of tribal descent from springs and fountains appear 
 among some of the tribes. The Caddos thought they sprang 
 from the Hot Springs of Arkansas. 3 The Collas of Peru 
 traced their descent from fountains ; the natives of Xauxa, from 
 the spring of Garibalia. 
 
 The worship of lakes and rivers was prevalent among all the 
 tribes. Each remarkable feature, such as a great cataract, or a 
 difficult and dangerous pass in a river, possessed a spirit of the 
 spot, whose favor they were fain to propitiate by votive offerings. 
 
 Wherever a cataract was found, offerings were also found, 
 which were made to the spirits which presided in these places. 
 Waterfalls were the home of invisible spirits and mermaids. 
 At many localities in all the rivers malevolent spirits were 
 supposed to preside. 
 
 At the mouth of the Missouri a powerful manitou was sup 
 posed to prevent a safe passage in early days. 4 
 
 There was a tradition that a vast serpent lived in the Mis 
 sissippi near Fox River, but he finally took a notion to visit the 
 Great Lakes, and the trail he made passing thither is the basin 
 of that stream. 5 
 
 The following tradition was told of the migration of an 
 Ojibway river-deity. Near the Credit village, at the foot of a 
 pointed hill, was a deep spot beneath the water which was said 
 
 1 Brinton s Floridian Peninsula, 99, seq. 
 
 2 i Warburton s Conq. of Can., 189. 3 5 Schoolcraft, 682. 
 
 4 2 Far West, 145. s Kinzie s Waubun, 80. 
 
316 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 to be the abode of a water-god. Here he was frequently heard 
 to sing and beat his drum. When the whites came, he took his 
 departure during a tremendous flood caused by his power, and 
 went down the river into Lake Ontario. 1 
 
 The rapids at the mouth of Old Man s River were, according 
 to tradition, presided over by an evil spirit. 2 
 
 The Crees had the following tradition about the Qu Appelle. 
 A solitary Indian was coming down the river in his canoe 
 many summers ago, when one day he heard a loud voice calling 
 to him. He stopped and listened, and again heard the same 
 voice as before. He shouted in reply, but there was no answer. 
 He searched everywhere around, but could not find the tracks 
 of any one, so that from that time forth it was named the " Who 
 Calls River." 3 
 
 In passing the mouth of Devil s River, the Sauks, as soon as 
 they came in sight of it, dropped their paddles. When they 
 were opposite the entrance, they strewed the water with tobacco, 
 feathers, and painted hair, then chanted a hymn and resumed 
 their oars. 4 
 
 Hennepin gives the following instance of river-worship : " As 
 we were making the portage of our canoe at St. Anthony of 
 Padua s Falls, we perceived five or six of our Indians who had 
 taken the start. One of them was up in an oak opposite the 
 great fall, weeping bitterly, with a well-dressed beaver robe, 
 whitened inside, and trimmed with porcupine-quills, which he 
 was offering as a sacrifice to the falls, which is in itself admi 
 rable and frightful. I heard him, while shedding copious tears, 
 say, as he spoke to the great cataract, Thou who art a spirit, 
 grant that our nation may pass here quietly without acci 
 dent, may kill buffalo in abundance, conquer our enemies, and 
 bring in slaves, some of whom we will put to death before 
 thee."s 
 
 1 Jones s Ojibways, 255. a Kane s Wanderings, 149. 
 
 3 Morse s Intl. Rep., Appendix, 144. 
 
 * Hennepin s Louisiane, Tr. in Shea s Discovery, 133, seq. 
 5 i Hind s Narrative, 370. 
 
WORSHIP AT HA UN TED L O CALITIES. 3 1 7 
 
 Father Marquette tells the following myth: "Before we 
 arrived at the mouth of the Wabash we passed by a place 
 dreaded by the Indians, because they think .that there is a 
 demon there who devours all who pass, and of this it was that 
 they had spoken when they wished to deter us from our enter 
 prise. The devil is this : a small bay full of rocks, some twenty 
 feet high, where the whole current of the river is hurled back 
 and checked by a neighboring island ; the mass of water is 
 forced through a narrow channel ; all this is not done without 
 a furious combat of the waters, tumbling over each other, nor 
 without a great roaring, which strikes terror into Indians, who 
 fear everything." * Joutel mentions the offering to this river, 
 by way of sacrifice, of tobacco and beefsteaks, which they fixed 
 on forks and left them on the bank, to be disposed of as the 
 river thought fit. 2 
 
 Many myths embody the animistic conceptions of the natives. 
 The river-spirits had romances told of them. There was a 
 tradition among the Indians on the Penobscot of a family who 
 had a daughter accounted so great a beauty that they could 
 not find for her a suitable consort. At length she was miss 
 ing, and her parents could learn no tidings of her. After 
 much time and pains spent and tears showered in quest of 
 her, they saw her diverting herself with a beautiful youth, 
 whose hair, like her own, flowed down below his waist, swim 
 ming and washing in the water of the Penobscot; but they 
 vanished upon their approach. This youth they imagined to 
 be one of those kind spirits who inhabit the place, and, accord 
 ing to their custom, they called upon him for moose, bear, 
 or whatever creature they desired, and if they did but go to 
 the water-side and signify their desire the animal would come 
 swimming to them. 
 
 Many of the water-deities had musical tastes. " While 
 among the Pascagoulas, Governor Perier was invited to go to 
 the mouth of the river of that name, to listen to the mysterious 
 
 1 Marquette s Narrative, Tr. in Shea s Discovery, 41. 2 Joutel, 163. 
 
 21 
 
3 18 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 music which floats on the waters, particularly on a calm moon 
 light night, and which to this day excites the wonder of visitors. 
 It seems to issue from caverns or grottos in the bed of the 
 river, and sometimes oozes up through the water under the 
 very keel of the boat which contains the inquisitive traveller, 
 whose ear it strikes as the distant concert of a thousand /Eolian 
 harps. On the banks of the river, close by the spot where the 
 music is heard, tradition says that there existed a tribe different 
 in color and in other peculiarities from the rest of the Indians. 
 Their ancestors had originally emerged from the sea where 
 they were born, and were of a light complexion. They had a 
 temple in which they adored a mermaid. Every night when 
 the moon was visible they gathered around the beautifully 
 carved figure of the mermaid, and, with instruments of strange 
 shape, worshipped that idol with such soul-stirring music as 
 had never before blessed human ears. One day a priest came 
 among them and tried to convert them from the worship of the 
 mermaid. One night, at the solemn hour of twelve, there came 
 a rushing on the surface of the river, as if the still air had been 
 turned to a whirlwind by myriads of invisible wings sweeping 
 onward. The water seemed to be seized with convulsive fury ; 
 it gathered itself up into a towering column of foaming waves 
 on the top of which stood a mermaid, looking with magnetic 
 eyes that could draw almost everything to her, and singing 
 with a tone which fascinated into madness. The Indians and 
 the priest, their new guest, rushed to the bank of the river to 
 contemplate this supernatural spectacle. When she saw them, 
 the mermaid turned her tones into still more bewitching 
 melody, and kept chanting a sort of mystic song. The Indians 
 listened with growing ecstasy, and one of them plunged into 
 the river, to rise no more. The rest, men, women, and chil 
 dren, followed in quick succession, moved as it were with the 
 same irresistible impulse. When the last of the race disap 
 peared, the river returned to its bed. Ever since that time is 
 heard occasionally the distant music, which the Indians say 
 is caused by their musical brethren, who still keep up their 
 
WORSHIP AT HAUNTED LOCALITIES. 319 
 
 revels at the bottom of the river in the palace of the mer 
 maid." J 
 
 The favorite places of resort for malevolent spirits were the 
 dangerous passes in rivers, such as cataracts or rapids. Father 
 Brebeuf relates that the Indians, before running a dangerous 
 rapid in their frail canoes, would lay tobacco on a rock where 
 the deity of the rapid was supposed to reside, and ask for 
 safety in their voyage. 
 
 " The Brear-beaux Falls were the largest on the Wisconsin, 
 and the Indian name, translated, signifies the Long Falls. These 
 falls were two miles in length, having three perpendicular falls 
 of several feet each in that distance. The Ojibways had a tra 
 dition that there was a great spirit that presided over these 
 falls, to which they made an appropriate offering. In 1849 
 these falls were navigated in a bark canoe for the last time by 
 two Indians, the Black Nail and the Crow. At the head of 
 the falls, before starting, Crow held the canoe by a rock pro 
 jecting from the shore, while Black Nail made a prayer and an 
 offering to the spirit of the falls. The offering consisted of two 
 yards of scarlet cloth and a brass kettle. The prayer was in 
 these words : * O great spirit of the falls ! I implore thee to 
 extend thy protecting arm over us as we run these mighty 
 waters. Mayest thou strengthen my arm and my paddle to 
 guide my canoe safely down these dangerous waters. Having 
 finished his prayer, he threw the offering overboard and grappled 
 his paddle, and the canoe went bounding over the billows and 
 ran the falls in safety." 
 
 The Pohono Fall is a place for which the Indians have a 
 superstitious fear. Many persons have been swept over and 
 dashed to pieces there. No native of the vicinity will so much 
 as point at this fall, nor will they sleep near it, for the ghosts of 
 the drowned are tossing in its spray, and their wail is heard 
 forever above the hiss of the rushing waters. 
 
 Lakes are also places of resort for ghosts. The Indians 
 
 1 I Gayarre s Louisiana, 389, seq. 
 
3 20 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 around Devil s Castle, in Siskiyou County, California, have a 
 superstitious fear of its lake, and avoid the vicinity, thinking 
 they are infested with malignant spirits. 1 The Chibchas threw 
 very precious offerings into their lakes, which were intended 
 for the spirits inhabiting them. 2 The principal temples of the 
 Chibchas were the lakes where they made their offerings of 
 precious things. Each Village on the lake of Gualavita had a 
 foot-path leading to it, worn by those who went to make their 
 offerings. At the bottom of this lake lived the miraculous 
 Princess Bachue and her daughter. Bachue was drowned in 
 this lake by her husband, an ancient prince. 3 
 
 Many traditions are found connected with the lakes of the 
 Northwest. Manitou Lake is so named on account of the 
 many superstitions connected therewith. Its waters were filled 
 with forms monstrous and terrible, inhabited by evil spirits. 
 There is a tradition that in a great drouth the sun shone so 
 hot upon the surface of its waters that the rays penetrated to 
 the horrible brood within its depths. The waters became 
 troubled, and bubbles arose to the surface. The water boiled 
 from its very depths, and the hot waves dashed wildly against 
 the shores. A vast host of evil spirits emerged, and covered 
 the banks with their foul, trailing carcasses. There is a whirl 
 pool in this lake which carries the water around four times in 
 every twenty-four hours. During the winter season this whirl 
 ing motion is attended with noise and commotion beneath the 
 ice, which adds greatly to the superstitious reverence of the 
 Indians. 
 
 Those Indians dwelling about the great lakes of the North 
 west thought that all the prominent points along the coast 
 were created and guarded by monsters. 4 
 
 " The savages living around Lake Superior respect the lake 
 as a divinity, and offer sacrifices to it because of its size, for it 
 is two hundred leagues long and eighty broad, and also in con- 
 
 * 3 Bancroft, 158. a Bollaert, 14. 
 
 3 Rivero and Tschudi, 161-62. 4 Lanman s Michigan, 85. 
 
WORSHIP AT HAUNTED LOCALITIES. 321 
 
 sequence of its furnishing them with fish, upon which all the 
 natives live when hunting is scarce in these quarters." 1 
 
 The natives living about Lake Winnipeg account for the 
 muddy condition of its water by a tradition in which one of 
 their deities, after floundering about in mire, went into this lake 
 to wash himself off, and has lived there since. 
 
 There are many places on Lakes Winnipeg and Manitobah 
 which the Indians, who hunt and live on the shores of those 
 inland seas, dare not visit. There is scarcely a cave or head 
 land which has not some legend attached to it familiar to all 
 the wanderers on these coasts. On the west side of Lake 
 Winnipeg, in the long, dark, and gloomy chambers formed by 
 fissures in the limestone, bad spirits are supposed to dwell, 
 according to the belief of the Indians who hunt on the coast. 
 The Indians never enter the abodes of these imaginary mani- 
 tous. Near Limestone Cave Point, on Lake Winnipeg, are 
 several of these supposed fairy dwellings. When an Indian 
 approaches them in his canoe, he either lays an offering on the 
 beach or gives them as wide a berth as possible. Steep-Rock 
 Point, on Lake Manitobah, is also a noted dwelling-place for 
 the little men. 2 
 
 In Genesee County, New York, near the Tonawanda River, 
 at the bottom of a steep hill, is a small lake, affording another 
 instance of pagan superstition. The old Indians affirmed that 
 formerly a demon in the form of a dragon resided in this lake, 
 which frequently disgorged balls of liquid fire. To appease 
 him, many sacrifices of tobacco had been made by the Indians. 3 
 The Mohawks had a superstition that some great misfortune 
 would happen if any one spoke on Saratoga Lake. 4 
 
 The lakes were thought to be thickly populated with spir 
 itual forms. There is a remarkable lake in the country in 
 habited by the Spokanes, called " Never-freezing water," which 
 is so completely surrounded by high and precipitous rocks 
 
 1 Allouez, Tr. in Sheldon s Hist. Mich., p. 29. 2 2 Hind s Nar., 133. 
 
 3 Squier s Ab. Mon. N. Y., 48. 4 Lubbock s Origin, 23. 
 
322 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 that it is impossible to descend to the water. It is said never 
 to freeze, even in the most severe winters. The Indians believe 
 that it is inhabited by the spirits of buffalo, elk, deer, and all 
 other kinds of game, which, they say, may be seen in the clear, 
 transparent element. There is a superstition respecting a point 
 called Painted Rock in Pend d Oreille Lake. The Indians, 
 they say, do not venture to pass this point, fearing that a great 
 spirit may, as related in the legends, create a commotion in the 
 water and cause them to be swallowed up in the waves. The 
 painted rocks are very high, and contain effigies of men and 
 beasts, and other characters, made, as the .Indians believe, by a 
 race of men who preceded them as inhabitants of the land. 1 
 
 The tribes of Guiana dreaded the water-mamma, or Orehu. 
 This was a being which inhabited the water and sometimes 
 appeared in the shape of a manati. The Orehu was a female 
 spirit, generally malicious, and when in a bad temper was apt 
 to rise close to the canoes and drag them and their crews 
 under water. 2 The natives of Colombia thought that their 
 lakes were the residences of deities, to which they offered 
 yearly sacrifices of gold and jewels. Paths to these lakes were 
 worn by the Indians in their ascent and descent in the perform 
 ance of their idolatrous rites. 3 In Jalisco the towns about 
 Chapala paid divine honors to the spirit of their lake, who was 
 represented by an idol with a miniature lake before it. 4 The 
 Mosquitos had a spirit of the water, called Lewin, which they 
 feared greatly. 5 The Itzas thought that spirits haunted Lake 
 Peten, into which they threw their dead. 
 
 The Peruvians had representations on their vases of water- 
 deities, among which was the God of the Sea, represented in 
 Fig. 19, which shows their anthropomorphic conception of 
 such deities. 
 
 Those tribes who were fishermen always threw sacrifices into 
 
 1 12 Pacific R. R. Reps., 150. 2 2 Wood s Unciv. Races, 630. 
 
 3 i Hamilton s Colombia, 192; Ursua and Aguirre, 3. 
 
 4 3 Bancroft, 447. 5 i ib., 741. 
 
WORSHIP AT HAUNTED LOCALITIES. 323 
 
 the waters upon the approach of a storm. The Ojibways cast 
 into the waters, during dangerous winds and storms that had 
 overtaken them, sacrifices, and offered prayers to the spirits of 
 the waters. The natives of Virginia living about Chesapeake 
 Bay always practised such religious ceremonies. 1 Those living 
 about Pamlico Sound also offered to the angry spirits of the 
 waters during storms. 2 There is a tradition among the Pueblo 
 
 FIG. 19. 
 
 Indians that a young man and a maiden were thrown into a 
 surging freshet as a sacrifice to the spirit that was threatening 
 them with destruction. 3 Traditions of a flood appear among 
 all the American tribes. These floods were, however, probably 
 nothing more than local freshets, by which every region has 
 been visited at some time within the memory of its inhabitants 
 or their ancestors. 
 
 In the mythical deluge of the Chibchas, in answer to prayer, 
 Bochica appeared seated on a rainbow, and quelled the floods 
 by opening a breach at Tequendama, through which the waters 
 poured down the precipice, leaving the plain more fertile than 
 before. 4 
 
 1 Beverly s Virginia, 180. 2 i Martin s N. C., 21. 
 
 3 i Mollhausen s Journey, 95. 4 Bollaert, 13. 
 
324 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Places supposed to be haunted by spirits gradually assume 
 the character of sacred localities. 
 
 This sacred character of some localities has been the origin 
 of places of refuge which were so common among the American 
 tribes. Those escaping from the hand of an avenger fled to 
 these sacred places in which their blood could not be shed. 
 This gradually developed into lodges and cities of refuge. 
 One of these is described by Mr. Bradbury, when among the 
 Arickaras, as follows : " They have a sacred lodge in the centre 
 of their largest village, within which no blood is to be spilled, 
 not even that of an enemy, nor is any one taking refuge there 
 to be forced from it." 
 
 These places of refuge were found by Mr. Adair among the 
 tribes inhabiting the Southeastern States. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SABAISM. 
 
 Worship of the heavenly bodies Their personality Their anthropomorphic na 
 ture Animistic conceptions of them Their romantic attachments to human 
 beings Their vitality Their occupation by translated heroes Crude notions 
 concerning them Eclipses Astrology. 
 
 THE worship of the heavenly bodies prevailed, in its various 
 stages of progress, among all the aboriginal tribes. Natural 
 objects that have made a serious impression upon the unculti 
 vated mind on account of their supposed power of producing 
 good or evil have always been subjects of reverence or fear. 
 
 All the various nature-myths that have been preserved for us 
 by tradition have had very much added to them from age to 
 age. The poet has used the folk-lore of prehistoric ages to 
 create his epic, the priest to elaborate his theology, and even 
 the early historian to bequeath to us his historic fragment. 
 In this way metaphorical language has lost its signification, 
 subsequent ages receiving as fact what preceding ages had only 
 thought of as fiction. This excess of fancy has, however, pro 
 duced too great an impression in the minds of a large school 
 of mythologists, for they will no longer recognize any truth in 
 the mythological stories of the ancients, and even the reality 
 of the siege and destruction of Troy would have faded away in 
 the twilight of a sun-myth had not Mr. Schliemann found its 
 ancient treasures and described the city as it was described so 
 many centuries ago. Nature-worship is wholly inexplicable, 
 however, if we assume that the different objects were worshipped 
 as inanimate, and even the personifications of former mytholo 
 gists have a flavor of materialism about them that are not truth 
 ful to the nature of the primitive mind. The earliest concep- 
 
 325 
 
326 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 tion of all of these objects of worship was, that they were not 
 inanimate, but animated by a spirit, and thus assumed the 
 character of a living being as real as the human body. 
 
 In the mythological lore of the Manacicas of Brazil, their 
 culture-hero, born of a virgin, after spending a life in benefiting 
 his people, soared away to become the sun. Their jugglers, 
 who claimed the power of flying through the sky at pleasure, 
 declared that the sun was a luminous human figure, although 
 it was impossible for those upon the earth to distinguish his 
 form. 1 
 
 Some of the North American Indians believe their medicine 
 men have gone up through holes in the sky, have found the 
 sun and moon walking about there like human creatures, have 
 walked about with them, and looked down through their peep 
 holes upon the earth below. The Haidahs think the sun is a 
 shining man walking round the fixed earth, wearing a radiated 
 crown. The nations of Oregon had the same conception of the 
 sun. 2 The Olchones of California worshipped the sun, but con 
 sidered it the big man who made the earth. They offered to 
 it the first-fruits of the earth. Many of the natives of Guiana 
 thought that the sun and moon were living beings. The 
 Kioways pointed out the Pleiades as having the outline of a 
 man, and said it was the great Kioway, who was their ancestor 
 and the creator. 3 The Guaycurus thought that the sun, moon, 
 and stars were men and women that went into the sea every 
 night and swam out by the way of the east. The Loucheux 
 say the moon once lived among them as a poor ragged boy. 
 
 A supposed metamorphosis originates many of their tra 
 ditionary stories about the heavenly bodies, and leads to their 
 supposed anthropomorphic nature. The Atnas thought the 
 moon was a metamorphosed man. 4 Chia, the female deity of 
 the Chibchas, was transformed into the moon by Bochica, her 
 husband. 5 The Tunjas had a tradition that a cacique of Soga- 
 
 1 3 Southey, 182. 2 Dunn, 172. 3 Battey s Quaker, 107. 
 
 * 2 Bancroft, 62. 5 Bollaert, 13. 
 
SABAISM. 32; 
 
 moso was metamorphosed into the sun, and another cacique 
 into the moon. These they worshipped with much ceremony. 1 
 The Calchaquis were converted into stars, which were bright 
 in proportion to their rank and bravery. 2 
 
 The natives of Teotihuacan in their cosmogony had meta 
 morphosed Nanahuatzin, a god of the early times, into the 
 sun, and Mexitli into the moon. This great honor was con 
 ferred upon them evidently because of some self-sacrificing act 
 on the part of these primitive heroes. The myths say that they 
 cast themselves into a great fire built to illumine the darkness 
 before the present order of things. 3 
 
 Such myths are common among the Northern tribes. An 
 Indian with his wife and two children was living in a wigwam 
 on the great lake when the game of the country had nearly all 
 disappeared. Everything seemed to go wrong with the poverty- 
 stricken Indians, and starvation stared them in the face. Whole 
 days did the father spend roaming through the forests, and re 
 turned without even a pair of snow-birds for a supper. On 
 one occasion he shot a rabbit, and returned with the speed of 
 the deer to his lodge, but his wife and children were gone, and 
 he knew not where to find them. He turned off in search of 
 them, and a noise resembling the wail of a loon came from the 
 upper air. On raising his eyes, he beheld his family perched 
 on the dry limb of a tall tree. They had been transformed 
 into spirits, and announced that they would return the coming 
 spring, when the time of his transformation would come. True 
 to their word, they came, and all were changed into a family of 
 shooting stars. 4 Another mythical character among the Ojib- 
 ways went through a double transformation. Having been 
 suddenly metamorphosed one night into a huge fire-fly, when 
 he began to ascend into the air he w^as immediately transformed 
 into the Northern star. These honors were heaped upon him 
 as compensation for disappointment in love. 5 They called the 
 
 1 P. Simon, 259. 2 3 Southey, 395-96. 3 5 Bancroft, 204. 
 
 4 Lanman s Haw-Hoo-Noo, 180-91. s Ib., 260. 
 
328 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 polar star No-adji-manguet, which, translated, means " the man 
 who walks behind the loon-bird." 
 
 Translations of heroes and benefactors are very common 
 among all people. Translation means the removal of the per 
 son to the heavenly bodies without death. The first mother of 
 the Potawatomies was translated to a star, and was the first to 
 take her station in the horizon after the sun had disappeared 
 behind the distant hills. The Ottawas translated their male 
 ancestor to the sun, and their woman to the moon, and thought 
 that the man in the sun and the woman in the moon kept watch 
 over all actions. 1 Two traditionary characters among the 
 Ojibways were translated to the upper empyrean, and are 
 called Pagak, or the flying skeletons. A noise as of rushing 
 winds announces their flight overhead, and creates great fear 
 among the people. 
 
 The Housatonic Indians believed that the Seven Stars were so 
 many Indians translated to heaven, and that the stars in Charles s 
 Wain were so many men hunting Ursa Major, the bear. They 
 begin the chase in the spring, and it lasts all the summer, but 
 by autumn they have wounded it, and the dripping blood turns 
 red the leaves of the trees. The Cherokees thought that the 
 morning star was once a sorcerer, who fled thither to escape 
 those who pursued him to revenge necromantic murder. They 
 also thought that the Seven Stars are inhabited by eight of their 
 countrymen who were translated. The Ojibways saw in the 
 face of the full moon the figure in faint outline of the beautiful 
 maiden " Lone Bird," who was translated thither as a bride of 
 that luminary. She now looked down upon the daughters of 
 her nation, who traced her form in the disk of the moon and 
 told her strange story of love by the light of the lodge-fire. 
 
 One of the guiding spirits of the Zunis found a home in the 
 sky without passing the portals of the grave, for he was taken 
 by the Navajos, when visiting them, and placed upon a bow 
 string and shot into the clouds. 
 
 1 Tanner s Nar., 320. 
 
SABAISM. 329 
 
 There is a tradition among the Algonkin tribes that the even 
 ing star was formerly a woman, and that three brothers travelling 
 in a canoe were translated into a group of as many stars. The 
 fox, lynx, hare, robin, and eagle had a place in their astronomy, 
 and they had a tradition that a mouse was seen creeping up the 
 rainbow. The Milky Way in their language was Tchibekana, 
 which means " road of the dead." T 
 
 The notions the Greenlanders have, says Egede, of the origin 
 of heavenly lights, as sun, moon, and stars, are very nonsen 
 sical, in that they pretend they have formerly been so many 
 of their ancestors who on different accounts were lifted up to 
 heaven and became such glorious celestial bodies. The moon, 
 as they will have it, has been a young man called Aningait. 
 His sister was named Malina, and was the sun. The reason 
 why these two were taken up into heaven is this. The moon 
 was in love with his sister, and stole to her in the dark to 
 caress her. She, wishing to find out who her lover was, black 
 ened her hands so that the mark might be left on him. This 
 accounts for the spots on the moon. She, however, deter 
 mined once to get rid of him, and flew up into the air, but the 
 moon pursued her, and they have been going ever since. Their 
 notion about the stars is that some of them have been men, and 
 others animals and fishes. The three stars in the belt of Orion 
 were three honest Greenlanders, who, being out at sea seal- 
 catching, were bewildered, and, not being able to find the shore, 
 were taken up to heaven. Canis Major is called Nelleraglek, 
 which is the name of a man among them. Ursa Major is a 
 reindeer. Taurus is a kennel of hounds. 2 Says Crantz, the 
 Greenlanders consider the celestial bodies ancient Greenlanders 
 or animals, who have mounted up thither and shine with a 
 pale or fiery lustre according to the food they eat. The shoot 
 ing stars are human souls on their travels. The moon, when 
 not seen, has gone hunting seals, and gets enough to fatten to 
 full moon. The moon has a demoniac hatred of women, and 
 
 1 Baraga s Dictionary, 381. a Egede, 206-10. 
 
330 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 the sun of men. The Northern lights are the souls of the 
 dead playing ball. 1 
 
 The personality of the heavenly bodies was the subject of 
 many traditions in which their personal acts are described. 
 
 The Aztecs said, when the sun had risen for the first time, at 
 the beginning, it lay on the horizon and moved not, and when 
 a deputation from the deities was sent to request it to move 
 along its way, the answer was that he would never leave that 
 place till he had destroyed them all, whereupon the god Citli 
 immediately strung his bow and advanced against the glittering 
 enemy, but by quickly lowering his head the sun avoided the 
 first arrow, but the second and third pierced his body, and, 
 filled with rage, he seized one of them and launched it back 
 upon his assailant. The brave Citli laid shaft to string never 
 more, for the arrow of the sun pierced his forehead. 2 
 
 Among the remnants of the Iroquois living upon the north 
 eastern shore of Lake Michigan there is the tradition that there 
 are four meteors which have the power of shooting through 
 the sky. These meteors were once Indians. 
 
 The Dacotahs say the meteors are men or women flying 
 through the air. They have a tradition that an Indian once 
 got on the back of one and took a ride. Coming to a pond 
 full of ducks, which were quacking, the meteor went around 
 and not over it ; coming to a village where an Indian was play 
 ing the flute, he passed around that village. 3 The meteors were 
 evidently not fond of earthly music, perhaps because their taste 
 was too critical, having been cultivated by the music of the 
 spheres. According to a legend of the Chippewyans, there was 
 once a quarrel among the stars, when one of them was driven 
 away from its home in the heavens and descended to the earth. 
 It wandered from one tribe to another, and had been seen 
 hovering over the camp-fires when they were preparing to 
 sleep. It always attracted attention and inspired wonder and 
 
 1 i Crantz, 212-13. "3 Bancroft, 61. 
 
 3 Eastman s Legends, xxvi. 
 
SABAISM. 
 
 331 
 
 admiration. Among all the people in the world, only one 
 could be found who was not afraid of this beautiful star, and 
 this was the daughter of a Chippewyan. She was not afraid of 
 the star, but loved it, and was loved in return, for when she 
 awoke at night she beheld it. In midsummer the girl went 
 into the woods for berries, and lost her way, and a storm arose, 
 and the only answers to her cries were those of the frogs, and 
 the lonely, bitter night came, and she looked for her star, but 
 no star could live in that storm. The Indian girl was caught 
 by the rushing waters, and her body washed away so it could 
 never be found. -Many seasons passed away, and the star was 
 seen, but its light was dimmed and never remained long in one 
 place, but appeared to be looking for something it could not 
 find. At last, with the leaves of autumn, it disappeared. A 
 hunter chanced at night in one of the largest swamps of the 
 land, when to his astonishment he saw a small light hanging 
 over the water, but he could not follow in its dangerous path. 
 On his return he told his people. The old men said it was the 
 star that had been driven from heaven, and was now wandering 
 in search of the beautiful girl, and was often seen by hunters 
 as they journey by night. 1 One night the Ojibways saw a star 
 that shone brighter than all others, and they doubted whether 
 it was as far away as it seemed to be, and on examination they 
 found it to be near the tops of some trees. A committee of 
 the wise men was called to inquire into the strange phenom 
 enon. At last a young warrior had the mystery revealed to 
 him in a dream, for a beautiful maiden came and stood at his 
 side, and told him she was charmed with the land of his fore 
 fathers, its flowers, its birds, its rivers, its beautiful lakes and 
 mountains clothed in green, and she had come to dwell upon 
 the earth, and asked that the great men should assign her a 
 home. They could not select, and she was told to choose a 
 place herself. She looked for a home in the flowers of the 
 prairie, but feared the hoof of the buffalo. She next sought 
 
 1 Lanman s Haw-Hoo-Noo, 240-41. 
 
332 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 the mountain rose, but it was so high the children whom she 
 loved most could not see her. At last she chose the white 
 water-lily seen on- the surface of the lakes, where she could 
 watch the gliding canoe and see herself reflected in the peaceful 
 waters. 1 
 
 The personification of the heavenly bodies was so complete 
 that romantic attachments to them sprang up in many cases. 
 Many tribes have such traditions. Mrs. Jameson mentions an 
 Indian woman who thought herself the bride of the sun, and 
 lived alone in a lodge with its carved image. 2 
 
 There is a legend of an Ojibway maiden whose name was 
 Sweet Strawberry. " She was acknowledged to be the most 
 beautiful maiden of her nation. Her voice was like the turtle 
 dove, and the deer was not more graceful in its form. Her 
 eyes were brilliant as the star of the northern sky, and her dark 
 hair clustered around her neck like vines around the trunk of 
 the tree. The young men of every nation had striven to win 
 her heart, but she smiled upon none. The snows of winter 
 were all gone, and the pleasant winds of spring were blowing 
 over the land. The wild ducks came and proceeded to build 
 their nests in pairs. A cluster of early spring flowers peered 
 above the dry leaves of the forest, and even these were sepa 
 rated into pairs and seemed to be wooing each other in love; 
 all things whispered to her of love. She looked into her heart 
 and longed for a companion whom she might love. The brow 
 of the Sweet Strawberry continued to droop, and her friends 
 looked upon her as the victim of a settled melancholy. She 
 stood gazing upon the sky, and, as the moon ascended, her soul 
 was filled with a joy she had never felt before. The longer she 
 looked upon the brilliant object, the more deeply in love did 
 she become with its celestial charms, and she burst forth into a 
 wild joyous song. Her friends gathered around her in crowds, 
 but she heeded them not. They wondered at the wildness of 
 her words and the airy-like appearance of her form. They were 
 
 1 Copway s Ojibways, 100-3. 8 2 Winter Studies, 149. 
 
SABAISM. 333 
 
 soon spell-bound by the scene before them, as they saw her 
 gradually ascend from the earth into the air, where she disap 
 peared as if borne upward by the evening wind. They soon 
 discovered her clasped in the embraces of the moon, and the 
 spots upon its surface are those of her robe, which was made 
 of the skins of the spotted fawn." J Among the Ottawas the 
 sun had a daughter on the earth whom a chief violated, where 
 upon tempests came upon the earth, the sun shot through the 
 heavens with an unsteady motion, and suddenly stopped in its 
 career and became fixed as if in astonishment at the red man s 
 wickedness. It gradually changed to the color of blood, and 
 with a dreadful noise fell upon the earth. It struck the north 
 ern shore of Mackinac, formed the cavity of the arched rock, 
 entered the earth, from which it issued in the far east, and at 
 an early hour the following morning resumed its journey. The 
 Indians fear to approach the brow of the arched rock. 2 The 
 Navajos have a tradition that one of their young women in 
 ancient times had connection with the sun and brought forth a 
 boy, who proved quite a hero. 3 
 
 The Southern Californians trace their descent from the moon 
 as their mother. Their god was roaming solitary and alone 
 among his created works, and evidently in a disposition favor 
 able to matrimony, when the moon came to that neighborhood. 
 She was very fair in her delicate beauty, and kind. The god 
 fell in love with her, and began to steal out of his lodge at dusk 
 and spend the night-watches in the company of the white- 
 haired moon. They soon eloped together to a home beyond 
 the ether, where she may yet be seen, with her gauzy robe 
 and silvery hair, treading celestial paths. They left, however, 
 upon the earth a female infant, from whom the Indians claim 
 descent. 4 
 
 The legendary hero of the Chibchas of Bogota, Garanchaca, 
 the first man to build a temple, assumed to be a child of the 
 
 1 Lanman s Haw-Hoo-Noo, 192-94. a Ib., 214. 
 
 3 4 Schoolcraft, 219. 4 3 Bancroft, 85. 
 
334 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 sun by a damsel of the earth. The sumptuous temple which 
 he prepared to build to his father was not commenced before 
 death overtook him. 1 
 
 There can be little doubt that the sun-worship of the Peru 
 vians originated in such an assumption on the part of Manco 
 Capac, their first Inca. Among the pre-Incarial tribes the primi 
 tive conceptions of the sun as animated prevailed among their 
 other mythological traditions, and they may have progressed a 
 step toward personification of this luminary, although there is 
 no evidence that either Con, or Pachacamac, his successor at 
 the head of the pre-Incarial pantheon, were connected in any 
 way with the worship of the sun. On the contrary, Con was 
 represented as a spirit without material covering, and in the 
 process of creating flew rapidly from north to south, causing 
 the mountains and valleys to appear in his wake, which form 
 the main feature in their landscape. Pachacamac appears to 
 have inherited the spiritual nature of his father, for their con 
 ception of him has not expressed itself in any image or repre 
 sentation. Yet there can be no doubt they are both culture- 
 heroes. I have elaborated this view in the chapter set apart 
 to that subject. About the year 1022 A.D., Manco Capac ap 
 peared, telling the people he was a child of the sun, and, in 
 order to successfully usurp their place, also asserted that Con 
 and Pachacamac had been children of the sun like himself, 
 that their common father had sent him on earth to teach and 
 govern them. Manco was not wholly successful in his impos 
 ture, although all the civil power at the command of himself 
 and his successors was used in his and their behalf, together 
 with an ecclesiastical priesthood and a ritual as gorgeous and 
 imposing as any that has ever existed. The intrusive religion 
 of the sun was not, however, established for many generations 
 after its founder, and then it was not exclusive, but a compro 
 mise was effected by which the worship of Pachacamac was 
 tolerated, and in countries subjected by arms sun-worship never 
 
 1 Bollaert, 21. 
 
SABAISM. 335 
 
 wholly supplanted the polytheistic religions, although their 
 idols were carried captive to Cuzco. 
 
 The worship of Pachacamac was the most popular among 
 the Peruvian people generally, whilst the religion of the sun 
 was that of the court. 1 The priests of the sun consummated 
 their persecution by constructing an idol of wood with a human 
 face, horrible in its aspect, representing Pachacamac, and 
 abusing the idol to subserve their purposes, causing it to pro 
 nounce feigned oracles, and enriching themselves at the cost 
 of the nation s credulity. 2 
 
 To the sun belonged the magnificent temples in all the cities 
 and almost all the villages of the Peruvian territory, temples 
 resplendent with gold and jewels, and to its ritual were conse 
 crated priests, many of whom maintained a perpetual celibacy. 
 There were also dedicated to the sun, virgins, who lived in 
 cloisters secluded from the world. The most celebrated house 
 of this character was located at Cuzco. This contained more 
 than one thousand virgins famous for their beauty and lineage. 
 They were taken in their most tender years from their families 
 to be buried in this seclusion, under the superintendence of 
 ancient matrons who had grown gray within the walls. Not 
 even the Peruvian monarch dared tread within its precincts. 
 But, like all other slaves of an ecclesiastical despotism, they 
 were used by those who supported their institution, and were 
 made to weave garments for the Incarial wardrobe, and even to 
 prepare the chicha and bread for the monarch and his court, 
 and the most beautiful of those in the convents outside of Cuzco 
 were promoted to be the concubines of the reigning monarch, 
 notwithstanding the death-penalty for those who lost their 
 purity. Within the cloister-walls the morality of these institu 
 tions was not much better than that of the European monas 
 teries during the papal supremacy. 
 
 When the evidence of their fall from the path of virtue was 
 manifest, the child was sworn upon the sun, and was reserved 
 
 1 Rivero and Tschudi, 153. * Ib., 154. 
 
336 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 for the priesthood, 1 and was a very appropriate resource for 
 recruiting the ranks of that body. This same resort to a god 
 to shelter the virtue of fallen women raised up the line of 
 demi-gods in the ancient pagan religions. 
 
 The principle underlying Sabaism is the belief that all the 
 heavenly bodies are inhabited and taken possession of by spirit 
 ual beings, which have migrated thither and made them their 
 habitations. Ignorant as they were of astronomical knowledge, 
 they did not see any absurdity in animating a sun, moon, or 
 star with a brilliant hero. In very truth, a primitive people 
 consider the stars as little spangles stuck on the sky as orna 
 ments, and the sky itself as no farther off than the mountain 
 that skirts their horizon. The sun, above all other natural 
 objects, has become a mythical being among the most uncul 
 tivated tribes. " The original parent of the Comanches lives, 
 they say, in the sun. The Chichemecs called the sun their 
 father. The name for the sun in the language of the Salive, 
 one of the Orinoco tribes, is, the man of the earth above. " 2 
 
 The Sauks looked upon the sun as the residence of a male 
 deity. The souls of the dead journeyed toward the setting 
 sun. The sun was a male and a beneficent being, whereas 
 the moon was a female deity and delighted in evil. 3 The Da- 
 cotahs believed that a female spirit inhabited the sun, a male 
 the moon. They were both considered benevolent. 4 Many of 
 the Nahuas thought the sun was the abode of departed spirits. 5 
 The Guaycurus believed that their chiefs and jugglers lived 
 among the stars, while the common people stayed about the 
 place of interment. 6 The Abipones thought the Pleiades were 
 their grandfather, and when that constellation disappeared at 
 certain periods they supposed their grandfather was sick. As 
 soon as they returned in the month of May, they welcomed 
 him with joyful shouts and festivities. Among many tribes 
 
 1 Rivero and Tschudi, 160. * I Spencer, Soc., 404. 
 
 3 i Keating, 215-16. * i ib., 49- 
 
 s 2 Bancroft, 616. 6 3 Southey, 670. 
 
SABAISM. 337 
 
 the worship of the sun and moon was connected with ancestral 
 worship. The caciques of the tribes of Chili were thought to 
 become planets when they died. The starry heavens were 
 peopled with dead Ojibways; the stars were the homes of the 
 good ; the brightest were ruling spirits ; the constellations were 
 council gatherings. Were all the stories related by them of 
 the skies written, each star would be connected with some 
 strange event. 1 
 
 Many were assigned to a home in the sky as the reward of 
 generous self-sacrifice. A great famine afflicted the Ojibways 
 one severe winter, when the weather was so cold the white bear 
 was afraid to leave his hiding-place. From one end of the 
 country to the other came the cry of hunger and distress. In 
 the midst of their council it was decided a human sacrifice 
 should be offered. The lot fell upon three of the bravest men 
 of the tribe. The spot selected was a neighboring hill, and on 
 its summit at the hour of midnight the cruel duty was per 
 formed. On the following day the weather moderated, the 
 hunter went forth, and an abundance of sweet game was brought 
 to every wigwam. They gave way to festivity and dancing, 
 but in the midst of it all eyes were fixed upon the northern 
 sky, which was illuminated by a most brilliant light as changeable 
 as the reflections upon the summer sea at sunset hour. Across 
 this light were dancing three huge figures of a crimson hue. 
 They were the ghosts of the three warriors who had given their 
 lives for their people and had thus become great chiefs in the 
 spirit-land. 2 
 
 Mr. Schoolcraft is a very unwilling yet strong witness for the 
 anthropomorphic conception of the Sabaism of the Northern 
 tribes. He says that when the arcanum of their belief is reached, 
 their monedo, or supreme spirit, is located in sun or moon or 
 indefinite skies, and in their pictorial scrolls they paint the sun 
 as a man s head and appear to confound the symbol with the 
 substance. losco, who visited the sun, as their legends say, 
 
 1 Copway, 147-48; 2 Keating, 150. 2 Lanman s Haw-Hoo-Noo, 246-48. 
 
338 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 found it to be a man, and walked a day s journey with him 
 around the exterior rim of the globe. 1 
 
 Among the Northern tribes Mr. Kohl found the representa 
 tions of the sun to be anthropomorphic. One of these was a 
 
 picture of the sun set on a man s shoulders. Fig. 20 is a repre 
 sentation found in Nicaragua and copied in Pirn and Seeman s 
 Dottings. It shows an anthropomorphic conception of the sun, 
 which is the genesis of Sabaism. General Brown saw the 
 Blackfeet pray hundreds of times to the sun, and yet upon 
 inquiry they explained that they prayed not to the sun, but to 
 the old man who lives there. 
 
 Among the more primitive peoples it was the habitation of 
 one soul. Among the Natches and the Appalaches the sun was 
 the bright dwelling-place of departed chiefs, and among the 
 Florida Indians it was the heaven of all good spirits. Starting 
 at first in the primitive mind as the habitable body of a spirit, 
 it becomes the dwelling-place of a few privileged characters, 
 and then the heaven of all good souls. Its capacity has thus 
 been enlarged as the knowledge of its magnitude increases. 
 
 Mr. Tylor thinks it a very hard question to answer why some 
 nations are sun-worshippers and others not, but says it is 
 obvious that the sun is not so evidently the god of wild hunters 
 and fishers as of the tillers of the soil. We have found in 
 America sun-worship among all of the tribes. It has not be 
 come the predominant cult anywhere, except among the Peru- 
 
 1 5 Schoolcraft, 402-3. 
 
SABAISM. 339 
 
 vians and Natches. Among the other tribes it has simply 
 coexisted with the worship of ancestors, kings, heroes, the 
 moon, stars, mountains, springs, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, ani 
 mals, and all else in nature animate or inanimate, for there was 
 nothing into which a spirit might not penetrate and make it 
 an oracle and a place of sacrifice and devotion. Among the 
 Natches sun-worship had become the central doctrine of national 
 religion. The Natches government was a solar hierarchy, at 
 whose head stood the chief called the sun s brother. This 
 assumed relationship with the sun of the Natches and Peru 
 vian rulers is not as absurd as it would appear, when we con 
 sider that all sun-worship is based upon the primitive idea of 
 its being a mere habitation or body for a culture-hero. This 
 idea, carried to its logical conclusion, would necessitate ad 
 mitting the relationship of the dead hero s family, who would 
 also fall heir to much of his fame. 
 
 Such a sun-cult as that of Peru and the Natches would be 
 impossible among fishers, for many reasons. Fishers will 
 always find their deities in the sea, the river, the waterfall, the 
 whirlpool, the eddy, the storm, and the wind, or the most dan 
 gerous or the most useful animals inhabiting water. The 
 hunters will find theirs in inaccessible places on the mountains, 
 or in the springs where they stop to slake their thirst, or in the 
 tree that creaks in the rustling wind, in the thunder and the 
 storm, and all animated nature which is filled with the spirits 
 of their dead. The sun is no more to them than the ignis- 
 fatuus that hovers around the wanderer s path at night, nor 
 half as fear-inspiring. The moon is more of a favorite among 
 hunters than the sun. Another condition necessary to such a 
 sun-cult is a despotic power, and coincident with this there 
 must be a sufficient amount of astronomical knowledge to 
 assign to the sun its proper and important place in nature s 
 economy. Sun-worship was ancient in Peru, but it was the 
 Incas who made it the great state religion, and their heliolatry 
 was organized for political ends. 
 
 When the sun has been recognized as the greatest of the 
 
340 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 heavenly bodies, and the great producer of the earth s vegeta 
 tion, and its size and distance from the earth are recognized, it 
 becomes an object of reverence, and is then associated with a 
 hero of pre-eminent and shining qualities. 
 
 The Mexicans worshipped the sun, and had a festival in 
 which a human being was sacrificed to the sun, who ascended 
 the stone steps slowly from the east, representing the course 
 of the sun, placed his foot on the middle of the stone of the 
 sun, was killed, and sent with a message of homage to that 
 luminary, and his body was thrown down the steps to the 
 west. 1 
 
 In the Mexican worship of the sun it was sometimes repre 
 sented by a human face surrounded with rays, at other times 
 by a full-length human figure. Although the worship of the 
 sun occupied a prominent place in the Mexican religion, yet it 
 by no means occupied the first place, as assigned to it by many 
 Americanistes. It was definitely worshipped under the name 
 of Tonatiuh, and also under that of Naolin, names not very 
 prominent in their pantheon. All of the Mexicans seemed 
 to be very much distressed at eclipses of the sun and moon, 
 and always made a great ado while they lasted, and generally 
 offered up human sacrifices. Although the sun-cult is promi 
 nent among all the more civilized tribes, and even among the 
 Natches, who had made little progress in civilization, yet 
 the greatest devotion to the sun was found in Peru, where it 
 became pre-eminently the ruling deity in the days of the Incas. 
 In its exaltation we see a step taken toward monotheism. On 
 the great altar of their greatest temple stood a representation 
 of it in thick gold, richly set with jewels. The visage was 
 round, environed with rays and flames. It was so large it 
 nearly reached across the temple. It was so placed that the 
 sun, on rising, cast its beams upon it, which were reflected with 
 a grand refulgence. At the sides of this image were the bodies 
 of the deceased Incas, ranged according to their antiquity, and 
 
 1 Duran, 197-98. 
 
SABAISM. 341 
 
 so perfectly preserved they appeared to be alive. The visages 
 of the Incas were as if looking on the floor of the temple, with 
 the exception of Huayna Capac, the most adored of all the 
 children of the sun, who, for his eminent virtues, was seated 
 directly opposite the glorious orb. 1 
 
 A reproduction of this in Mr. Brown s " Races of Mankind" 
 shows the anthropomorphic character of the images, and indi 
 cates the origin of their sun-worship. In one of the pyramidal- 
 shaped structures surrounding the temple of the sun was found 
 the figure of the moon, with female visage, around which were 
 ranged the deceased Incas wives. Another was dedicated to 
 the stars, another to thunder and lightning, and still another to 
 the rainbow. 2 The Chibchas worshipped the sun with bloody 
 rites. Human beings were sacrificed, and infants were slain, 
 that their blood might anoint those rocks first touched by the 
 rising sun. 3 The Lacandones worshipped the sun without the 
 intervention of an image, and also the Pipiles. Among the 
 Isthmians the heavenly bodies seem to have been very gen 
 erally adored. The sun and moon were considered as man and 
 wife. The thunder and lightning were thought to be instru 
 ments used by the sun to inflict punishment on enemies. 
 Dabaiba, the goddess who received much of their worship, was 
 a sun-goddess, and undoubtedly a native princess formerly. 4 
 
 Mr. Tylor appears to be convinced of the animistic origin 
 of nature-myths. In early philosophy throughout the world 
 the sun and moon are alive, and as it were human in their 
 nature, usually contrasted as male and female : they neverthe 
 less differ in the sex assigned to them, as well as in their rela 
 tions to one another. 
 
 Among the Mbocobis of South America, the moon is a man 
 and the sun is his wife. 
 
 Moon-worship, naturally ranking below sun-worship in im 
 portance, ranges through nearly the same degree of culture. 
 
 1 Ranking, 151-52. 2 jb., 152-53. 
 
 3 P. Simon, 248-49. 4 3 Bancroft, 498. 
 
342 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 There are remarkable cases in which the moon is recognized 
 as a great deity by tribes who take less account, or none at all, 
 of the sun. The rude savages of Brazil seem especially to 
 worship or respect the moon, by which they regulate their fes 
 tivals and draw their omens. The men would hold up their 
 hands and women their babes to the moon. The Botecudos 
 are said to give the highest rank among the heavenly bodies 
 to the moon, which they say causes thunder and lightning and 
 the failure of vegetables and fruits. The Caribs esteemed the 
 moon more than the sun. The Ahts of Vancouver s Island 
 regard the sun as the male and the moon as the wife, and their 
 prayers are addressed to the moon as the superior deity and the 
 highest object of their worship. Among the Hurons the moon 
 is the maker of earth and man, and grandmother of the sun. 1 
 
 The Ilisees ascribed an anthropomorphic nature to the heav 
 enly bodies. They supposed the moon to be the wife of the 
 sun, and the stars their offspring. 2 
 
 The crude notions of savages concerning the heavenly 
 bodies find expression in many fictions. Among the Zufiis 
 their two oldest ancestors carry the sun and moon. At the 
 time of their first construction, sun and moon were both alike, 
 but the man who carries the moon has got so far away from 
 the surface of the earth that we no longer feel the heat from 
 that orb. 3 According to the unscientific creation of the Pueblo 
 Indians, the sun, moon, and stars were not made as soon as their 
 ancestors, but chaotic darkness prevailed, relieved occasionally 
 by the glare of volcanic fire which burst from the mountain 
 that had given them birth. Not satisfied with the condition of 
 affairs as they found them, this ambitious adolescent people 
 proceeded at once in the construction of sun, moon, and stars, 
 and when made they were confided to the care of Indians, who 
 are carrying them about on their backs. 4 It was not an un 
 usual thing for the Northern Indians to dream of conversing 
 
 2 Tylor, 299. a Ker s Travels, 105. 
 
 3 Cozzens s Marvellous Country, 350-51. * Ib., 346-51. 
 
SABAISM. 343 
 
 with the sun. 1 The Iroquois have a tradition in which Inigorio, 
 their first man, is the creator of the heavenly bodies, and the 
 material composing those bodies was taken from their great 
 mother, the sun being created out of her head. 2 Among the 
 California myths is one claiming that the coyote was once a 
 partner of a star in the dance. 3 Among the Mbocobis the story 
 is told that the sun once fell down in her course and an Indian 
 put it up again, when it fell again and set the forest in a blaze 
 of fire. 4 They have not had any trouble with it lately. This 
 tradition is somewhat similar to the Phaeton myth of classical 
 antiquity. Among the Mosquito Indians, Roman Catholic in 
 genuity introduced among their sun-myths that of the sun s 
 standing still for a day. The Mosquito tradition starts him on 
 his travels again in a very novel manner, showing their anthro 
 pomorphic idea about the great luminary. A mosquito scolded 
 him roundly for his behavior, but, finding it of no avail, went 
 up and stung him in the leg, which started him quickly on his 
 course. 5 According to the Indians of Tlascala, the sun was a 
 god so leprous and sick he could not move, whereupon the 
 other gods, taking advantage of his helplessness, made an oven 
 and lighted a fire and were engaged in cremating him. These 
 absurd notions of heavenly bodies prevailed throughout Amer 
 ica. Among the Northern tribes there is a tradition that the 
 sun was caught in a trap set by a boy. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that Sabaism occupies a prominent place 
 in the nature-worship of the Americans, and it can be found in 
 all its stages of development from the purely anthropomorphic 
 character that it assumes among the primitive peoples. It must 
 always be borne in mind that the savage has no knowledge of 
 the magnitude or distance of the heavenly bodies. Hence 
 most of their myths are very absurd. To give the reader a 
 proper conception of the astounding ignorance of savage and 
 even partially civilized peoples about the heavenly bodies, a few 
 
 Kohl s Kitchi-Gami, 206. 2 Schoolcraft s Iroquois, 36. 3 Ih., 400. 
 
 I Tylor, 288. s 5 Bancroft, 210. 
 
344 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 illustrations will be given of their theory of eclipses and other 
 celestial phenomena. Mr. Jones says, "The Ojibways, at an 
 eclipse of the sun, think it is dying, and shoot coals of fire at 
 it to rekindle it. They forbid their children pointing their 
 fingers at the moon, considering it an insult." x The Chiquitos 
 of Brazil called the moon mother, and during an eclipse they 
 shot arrows into the air to drive away the dogs that attacked 
 her. 2 They thought the moon was hunted across the sky by 
 huge dogs, who caught and tore her till her light was reddened 
 and quenched by the blood flowing from her wounds. The 
 Indians rushed to her rescue, and by shooting arrows frightened 
 away the antagonists, as they supposed. 
 
 Eclipses throughout the lower stages of civilization were 
 omens of disaster and portents of dismay. The Indians of 
 Tlascala thought the sun and moon were fighting when they 
 were eclipsed, and were frightened, and offered human sacrifices 
 to them. The reddest people they could get were sacrificed to 
 the sun ; albinos to the moon. 3 
 
 " There was an opinion among the Seneca nation that eclipses 
 of the sun and moon were caused by a manitou or bad spirit, 
 who mischievously intercepted the light intended to be shed 
 upon the earth and its inhabitants. Upon such occasions the 
 greatest solicitude existed. All the individuals of the tribe felt 
 a strong desire to drive away the demon, and to remove thereby 
 the impediment to the transmission of luminous rays. For this 
 purpose they went forth, and, by crying, shouting, drumming, 
 and the firing of guns, endeavored to frighten him. They never 
 failed in their object, for by courage and perseverance they in 
 fallibly drove him off. Something of the same kind is practised 
 among the Ojibways even in our day when an eclipse happens. 
 The belief among them is that there is a battle between the 
 sun and moon, which intercepts the light. Their great object 
 is, therefore, to stop the fighting and separate the combatants. 
 They think these ends can be accomplished by withdrawing the 
 
 1 Jones s Ojibways, 84, 85. 2 I Southey, 335. 3 Sahagun, bk. 7, ch. I. 
 
SABAISM. 345 
 
 attention of the contending parties from each other and divert 
 ing it to the Ojibways themselves. They accordingly fill the 
 air with noise and outcry." s 
 
 "The great eclipse of the sun on the i6th of June, 1806, 
 occurred within a few days after the death of Little Beard, an 
 Iroquois chief. This eclipse excited in the Indians a great de 
 gree of astonishment, for, as they were ignorant of astronomy, 
 they were totally unqualified to account for the phenomenon. 
 The crisis was alarming, and something must be done without 
 delay. They accordingly ran together in the three towns near 
 the Genesee River, and after a short consultation agreed that 
 Little Beard, on account of some old grudge which he yet 
 cherished toward them, had placed himself between them and 
 the sun in order that their corn might not grow, and so reduce 
 them to a state of starvation. Having thus found the cause, 
 the next thing was to remove it, which could only be done by 
 the use of powder and ball. Upon this every gun and rifle was 
 loaded, and a firing commenced that continued without cessation 
 till the old fellow left his seat and the obscurity was entirely 
 removed." 2 
 
 The Western Indians believe that when the moon is full, evil 
 spirits begin nibbling at it fo put out its light, and eat a portion 
 each night until it is all gone. Then a great spirit, who will 
 not permit the evil spirits to take advantage of the darkness 
 and go about the earth doing mischief, makes a new moon, 
 working on it every night until it is completed, when he leaves 
 it and goes to sleep. No sooner is he gone than the bad spirits 
 return and eat it up again. 3 
 
 The Nootkans had no other way of accounting for eclipses 
 except to ascribe them to the attacks of animals. The following 
 is an illustration of this. 
 
 Says Mr. Jewitt, "On the I5th of January, 1805, about mid 
 night, I was thrown into considerable alarm in consequence of 
 
 1 Mitchell, in 2 Arch. Amer., 351 seq. 2 Life of Mary Jamison, 99. 
 
 3 Belden, 290. 
 
346 PRIMITIVE -SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 an eclipse of the moon, being awakened from my sleep by a 
 great outcry of the inhabitants. On going to discover the 
 cause of this tumult, I found them all out of their houses, bear 
 ing lighted torches, singing and beating upon pieces of planks ; 
 and when I asked them the reason of this proceeding, they 
 pointed to the moon, and said that a great codfish was endeavor 
 ing to swallow her, and that they were driving him away. The 
 origin of this superstition I could not discover." x The Peru 
 vians had very much the same idea, but shouted to frighten 
 away the authors of the eclipse ; some of them thought she was 
 sick, and were afraid of her falling in total darkness. The sun 
 in an eclipse was angry, and refused to show his face. 2 The 
 natives of Cumana thought the sun and moon were man and 
 wife, and they occasionally fell out, when an eclipse occurred. 3 
 The Opatas attempt to frighten by their yells the heavenly 
 bodies during eclipses, that they may be prevented. 
 
 All the celestial phenomena are assigned to causes equally 
 absurd. Many of the Indians of the British possessions be 
 lieved that the Northern lights were the spirits of their departed 
 friends dancing in the clouds, and when these were remarkably 
 bright they said that their friends were making merry. 4 The 
 Hurons were perfectly ignorant of the causes of celestial ap 
 pearances, meteors, eclipses, and storms. They thought that 
 thunder was the voice of men flying in the air, and eclipses 
 were produced by the enemies of the sun and moon. The 
 Patagonians said that the stars were their translated country 
 men, and the Milky Way was the country where the dead Pata 
 gonians hunted ostriches. 5 The Ottawas thought the Milky 
 Way was produced by a turtle swimming along the bottom of 
 the sky and disturbing the mud. 6 The red clouds which 
 adorned the rising and the setting sun were thought to be 
 colored by the blood of men slain in battle. 7 
 
 1 Jewitt s Narrative, 134. " i Tylor, 328-29. 
 
 3 3 Herrera, 309. 4 West s Journal, 102. 
 
 s Alger s Doctrine, 79. Tanner s Nar., 320. 
 
 7 Del Techo, in 2 Church. Coll. Voy., 701-2. 
 
SABAISM. 
 
 347 
 
 The seasons appear to have been considered as the pro 
 ductions of spirits. The Algonkins spoke of these spirits as 
 the summer-makers and the winter-makers, and they tried to 
 keep the latter at bay by throwing firebrands into the air. 1 
 
 With such crude conceptions of the heavenly bodies the 
 genesis of their anthropomorphic myths is not strange. Mr. 
 Spencer thinks the identification of the heavenly bodies with 
 persons who once lived has been caused by misinterpretation 
 of names, that the moon was used in primitive times as a com 
 plimentary name for a woman, and erroneous identification of 
 object originated lunar myths. The use of such names has 
 undoubtedly been a factor in the production of Sabaistic myths. 
 A few such names were given heroes. " Chief of the Sky" was 
 the name of one of the Ojibway chiefs. A chief bearing such 
 a name with him into the spirit-land in primitive times would 
 undoubtedly have the sun assigned him for a home, and the 
 apparent worship of the sun in these early times was not a 
 worship of that luminary as such, but merely worship of its 
 inhabitant, a famous spirit. Mr. Copway, himself an Indian 
 and very familiar with the conceptions of his people on this 
 subject, declares in very emphatic language, " Very few of the 
 Northern Indians ever held the idea that the sun was an object 
 of worship." The sun was the wigwam of a great spirit, and it 
 was as the abode of this being that the Indians viewed that 
 luminary. 
 
 Such cases of assigning names of sun, moon, or stars to 
 human beings are rare, and are not sufficiently numerous to 
 account for the universal worship of the heavenly bodies which 
 we have found throughout America. Sabaism has not grown 
 into such universal practice through an occasional accidental 
 misinterpretation of names, but through animistic conceptions 
 of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 If an- ancestor, supposed to have migrated to the heavens, 
 becomes identified with certain stars, we get a clue to the 
 
 1 Parkman s Jes., Ixxv. 
 
348 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 fancies of astrology. A progenitor so translated will be con 
 ceived as still caring for his descendants, while the ancestors of 
 others will be conceived as unfriendly. Hence may result the 
 alleged good or ill fortune of being looked down upon at birth 
 by this or that star. Supposed accessibility of the heavens 
 makes similarly easy their identification with a man or woman. 
 Every male Mexican burned marks upon his wrist in honor of 
 certain stars, and no man would die without them. They wor 
 shipped Venus and drew many of their auguries from it. When 
 it first rises they bar out its light from doors and windows, for 
 its twinkle then is a bad augury. 1 Chasca, however, the Peru 
 vian Venus, was always propitious, and was a youth with long 
 and curling locks. 
 
 Astrology had not arisen as an occult science among any 
 of the American nations. Traces of its embryonic condition 
 among the Mexicans and Peruvians are found, however. 
 
 Thus it has been seen that Sabaism in all its forms prevailed 
 throughout the New World. It was anthropomorphic in its 
 character, and originated from the animistic superstition. Men 
 and animals inhabited the celestial regions. It was as yet an 
 unmapped country, as no tribe had constructed a chart of the 
 heavens, but all the fancies of the Old World in reference 
 thereto prevailed. 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 113. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ANIMISTIC THEORY OF METEOROLOGY. 
 
 Tempests produced by hostile spirits Coercive measures used to prevent them 
 Winds the manifestations of spiritual agency Anthropomorphic representations 
 of aerial deities. 
 
 THE elements were objects of worship, not as being in them 
 selves proper objects of adoration, but because they were mani 
 festations of spiritual life. Many tribes ascribed tempests, rain, 
 and hail to the agency of human spirits. 1 The land which the 
 savage inhabits is always surrounded by an unknown country, 
 which, as it becomes known, is found to be inhabited by tribes 
 hostile to him, and who have a spiritual world whose borders 
 become the borders of his spiritual world. The contests of 
 the living are carried into the realms of the dead, and every 
 wind that blows is laden with hordes of hostile spirits, and the 
 .elements wage war directed by shadowy warriors. The belief 
 is very common that the convulsions of nature are but the 
 fierce struggles of the hosts of the dead. Hence their future 
 life was not void of incident, for their spirits followed the 
 thunder-birds when the heavens were black and the lightning 
 flashed, and they waged war in the elements against the hostile 
 spirits of other tribes. The wind tore up the trees as they 
 passed along, and those cloud-spirits who gained the victory 
 hung out the bow of bright colors. 2 This is the poetic view 
 taken of their spiritual life, in the midst of and controlling the 
 elements. Every locality has been visited at some time within 
 the memory of its inhabitants or their ancestors with destructive 
 winds and storms. They were generally supposed to be pro- 
 
 1 Jos. D Acosta, bk. 5, ch. 4. 2 Eastman s Legends, 228-29. 
 
 23 349 
 
350 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 duced by demons or angry spirits. The storms and tempests 
 were generally thought to be produced by aerial spirits from 
 hostile lands. 
 
 The Guaycurus of South America, when a storm arose and 
 there was much thunder or wind, all went out in troops, as it 
 were to battle, shaking their clubs in the air, shooting flights 
 of arrows in that direction whence the storm came. 1 The 
 Araucanians thought storms, tempests, thunder, and lightning 
 were the battles waged by the spirits of their dead with their 
 enemies in the air. 2 The Indians of North America rushed 
 with firebrands and clenched fists against the wind that threat 
 ened to blow down their huts. 3 
 
 La Potterie says, " Certain savages to the north are of opinion 
 that storms are raised by the spirit of the moon, when it lodges 
 in the bottom of the sea. To pacify it, therefore, they sacrifice 
 the most valuable things they have." Thunder, as we have 
 seen, was produced by fabulous birds, according to the myths 
 of many tribes. The Hurons thought that thunder was pro 
 duced by a bird whose palace was in the sky. It left its home 
 when the clouds began to gather. The lightning flashed 
 whenever it opened or closed its wings. 4 The spirits of the 
 dead were thought to transmigrate into the thunder-birds. 
 
 Mr. Brinton has elaborated quite a system of mythology 
 in relation to the sacredness of the number four, associating 
 it with the four cardinal points and the winds that blow from 
 them. He traces many myths of origin from four brothers, 
 and considers them personifications. He says, "Sometimes 
 the myth defines clearly these fabled characters as the spirits 
 of the winds. The simplest form is that of the Algonkins 
 and Dacotahs. They both had four ancestors, concerned in 
 various ways with the first things of time, not rightly dis 
 tinguished as men or gods, but positively identified with the 
 four winds. The Creeks told of four men who came from the 
 
 1 Del Techo, in 4 Church. Coll. Voy., 732. 2 2 Molina, 92. 
 
 3 Farrar s Primitive Manners, 2. 4 Brebeuf, 2 Jes. Rel., 114. 
 
ANIMISTIC THEORY OF METEOROLOGY. 351 
 
 four corners of the earth, and after rendering them service dis 
 appeared in a cloud. The ancient inhabitants of Hayti had a 
 similar genealogical story, which Peter Martyr relates with 
 various excuses for its silliness. Perhaps the fault lay less in 
 its lack of meaning than in his want of insight. It was to the 
 effect that men lived in caves, and were destitute of means to 
 prolong their race, until they caught and subjected to their use 
 four women swift of foot and as slippery as eels. The Navajos 
 have an allegory that when they emerged from the earth the 
 four spirits of the cardinal points were already there. In the 
 mythology of Yucatan the world was supported by four mys 
 terious personages at its four corners. Four mythical civilizers 
 of the Peruvians are said to have emerged from a cave." * 
 
 In many of the myths found throughout America, one, two, 
 or three winds figure in their cosmogony, and are perhaps 
 enrolled in their pantheon of spirits. I think the effort to 
 trace four winds through the mythological stories of the Amer 
 icans would be futile, and whether there be one, two, three, or 
 four is a matter of indifference. The number of these winds 
 depends upon the locality of the tribe and the prevailing winds 
 of that locality. The spirits of the dead were supposed to 
 come riding upon the winds, and if angry could successfully 
 assert their power in the tempest. The most delightful future 
 the Indian could picture for himself after death was 
 
 " To be imprisoned in the viewless winds 
 And blown with restless violence round about 
 The pendent world." 
 
 An Ojibway folk-tale of a great concourse of spirits that pre 
 sided over nature and natural objects will illustrate our subject. 
 " There were spirits from all parts of the country." Some 
 came with crashing steps and roaring voice, who directed the 
 whirlwinds which were in the habit of raging about the neigh 
 boring country. Then glided in gently a sweet little spirit 
 which blew the summer gale. Then came in the old sand- 
 
 1 Brinton s Myths, 77-85. 
 
352 PRIMITIVE SUPE&STM1ONS. 
 
 spirit, who blew the sand-squalls in the sand-buttes toward the 
 west. He was a great speech-maker, and shook the lodge with 
 his deep-throated voice as he addressed the spirits of the cata 
 racts and waterfalls, and those of the islands, who wore beauti 
 ful green blankets. 
 
 The anthropomorphic character of the spirits that preside 
 over the elements is aptly illustrated in Fig. 21, the god of 
 
 FIG. 21. 
 
 the air, as represented on a vase from South America, copied 
 by Bollaert. The figure is painted red on a yellow ground. 
 
 A mythical ^Eolus was a prominent character in the folk-lore 
 of many tribes. There was an Iroquois tradition connected 
 with a rock in Corlear s Lake on which the waves dash and fly 
 up to a great height. When the wind blew hard, the Indians 
 believed that an old Indian living under this rock, who had the 
 power over the winds, was angry, and therefore as they passed 
 it, in their voyages over, they always threw a pipe or some other 
 small present to this old Indian, and prayed for a favorable 
 wind. 1 
 
 The doctrine of spiritual agency is the explanation of the 
 meteorological phenomena known and feared by uncultured man. 
 
 1 Colden s Hist. Five Nations, ed. 1750, 32. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 PRIESTCRAFT. 
 
 Priests Sources of their influence Medicine-men or doctors of rude tribes 
 Exorcism of evil spirits the method of curing diseases Sorcerers Miraculous 
 powers ascribed to them Rain-doctors Witches Rise of priestly hierarchies 
 among the more civilized peoples Priesthoods of Peru, Mexico, Yucatan, etc. 
 Monastic institutions of those countries Educational institutions in the hands 
 of the priests Their influence in the State Confessional Priestly absolution 
 saved criminals from legal penalties. 
 
 THE supposed power of priests over spirits has been the 
 source of their influence in all religions, savage and civilized. 
 The Tahkali priest lays his hand on the head of the nearest 
 relative of the deceased and blows into him the soul of the 
 departed, which is supposed to come to life in his next child. 
 The survival of this superstition is found in the apostolic suc 
 cession. Says the modern priest at ordination, " Receive the 
 Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the church 
 of God now committed unto thee by the imposition of our 
 hands." 
 
 In addition to the power of transmission of spiritual essence, 
 primitive exorcism also survived to recent times. The power of 
 the modern priest as an exorcist has about departed, although 
 the Roman Catholic Church has always had a specially ordained 
 body of exorcists, and retains the belief in the efficacy of exor 
 cism. Even the Church of England adopted the superstition, 
 exorcising infants before baptism in these words : " I command 
 thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and 
 of the Holy Ghost, that thou come out and depart from these 
 infants." 
 
 Spencer s Sociology, 256, 260. 
 
 353 
 
354 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 The priestly office is not found among primitive peoples. 
 The predecessors of the priests in spiritual influence were the 
 doctors, who practised their art by sorcery and knew little or 
 nothing of medication. Sickness is a sign to the savage that 
 his gods are against him, and therefore in all early stages of 
 culture the office of priest and physician was one. 1 Among 
 the Northern tribes there were in every tribe " medicine-men" 
 who united in themselves the offices of priest, physician, and 
 fortune-teller or prophet. They were supposed to possess 
 unusual powers because of their constant communion with, 
 and influence over, spirits. Various and extravagant were their 
 incantations ; their charms mysterious. They had a special 
 dress for their profession. They thought that all distempers 
 were caused by evil spirits ; consequently none of their phy 
 sicians attempted to effect a cure until they had conversed with 
 their familiar spirits and ascertained whether their aid could be 
 secured in the effort to exorcise the adverse demons. Violent 
 gestures and noises were added to their other efforts for the 
 purpose of frightening the spirits. Some used gourds with 
 peas in them for a rattle ; others a drum. They would scarify 
 the patient, and then suck until they had gotten out, in the 
 words of Lawson, " a great quantity of very ill-colored matter, 
 and performing grimaces and antic postures which are not to 
 be matched in Bedlam." 2 
 
 Even in cases of fracture the same superstition prevailed. 
 The following description of a surgical performance among 
 the Pawnees is from Mr. Murray: " I learned that in the hunt 
 already described a good many Indians had been bruised or 
 wounded. Among those who were hurt was a chief of some 
 distinction ; he had a few ribs and one of his arms broken. 
 The setting of this last, together with the completion of his 
 wound-dressing, was to be accompanied with much ceremony: 
 so I determined to be a spectator. I went accordingly to his 
 lodge, where a great crowd was already assembled. A pro- 
 
 1 Brinton s Religious Sentiment, 240. 2 Jones s Antiquities, 28-33. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 355 
 
 found silence was observed, and when all the medicine-men 
 and relatives had arrived and taken their seats, a great medi 
 cine-pipe was brought and passed round with the usual cere 
 monial observances of a certain number of whiffs to the earth, 
 the buffalo spirit, and other spirits. The pipe was not handed 
 to the wounded man, probably because he was supposed to be 
 for a time under the influence of a bad spirit and therefore not 
 entitled to the privileges of the medicine. When this smoking 
 ceremony was concluded, three or four of the doctors or con 
 jurers and a few of the great medicine-men assembled round 
 him ; the former proceeded to feel his side and apply some 
 remedy to it, while one of them set the arm and bound it very 
 strongly round with leather and thongs. During this operation 
 the medicine-men stooped over him and went through sundry 
 mummeries which I could not accurately distinguish. As soon 
 as the bandages and dressings were completed they began a 
 medicine-dance around him. At first the movement was slow 
 and accompanied by the low ordinary chant, but gradually 
 both acquired violence and rapidity, till at length they reached 
 the height of fury and frenzy. They swung their tomahawks 
 round the head of the wounded man, rushed upon him with 
 the most dreadful yells, shook the weapons violently in his 
 face, jumped repeatedly over him, pretending each time to give 
 him the fatal blow, then checking it as it descended, and, while 
 once or twice I saw them push and kick his limbs, one of the 
 most excited struck him several very severe blows on the 
 breast. On inquiry, I learned that all these gesticulations 
 were intended to threaten and banish the evil spirit which 
 was supposed to have posesssed him." 1 
 
 Among the New England Indians, says Roger Williams, 
 "the priest was doctor, and came and conjured away their 
 sickness with many strange actions." 2 " The greatest part of 
 these conjurers do merely abuse the people, who commonly die 
 under their hands, for, alas! they administer nothing but howl 
 
 1 I Murray s Travels N. A., 330, seq. 2 Williams s Key, 112. 
 
356 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 and roar." The method of cure of diseases was about the 
 same among the medicine-men of the Northwest coast. They 
 were supposed to possess the power of exorcising and driving 
 away the ghosts or spirits of the dead and the evil spirits that 
 were supposed to prey on the vitals of a sick person. 2 Among 
 the tribes of the Northwest the medicine-men in their practice 
 generally begin by singing, accompanying it with rattles or 
 something that will make a great noise, and follow with mes 
 meric passes over the body of the patient. They get more 
 excited as time passes, if quieter methods do not succeed. One 
 of the most violent of their doctors around Shoalwater Bay 
 was always called when the others failed. Mr. Swan gives an 
 interesting account of his operations. " Old John came bring 
 ing with him his family of some half-dozen persons, who aided 
 him in the cure by attacking the roof with long poles. Old 
 John sat at the patient s feet with his head covered up with a 
 blanket for some time. All at once he threw off his blanket 
 and commenced to sing and throw himself about in the most 
 excited manner, rattling large scallop-shells, the chorus in the 
 mean time keeping up their pounding on the roof and also on a 
 couple of tin pans and a brass kettle. He soon mesmerized his 
 patient till she was asleep, when he pounced upon her breast 
 with his whole weight and scooped his hands together as if he 
 had caught something, which he tried to blow through his 
 hands into the coals; but the skookum escaped by slipping out 
 of his hands. He said he was sure he could get it in a day or 
 two." 3 
 
 The Loucheux and other Indians of British America had 
 the same superstitious and implicit faith in the incantations of 
 their medicine-men. Their influence exceeded even that of the 
 chiefs. The conjurer ruled supreme when sickness prevailed. 
 He pretended to dream of the death of certain persons, and 
 when it became known to these persons they came to him with 
 their offerings and begged his intervention to prevent their 
 
 1 Williams s Key, 159. 2 Swan s Wash. Ter., 176. 3 Ib., 183-84. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 357 
 
 doom. Many persons have fallen sick and actually died from 
 the effects of such stories. An impious Ojibway who kicked 
 a medicine-man received a severe punishment for his irrev 
 erence, for his leg was looped up to his thigh, according to 
 tradition, and he had to hop all the rest of his life. 1 In this 
 way the character and power of these cunning rogues reached 
 a height where they were ever after looked upon with fear and 
 respect. 
 
 " The medicine-men held the same relation to the Dacotahs 
 as the Druids to the ancient Britons. They were the most 
 powerful and influential of the tribe. They were looked upon 
 as a species of demi-gods. They asserted their origin to be 
 miraculous. At first they were spiritual existences, encased in a 
 seed of some description of a winged nature, like the thistle. 
 Wafted by the breeze to the dwelling-place of the gods, they 
 were received to intimate communion. After being instructed 
 in relation to the mysteries of the spirit-world, they went forth 
 to study the character of all tribes. After deciding upon a 
 residence, they entered the body of some one about to become 
 a mother, and were ushered by her into the world." 2 
 
 Among the Dacotahs, the doctor rattles his gourd, sucks the 
 patient, and thrusts his face into a bowl of water to get rid of 
 the disease by immersing it. If he decides it is some animal 
 that is producing the sickness, he has an animal-shaped image 
 made, and put in a bowl of water mixed with red earth and 
 placed outside of the tent, where young men stand ready to 
 shoot. When the doctor gets the disease he pops his head out 
 of the tent and transfers it to the image, when the young men 
 blow the little bark animal to atoms. All of the fragments of 
 the image are then gathered together and burned. 3 The medi 
 cine-men are not infallible, and sometimes make mistakes in 
 their diagnosis of cases and ascribe the trouble to a wrong 
 animal. At the death of Iron Arms, a great warrior, it was 
 
 1 2 Algic Researches, 34. 2 I Minn. Hist. Coll., 269. 
 
 3 Eastman s Legends, 23. 
 
358 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 said he died because the doctor had made a mistake and 
 thought a prairie-dog had entered him, when it was a mud hen. 1 
 Such mistakes have tended to bring their conjurations into 
 disrespect, and they were often treated with great severity by 
 relatives of the dead. Women were allowed to practise medi 
 cine, and this custom also undoubtedly brought disrepute upon 
 medical practice, since very little regard is shown women 
 among uncivilized peoples. If they were unsuccessful in work 
 ing a cure, they were very often killed. The following is told 
 by Mr. Battey. " At the death of Ne-wah-kass-ett, chief of the 
 Wichitas, his brother Keechi took his rifle, and, entering the 
 lodge of the medicine-woman, without saying a word, delib 
 erately shot her dead for having administered bad medicine. 
 In all probability the woman had done the best she knew." 
 Those in the village tore down her lodge and piled it with her 
 effects upon her dead body, and set fire to the whole. 2 The 
 following curious illustration of medical practice among the 
 Piutes since the advent of the whites is very amusing. The 
 medicine-woman who is the subject of the description bore the 
 simple yet modest name of " Heap-Chokee," a name given to 
 her in memory of the able manner in which, during her fifteenth 
 year, she strangled two wounded emigrants whom her dear 
 father had previously scalped. She became a widow at the 
 age of sixty, and, having been duly examined by the chief men 
 of the tribe and pronounced to be far too ugly for matrimonial 
 purposes, she was duly licensed to practise medicine according 
 to the tenets of the regular Piute medical school. Shortly 
 afterward Dr. Heap-Chokee was called in to prescribe for a 
 squaw who was in the last stages of consumption. Having 
 made a careful examination of the patient by punching her in 
 tender places with the handle of a hoe, the doctor decided that 
 the case was one which did not call for drugs, but for " pow 
 wow." She therefore shut herself up in the patient s wigwam 
 and danced and howled with much vigor for several hours, at 
 
 1 Eastman s Legends, 41. 3 Battey s Quaker among Indians, 57. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 359 
 
 the expiration of which the patient was found to be dead. It 
 so happened that the consumptive squaw was not a valuable 
 one, and, in fact, her husband was rather glad that she was 
 dead. Still, the death of the doctor s first patient was not 
 adapted to give her a reputation for medical skill, and the affair 
 was therefore investigated by a council of able warriors. The 
 council decided that the doctor had committed an error in not 
 prescribing medicine, and, while it was expressly conceded that 
 it was not worth while to severely reprimand her for the death 
 of a worthless squaw, she was affectionately warned that she 
 would do well in future to prescribe a good dose of real medi 
 cine. A fortnight later a young warrior was brought into 
 camp, suffering from an acute attack of grizzly bear, the lead 
 ing symptom of which was the fracture of a dozen or two of 
 his ribs and a general mashing of the internal organs. This 
 time the doctor compounded a medicine that really ought to 
 have worked wonders. It was made by boiling together a col 
 lection of miscellaneous weeds, a handful of chewing-tobacco, 
 the heads of four rattlesnakes, and a select assortment of worn- 
 out moccasins. The decoction thus obtained was seasoned 
 with a little crude petroleum and a large quantity of red pepper, 
 and the patient was directed to take a pint of the mixture every 
 half-hour. He was a brave man, conspicuous for his fortitude 
 under suffering, but after taking his first dose he turned over 
 and died with the utmost expedition. Again the council of 
 leading warriors investigated the case. They analyzed and 
 tasted the medicine, and agreed that it was faultless in its way. 
 While they fully approved of the prescription, they found that 
 the doctor relied upon it alone and had omitted to dance and 
 yell. This innovation was not passed over in silence, and Dr. 
 Heap-Chokee was solemnly warned that she must either prac 
 tise medicine properly or meet the consequences, and that 
 young and valuable warriors could not be wasted with im 
 punity. Soon after the daughter of the leading chief was 
 attacked by what was undoubtedly an inflammation of the 
 brain. Warned by experience, the doctor brought the entire 
 
360 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 resources of the medical art to bear upon the case. She not 
 only administered large doses of her favorite decoction, but she 
 took a large tin pan into the patient s wigwam and hammered 
 it for twenty-four hours, during which time she never ceased to 
 dance and to yell at the top of her lungs. Her zeal called forth 
 the admiration of the whole tribe, and it was considered certain 
 that the patient must recover ; but, strange as it may seem, the 
 doctor emerged from the wigwam in the morning of the second 
 day, and sadly announced that the girl was dead. Once more 
 the council met, but its deliberations were short. Dr. Heap- 
 Chokee had attended three patients, and every one had died. 
 There could be no doubt that she was an unsuccessful physi 
 cian, and that if she continued to practise the tribe would soon 
 be extinct. The course to be pursued was too plain to be 
 ignored. The doctor was summoned, and was mildly but 
 firmly told that her professional career was at an end. Three 
 warriors then led her outside the limits of the camp, and ad 
 ministered to her six revolver-bullets, after which lots were 
 drawn for the possession of her scalp, and the rest of her was 
 quietly buried. * Although this account is written in a humor 
 ous vein, it represents fairly the methods of all the savage 
 peoples in such circumstances. 
 
 Among the uncivilized tribes of South America the same 
 system of medical practice prevailed. The Abipone physician 
 was also prophet, sorcerer, and priest. Their method of cure 
 was to suck the part in which the pain was located, and if the 
 whole body was affected several of them were required. They 
 would, after a while, produce a beetle or a worm, which they 
 had previously put into their mouth, and said that it was the 
 cause of the disorder. 2 Among the Patagonians the same 
 notions prevailed. The sick were possessed with evil spirits, 
 and the doctor went around with a drum intended to frighten 
 them away. 3 
 
 The principal employment of the American sorcerers was 
 
 1 New York Times. 2 2 Dobriz., 248-51. 3 2 ib., 262. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 361 
 
 the cure of disease by incantations ; but the medicine-men did 
 not inspire so much superstitious fear in the minds of the people 
 by the practice of the healing art as by their other impostures, 
 prominent among which was witchcraft. These sorcerers were 
 also supposed to have the power of causing as well as of curing 
 diseases, and were much dreaded by the people in consequence. 1 
 
 The practice of witchcraft aided the American sorcerers in 
 obtaining great influence. Most of the uncivilized tribes thought 
 that a skilful sorcerer could kill any one in the space of twenty- 
 four hours merely by means of the black art, and even at the 
 distance of many hundred miles. They were also able to cause 
 long and lingering disorders in any one they pleased. 2 
 
 As the Indians in general believed in witchcraft, and ascribed 
 to the arts of sorcerers many of the disorders with which they 
 were afflicted in the regular course of nature, this class of men 
 pretended to be skilled in a certain occult science, by means of 
 which they were able not only to cure natural diseases, but to 
 counteract or destroy the enchantments of wizards or witches. 
 The Ojibway sorcerers were thought to have the power of 
 transferring disease from the patient who paid them to his 
 enemy. To effect this, he made a small wooden image of his 
 patient s enemy. He pierced this image in the heart, and intro 
 duced small powders, which, accompanied with the proper 
 incantations, were supposed to transfer the disease to the per 
 son represented in the image. 3 Mr. Tanner says the necro 
 mancers pretend to exercise an unlimited control over the 
 body and mind of the person represented by these images, 
 which they make of stained wood and rags, to which the name 
 is given of the person they expect to control, and to the heart, 
 eyes, or some other part of this image they apply their medi 
 cines, which have an effect upon the person represented. The 
 sorcerers can work their injuries if they have a hair or any part 
 of the person against whom they wish to direct them. 4 
 
 Brett, 284-89. 2 Loskiel, 118. 32 Keating, 159. 
 
 * Tanner s Narrative, 190-91. 
 
362 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 What a key we have here to the whole labyrinth of idolatrous 
 and fetichistic superstitions ! Among the Iroquois the belief in 
 witchcraft was universal, and the effect upon their prosperity 
 and population, if tradition is to be credited, was at times 
 appalling. The witches constituted a secret association, which 
 met at night to consult on mischief, and each was bound to 
 inviolable secrecy. A witch had power to turn into a fox or 
 wolf. In order to escape, they could transform themselves into 
 a turkey and fly away. Sometimes they changed themselves 
 into a stone or rotten log until their pursuers passed by. 
 These witches could blow hairs and worms into a person and 
 produce disease. 1 
 
 " 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 con 
 jurers, of the causes which produce it, and the manner in which 
 it is acquired, they have a very indefinite 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 understand 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 au ay, or a fit of sickness seizes him, and 
 he dies at last a miserable victim to the workings of his own 
 imagination." 
 
 The supposed familiarity of the Indian sorcerer with the in 
 habitants of the spiritual world gave him his influence. Most 
 of his official duty consisted in calling on his familiar spirit or 
 spirits, whose attention and aid having been once secured, 
 miraculous power was supposed to be conferred upon him. 
 Some of these sorcerers claimed to influence several of these 
 spirits. An Eskimo sorcerer had as many as ten of these spirits 
 under his control. Chusco, an acquaintance of Mr. School- 
 
 1 Schoolcraft s Troquois, 87. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 363 
 
 craft, claimed to influence the spirits of the turtle, swan, crow, 
 and woodpecker. 1 Plate V. will illustrate the Indian s concep 
 tion of the spiritual world and the sorcerer s influence therein. 
 The sorcerer s lodge can be seen, wherein he is calling upon his 
 familiar spirits, and they are coming and entering the lodge. 
 As each spirit arrives, the lodge shakes. When they are all 
 assembled, the sorcerer can use them as he pleases. The pic 
 ture represents a prophet s lodge. It must be borne in mind 
 that the sorcerer is also doctor and prophet. In prophecy he 
 is supposed to be able to send these agents to the uttermost 
 parts of his earth in a few seconds, and get information upon 
 any subject by these messengers. 2 
 
 Primitive prophecy was considered under the subject of their 
 dream-theories. Such revelations came to any who were under 
 favorable conditions. The power of sorcerers to send their 
 spirit messengers for information to other localities for tribal 
 advantage, is an early step toward national prophecy. 
 
 Henry tells the following of the Ojibways in illustration of 
 this subject: "Before setting forward on the voyage, prepara 
 tions were made for invoking and consulting the great turtle. 
 They built a large wigwam for the use of the priest and recep 
 tion of the spirit. The ceremonies began at night. The priest 
 then appeared, and crept under the skins of the tent on his 
 hands and knees. His head was scarcely within side when the 
 edifice, massy as it has been described, began to shake, and the 
 sounds of numerous voices were heard beneath the tent, some 
 yelling, some barking as dogs, some howling like wolves, and 
 in this horrible concert were mingled screams and sobs as 
 of despair, anguish, and the sharpest pain. After some time 
 these confused and frightful noises were succeeded by a perfect 
 silence, and now a voice not heard before seemed to manifest 
 the arrival of a new character in the tent. This was a low and 
 feeble voice, resembling the cry of a young puppy. The sound 
 was no sooner distinguished than all the Indians clapped their 
 
 1 4 Schoolcraft s Indian Tribes, 491. 2 5 ib., 422. 
 
364 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 hands for joy, exclaiming that this was the chief spirit, the 
 turtle, the spirit that never lied. Other voices which they had 
 discriminated from time to time they had previously hissed as 
 evil and lying spirits which deceive mankind. New sounds 
 came from the tent. During the space of half an hour a suc 
 cession of songs were heard, in which a diversity of voices met 
 the ear. From his first entrance till these songs were finished 
 we heard nothing in the proper voice of the priest; but now he 
 addressed the multitude, declaring the presence of the great 
 turtle, and the spirit s readiness to answer such questions as 
 should be proposed. The questions were to come from the 
 chief of the village, who was silent, however, till after he had 
 put a large quantity of tobacco into the tent, introducing it at 
 the aperture. This was a sacrifice offered to the spirit, for 
 spirits are supposed by the Indians to be as fond of tobacco as 
 themselves. The chief then desired the priest to inquire 
 whether the English were preparing to make war upon the In 
 dians. This question having been put by the priest, the tent 
 instantly shook, and for some seconds after it continued to rock 
 so violently that I expected to see it levelled with the ground. 
 Then a terrific cry announced the departure of the turtle. 
 The spirit soon returned, having in its absence crossed Lake 
 Huron and proceeded as far as Montreal. It announced that 
 the St. Lawrence was covered with boats full of soldiers coming 
 to fight the Indians. Inquiries about private affairs were after 
 ward made." 
 
 Prophecy among the Potawatomies suffered a loss of the 
 respect formerly paid it, on account of the failure of the pre 
 dictions of the famous brother of Tecumseh, and of his attempt 
 to deceive the Indians. 1 His influence was great for a time. 
 This Shawnee prophet well knew how, by surrounding him 
 self with awe-inspiring mysteries, to produce an effect on the 
 susceptible imaginations of the Indians. Bearing in his right 
 hand the string of sacred beans and the magic fire, and carry- 
 
 * i Keating, 133-34. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 365 
 
 ing with him also an image of a dead body, the size of life, 
 made out of some light material, he passed from wigwam to 
 wigwam and from tribe to tribe, and his solemn, mysterious 
 manner procured for him everywhere admission and confidence 
 even among the wild and hostile Indians of the Upper Missouri. 1 
 
 What a weird spectacle this famous sorcerer presented as he 
 stood upon the eminence overlooking the battle at Tippecanoe, 
 working his spells and hurling the imprecations of his spirit- 
 world, which he was supposed to command, against the Ameri 
 cans under General Harrison ! Truly in that defeat prophecy 
 received its death-blow among the Red men of the forest The 
 Natches, who appear to have been considerably in advance of 
 all the tribes in the United States and British America in civil 
 ization, did not have a priestly order, although some progress 
 had been made in that direction. The eight guardians of the 
 sacred fire were dedicated to that duty, but, as there were no 
 offerings, libations, or sacrifices, these persons cannot be con 
 sidered priests. On the contrary, they had conjurers among 
 them who undoubtedly practised as did those of the barbarous 
 tribes. 2 The power of prophecy was ascribed to them. 
 
 The American sorcerers practised another imposture. They 
 used witchcraft to control the elements. Those around Fresh 
 water Bay kept the wind in leather bags, and disposed of it 
 as they pleased. 3 A Cree sorcerer sold three days of fair 
 wind for one pound of tobacco. " There were among the 
 Delawares," says Heckewelder, " old men and women who got 
 their living by pretending to supernatural knowledge to bring 
 down rain when wanted. In the summer of 1799 a most un 
 common drought happened in the Muskingum country. An 
 old man was applied to by the women to bring down rain, and, 
 after various ceremonies, 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 declaration. But 
 
 1 i Mollhausen s Journey to the Pacific, 72. 2 McCulloh, 162. 
 
 3 Hardy s Travels, 357. 
 
 24 
 
3 66 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 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 forerunners of rain; yet the credu 
 lous multitude did not fail to ascribe it to his supernatural 
 power." When the Natches wanted rain, or when they desired 
 hot weather for ripening their corn, they addressed themselves 
 to the old man who had the greatest character for living wisely, 
 and they entreated him to invoke the aerial spirits in order to 
 obtain what they demanded. The old man, who never refused 
 his countrymen s request, prepared to fast for nine days to 
 gether; he ordered his wife to withdraw, and during the whole 
 time he ate nothing but a dish of gruel boiled in water with 
 out salt, which was brought him once a day by his wife after 
 sunset. They never will accept of any reward for this service, 
 that the spirits may not be angry with them. 1 The Virginia 
 sorcerers pretended to lay storms by going to the water s side 
 and making offerings to the spirits of the waters. In Guiana 
 the sorcerers thought they could control the rain and the 
 clouds by incantation. 2 Those of Paraguay were thought to 
 have the same superhuman control over the rain, hail, and 
 tempests. 
 
 Among the Brazilians, the sorcerers made them believe that 
 the fruitfulness and barrenness of the earth were owing to their 
 influence. Among many of the tribes they boasted that the 
 growth of plants and fruits was owing to them, and that all the 
 blessings of heaven flowed only on account of their zeal and 
 prayers. 3 
 
 These accounts of the sorcerers show them to have been a 
 set of professional impostors, who, availing themselves of the 
 superstitious prejudices of the people, acquired the name and 
 reputation of men of superior knowledge and possessed of 
 supernatural powers. Many of these sorcerers were believed to 
 
 1 2 Du Pratz, Louisiana, 241. 2 Brett, 208. 3 3 Ticart, 18. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 367 
 
 be able to work miracles. A young Comanche medicine-man 
 pretended to bring the dead to life. He also ascended to the 
 clouds far beyond the sun. He had several times ascended in 
 the presence of the Comanches, remaining in the sky over 
 night and coming back next day. He succeeded in deluding 
 the minds of his people in the following manner. It is given 
 out that at a certain time he will visit the sun. He withdraws 
 himself a short distance from the crowd, charging them to look 
 directly at the sun until he speaks to them, then let their eyes 
 slowly fall to the place where he is standing. As they do this, 
 they will see dark bodies descend to receive him, with which 
 he will ascend. His directions being complied with, the dark 
 objects descend to him, and, being blinded by their continual 
 gazing upon the sun, he bids them slowly raise their eyes, and 
 the dark objects arise, while he conveys himself away and con 
 ceals himself until the appointed time of his return. 1 The 
 Medicine Bluffs received the name from the following legend. 
 Many years since, a noted medicine-man of the Comanche 
 tribe, in company with some friends, rode up the slope of the 
 hill, when this frightful precipice of two hundred or two hun 
 dred and fifty feet appeared before them, stopping them in their 
 course. But the medicine-man was not to be stopped, neither 
 turned aside. Uttering some words of Indian magic, he rode 
 his horse over the precipice; but, to the astonishment of his 
 friends, instead of being dashed to pieces at the bottom, he was 
 gently borne across the chasm to the opposite bank of the 
 stream, where, finding himself alone, he turned his horse to 
 look for his friends, whom he beheld at the top of the bluff, 
 afraid to follow and too proud to go around. To relieve 
 them from their unpleasant position, he rode back and to the 
 bottom of the perpendicular wall of rock, which rent at his 
 approach, dividing the bluff into two parts by forming a chasm 
 through the cliff several feet in width, through and up which 
 he rode, rejoining his companions at the top, who then followed 
 
 1 Battey s Quaker among Indians, 302-3. 
 
368 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 him down through the pass thus made, now known as the 
 Medicine-Man s Pass. 1 Wood, in his " New England Pros 
 pect," says, " The Indians report of one Passaconnaw that hee 
 can make the water burne, the rocks move, the trees dance, and 
 metamorphose himself into a flaming man. Hee will do more; 
 for in winter, when there are no green leaves to be got, he will 
 burne an old one to ashes, and, putting those into the water, 
 produce a new green leaf, which you shall not only see, but 
 substantially handle and carrie away; and make of a dead 
 snake s skin a living snake, both to be seen, felt, and heard. 
 This I write but upon the report of the Indians, who confidently 
 affirm stranger things." Thomas Morton, writing of the same 
 man, says he was " a Powah of great estimation amongst all 
 kinde of salvages ; he has been scene by our English in the 
 heat of summer to make ice appear in a bowle of faire water; 
 first having the water set before him, he began his incantations 
 according to their usual accustom, and before the same had bin 
 ended, a thick clowde darkened the aire, and on a sodaine a 
 thunder clap was heard that amazed the natives. In an instant 
 he showed a firme piece of ice. It floted in the middle of the 
 bowle in the presence of the vulgar people, which doubtless 
 was done by the agency of Satan, his consort." 
 
 Those dwelling about St. Francis River could make their 
 rods to bud and shoot forth green branches. They could meta 
 morphose themselves at pleasure. They were thought in many 
 tribes to have power to bring the dead to life. 
 
 They so imposed on the Roman Catholic priests, who were 
 predisposed to accept superstitions, that many of them believed 
 most implicitly in their supernatural powers. One of them who 
 labored among the Kootenais says he saw one of their sorcerers 
 command a mountain-sheep to fall dead, and the animal, then 
 leaping among the rocks, fell lifeless. " This I saw with my own 
 eyes," says he, " and ate of the animal afterward. It was un- 
 wounded, healthy, and perfectly wild." 2 
 
 1 Battey s Quaker among Indians, 62, 63. 2 Beach, 76-78. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 369 
 
 Ascription of supernatural power often occurs on account of 
 the possession of some mysterious object which is supposed to 
 have a powerful spirit within it. Mr. Adair mentions a case 
 among the Southern tribes in which a sorcerer had gained 
 much distinction and had imposed upon the people by the use 
 of a carbuncle nearly as big as an egg, which reflected the light 
 with such strong flashes as to inspire terror in the minds of the 
 superstitious natives. 1 Mr. Du Pratz, while among the natives 
 of Louisiana, attained great distinction as a sorcerer by drawing 
 down fire from the sun, to use their language, with a burning- 
 glass. Some of the sorcerers among the Western tribes im 
 posed upon the Indians by pretending to eat fire which they 
 placed in their mouth and then extinguished the flame. 2 A 
 sorcerer among the Cherokees who had been removed to the 
 Western country had a knife which was magnetized, and he 
 influenced the tribe to do as he wished by imposing on them 
 by this mystery. Whatever he wished them to do he would 
 announce when he was attracting the mineral substance. 
 
 They often impose on the people by finding out ahead of the 
 tribe that an enemy is coming, and announce it as though it 
 was revelation. Whatever they conjecture or learn from secret 
 intelligence they predict as about to happen, with infinite pom 
 posity, and are listened to with as much attention as though 
 they were really inspired. When they call their spiritual agents, 
 they retire into a tent, mutter awhile, then command, and the 
 shade comes, which they interrogate, and, changing the voice, 
 give the answers, and every one present believes. Before a 
 battle, they ride around the ranks with fierce countenance, 
 imprecating evil on their enemies. On account of this cere 
 mony, if victory comes, the best part of the spoils is adjudged 
 to them as the fruit of their office. Whatever they wish they 
 extort from these credulous people. If they imagine them 
 selves injured by any, they will command the persons to come 
 to them and then lacerate them till the blood streams from 
 
 1 American Indians, 87. 2 Lee and Frost, 164. 
 
3/0 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 their body. They keep the people in dread by threatening to 
 turn into a wild beast and tear them to pieces. This they be 
 lieve they are able to do, and if they begin to roar like some 
 ferocious animal the people will fly in every direction. 
 
 The belief in shamanism is universal in Alaska. The words 
 and actions of the shaman, or sorcerer, are considered infallible 
 by the Thlinkeets, and believed implicitly by them. A shaman 
 has the faculty not only of calling spirits from the vasty deep, 
 but also the power to make them come when he calls for them. 
 Their mode of initiation is to retire to some forest or mountain 
 and fast. Here the river-otter is said to come and visit them, 
 from whom they get the secret of their profession. If the 
 novitiate fails in this way, he repairs to the grave of some 
 shaman, and remains over-night with a tooth or finger of the 
 corpse in his mouth. Some of these shamans control a large 
 number of spirits, and these he can command at will. 1 
 
 Among the Chukchees and Koriaks, the head of every family 
 performs the office of shaman. 2 This is evidence of their 
 having made little progress from their primitive condition. 
 
 Among the more barbarous tribes the priestly office had 
 never been separated from that of doctor and conjurer. Among 
 a few of the tribes occupying the territory of the United States 
 a division of these offices had begun to take place. The Chero- 
 kees appointed every year one of their tribe to make the sac 
 rifices for the people. 3 The office of priesthood appears to 
 have just been instituted among them. One family of the tribe 
 was set apart for this office. He, however, continued to per 
 form the office of " medicine-man" and sorcerer. He also in 
 terpreted omens and baptized their infants soon after birth, 
 which was a custom from time immemorial among them. A 
 priesthood had been established among the Powhatans of Vir 
 ginia, and many of the tricks of these priests were discovered by 
 the Europeans. They made the idols move and talk as they 
 
 1 Ball s Alaska, 424-26. 3 Ib., 513. 
 
 3 i Logan s South Carolina, 26. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 371 
 
 pleased, by being concealed in them, whilst another priest kept 
 back the people, who were filled with curiosity, from discov 
 ering and profaning by their presence the holy of holies. These 
 priests were celibates. The natives of Florida had priests who 
 communed with invisible spirits and who alone were allowed 
 within the temple with their gods. 1 The Florida priests 
 were trained to their business by severe fasting, which induces 
 visions and a supposed intimate correspondence with the deities. 
 
 Among the Ojibways, the medicine-men appear to have 
 formed a secret society with a ceremony of initiation. They 
 held secret convocations, which were held in high veneration 
 by their deluded brethren. The chiefs never undertook any 
 thing of importance without consulting such a convocation. 
 Among the Dacotahs, a sacred language had sprung up among 
 their sorcerers, who had not yet, however, attained to a priestly 
 dignity. 2 
 
 Among the Eskimos, the angekok was sorcerer, doctor, and 
 priest. They had, however, formed a caste in this world and 
 in the next. The ordinary sorcerers did not rank with these 
 angekoks, but were an inferior order who worked injuries to the 
 people. The angekoks, before assuming the office, retired to 
 a secluded spot and fasted until they dreamed of beasts and 
 monsters, which they supposed to be real spiritual existences 
 and became familiar spirits. 3 It will be noticed that these ange 
 koks went through the same ceremony for obtaining their 
 spiritual agent which every Indian did among the other wild 
 tribes of America; but among the Eskimos it seems to have 
 been confined to the angekoks. It shows they had taken one 
 step in advance of the neighboring tribes in the establishment 
 of a priestly hierarchy. The surrender of this primitive custom 
 to the angekoks is quite significant. They used the superiority 
 which they had begun to acquire to fasten their impostures 
 upon the people, for they admitted to Europeans, says Mr. 
 Crantz, that their pretended intercourse with the spiritual world 
 
 1 Bartram s Travels, 497. 2 Eastman s Chicora, 16. 3 i Crantz, 194. 
 
372 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 was a pretence to deceive the simple, and they avowed the 
 falsehood of apparitions. 1 
 
 The Caribs had a priesthood, and put all candidates for it 
 through a pretty severe discipline. They fasted, became intox 
 icated with tobacco-juice, and did all other acts which prepared 
 their minds, as they thought, to consult the genii. They always 
 practised their art in the night-time, where and when their 
 imposture could not be discovered. 
 
 Persons whose constitutional unsoundness induces morbid 
 manifestations are indeed marked out by nature to become 
 seers and sorcerers. Among the Patagonians, patients seized 
 with falling sickness or St. Vitus s dance were at once selected 
 for magicians, as chosen by the spirits themselves, who pos 
 sessed and convulsed them. 2 
 
 Traces of a priestly language are found among a few of the 
 tribes. In Peru, the priests conducted the temple services in a 
 language not understood by the masses, and the incantations 
 of the priests of Powhatan were not in ordinary Algonkin, but 
 some obscure jargon. The same peculiarity has been observed, 
 and heretofore noticed, among the Dacotahs and Eskimos ; but 
 linguistic scholars, on searching, have found them among the 
 last two tribes to be the ordinary dialects of the country, 
 " modified by an affected accentuation, and by the introduction 
 of a few cabalistic terms, which have made a slang such as 
 rascals and pedants are very apt to coin." 3 
 
 Among the most civilized aboriginal peoples a priesthood 
 was found exercising all the offices assumed by them in the 
 Old World civilizations. The attendants on the Peruvian 
 temples composed an army of themselves. The whole number 
 of functionaries who officiated at the Coricancha alone was no 
 less than four thousand. 4 Among the religious ceremonies 
 which occupied the priestly caste were baptism, confirmation, 
 holy orders, extreme unction. 
 
 I Crantz, 195-97. a Falkner s Patagonia, Il6. 
 
 Brinton s Myths, 303-4. 4 i Prescott s Peru, 100. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 373 
 
 Baptism was general among all the Peruvian nations west of 
 the Andes, and in some provinces took place two or three 
 weeks after birth. In the southern provinces two years elapsed. 
 All the relatives were assembled at this ceremony. On the 
 day of the birth, the water with which the infant was washed 
 was poured into a hole in the earth in the presence of a priest, 
 who pronounced cabalistic words over the newly-born, intended 
 to conjure away and exorcise all future malign influence. 
 When the child attained puberty, confirmation took place, 
 which consisted in imposing a new name and cutting the hair 
 and finger-nails of the confirmed and sacrificing them to the 
 Huacas. It will be borne in mind that these and all other parts 
 of the body were superstitiously preserved from the possession 
 of any one, and the dedication of these parts of the body to a 
 deity was a solemn act of worship undoubtedly with them, 
 however ridiculous it may appear to us. Penance was prac 
 tised before the principal feasts, when they confessed their sins to 
 a priest after they had previously fasted several days. Confes 
 sion began in this strain : " Hear me, highlands, plains, condors, 
 owls, grubs, and all animals and herbs, know that I wish to 
 confess my sins." This is nonsensical, unless we recollect that 
 they worshipped the things addressed, and hence they were 
 confessing to their gods. After the confession had been made, 
 they went through ordeals to prove whether they had concealed 
 anything. By one of these ordeals they were required to throw 
 a handful of corn into a vessel, and if there was an even num 
 ber of grains the confession had been well made, otherwise not. 
 Penance consisted in abstinence from many pleasures for a sea 
 son, and occasionally in corporal punishment. Sometimes they 
 were forced to put on new garments, in order that the sins might 
 be left in the old ones. A priest assisted the dying by mutter 
 ing incantations against the power of evil spirits. Holy orders, 
 or the ceremony of the consecration of priests, was a matter of 
 the highest importance among the ancient Peruvians. The 
 priesthood contained a number of orders. The greatest respect 
 was commanded by those of the sun ; but each Huaca had its 
 
374 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 priest, who was respected in proportion as the Huaca was 
 venerated. His occupation was to take care of the deity, and 
 watch in his temple on the spot where his image was erected, 
 to speak with him, and repeat his answers to the people, pre 
 sent their offerings, make sacrifices, celebrate their feasts, and 
 teach their worship. Such employments occupied the priests 
 of the dead. The Conopas also had priests, who interpreted 
 their will and offered sacrifices when brought to them. The 
 soothsayers and wizards formed a particular subdivision of the 
 priesthood. Those most esteemed were the Socyac, who pre 
 dicted the future by means of small heaps of corn ; the Paccha- 
 cuti, who divined by means of spiders feet ; the Hacaricue, 
 who foretold by the blood and intestines of rabbits ; the Pichi- 
 uricue, who observed the flight of birds; the Moscoc, who in 
 terpreted dreams, sleeping by the clothes of him who consulted 
 them, and receiving in a dream the answer. 1 
 
 The Peruvian priests also acted as prophets, and could give 
 an account of that which was done in very remote parts before 
 any news thereof was brought. The battles that were fought, 
 rebellions that broke out, and other remarkable accidents that 
 happened at three hundred leagues distance, they pretended to 
 know the same day. They could also find stolen goods. 2 
 
 Great was the surprise of the first Spanish ecclesiastics, who 
 found, on reaching Mexico, a priesthood as regularly organized 
 as that of the most civilized countries of the Old World. 
 Clothed with a powerful and effective authority, which ex 
 tended its arms to man in every condition and in all the stages 
 of his life, the Mexican priests were mediators between man 
 and divinity. They brought the newly-born infants into the 
 religious society ; they directed their training and education; 
 they determined the entrance of the young men into the ser 
 vice of the state ; they consecrated marriage by their blessing; 
 they comforted the sick and assisted the dying. This sacer 
 dotal authority also manifested itself in a species of confession, 
 
 Rivero and Tschucli, 182-84. 2 4 Herrera, 353. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 375 
 
 which prevailed in Mexico as well as elsewhere, and concerning 
 which the dogma obtained that a wrong or sin confessed to the 
 priest and expiated through the medium of a penance imposed 
 by him was blotted out and placed beyond the reach of human 
 justice or secular power. 1 
 
 As many as five thousand priests were attached to the prin 
 cipal temple in Mexico. The various ranks and functions of 
 this multitudinous body were discriminated with great exact 
 ness. Those best instructed in music took the management of 
 the choirs. Others arranged the festivals conformably to the 
 calendar. Some superintended the education of youth, and 
 others had charge of the hieroglyphical paintings and oral tra 
 ditions ; while the dismal rites of sacrifice were reserved for the 
 chief dignitaries of the order. At the head of the whole estab 
 lishment were two high-priests, equal in dignity, and with whom 
 the sovereign advised in weighty matters of public concern. 
 While engaged in immediate attendance at the temples, they 
 lived in conventual discipline ; but they were allowed to marry. 
 Thrice during the day and once at night, when in active duty, 
 they were called to prayers. They practised flagellation, and 
 pierced their flesh with the thorns of the aloe, 
 
 " In hopes to merit heaven by making earth a hell." 
 
 The great cities were divided into districts, and placed under 
 the charge of a parochial clergy, who regulated every act of 
 religion within their precincts, and administered the rites of 
 confession and absolution. Priestly absolution was received in 
 place of the legal punishment of offences, and authorized an 
 acquittal in case of arrest. 2 The sick deemed it an indispensable 
 condition to their recovery that every secret crime should be 
 confessed to the priest. 3 
 
 In all the towns of the Mexican empire there were as many 
 complete sets of priests as there were temples. Some took 
 
 1 Rivero and Tschudi, 19, 20. 2 I Prescott s Mexico, 66, 68. 
 
 3 i Bancroft, 124. 
 
376 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 charge of the sacrifices, others were skilled in the art of divina 
 tion. Others applied themselves to the composition of hymns. 
 Those learned in science superintended the schools and col 
 leges. Those who possessed literary talent compiled the his 
 torical works and collected material for the libraries. There 
 were monasteries for each sex. In those for females they were 
 under surveillance of a number of staid matrons of good char 
 acter. On entering the monastery, each girl had her hair cut 
 short. They all slept in one dormitory, and did not undress 
 at night, in order that they might be ready to rise at ten o clock, 
 midnight, and dawn, for religious ceremonies. On these occa 
 sions a matron led the procession : with eyes bent on the ground, 
 the maidens filed up one side of the temple, while the priests 
 did the same on the other, so that all met before the altar. In 
 a pantheon of as many divinities as that of the Mexican, and 
 where all the phenomena of nature are attributed to some one 
 or more of these divinities, it can be easily understood why a 
 religious machinery, intricate and ponderous, should be re 
 quired to propitiate the anger, humor the whims, and beseech 
 the favor of such a vast number of capricious and active deities. 
 The priests often went to the king and told him to remember 
 the idols, who were starving with hunger, whereupon the 
 princes sent to one another to prepare for war, because their 
 gods demanded something to eat. Then they marched out 
 and fought, only endeavoring to take prisoners, that they might 
 have men to feed the gods. 1 
 
 We hear from the accounts we have received that there 
 were some celebrated preachers among the priests, and silvery- 
 tongued orators played as successfully upon the emotions of 
 the Mexicans as do our modern revivalists. Herrera says, 
 " They had priests who preached dreadfully in the temples, 
 putting men into horrid frights, by which means they moved 
 them to do whatever they directed." 2 
 
 The vast number of the Mexican priests, their enormous 
 
 1 3 Herrera, 213. 2 3 ib., 255. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 
 
 377 
 
 wealth, and the blind zeal of the people, all combined to render 
 the sacerdotal power extremely formidable. The king himself 
 performed the functions of high-priest on certain occasions, and 
 frequently held some sacred office before succeeding to the 
 throne. The heads of church and state seem to have worked 
 amicably together, and to have united their power to keep the 
 masses in subjection. The sovereign took no step of impor 
 tance without first consulting the high-priests, to learn whether 
 the gods were favorable to the project. In Tezcuco and Tla- 
 copan the pontifical dignity was always conferred upon the 
 second son of the king. In Mexico a supervisor over the wor 
 ship of the gods stood next in rank to the two high-priests. 
 Among other dignitaries of their religious system were the 
 chief of the sacrificers, who inherited his office, the keeper 
 of relics and ornaments, the composer of hymns, the musical 
 director, the treasurer, master over temple-property, and num 
 bers of masters of special ceremonies. 
 
 The ordinary Mexican priests dressed in a black cotton cloth, 
 which hung from the back of the head like a veil. Their hair 
 was left uncut and painted black. Reed sandals protected their 
 feet. There were certain orders, however, which varied from 
 this. They were engaged a great part of the time with hymn- 
 chanting and incense-burning. They also took the auguries, 
 among which the priest went through the ceremony of sprink 
 ling snuff on the altar in order to discover whether the gods 
 would favor any national enterprise. If shortly afterward any 
 footprint of an animal, particularly that of an eagle, was found 
 impressed in the snuff, it was regarded as a mark of divine 
 favor, and great was the shouting when the priest announced 
 the augury. 1 We here see how the priests utilized the supersti 
 tions of the people in reference to the agency of animal spirits. 
 
 Among the Mexicans, each temple had its own lands and 
 possessions, and even its own peasants to cultivate them. 
 Thence was drawn all that was necessary for the maintenance 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 431-38. 
 
378 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 of the priests, together with the wood which was consumed in 
 great quantities in the temples. A tract of country which 
 went under the name of Teotlalpan (land of the gods) was un 
 doubtedly so named from being the possession of the temples. 
 There were, besides these, daily offerings from the devout, of 
 provisions. Near the temples there were granaries for the pro 
 visions of the priesthood. The annual overplus, if any, was 
 distributed to the poor. The priesthood received nearly as 
 much homage as the deities themselves. 1 
 
 The office of anointing kings was assumed by the two high- 
 priests. The new king, with no covering except the girdle, 
 ascended the temple of Huitzilopochtli, where he was met by 
 one of the high-priests, who dyed his body with a certain kind 
 of ink and sprinkled him four times with water which had been 
 blessed. The king was then clothed with a mantle on which 
 were pictured skeletons of the dead, and a medicine-bag tied to 
 his neck containing charms against disease; after which he took 
 an oath to maintain their ancient religion. The priest then in 
 structed him in his duties as sovereign. The king during all 
 this ceremony was upon his knees before the priest. The 
 Mexican schools and seminaries were annexed to the temples, 
 and the instruction of the young of both sexes was a mo 
 nopoly in the hands of the priests. Generally the boys were 
 sent there between the ages of six and nine years, and were 
 dressed in black. 2 The seminaries for girls were guarded day 
 and night by old men, and the maidens could not even leave 
 their apartments without a guard. They were taught the 
 tenets of their religion, and swept the temples and attended to 
 the sacred fire. They also learned how to make feather-work 
 and spin and weave mantles. 3 
 
 The priests did not fail to assume an important part in mar 
 riage ceremonies, the most important part in which was the 
 address of the priest to the betrothed couple, in which he de 
 fined their duties to each other. He exhorted them to be 
 
 1 I Clavigcro, 269-70. - 2 Bancroft, 243. 3 2 ib., 245. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 
 
 379 
 
 faithful to one another and maintain peace and harmony be 
 tween themselves. He then tied the end of the man s mantle 
 to the dress of the woman. After congratulations, they pro 
 ceeded to the temple, where the priest perfumed them, then led 
 them to the altar and placed a finely-woven shawl on each of 
 their shoulders, in the centre of which was painted a skeleton, 
 as a symbol that death only could now separate them from 
 each other. He then perfumed them again, and led them to 
 the door of the temple. Four days were spent in penance and 
 religious ceremonies, after which their couch was prepared by 
 two priests and the marriage consummated. 1 
 
 Among the Mexicans, every distinguished man had a priest 
 or chaplain to perform the ceremonies within his house, and 
 when he died the chaplain was killed, to serve him in the same 
 manner in the other world. 2 
 
 The Mexican priests had to consecrate the ground on which 
 they played their national game of ball, somewhat similar to 
 tennis. This they did by blessing it and then throwing the 
 ball four times about the court, when it might be played, but 
 not before. 3 
 
 Cortes says the priests were very strict in the practice of 
 honesty and chastity, and any deviation was punished with 
 death, and he was very desirous that the vice and profanity of 
 the Spanish clergy should be concealed from them as much as 
 possible, that they might not be led to undervalue the Chris 
 tian faith. 
 
 It must have been an imposing sight to behold in Cam- 
 peachy the priests, arrayed in long white mantles, perfuming 
 the Spaniards with burning gum and bidding them depart. 4 
 
 A tradition of the Mexicans would appear to indicate a 
 period when sorcery was supplanted by their elaborate system 
 of priestcraft. On departing from Michoacan, they left behind 
 a sorceress who was worshipped by the people at the instiga- 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 257-59. 2 3 Herrera, 220. 
 
 3 2 ib., 341. 4 Cortes, Despatches, 7. 
 
380 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 tion of an idol which had four priests connected with it. This 
 woman, seeing herself abandoned, founded a town called Mali- 
 nalco, and ever after, the inhabitants of that place were looked 
 upon as great sorcerers. That part of the nation which pro 
 ceeded toward Mexico appears to have fallen completely under 
 the dominion of the four priests, who gave laws, and without 
 whose approbation nothing was done, and who spoke through 
 their idol, which they carried on their shoulders. 1 
 
 The Zapotecs were a priest-ridden people. Their priests 
 possessed great power, secular as well as sacerdotal. Among 
 the Zapotecs, the wedding-day had to be fixed by the priest. 2 
 Yopaa, one of their principal cities, was ruled absolutely by a 
 pontiff, in whom the Zapotec monarchs had a powerful rival. 
 It is impossible to overrate the reverence in which this spiritual 
 king was held. He was looked upon as a god whom the earth 
 was not worthy to hold or the sun to shine upon. He pro 
 faned his sanctity if he so much as touched the ground with 
 his foot. The officers who bore his palanquin upon their 
 shoulders were members of the first Zapotec families. He 
 scarcely deigned to look upon anything about him. He never 
 appeared in public except with the most extraordinary pomp, 
 and all who met him fell with their faces to the ground, fearing 
 death would overtake them were they to look upon holy 
 Wiyatal, as he was called. The most powerful lords never 
 entered his presence except with eyes lowered and feet bared. 
 Continence was strictly imposed upon the Zapotec priests, but 
 this high pontiff was an exception, because no one could furnish 
 him with a worthy successor, who must be of his own gener 
 ating. On certain days in each year this high-priest became 
 drunk, and while in this state one of the most beautiful virgins 
 consecrated to the service of the gods was brought to him, 
 and if the result of this holy debauch proved to be a male in 
 fant, it inherited his position. 3 
 
 Among the Zapotecs there was a class of priests who made 
 
 1 3 Herrera, 190-91. =3 ib., 262. 3 2 Bancroft, 142-43. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 381 
 
 the interpreting of dreams their special province. Each form 
 of divination was made a special study. Some professed to 
 foretell the future by the aid of stars, earth, wind, fire, or 
 water, others by the flight of birds, by the entrails of sacrificial 
 victims, or by magic signs and circles. There were hermits 
 who passed their entire lives in religious ecstasy and medita 
 tion, shut up in dark caves or rude huts with no human com 
 panions. 1 
 
 Among the Mayas, the temporal power of the priesthood 
 was even greater than among the Nahua nations. Votan, 
 Zamna, Cuculcan, and all the other semi-mythical founders of 
 the Maya civilization united in their persons the qualities of 
 high-priest and king, and from their time to the coming of the 
 Spaniards ecclesiastical and secular authority marched hand in 
 hand. The Itzas, at Chichen, were ruled in the earlier times by 
 a theocratic government, and later the high-priest of the empire 
 of the royal family of the Cheles became king of Izamal, which 
 became the sacred city and headquarters of ecclesiastical dig 
 nitaries. The gigantic mounds still seen at Izamal are tradition 
 ally the tombs of both kings and priests. The priests were 
 allowed to marry, and the office of high-priest was hereditary. 
 Mictlan was another great religious centre and a shrine much 
 visited by pilgrims. Here a sacerdotal hierarchy, hereditary in 
 one family, ruled. Thus we see that while the priesthood had 
 great power over even the highest secular rulers in all the 
 Maya nations, yet the system by which the high-priests were 
 members of the royal families rendered their power a support 
 to that royalty rather than a cause of fear. 2 
 
 The Mayas intrusted the more advanced education of youth 
 entirely to the priesthood. The youths assisted the priests in 
 their religious duties. Girls were placed in convents under 
 the superintendence of matrons, who were most strict in their 
 guardianship. In all the educational institutions of Yucatan 
 the mysteries of astrology, divination, prophecy, and medicine 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 201-13. a 2 ib., 647-48. 
 
 25 
 
382 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 formed a great part of the instruction, and the youth of both 
 sexes were familiarized with religious rite and ceremony. 1 
 Among the Mayas, no one could marry who had not been bap 
 tized, and, as the ceremony was elaborate connected with bap 
 tism, and no one could officiate thereat but a priest, we can see 
 that it would have required a large body of clergy to attend to 
 these ceremonies. This was remedied to some extent, how 
 ever, by selecting five of the most honored men of the town to 
 assist the priests in these ceremonies. 2 The Maya priests ap 
 pear to have retained a primitive fetichistic superstition, for they 
 had medicine-bags in which they kept fetiches of different 
 kinds. They also appear to have had a superstitious feeling in 
 reference to their pictographic manuscripts. 3 
 
 A division of labor appears to have separated to some extent 
 the ecclesiastical forces of the Mayas. The doctors were evi 
 dently a class distinct from the priesthood proper, although the 
 priests do not appear to have yielded entirely the practice of 
 medicine. Especially did they retain control over confessionals, 
 which were considered as a means for the cure of disease. 
 The doctors practised phlebotomy, drawing blood from those 
 parts of the patient s body where the pain or malady lay. 
 They believed disease was caused by spirits, and the practice 
 of blood-letting and this primitive superstition are closely con 
 nected with each other. By a strange coincidence, blood-letting 
 is found to be a cure for certain diseases, and is retained in the 
 medical practice of the present day; but with the primitive 
 peoples it was nothing but a superstition, and, with emetics, 
 was the only cure, exclusive of spiritual influence. The Mayas, 
 like the Nahuas, believed implicitly in the power of witches 
 and wizards. The priests of Yucatan exercised even a greater 
 influence over the people than those of Mexico. In order to 
 retain this power, they appealed to the religious side of the 
 people s character by thundering sermons and solemn rites. 
 The king himself, when he paid his annual visit to the high- 
 
 1 2 Bancroft, 663-64. a 2 ib., 682. 3 2 ib., 697. 
 
PRIESTCRAFT. 383 
 
 priest to inaugurate the offering of first-fruits, set an example 
 of humility by kneeling before the pontiff and reverently kiss 
 ing his hand. 1 
 
 The priests decided what trade a child should learn. 
 
 The priesthood of Yucatan were divided into classes, who 
 performed different offices. Some preached, some taught, some 
 were sacrificers. Others construed the oracles of the gods, 
 and accordingly exercised great influence and held the highest 
 place in the estimation of the people, before whom they ap 
 peared in state, borne in litters. The sorcerers and medicine 
 men foretold fortunes and cured diseases. The first step had 
 been taken to divide the confessors into a class, for none but 
 married priests could take confessions. 2 
 
 The priests of Yucatan were so much venerated that they 
 were the lords who inflicted punishments and assigned rewards, 
 and were exactly obeyed. They were presided over by a high- 
 priest. These priests appointed the festivals and ceremonies, 
 administered the sacraments, divined and prophesied, and exor 
 cised spirits. They were so much respected, they were some 
 times carried shoulder-high. 3 
 
 Herrera says, however, that they forged answers from the 
 oracles to impose upon the people and get their presents, and 
 also practised sorcery. 4 
 
 Each of the numerous tribes of Guatemala had a distinct 
 and separate body of priests, who, by means of their oracles, 
 exercised a decided influence on the state. The Quiches 
 were spiritually governed by independent pontiffs. The high- 
 priests of Tohil and Gucumatz belonged to the royal house, 
 and held the fourth and fifth rank among the grandees of the 
 empire. The two high-priests of the Kahba temple in Utatlan 
 were of the royal stock, and each had a province allotted for 
 his support at Istlavacan. Sixty priests, diviners, and medicine 
 men exercised their offices even in modern times, for the in 
 fluence of the native priesthood prevails in many localities. 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 446. a 3 ib., 473. 3 Landa, xxvii. * 4 Herrera, 174. 
 
384 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 At Copan, a priest was so revered that a person who presumed 
 to touch him was expected to fall dead immediately. 1 
 
 In Nicaragua, the office of high-priest was held by the 
 caciques, who each in turn filled the position for a year, re 
 moving from home to the chief temple. At the expiration of 
 the term he received the honorable distinction of having his 
 nose perforated. The ordinary priests had no fixed revenues, 
 and lived on the offerings to the idols. Their sorcerers could 
 produce death by a look. They had oracles, the answers from 
 which came through the mouths of the priests. The chief 
 priests of the temples exercised great influence on account of 
 their sanctity and superior knowledge, and none dared approach 
 them except the principal men of the state. 2 
 
 The natives of the Isthmus had a priesthood sworn to per 
 petual chastity. Fasting and prayer for the needs of the people 
 formed the greater part of their offices. 3 
 
 The high-priest and four assistants among the natives of San 
 Salvador were accustomed to meet to ascertain, by sorcery and 
 enchantment, whether they should make war, and their decision 
 was implicitly obeyed. 4 
 
 Among the Chibchas of Bogota the priests were much re 
 spected. They were not allowed to marry, and lived an austere 
 life. No sacrifice could be made but by the hands of a priest. 5 
 
 Evidences of a recognition of special calls to the office of 
 the priesthood appear. The priestly office among the Peruvians 
 appears to have been hereditary ; some attained to it by elec 
 tion ; a man struck by lightning was considered as chosen by 
 heaven ; also those who became suddenly insane. 6 Mr. Southey 
 says that among the Moxos of Brazil, who worshipped the 
 tiger, a man who was rescued from but marked by the claws 
 of that animal was set apart for the priesthood, and none other. 
 
 1 3 Bancroft, 489-90. a 3 ib., 495-96. 3 3 ib., 499. 
 
 * Palacio, 66. s p. Simon, 249. 6 Arriaga, 20. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 THE belief in the existence and proximity of a world of 
 spirits, and a fear of such spirits, is the only solution of all the 
 curious religious customs, ceremonies, and superstitions of 
 pagan life. A degeneracy from monotheism has not taken 
 place, but rather a gradual development from the rudest super 
 stition. This is shown conclusively by the numerous survivals 
 of the lowest forms of superstition in a higher culture. The 
 elimination of these superstitions is gradually taking place, as 
 their error is discovered and their inutility to the higher cul 
 ture is manifest. This elimination is, and will always be, a 
 slow process, because each individual has attained a different 
 stage of progress from every other, and the more advanced 
 will be ready to discard much that those less enlightened still 
 cling to as a heritage of the past. 
 
 It is questionable whether the highest man will be able to 
 eradicate from his nature every vestige of a superstitious fear 
 or dread of the supernatural. Great progress, however, is made 
 toward this end when a multitude of superhuman beings, who 
 are supposed to have power over the forces of nature, and are 
 at times malevolent in their disposition, are supplanted by one 
 ruling power who controls all things in justice and by un 
 changing law. Our increasing knowledge of nature s laws is, 
 however, working to diminish the domain of the supernatural. 
 The paramount influence which surrounding nature has on the 
 development of the human being is unquestionable. It is the 
 more powerful the nearer the people is to the uncultured state, 
 and diminishes in proportion as human art and science gain 
 
 385 
 
3 86 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 power over the forces of nature. For this reason a primitive 
 people ascribe spiritual agencies to those results of nature s 
 laws not understood by them. 
 
 Primitive animism is marvellously self-consistent. Its phi 
 losophy is the conservation and correlation of spiritual force 
 which dwells in and controls matter. All the phenomena of 
 nature are explicable thereby. It is " so coherent as to create 
 a perfect plexus of ideas that mutually support and interpret 
 one another; so persistent that even the more extravagant 
 developments can survive for ages in defiance of accurate 
 knowledge." It is the only philosophy that renders it possible 
 to bring about a unity in mythological science, and by it alone 
 can a religious evolution be made out. It is in perfect accord 
 with modern science and thought upon the subject of man s 
 social development. 
 
 All the doctrines of the present day have their source in 
 animism. In the animistic philosophy is embraced a belief in 
 the immortality of the soul, and its entity could not be de 
 stroyed, but continued in a never-ending circle of transmigra 
 tion or emigration, which was the genesis of all superstition. 
 The doctrine of the resurrection of the body was believed in, 
 and all its parts preserved with sacred care. A belief in re 
 wards and punishments existed in the primitive animism. Says 
 the Aztec proverb, " Remember that evil, like a poisonous herb, 
 brings death to those who taste it." 
 
 Apotheosis and translation were the highest prizes awarded 
 the meritorious. Such subtle doctrines as the incarnation and 
 immaculate conception are found as forms of transmigration. 
 Prophecy, revelation, and miracles are all logical results of 
 animism and found everywhere. Among the aborigines of 
 America the modern ordinances of religion, such as the eucha- 
 rist, baptism, penance, confession, and sacrifice, are found among 
 their pagan rites. 
 
 Savage animism is not a degeneracy of a higher culture. In 
 it we find no survivals which show inconsistencies with it; 
 whereas in higher cultures we find survivals of primitive super- 
 
CONCLUSION. 387 
 
 stition wholly inconsistent with the more advanced beliefs. 
 Their presence in the higher culture can only be explained by 
 a survival. The whole scope of man s doctrinal history shows 
 a progressive movement. If monotheism had been an original 
 doctrine, traces of such a belief would have remained among 
 all peoples. If the cure of disease by medication had been the 
 original method, such a useful art would never have been so 
 utterly lost that sorcery should wholly usurp its place. These 
 two special characteristics of a higher civilization are not found 
 in primitive culture, but all the primitive superstitions, in modi 
 fied form or in outline, are found in the higher cultures. 
 
 Before closing this work, it is appropriate to notice what 
 historical tradition says about the primitive social condition of 
 the civilized races of America. The first important result of a 
 hunting life is the scattering of the population in small masses, 
 which requires a large area, which of itself renders any advance 
 in civilization impossible, a relatively dense population, with 
 its multifarious reciprocal relations, being an indispensable con 
 dition of civilization. 
 
 M. Pauw says of the different grades of civilization, " Cul 
 tivators come first, because their subsistence is the least pre 
 carious, their life the least turbulent," thus affording them 
 leisure to think and reflect. Hunters are always savage. They 
 dread the multiplication of their species, because game will be 
 less abundant. They are the farthest removed from social or 
 ganization. Never at peace with men or animals, their instincts 
 are savage. Among the American aborigines the hunter con 
 dition was the most prevalent. Agricultural pursuits were 
 found, however, among the more civilized. American agricul 
 ture was indigenous. This is proved by the fact that grains 
 of the Old World were absent, and its agriculture was founded 
 on the maize, an American plant. Their agriculture and their 
 architecture show an indigenous origin of their civilization, as 
 does also their mythology. Since we have traced a develop 
 ment in their religious belief and ceremony, let us see what 
 evidence, if any, mythology will contribute toward disclosing 
 
388 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 the primitive condition of the most civilized nations, and the 
 development of their civilization. 
 
 The Peruvian civilization was the highest reached on the 
 American continent, but their traditions show a primitive bar 
 barism. Many of the Peruvians descended, according to tra 
 dition, from animals. Several tribes trace their descent from 
 the condor, and the eagle and animal forms were used as 
 heraldic designs. Manco Capac banished cannibalism and 
 human sacrifices and introduced peaceable pursuits. He was a 
 social organizer, and a builder of cities. In six years after the 
 founding of Cuzco he had a well-drilled army, with which the 
 barbarous peoples that surrounded his little state were subdued. 1 
 Caste-distinctions were found in Peru, and their growth is in 
 dicated in the traditional descent of the three classes from gold, 
 silver, and copper. The princes descended from gold, the 
 nobles from silver, and the common people from copper. 2 This 
 myth has historical significance, and in it is preserved the fact 
 that the class of the nobility originated after the other two 
 classes, for, says the myth, " at first there were only the Incas and 
 other people." The caste system of the Peruvians varies from 
 the Oriental in the absence of the priest and warrior castes. In 
 Peru, priests were officers of the son of the Sun, and there was 
 no warrior caste, because all were called upon to bear arms peri 
 odically, showing no ethnological conquest as in the Orient. 
 
 In knowledge, little progress had been made by the Peruvians, 
 except, perhaps, in mechanical and agricultural pursuits. Agri 
 culture was especially encouraged and patronized by the Incas, 
 who turned the earth, at their annual ceremonial, with a golden 
 plough. They had little knowledge of science. They thought 
 rain was produced by a rain goddess, who poured water upon 
 the earth from a pitcher. Anger was the predominant emotion 
 of their gods, and their outbursts of wrath were manifested in 
 eclipses, storms, and comets. 3 Their fire-worship was, in pre- 
 
 1 M tiller, Geschichte Anier. Urrelig. a Des Jardins, Le Ferou, 29. 
 
 3 Miiller, Ges. Amer. Urrelig., 395. 
 
CONCLUSION. 389 
 
 Incarial times, connected with stone-worship, 1 but in later times 
 with sun-worship. The sun was anthropomorphosed, and re 
 moved from the control of natural law. Stars were named after 
 earthly animal gods and human beings, which were thought to be 
 heavenly prototypes. They had no medical knowledge ; their 
 writing was pictographic. Their geographical maps were made 
 of clay, with small stones in bas-relief to denote the few locali 
 ties known. The gods of the Incas set us no moral examples. 
 There were many immoral elements in their worship. Prayer 
 was offered to these divinities by priests, but personal prayer 
 was little used. Such was their civilization in its moral aspects. 
 
 A development of the civilization of the Muyscas of Bogota 
 from savagery is confirmed by their myths. The former naked 
 ness of the people is set forth in their traditionary clothing by 
 Bochica, who found them naked. He had the fabulous age of 
 two thousand years ascribed to him, in accordance with the 
 custom of all ancient nations. All of this period was em 
 ployed, until about the time of his death, in elevating his sub 
 jects. 
 
 The most remote antiquity is always the age of giants, and 
 great convulsions of nature are thought to terminate and begin 
 an epoch. The Mexicans had five such epochs. The first was 
 that of the giants ; the second was that of fire, from which 
 the birds and one human pair escaped; the third was that of 
 wind, from which, however, one human pair was again saved ; 
 the fourth was the age of water, from which a snake woman 
 escaped, and from her the present race sprang. The snake 
 woman, or the woman of the snake gens, shows the existence 
 of the totemic system. The Aztec military orders were divided 
 into gentes named after animals, showing a former primitive 
 condition. 
 
 The Aztec government gave the Mexican religion its dark 
 and sanguinary nature. The system of natural religion depends 
 on the idea that prevails of the character of the divinities, whose 
 
 1 Muller, Ges. Amer. Urrelig., 368. 
 
390 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 nature depends on the traditionary character of the apotheosized 
 ruler. If an inexorable tyrant, his worship will be bloody. 
 At the time of the discovery a powerful religious hierarchy had 
 grown up in the Mexican empire. Four million priests officiated 
 in their religious ritual, who also had great political influence. 
 Besides these there were monks, who were confined in cloisters 
 and were celibates. Learning and education were in the hands 
 of the priests and religious orders. All boys had to pass 
 through the ordeal of baptism by fire, in which they were 
 drawn four times through that purifying element. They were a 
 priest-ridden people. The Mexican civilization at the time of 
 the conquest presented an incongruous mixture of good and 
 evil. It was made up of Aztec and Toltec elements. The 
 Aztecs were a semi-barbarous people, whose association with 
 the more civilized but subjugated Toltecs was producing the 
 inconsistency of a social compact made up of peaceful and 
 sanguinary ingredients. Human flesh would be sold in market 
 places adorned with flowers. The taste for flowers undoubtedly 
 indicates a relish for the beautiful, and we are astonished at 
 finding it in a nation in which a sanguinary worship appeared 
 to have extinguished whatever related to the sensibility of the 
 soul. In the great market-place of Mexico the native sells 
 no peaches, or roots, or pulque, without having his shop 
 ornamented with flowers. The Indian merchant appears seated 
 in an intrenchment of verdure. 
 
 Although the arts were in their infancy, yet those appertain 
 ing to worship and personal adornment were pursued to an 
 extent that denoted a generous patronage. 
 
 Among the Mexicans the laws against theft were severe, and 
 punished with slavery or death. Drunkenness was allowed in 
 men after sixty, and in women after they were grandmothers. 
 Fornication was allowed among the unmarried, but it was pun 
 ished with death among the married. Their laws were utili 
 tarian rather than moral. Cannibalism was sanctioned by re 
 ligion. Phallic worship existed, according to the monuments, 
 and at an annual festival licentiousness prevailed to such an 
 
CONCLUSION. 391 
 
 extent that the noblest women were willing victims. The Tol- 
 tecs thought that their great goddess Centeotl would triumph 
 at last over the ferocious gods of their warlike conquerors, and 
 human sacrifices would be abolished. 
 
 Among the Maya nations in their higher civilization, a 
 former condition of savagery and totemism may be strongly 
 suspected when the names of the fox, jackal, paroquet, and 
 crow are found attached to them in the annals. Their tra 
 ditions corroborate this. 
 
 In the cosmogony of the Quiches, of the four men first 
 created, three were named after the tiger, namely, Balam 
 Quitze, the tiger with the sweet smile; Balam Agab, tiger of 
 the night ; and Iqui Balam, tiger of the moon. The Popol 
 Vuh appears to intimate a totemism, and to recognize a meta 
 morphosis of the fierce animals into stone when they threatened 
 the destruction of the human race. 
 
 The Miztecs seem to have worshipped the deer, as their first 
 gods were called deer, male and female, and these deities had 
 children, from whom they descended. Traditionary descent 
 from animals implies an early condition of savagery. 
 
 The process of social development received little aid from 
 sorcerers, or priests, who were the religious leaders of the 
 people. With few exceptions they were impostors. Hence 
 the religious condition was most deplorable of those who were 
 the most advanced in their civil organization. 
 
 Fear is the prevailing religious sentiment among all the 
 tribes of America. Religion did not have much moral in 
 fluence toward ennobling hearts or humanizing manners, but 
 merely excited emotions of fear and increased fanaticism. 
 Prayers were offered for material things, but touched not morals. 
 Prayer was in the form of conversation with spirits. Hence 
 among the savage tribes we find very little evidence, if any, of 
 a moral sentiment. Neither among savage nor civilized was 
 morality a religious necessity. Where a moral dualism occurs, 
 it can be reduced to the simple terms of the Totonecs, who had 
 a dualism, but " their evil gods were those of the Aztecs, their 
 
392 PRIMITIVE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 enemies and conquerors." Their worst barbarities were com 
 mitted at the instigation of superstition. Even the custom of 
 abandoning the infirm or sick arose from a superstitious fear of 
 the evil spirits which were supposed to have taken possession 
 of them. 
 
 The religion of the aboriginal tribes of America was a sys 
 tem of superstitions, all of which are explicable by the doc 
 trine of the agency of multitudes of spirits, and in no other 
 way. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Absolution, priestly,. 375 ; acquittal of 
 criminals, 375. 
 
 Abstention from animal food, supersti 
 tious origin of, 49, 169, 237. 
 
 Agency, spiritual, 26, 69, 92, 349, 352, 
 377> 39 2 5 in disease, 51-61; in pro 
 duction of winds and storms, 349- 
 352; in prophecy, 363, 364. 
 
 Agriculture, indigenous character of 
 American, 387, 388. 
 
 Altars, tombs the primitive, 218-220; 
 altar-mounds, 188-190. 
 
 Amulets, 71 ; amuletic character of fet- 
 ichism, 141. See Fetichism. 
 
 Ancestors, worship of, 7274, 80, 86 
 88, 91, 104, no, 115. 
 
 Anchorite, 100. 
 
 Angekok, 371. 
 
 Animals, worship of, 221, 256, 266; 
 worship of animal spirits, 253 ; fear 
 of animal spirits, 253; animal dress, 
 248-253; animal dances, 251-253; 
 worship of every variety of animal 
 life, 255, 256; transmigration of hu 
 man souls into animals, 48-51, 221, 
 254, 255 ; superstitions about white 
 animals, 260; animal forms in art, 
 222, 223, 266-268; fabulous animals, 
 268-286; animals in role of creators, 
 222, 223, 268, 269 ; deluges produced 
 byanimals, 269, 270; winds produced 
 by animals, 270 ; convulsive changes 
 in nature produced by animals, 270, 
 271; superstitions about strange ani 
 mals, 281, 282; descent of human 
 race from animals, 221-223, 2 3 I ~ 2 37, 
 
 242; descent of animals from human 
 race, 242-245 ; animal names given 
 human beings, 230, 231, 237; sexual 
 unions of animals and human beings, 
 234-237 ; disease produced by ani 
 mal spirits, 51-61. 
 
 Animism, 52, 71, 116, 117, 133, 134, 
 317, 321, 325, 326, 386; animistic 
 origin of idol-worship, 116, 117, 123 
 125; animistic origin of fetichism, 
 141, 156; animistic origin of nature- 
 worship, 317, 321, 325, 326; ani 
 mistic origin of Sabaism, 326; co 
 herency of, 386; persistency of, 386. 
 
 Anointing kings, ceremony of, 378. 
 
 Anthropomorphism, 80, 83-85, 89, 91 ; 
 anthropomorphic character of plant- 
 spirits, 299; anthropomorphic char 
 acter of tree-spirits, 289 ; anthro 
 pomorphic nature of the heavenly 
 bodies, 62, 326, 336-338, 347, 348; 
 anthropomorphic character of deities, 
 92, 96-99, 107, 1 10. 
 
 Apotheosis, 76-78, 96, 102, 105, 106, 
 112, 114, 386. 
 
 Araucanians, locality of their spirit- 
 land, 36. 
 
 Architecture, indigenous character of 
 aboriginal, 387. 
 
 Areskoui, Iroquois deity, 87. 
 
 Astrology, 348, 381. 
 
 Astronomical knowledge, 336 ; crude 
 ideas of heavenly bodies, 342, 343. 
 
 Athaensic, Iroquois deity, 87. 
 
 Atlas, or earth-upholding deity, of the 
 New World, 113. 
 
 Atotarho, Iroquois cult-hero, 86. 
 
 Augury, 223, 226, 377. 
 
 393 
 
394 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aztec sovereigns, 96, 97 ; military orders, 
 289; sanguinary character of Aztec 
 religion, 389. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacab, immaculate conception of, 106. 
 Bachue, Muysca goddess, 112. 
 Baptism, 103, 370, 372, 373, 382, 386. 
 Blackbird, mythical light-producer, 268. 
 Bochica, Muysca god, 112. 
 Bogota, civilization of, 389. 
 Bone-houses, 118, 178, 179. 
 Bones of the dead, 144; preservation 
 
 of, 177, 193-195; preservation of the 
 
 bones of animals, 157, 158, 193, 199; 
 
 the bones the dwelling-place of the 
 
 spirit, 193. 
 
 Buffaloes, worship of, 258. 
 Burial in temples, 178; burial in huts, 
 
 175; burial-customs, 163-196. 
 Butterfly, mythical creator, 269. 
 
 c, 
 
 Canis Major, 329. 
 
 Cannibalism, origin of, 144-152,388, 
 
 390- 
 
 Captives, sacrifice of, 214. 
 Caste, system of, in Peru, 388; priestly 
 
 caste, 371,372. 
 Catalepsy, 198. 
 
 Cataracts, worship of, 315, 319, 320. 
 Ceremonies, burial, 169, 170, 172. See 
 
 chapter on Priestcraft for religious 
 
 ceremonies. 
 Charms, 134, 157, 264. 
 Chiefs, worship of dead, 77. 
 Chulpas, burial-towers of Peru, 191. 
 Cities of refuge, 323, 324. 
 Cloisters, 335. 
 
 Coatlicue, goddess of flowers, 102. 
 Composite forms, human and animal, in 
 
 art and myth, 235, 267, 268, 276-278, 
 
 283, 284. 
 
 Confessional, 57, 58,373-375. 383.386. 
 Confirmation, 372. 
 
 Conjurer, influence of, 356, 357. See 
 Sorcery, 
 
 Conopas, 160. 
 
 Convents, 335. 
 
 Copper, superstition about, 135. 
 
 Cosmogony, tribal myths about, 268 
 270. 
 
 Couvade, origin of, 58, 59. 
 
 Creators, 74, 75, 84, 87, 88, 91, no, 
 113, 268, 269. 
 
 Cremation, 166, 168, 171-174, 187-190, 
 194, 196; cremation-mounds, 187- 
 190. 
 
 Cross-roads, superstition about, 71. 
 
 Cultivators of soil, 387. 
 
 Culture-heroes, 76, 78, 86, 96, 107, 113. 
 
 Cumulative burials, 165. 
 
 Cure of disease, 55, 354-361. See Ex 
 orcism and Sorcery. 
 
 D. 
 
 Deities, strength of, 108, 113, 114; dei 
 ties of Eskimos, 79 ; Iroquois, 87 ; 
 New England tribes, 87, 88 ; Western 
 tribes, 88-91 ; of tribes of Brazil, 92, 
 93; of Mexico, 93-102; of Yucatan, 
 104-107; of Guatemala, 108, 109; 
 of Peru, 113, 114. 
 
 Deluge, 132, 269, 270. 
 
 Demonology, 27-29. 
 
 Demons, 28,30,31,40, 53,321 ; Toltec, 
 29; Peruvian, 29; local, 30. 
 
 Descent of human race from stones, 133 ; 
 from springs, 315; from trees, 289; 
 from mountains, 307, 308; from sun, 
 333> 3345 f rom moon, 333; from ani 
 mals, 222, 223, 231-237, 242. 
 
 Deucalion, myth similar to that of, 132. 
 
 Disease, 223; produced by spirits, 51- 
 61 ; by sorcerers, 361, 362; cure of, 
 
 354-301. 
 
 Divination, 223, 381. 
 Division of labor, 382. 
 Doctors, 354; their method of cure, 
 
 354-360; influence of, 356, 357. 
 Dreams, 53, 61-68, 163, 223. 
 Dress, animal, 248-253. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 395 
 
 E. 
 
 Eagles, worship of, 261, 262. 
 
 Earth, supported by animals, 311, 312; 
 by men, 113, 312; supported on pil 
 lars of holy wood, 292. 
 
 Earthquakes, production of, 312. 
 
 Echoes, the voices of spirits, 42, 177, 
 302. 
 
 Eclipses, causes of, 340, 344-346. 
 
 Education in hands of priests, 374, 376, 
 378, 381. 
 
 Elements, worship of, 349; control of, 
 by sorcerers, 365, 366. 
 
 Elopement of the moon, myth of, 333. 
 
 Embalming the dead, 167, 173. 
 
 Epilepsy, 60. 
 
 Epunamun, Brazilian deity, 92. 
 
 Erratic boulders, worship of, 136. 
 
 Eucharist, rite similar to, 152, 153,386; 
 eating gods, 152, 153. 
 
 Evil eye, myth of, 284. 
 
 Evolution, 13-15, 385, 387-90. 
 
 Exorcism, 14, 353, 354, 356, 383. 
 
 Expulsion of evil spirits, 27-29, 40; ex 
 pulsion of, 14, 29, 353, 354, 356, 383 ; 
 transmigration of, into animals, 50, 5 1 ; 
 return of, from spirit-land, 37, 43, 44. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fabulous animals, 268-286. 
 
 Fairies, 23-25. 
 
 Family gods, no, in. 
 
 Fear of spirits, 253, 385. 
 
 Festivals to the dead, 72, 73, 77. 
 
 Fetichism, 141144; fetichistic super 
 stitions, 141-161, 259; animistic 
 origin of, 141, 156. 
 
 Fire, mythical origin of, 293. 
 
 Flagellation, practice of, 375. 
 
 Flags, fetichistic origin of, 241. 
 
 Flamingoes used as fetiches, 161. 
 
 Flood, traditions of, 269, 270, 323. 
 
 Flying heads, 281. 
 
 Food-offerings to the dead, 200-205. 
 
 Fountain of life, tradition of, 132, 269, 
 270, 314. 
 
 Future life, 31, 32; rewards and pun 
 ishments of, 31, 33, 50, 51, 204, 205. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gateways, guardian spirits of, 122, 123. 
 Gentes, animal, 231-237 ; tree gens, 289. 
 
 See Totemism. 
 
 Geysers, superstitions about, 314. 
 Ghosts, 42, 69. 
 Giants, 78, 85, 86. 
 Gods, 84-102; of air, 352; rain, 103, 
 
 388 ; sea, 322, 323 ; of love, 100, 101 ; 
 
 of mirth, IOI ; of flowers, 102; of 
 
 medicine, poetry, and music, 106; of 
 
 dead, 97 ; thunder, 83, 93. 
 Grave-posts, 117, 118. 
 Great Spirit, 15, 16, 85. 
 
 H. 
 Haunted places, 21, 22, 302-305, 309- 
 
 3"- 
 
 Hayti, mythical animation of, 312. 
 Heads, preservation of human, as fet 
 iches, 143. 
 Heavenly bodies, worship of, 325-348 ; 
 
 anthropomorphic character of, 326; 
 
 personality of, 320, 332; animation 
 
 of, 326. 
 
 Heavenly ladders, 67. 
 Heraldry and heraldic devices, 237-239, 
 
 241, 250. 
 Hermits, 381. 
 
 Heyokah, a Dacotah god, 84. 
 Hiawatha, 86. 
 Hieroglyphic writing, 239. 
 High-priests, 381-384; office hereditary, 
 
 38i. 
 Human spirits, worship of, 69-71, 77, 
 
 82,87, 88, 91, no. See Apotheosis 
 
 and Translation. 
 Hun Ahpu, a Quiche god, 108. 
 Hunter tribes, condition of, 387. 
 
 I. 
 Idols, 115, 123-130; vitality of, 116, 
 
 117, 123-125; idol pipe, 128. 
 Images, use of, in sorcery, 361 ; worship 
 
 of images of the dead, 125, 126. 
 Immaculate conception, 76, 101, in, 
 
 113,386. 
 Immortality of human spirits, 31-33, 
 
396 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 50, 51, 204, 205 (see Spirits and 
 Apotheosis) ; immortality of animal 
 spirits, 223, 224. 
 
 Impostors, 366, 371, 372. See Sorcery 
 and Priestcraft. 
 
 Incantation, 354, 356. 
 
 Incarnation, 45-47, 78, 90, IO2, 108, 
 386. See Transmigration. 
 
 Incas, worship of, 72, 1 14. 
 
 Indian corn, origin of, 293. 
 
 Indian summer, origin of, 181. 
 
 Infanticide, 38. 
 
 Inherence of spiritual life, 142-144. 
 
 Intercessory character of human sacri 
 fices, 214. 
 
 Interchange of souls, 60. 
 
 Interment, 166, 168, 171, 174, 177, 194, 
 
 195- 
 Intoxicating herbs, superstitions about, 
 
 295-297. 
 Islands, worship 0^309; haunted, 309; 
 
 sacred, 311. 
 Ixtlilton, a god of medicine, 99. 
 
 J- 
 
 Jouskeha, an Iroquois deity, 87. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kabibonocca, a deity, 82. 
 Kareya, a deity, 88. 
 Khanuk, a deity, 89. 
 
 Lakes, worship of, 315, 319-322. 
 Legend of Mount Shasta, 308. 
 Licentiousness of Aztec religion, 390, 
 
 391- 
 
 Living, worship of the, 75. 
 Locality of the spirit-land, 35-43. 
 Longevity of gods, 112. 
 Lycanthropy, 246. 
 
 M. 
 
 Manabozho, a deity, 80-82. 
 Manco Capac, 1 14, 334, 388. 
 Mandioca, traditional origin of, 293. 
 Manitology, 221, 237. 
 
 Manitous, 222, 223, 226-229; manner 
 of selection, 227-230. 
 
 Maracas, fetichistic nature of, 159, 160. 
 
 Mastodon, bones of, 84, 279, 280. 
 
 Mayas, civilization of, 391. 
 
 Medicine-bag, 158, 159, 382. 
 
 Mermaids, 277, 278. 
 
 Metamorphosis, 101, 130-132, 223,243- 
 249. 35 36, 326, 327; origin in 
 animal dress, 248-253 ; from eating 
 animal flesh, 253. 
 
 Meteorology, 349-352; winds produced 
 by spirits, 349-352. 
 
 Meteors, 330. 
 
 Mexitli, a Mexican deity, 101. 
 
 Milky Way, 329, 346. 
 
 Miracles, 367, 368, 386; ascribed to 
 sorcerers, 366-368 ; dead brought to 
 life, 368 ; belief of Catholic priests 
 in miracles of native sorcerers, 368 ; 
 power of working ascribed to those 
 in possession of a mysterious object, 
 369; mantle, embarking on, 114; 
 sea parts for passage of Quiches, 109. 
 
 Monasteries, 376. 
 
 Monotheism, 385, 387. 
 
 Montezuma, 76. 
 
 Moon, worship of, 343 ; myths of, 329, 
 
 332, 333- 
 
 Moral character of the religion of abo 
 rigines, 391 ; of convents, 335. 
 
 Mounds, burial, 178-187; altar, iSS, 
 190; animal mounds, 241, 242; re 
 cent erection of, 179-181 ; civilization 
 required in erection of, 179-181. 
 
 Mountains, worship of, 301-305 ; haunt 
 ed, 202-205; metamorphosed into 
 men and animals, 305, 306; tradi 
 tionary descent from, 307-, 308. 
 
 Mythology, comparative, 17. 
 
 Myths, star, 327, 328, 330, 331. 
 
 N. 
 
 Names, superstitions about, 21,153-156; 
 of living, 153, 154; of dead, 154-156 ; 
 change of, 154. 
 
 Naology, science of symbolism, 221. 
 i Nature-myths, 325. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 397 
 
 Niagara Falls, worship of, 300. 
 Nondescript animals, 278, 279. 
 Northern lights, 330. 
 
 O. 
 
 Obsession, 52. 
 
 Omaha, a god, 91 ; evil spirit, 40. 
 
 Omens, 56, 62, 223, 224 ; cries of birds, 
 
 225, 226. 
 
 Oracles, 137, 138, 225, 226, 383. 
 Origin of trees, 292, 293 ; of plants, 
 
 293 ; of the color of red clover, 293. 
 Orion, 329. 
 
 Ornamentation, fetichistic origin of, 141. 
 Ouiot, a god, 75, 91. 
 Owls, worship of, 262, 263. 
 
 P. 
 
 Pachacamac, 334, 335. 
 
 Penance, 373, 375. 
 
 Persecution, religious, 335. 
 
 Peru, civilization of, 388 ; deities of, 
 
 113, 114; priesthood of, 372-374. 
 Phallic worship, 390. 
 Phlebotomy, 382. 
 
 Photographs, superstitions about, 140. 
 Piasan, legend of, 274-276. 
 Pilgrimages, 105, 134, 303, 304. 
 Plants, worship of, 293, 295, 296, 299; 
 
 personality of, 294 ; spirits of, 294 ; 
 
 anthropomorphic character of, 299; 
 
 supernatural character of intoxicating 
 
 and healing herbs, 295-298; origin 
 
 of maize, 293; of mandioca, 293; 
 
 of red clover, 293. 
 Pottery, 122; worship of burial-urns, 
 
 120, 121. 
 
 Prayer, 70, 71, 73, 74, 389, 391. 
 
 Priestcraft, 123, 353, 370, 372-381; 
 priestly caste, 355, 356, 371-374; 
 in Mexico, 374-380 ; language, 372 ; 
 honesty of, 379 ; calls to, 384; main 
 tenance of, 377, 378; dress of, 377; 
 confessions to priests, 374, 375 ; edu 
 cation in hands of, 374, 376, 378, 
 381; imposture of, 353-356; temporal 
 power of, 381. 
 
 Primitive superstitions, 19-22. 
 Primitive temples, 118. 
 Promethean legend, 97. 
 Prophecy, 363-365, 386. 
 Prophet, 363-365, 374, 386. 
 Protecting genii of towns, 122, 123. 
 
 Q- 
 
 Quahootze, a god, 89. 
 
 Quetzalcoatl, a Mexican god, 93 ; human 
 
 nature of, 93-99 ; reforms of, 94, 95. 
 Quiches, civilization of, 391 ; deities of, 
 
 108, 109. 
 
 R. 
 
 Rabbits, worship of, 256. 
 
 Rain, sorcerers control, 365 ; produced 
 by sorcerers, 365, 366 ; rain goddess, 
 388. 
 
 Relics, 70-72, 144. 
 
 Resurrection of body, 162-164, r 94. 
 J 95 I 97~ I 99386; cases of resuscita 
 tion, 197, 198; resurrection of ani 
 mals, 199. 
 
 Revelation, 386. See Prophecy. 
 
 Rivers, worship of, 315-317; spirits of, 
 316; music of river-spirits, 317. 
 
 Road to spirit-land; 357; difficulties 
 of, 35 ; length of, 37 ; of the dead, 
 
 329- 
 Rock-temples, 301, 302. 
 
 S. 
 
 Sabaism, 325-332. 
 
 Sacrifice, 70, 71, 73, 196; of food, 200, 
 205 ; periodical renewal of food-offer 
 ings, 203 ; utilitarian character of, 
 205, 220; sacrifice of property, 205- 
 208; of flowers, 205,206; substitu 
 tion of the images of property, 208; 
 becomes a ceremonial rite, 208 ; hu 
 man sacrifice, 101-103, 107, 109, m, 
 208-216; suicides in sacrifices, 209, 
 211 ; intercessory character of human 
 sacrifice, 214 ; sacrifice of children, 
 214216 ; tombs the altars of sacrifice, 
 218-220; bodily mutilations, 216- 
 
 26 
 
398 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 220 ; myth of the substitution of a 
 spiritual being, 208, 209. 
 
 Scalping, fetichistic origin of, 142, 143. 
 
 Scomalt, a deity, 90. 
 
 Serpents, worship of, 263-266. 
 
 Shamanism, 370. 
 
 Shingebiss, an Ojibway god, 82, 83. 
 
 Shooting stars, 329. 
 
 Sorcerer, 52, 54, 57, 95, 96. 
 
 Sorcery, 142-144, 361 ; practice of, in 
 cure of disease, 354-360, 382, 387 ; 
 use of idols in sorcery, 138-140. 
 
 Spirits, worship of human, 69-71, 82, 
 113, 115; fear of, 14, 19; worship 
 of evil spirits, 30; land of, 35-43; 
 river-spirits, 316, 317; water-spirits, 
 322, 323 ; contest with, 22 ; subter 
 ranean abode of, 35. 
 
 Springs, worship of, 312-315. 
 
 Statues, worship of those containing 
 ashes of the dead, 119, 120. 
 
 Stones, worship of, 130-135 ; animation 
 of, 133, 134; transmigration of spirits 
 into, 133 ; oracle-stones, 137, 138. 
 
 Stygian flood, 37-39. 
 
 Sun, myths of, 325-327, 330. 
 
 Supreme Being, 15, 16, 88, 92, 93. 
 
 Survivals of superstitions, 385-387. 
 
 Suspensions of the dead, 166-168, 170, 
 171, 174, 176, 177, 194. 
 
 Symbolism, 221, 237; symbol of land, 
 312. 
 
 T. 
 
 Tattooing, fetichistic origin of, 156, 
 
 339-441- 
 Tchimose, Haidah mythological being, 
 
 278. 
 
 Temples, primitive, 1 1 8. 
 Tezcatlipoca, a Mexican god, 94-96. 
 Thunder-bird, 271-274. 
 Tlaloc, Mexican god of rain, 103. 
 Toads, worship of, 256, 257. 
 Toltecs, 95, 96. 
 Tortoise, worship of, 258; earth on the 
 
 back of, 312; shells of, as fetiches, 
 
 160, 161. 
 Totemism, 222, 230-239 ; totemic poles, 
 
 Translation, cases of, 77, 78, 86-88, 91, 
 92, 107, in, 328, 329, 332, 333. 
 
 Transmigration, 386; of human souls 
 into animals, 48-51, 221. 
 
 Transmission of spiritual essence, 353. 
 
 Trees, worship of, 287-292; spirits of, 
 289, 290; anthropomorphic character 
 of, 289 ; origin of, 292, 293. 
 
 Trimurti, 77, 93. 
 
 Tupa, a Brazilian god, 92. 
 
 Tupinamba thunder-god, 193. 
 
 U. 
 
 Underground origin of tribes, 200. 
 
 Unktayhee, a Dacotah god, 84. 
 
 Urns, burial in, 176, 189; worship of, 
 
 120, 121. 
 
 V. 
 
 Valor rewarded in future life, 32. 
 Viracocha, a Peruvian deity, 113. 
 Volcanoes, worship of, 308, 309 ; hell 
 
 located in, 308. 
 Votan, a Maya deity, 104. 
 
 \V. 
 
 Water-lily, origin of, 332. 
 Water-spirits, 322, 323; worship of, 
 
 312-326. 
 Winds produced by spirits, 349-352 ; 
 
 by animals, 270. 
 Witchcraft, 361. 
 Woods, sacred, 177. 
 
 X. 
 
 Xbalanque, a Quiche god, 108. 
 
 Xipe, Mexican god of goldsmiths, IOI. 
 
 V. 
 
 Yehl, a deity, 89. 
 
 Zamna, a Maya god, 105. 
 Zipacna, a Quiche god, 108. 
 Zome, a Brazilian god, 93. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 ^.Tlm hook is DUE on thejast date stamped below. 
 
 5 1947 
 
 v/ 
 
 
 ...3\9* 5LU 
 
 1p) CD 
 DEC 191958 
 
 FFB >i 197? 7 J 
 
 
 *0 D Iff 
 
 )LO J2l7J 
 
 M( 
 
 Ap * 7J958. 
 
 
 
 REC D L^ 
 
 
 
 APR 23 1953 
 
 
 
 LD 21-100m-12, 46(A2012s 
 
 16)4120