Observations, and arguments, in proof of the American Indians being descended from the Jews. (continued 3)

Because the Israelites lived in tabernacles, or booths, while they were in the wilderness; as a memorial therefore of the divine bounty to them, they were commanded to keep the feast of 101tabernacles, on the fifteenth day of the month Tisri, which they called Rosh Hosanah, or Hoshianah, it lasted eight days; during which time, they lived in arbours, (covered with green boughs of trees) unless when they went to worship at the temple, or sung Hoshaniyo around the altar. When they were on this religious duty, they were obliged each to carry in their hands a bundle of the branches of willows, palm-trees, myrtles, and others of different sorts, laden with fruit, and tied together with ribbons; and thus rejoice together with the appointed singers, and vocal and instrumental music, in the divine presence before the altar. On the eighth day of the feast, one of the priests brought some water in a golden vessel, from the pool of Siloam, mixed it with wine, and poured it on the morning-sacrifice, and the first fruits of their latter crops which were then presented, as an emblem of the divine graces that should flow to them, when Shilo came, who was to be their anointed king, prophet, and high-priest—The people in the mean time singing out of Isaiah “with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”

Let us now turn to the copper colour American Hebrews.—While their sanctified new fruits are dressing, a religious attendant is ordered to call six of their old beloved women to come to the temple, and dance the beloved dance with joyful hearts, according to the old beloved speech. They cheerfully obey, and enter the supposed holy ground in solemn procession, each carrying in her hand a bundle of small branches of various green trees; and they join the same number of old magi, or priests, who carry a cane in one hand adorned with white feathers, having likewise green boughs in their other hand, which they pulled from their holy arbour, and carefully place there, encircling it with several rounds. Those beloved men have their heads {96} dressed with white plumes; but the women are decked in their finest, and anointed with bear’s-grease, having small tortoise-shells, and white pebbles, fastened to a piece of white-drest deer-skin, which is tied to each of their legs.

The eldest of the priests leads the sacred dance, a-head of the innermost row, which of course is next to the holy fire.^[37] He 102begins the dance round the supposed holy fire, by invoking Yah, after their usual manner, on a bass key, and with a short accent; then he sings YO YO, which is repeated by the rest of the religious procession; and he continues his sacred invocations and praises, repeating the divine word, or notes, till they return to the same point of the circular course, where they began: then He He in like manner, and Wah Wah. While dancing they never fail to repeat those notes; and frequently the holy train strike up Halelu, Halelu; then Haleluiah, Halelu-Yah, and Aleluiah and Alelu-Yah, “Irradiation to the divine essence,” with great earnestness and fervor, till they encircle the altar, while each strikes the ground with right and left feet alternately, very quick, but well-timed. Then the awful drums join the sacred choir, which incite the old female singers to chant forth their pious notes, and grateful praises before the divine essence, and to redouble their former quick joyful steps, in imitation of the leader of the sacred dance, and the religious men a-head of them. What with the manly strong notes of the one, and the shrill voices of the other, in concert with the bead-shells, and the two sounding, drum-like earthen vessels, with the voices of the musicians who beat them, the reputed holy ground echoes with the praises of YO He Wah. Their singing and dancing in three circles around their sacred fire, appears to have a reference to a like religious custom of the Hebrews. And may we not reasonably suppose, that they formerly understood the psalms, or 103divine hymns? at least those that begin with Halelu-Yah; otherwise, how came all the inhabitants of the extensive regions of North and South-America, to have, and retain those very expressive Hebrew words? or how repeat them so distinctly, and apply them after the manner of the Hebrews, in their religious acclamations? The like cannot be found in any other countries.

In like manner, they sing on other religious occasions, and at their feasts of love, Ale-Yo Ale-Yo; which is אל, the divine name, by his attribute of omnipotence; and י, alluding to יהוה. They sing likewise Hewah Hewah, which is הוה “the immortal soul;” drawn from the divine essential name, {97} as deriving its rational faculties from Yohewah. Those words that they sing in their religious dances, they never repeat at any other time; which seems to have greatly occasioned the loss of the meaning of their divine hymns; for I believe they are now so corrupt, as not to understand either the spiritual or literal meaning of what they sing, any further than by allusion.

In their circuiting dances, they frequently sing on a bass key, Alué Alué, Aluhé, Aluhé, and Aluwàh Aluwàh, which is the Hebrew אלוה. They likewise sing Shilù-Yó, Shilù-Yó, Shilù-Hé Shilù-Hé, Shilù-Wàh, Shilù-Wàh, and Shilù-Hàh Shilù-Hàh. They transpose them also several ways, but with the very same notes. The three terminations make up in their order the four-lettered divine name. Hah is a note of gladness—the word preceding it, Shilù, seems to express the predicted human and divine שילוה, Shiloh, who was to be the purifier, and peace-maker.

They continue their grateful divine hymns for the space of fifteen minutes, when the dance breaks up. As they degenerate, they lengthen their dances, and shorten the time of their fasts and purifications; insomuch, that they have so exceedingly corrupted their primitive rites and customs, within the space of the last thirty years, that, at the same rate of declension, there will not be long a possibility of tracing their origin, but by their dialects, and war-customs.

At the end of this notable religious dance, the old beloved, or holy women^[38] return home to hasten the feast of the new sanctified fruits. In the mean while, every one at the temple drinks very plentifully of the Cusseena and other bitter liquids, to 104cleanse their sinful bodies; after which, they go to some convenient deep water, and there, according to the ceremonial law of the Hebrews, they wash away their sins with water. Thus sanctified, they return with joyful hearts in solemn procession, singing their notes of praise, till they enter into the holy ground to eat of the new delicious fruits of wild Canaan^[XXIII]. The women now with the utmost cheerfulness, bring to {98} the outside of the sacred square, a plentiful variety of all those good things, with which the divine fire has blessed them in the new year; and the religious attendants lay it before them, according to their stated order and reputed merit. Every seat is served in a gradual succession, from the white and red imperial long broad seats, and the whole square is soon covered: frequently they have a change of courses of fifty or sixty different sorts, and thus they continue to regale themselves, till the end of the festival; for they reckon they are now to feast themselves with joy and gladness, as the divine fire is appeased for past crimes, and has propitiously sanctified their weighty harvest. They all behave so modestly, and are possessed of such an extraordinary constancy and equanimity, in the pursuit of their religious mysteries, that they do not shew the least outward emotion of pleasure, at the first sight of the sanctified new fruits; nor the least uneasiness to be tasting those tempting delicious fat things of Canaan. If one of them acted in a contrary manner, they would say to him, Che-Hakset Kaneha, “You resemble such as were beat in Canaan.” This unconcern, doubtless proceeded originally from a virtuous principle; but now, it may be the mere effect of habit: for, jealousy and revenge excepted, they seem to be divested of every mental passion, and entirely incapable of any lasting affection.

I shall give an instance of this.—If the husband has been a year absent on a visit to another nation, and should by chance overtake his wife near home, with one of his children skipping along side of her; instead of those sudden and strong emotions of joy that naturally arise in two generous breasts at such an 105unexpected meeting, the self-interested pair go along as utter strangers, without seeming to take the least notice of one another, till a considerable time after they get home.

The Indians formerly observed the grand festival^[39] of the annual expiation of sin, at the beginning of the first new moon, in which their corn became full-eared; but for many years past they are regulated by the season of their harvest. And on that head, they shew more religious patience than the Hebrews formerly did; who, instead of waiting till their grain was ripe, forced their barley, which ripened before any other sort they planted. And they are perhaps as skilful in observing the revolutions of the moon, as ever the Israelites were, at least till the end of the first temple; for during that period, instead of measuring time by astronomical calculations, they {99} knew it only by the phases of the moon. In like manner, the supposed red Hebrews of the American desarts, annually observed their festivals, and Neetak Yáh-àh, “days of afflicting themselves before the Deity,” at a prefixed time of a certain moon. To this day, a war-leader, who, by the number of his martial exploits is entitled to a drum, 106always sanctifies himself, and his out-standing company, at the end of the old moon, so as to go off at the appearance of the new one by day-light; whereas, he who has not sufficiently distinguished himself, must set out in the night.

As the first of the Neetak Hoollo, precedes a long strict fast of two nights and a day, they gormandize such a prodigious quantity of strong food, as to enable them to keep inviolate the succeeding fast, the sabbath of sabbaths, the Neetak Yah-ah: the feast lasts only from morning till sun-set. Being great lovers of the ripened fruits, and only tantalized as yet, with a near view of them; and having lived at this season, but meanly on the wild products of nature—such a fast as this may be truly said to afflict their souls, and to prove a sufficient trial of their religious principles. During the festival, some of their people are closely employed in putting their temple in proper order for the annual expiation; and others are painting the white cabbin, and the supposed holiest, with white clay; for it is a sacred, peaceable place, and white is its emblem. Some, at the same time are likewise painting the war-cabbin with red clay, or their emblematical red root, as occasion requires; while others of an inferior order, are covering all the seats of the beloved square with new mattresses, made out of the fine splinters of long canes, tied together with flags. In the mean time, several of them are busy in sweeping the temple, clearing it of every supposed polluting thing, and carrying out the ashes from the hearth which perhaps had not been cleaned six times since the last year’s general offering. Several towns join together to make the annual sacrifice; and, if the whole nation lies in a narrow compass, they make but one annual offering: by which means, either through a sensual or religious principle, they strike off the work with joyful hearts. Every thing being thus prepared, the Archi-magus orders some of his religious attendants to dig up the old hearth, or altar, and to sweep out the remains that by chance might either be left, or drop down. Then he puts a few roots of the button-snake-root, with some green leaves of an uncommon small sort of tobacco, and a little of the new fruits, at the bottom of the fire-place, which he {100} orders to be covered up with white marley clay, and wetted over with clean water^[XXIV].

107Immediately, the magi order them to make a thick arbour over the altar, with green branches of the various young trees, which the warriors had designedly chosen, and laid down on the outside of the supposed holy ground: the women, in the interim are busy at home in cleaning out their houses, renewing the old hearths, and cleansing all their culinary vessels, that they may be fit to receive the pretended holy fire, and the sanctified new fruits, according to the purity of the law; lest by a contrary conduct, they should incur damage in life, health, future crops, &c. It is fresh in the memory of the old traders, that formerly none of these numerous nations of Indians would eat, or even handle any part of the new harvest, till some of it had been offered up at the yearly festival by the Archi-magus, or those of his appointment, at their plantations, though the light harvest of the past year had forced them to give their women and children of the ripening fruits, to sustain life. Notwithstanding they are visibly degenerating, both in this, and every other religious observance, except what concerns war; yet their magi and old warriors live contentedly on such harsh food as nature affords them in the woods, rather than transgress that divine precept given to their forefathers.

Having every thing in order for the sacred solemnity, the religious waiters carry off the remains of the feast, and lay them on the outside of the square; others of an inferior order carefully sweep out the smallest crumbs, for fear of polluting the first-fruit offering; and before sun-set, the temple must be cleared, even of every kind of vessel or utensil, that had contained, or been used about any food in that expiring year. The women carry all off, but none of that sex, except half a dozen of old beloved women, are allowed in that interval to tread on the holy ground, till the fourth day. Now, one of the waiters proclaims with a loud voice, for all the warriors and beloved men, whom the purity of the law admits, to come and enter the beloved square, and observe the fast; he likewise exhorts all {101} the women and children, and those who have not initiated themselves in war, to keep apart from them, according to law. Should any of them prove disobedient, the young ones would be dry-scratched, and the others stript of every thing they had on 108them. They observe the same strict law of purity, in their method of sanctifying themselves for war, in order to obtain the divine protection, assistance, and success. But a few weeks since, when a large company of these warlike savages were on the point of setting off to commence war against the Muskohge, some of the wags decoyed a heedless trader into their holy ground, and they stript him, so as to oblige him to redeem his clothes with vermilion. And, on account of the like trespass, they detained two Indian children two nights and a day, till their obstinate parents paid the like ransom.

Their great beloved man, or Archi-magus, now places four centinels, one at each corner of the holy square, to keep out every living creature as impure, except the religious order, and the warriors who are not known to have violated the law of the first-fruit-offering, and that of marriage, since the last year’s expiation. Those centinels are regularly relieved, and firm to their sacred trust; if they discerned a dog or cat on the out-limits of the holy square, before the first-fruit-offering was made, they would kill it with their arrows on the spot.

They observe the fast till the rising of the second sun; and be they ever so hungry in that sacred interval, the healthy warriors deem the duty so awful, and the violation so inexpressibly vicious, that no temptation would induce them to violate it; for, like the Hebrews, they fancy temporal evils are the necessary effect of their immoral conduct, and they would for ever ridicule and reproach the criminal for every bad occurrence that befel him in the new year, as the sinful author of his evils; and would sooner shoot themselves, than suffer such long-continued sharp disgrace. The religious attendants boil a sufficient quantity of button-snake-root, highly imbittered, and give it round pretty warm, in order to vomit and purge their sinful bodies. Thus they continue to mortify and purify themselves, till the end of the fast. When we consider their earnest invocations of the divine essence, in this solemnity—their great knowledge of specific virtues in simples—that they never apply the aforesaid root, only on religious occasions—that they frequently drink it to such excess as to impair their health, {102} and sometimes so as to poison themselves by its acrid quality—and take into the account, its well-known medicinal property of curing the bite of the most dangerous sort of the serpentine generation; must not one think, that the Aboriginal Americans chose it, as a 109strong emblem of the certain cure of the bite of the old serpent in Eden.

That the women and children, and those worthless fellows who have not hazarded their lives in defence of their holy places and holy things, and for the beloved people, may not be entirely godless, one of the old beloved men lays down a large quantity of the small-leafed green tobacco, on the outside of a corner of the sacred square; and an old beloved woman, carries it off, and distributes it to the sinners without, in large pieces, which they chew heartily, and swallow, in order to afflict their souls. She commends those who perform the duty with cheerfulness, and chides those who seem to do it unwillingly, by their wry faces on account of the bitterness of the supposed sanctifying herb. She distributes it in such quantities, as she thinks are equal to their capacity of sinning, giving to the reputed, worthless old He-hen-pickers, the proportion only of a child, because she thinks such spiritless pictures of men cannot sin with married women; as all the females love only the virtuous manly warrior, who has often successfully accompanied the beloved ark.

In the time of this general fast, the women, children, and men of weak constitutions, are allowed to eat, as soon as they are certain the sun has begun to decline from his meridian altitude; but not before that period. Their indulgence to the sick and weak, seems to be derived from divine precept, which forbad the offering of sacrifice at the cost of mercy; and the snake-root joined with their sanctifying bitter green tobacco, seem to be as strong expressive emblems as they could have possibly chosen, according to their situation in life, to represent the sacred institution of eating the paschal lamb, with bitter herbs; and to shew, that though the old serpent bit us in Eden, yet there is a branch from the root of Jesse, to be hoped for by those who deny themselves their present sweet taste, which will be a sufficient purifier, and effect the cure.

The whole time of this fast may with truth be called a fast, and to the Archi-magus, to all the magi, and pretended prophets, in particular; for, by {103} ancient custom, the former is obliged to eat of the sanctifying small-leafed tobacco, and drink the snake-root, in a separate hut for the space of three days and nights without any other subsistence, before the solemnity begins; besides his full portion along with the rest of the religious order, and the old war-chieftains, till the end of the general 110fast, which he pretends to observe with the strictest religion. After the first-fruits are sanctified, he lives most abstemiously till the end of the annual expiation, only sucking water-melons now and then to quench thirst, and support life, spitting out the more substantial part.

By the Levitical law, the priests were obliged to observe a stricter sanctity of life than the laity; all the time they were performing the sacerdotal offices, both women and wine were strictly forbidden to them. Thus the Indian religious are retentive of their sacred mysteries to death, and the Archi-magus is visibly thin and meagre at the end of the solemnity. That rigid self-denial, seems to have been designed to initiate the Levite, and give the rest an example of leading an innocent simple life, that thereby they might be able to subdue their unruly passions; and that by mortifying and purifying himself so excessively, the sacrifice by passing through his pure hands, may be accepted, and the holy Spirit of fire atoned, according to the divine law. The superannuated religious are also emulous in the highest degree, of excelling one another in their long fasting; for they firmly believe, that such an annual self-denying method is so highly virtuous, when joined to an obedience of the rest of their laws, as to be the infallible means of averting evil, and producing good things, through the new year. They declare that a steady virtue, through the divine co-operating favour, will infallibly insure them a lasting round of happiness.

At the end of this solemn fast, the women by the voice of a crier, bring to the outside of the holy square, a plentiful variety of the old year’s food newly drest, which they lay down, and immediately return home; for every one of them know their several duties, with regard both to time and place. The centinels report the affair, and soon afterward the waiters by order go, and reaching their hands over the holy ground, they bring in the provisions, and set them down before the famished multitude. Though most of the people may have seen them, they reckon it vicious and mean to shew a gladness for the end of their religious duties; and shameful {104} to hasten the holy attendants, as they are all capable of their sacred offices. They are as strict observers of all their set forms, as the Israelites were of those they had from divine appointment.

Before noon, the temple is so cleared of every thing the women brought to the square, that the festival after that period, resembles 111a magical entertainment that had no reality in it, consisting only in a delusion of the senses. The women then carry the vessels from the temple to the water, and wash them clean for fear of pollution. As soon as the sun is visibly declining from his meridian, this third day of the fast, the Archi-magus orders a religious attendant to cry aloud to the crowded town, that the holy fire is to be brought out for the sacred altar—commanding every one of them to stay within their own houses, as becomes the beloved people, without doing the least bad thing—and to be sure to extinguish, and throw away every spark of the old fire; otherwise, the divine fire will bite them severely with bad diseases, sickness, and a great many other evils, which he sententiously enumerates, and finishes his monitory caution, by laying life and death before them.

Now every thing is hushed.—Nothing but silence all around: the Archi-magus, and his beloved waiter, rising up with a reverend carriage, steady countenance, and composed behaviour, go into the beloved place, or holiest, to bring them out the beloved fire. The former takes a piece of dry poplar, willow, or white oak, and having cut a hole, so as not to reach through it, he then sharpens another piece, and placing that with the hole between his knees, he drills it briskly for several minutes, till it begins to smoke—or, by rubbing two pieces together, for about a quarter of an hour, by friction he collects the hidden fire; which all of them reckon to immediately issue from the holy Spirit of fire. The Muskohge call the fire their grandfather—and the supreme Father of mankind, Esakàta-Emishe, “the breath master,” as it is commonly explained. When the fire appears, the beloved waiter cherishes it with fine chips, or shaved splinters of pitch-pine, which had been deposited in the holiest; then he takes the unsullied wing of a swan, fans it gently, and cherishes it to a flame. On this, the Archi-magus brings it out in an old earthen vessel, whereon he had placed it, and lays it on the sacred altar, which is under an arbour, thick-weaved a-top with green boughs. It is observable, that when the Levites laid wood on the sacred fire, it was unlawful {105} for them either to blow it with bellows, or their breath. The Magians, or followers of Zoroaster, poured oil on their supposed holy fire, and left it to the open air to kindle it into flame. Is not this religious ceremony of these desolate Indians a strong imitation, or near resemblance of the Jewish customs?

112Their hearts are enlivened with joy at the appearance of the reputed holy fire, as the divine fire is supposed to atone for all their past crimes, except murder: and the beloved waiter shews his pleasure, by his cheerful industry in feeding it with dry fresh wood; for they put no rotten wood on it, any more than the Levites would on their sacred altars. Although the people without, may well know what is transacting within, yet, by order, a crier informs them of the good tidings, and orders an old beloved woman to pull a basket-full of the new-ripened fruits, and bring them to the beloved square. As she before had been appointed, and religiously prepared for that solemn occasion, she readily obeys, and soon lays it down with a cheerful heart, at the out-corner of the beloved square. By ancient custom, she may either return home, or stand there, till the expiation of sin hath been made, which is thus performed—The Archi-magus, or fire-maker, rises from his white seat and walks northward three times round the holy fire, with a slow pace, and in a very sedate and grave manner, stopping now and then, and speaking certain old ceremonial words with a low voice and a rapidity of expression, which none understand but a few of the old beloved men, who equally secrete their religious mysteries, that they may not be prophaned. He then takes a little of each sort of the new harvest, which the old woman had brought to the extremity of the supposed holy ground, rubs some bear’s oil over it, and offers it up together with some flesh, to the bountiful holy Spirit of fire, as a first-fruit offering, and an annual oblation for sin. He likewise consecrates the button-snake-root, and the cusseena, by pouring a little of those two strong decoctions into the pretended holy fire. He then purifies the red and white seats with those bitter liquids, and sits down. Now, every one of the outlaws who had been catched a tripping, may safely creep out of their lurking holes, anoint themselves, and dress in their finest, to pay their grateful thanks at an awful distance, to the forgiving divine fire. A religious waiter is soon ordered to call to the women around, to come for the sacred fire: they gladly obey.—When they come to the outside of the quadrangular holy ground, the Archi-magus addresses the warriors, and gives {106} them all the particular positive injunctions, and negative precepts they yet retain of the ancient law, relating to their own manly station. Then he changes his note, and uses a much sharper language to the women, as suspecting their former virtue. 113He first tells them very earnestly, that if there are any of them who have not extinguished the old evil fire, or have contracted any impurity, they must forthwith depart, lest the divine fire should spoil both them and the people; he charges them to be sure not to give the children a bad example of eating any unsanctified, or impure food, otherwise they will get full of worms, and be devoured by famine and diseases, and bring many other dangerous evils both upon themselves, and all the beloved, or holy people. This seems to allude to the theocratic government of the Jews, when such daring criminals were afflicted with immediate and visible divine punishment.

In his female lecture, he is sharp and prolix: he urges them with much earnestness to an honest observance of the marriage-law, which may be readily excused, on account of the prevalent passion of self-interest. Our own Christian orators do not exert themselves with half the eloquence or eagerness, as when that is at stake which they most value. And the old wary savage has sense enough to know, that the Indian female virtue is very brittle, not being guarded so much by inward principle, as the fear of shame, and of incurring severe punishment; but if every bush of every thicket was an hundred-eyed Argos, it would not be a sufficient guard over a wanton heart. So that it is natural they should speak much on this part of the subject, as they think they have much at stake. After that, he addresses himself to the whole body of the people, and tells them, in rapid bold language, with great energy, and expressive gestures of body, to look at the holy fire, which again has introduced all those shameful adulterous criminals into social privileges; he bids them not to be guilty of the like for time to come, but be sure to remember well, and strongly shake hands with the old beloved straight speech, otherwise the divine fire, which sees, hears, and knows them, will spoil them exceedingly, if at any time they relapse, and commit that detestable crime. Then he numerates all the supposed lesser crimes, and moves the audience by the great motives of the hope of temporal good, and the fear of temporal evil, assuring them, that upon their careful observance of the ancient law, the holy fire will enable their prophets, the rain-makers, to procure them plentiful harvests, and give their war-leaders victory over their enemies—and by the {107} communicative power of their holy things, health and prosperity are certain: but on failure, they are to expect a great many extraordinary 114calamities, such as hunger, uncommon diseases, a subjection to witchcraft, and captivity and death by the hands of the hateful enemy in the woods, where the wild fowls will eat their flesh, and beasts of prey destroy the remaining bones, so as they will not be gathered to their forefathers—because their ark abroad, and beloved things at home, would lose their virtual power of averting evil. He concludes, by advising them to a strict observance of their old rites and customs, and then every thing shall go well with them. He soon orders some of the religious attendants to take a sufficient quantity of the supposed holy fire, and lay it down on the outside of the holy ground, for all the houses of the various associated towns, which sometimes lie several miles apart. The women, hating sharp and grave lessons, speedily take it up, gladly carry it home, and lay it down on their unpolluted hearths, with the prospect of future joy and peace.

While the women are running about, and getting ready to dress the sanctified new-fruits on the sacred fire, the Archi-magus sends a religious attendant to pull some cusseena, or yopon, belonging to the temple; and having parched it brown on the altar, he boils it with clear running water in a large earthen pot, about half full; it has such a strong body, as to froth above the top by pouring it up and down with their consecrated vessels, which are kept only for that use: of this they drink now and then, till the end of the festival, and on every other religious occasion from year to year. Some of the old beloved men, through a religious emulation in sanctifying themselves, often drink this, and other bitter decoctionsdecoctions, to such excess, as to purge themselves very severely—when they drink it, they always invoke YO He Wah.

If any of the warriors are confined at home by sickness, or wounds, and are either deemed incapable or unfit to come to the annual expiation, they are allowed one of the old consecrated conch-shells-full of their sanctifying bitter cusseena, by their magi. The traders hear them often dispute for it, as their proper due, by ancient custom: and they often repeat their old religious ceremonies to one another, especially that part which they imagine most affects their present welfare; the aged are sent to instruct the young ones in these particulars. The above allowance, seems to be derived from the divine precept of mercy, in allowing a second passover {108} in favour of those who could not go, or were not admitted to the first; and the 115latter custom, to be in obedience to the divine law, which their supposed progenitors were to write on the posts of the doors, to wear as frontlets before their eyes, and teach to their children.

Though the Indians do not use salt in their first-fruit-oblation till the fourth day; it is not to be doubted but they formerly did. They reckon they cannot observe the annual expiation of sins, without bear’s oil, both to mix with that yearly offering, and to eat with the new sanctified fruits; and some years they have a great deal of trouble in killing a sufficient quantity of bears for the use of this religious solemnity, and their other sacred rites for the approaching year; for at such seasons they are hard to be found, and quite lean. The traders commonly supply themselves with plenty of this oil from winter to winter; but the Indians are so prepossessed with a notion of the white people being all impure and accursed, that they deem their oil as polluting on those sacred occasions, as Josephus tells us the Jews reckoned that of the Greeks. An Indian warrior will not light his pipe at a white man’s fire if he suspects any unsanctified food has been dressed at it in the new year. And in the time of the new-ripened fruits, their religious men carry a flint, punk, and steel, when they visit us, for fear of polluting themselves by lighting their pipes at our supposed Loak ookproose, “accursed fire,” and spoiling the power of their holy things. The polluted would, if known, be infallibly anathamatized, and expelled from the temple, with the women, who are suspected of gratifying their vicious taste. During the eight days festival, they are forbidden even to touch the skin of a female child: if they are detected, either in cohabiting with, or laying their hand on any of their own wives, in that sacred interval, they are stripped naked, and the offender is universally deemed so atrocious a criminal, that he lives afterwards a miserable life. Some have shot themselves dead, rather than stand the shame, and the long year’s continual reproaches cast upon them, for every mischance that befalls any of their people, or the ensuing harvest,—a necessary effect of the divine anger, they say, for such a crying sin of pollution. An instance of this kind I heard happened some years ago in Talàse, a town of the Muskohge, seven miles above the Alebáma garrison.

When we consider how sparingly they eat in their usual way of living, it is surprising to see what a vast quantity of food they consume {109} on their festival days. It would equally surprize 116a stranger to see how exceedingly they vary their dishes, their dainties consisting only of dried flesh, fish, oil, corn, beans, pease, pompions, and wild fruit. During this rejoicing time, the warriors are drest in their wild martial array, with their heads covered with white down: they carry feathers of the same colour, either in their hands, or fastened to white scraped canes, as emblems of purity, and scepters of power, while they are dancing in three circles, and singing their religious praises around the sacred arbour, in which stands the holy fire. Their music consists of two clay-pot drums covered on the top with thin wet deer-skins, drawn very tight, on which each of the noisy musicians beats with a stick, accompanying the noise with their voices; at the same time, the dancers prance it away, with wild and quick sliding steps, and variegated postures of body, to keep time with the drums, and the rattling calabashes shaked by some of their religious heroes, each of them singing their old religious songs, and striking notes in tympano et choro. Such is the graceful dancing, as well as the vocal and instrumental music of the red Hebrews on religious and martial occasions, which they must have derived from early antiquity. Toward the conclusion of the great festival, they paint and dress themselves anew, and give themselves the most terrible appearance they possibly can. They take up their war-instruments, and fight a mock-battle in a very exact manner: after which, the women are called to join in a grand dance, and if they disobey the invitation they are fined. But as they are extremely fond of such religious exercise, and deem it productive of temporal good, all soon appear in their finest apparel, as before suggested, decorated with silver ear-bobs, or pendants to their ears, several rounds of white beads about their necks, rings upon their fingers, large wire or broad plates of silver on their wrists, their heads shining with oil, and torrepine-shells containing pebbles, fastened to deer-skins, tied to the outside of their legs. Thus adorned, they join the men in three circles, and dance a considerable while around the sacred fire, and then they separate.

At the conclusion of this long and solemn festival, the Archi-magus orders one of the religious men to proclaim to all the people, that their sacred annual solemnity is now ended, and every kind of evil averted from the beloved people, according to the old straight beloved speech; they must therefore paint themselves, and come along with him according to ancient {110} 117custom. As they know the stated time, the joyful sound presently reaches their longing ears: immediately they fly about to grapple up a kind of chalky clay, to paint themselves white. By their religious emulation, they soon appear covered with that emblem of purity, and join at the outside of the holy ground, with all who had sanctified themselves within it, who are likewise painted, some with streaks, and others all over, as white as the clay can make them: recusants would undergo a heavy penalty. They go along in a very orderly solemn procession, to purify themselves in running water. The Archi-magus heads the holy train—his waiter next—the beloved men according to their seniority—and the warriors by their reputed merit. The women follow them in the same orderly manner, with all the children that can walk, behind them, ranged commonly according to their height; the very little ones they carry in their arms. Those, who are known to have eaten of the unsanctified fruits, bring up the rear. In this manner the procession moves along, singing Aleluiah to YO He Wah, &c. till they get to the water, which is generally contiguous, when the Archi-magus jumps into it, and all the holy train follow him, in the same order they observed from the temple. Having purified themselves, or washed away their sins, they come out with joyful hearts, believing themselves out of the reach of temporal evil, for their past vicious conduct: and they return in the same religious cheerful manner, into the middle of the holy ground, where having made a few circles, singing and dancing around the altar, they thus finish their annual great festival, and depart in joy and peace.

Ancient writers inform us, that while the Scythians or Tartars were heathens, their priests in the time of their sacrifices, took some blood, and mixing it with milk, horse-dung, and earth, got on a tree, and having exhorted the people, they sprinkled them with it, in order to purify them, and defend them from every kind of evil: the heathens also excluded some from religious communion. The Egyptians excommunicated those who ate of animals that bore wool, or cut the throat of a goat^[XXV]. And in ancient times, they, and the Phœnicians, Greeks, &c. adored the serpent, and expelled those who killed it. The East-Indians likewise, 118drive those from the {111} supposed benefit of their altars, who eat of a cow, and drink wine, or that eat with foreigners, or an inferior cast. Though the heathen world offered sacrifice, had ablutions, and several other sorts of purifications, and frequently by fire; yet at the best, their religious observances differed widely from the divine institutions; whereas the American Aborigines observe strict purity, in the most essential parts of the divine law. The former concealed their various worship from the light of the sun; some seeking thick groves, others descending into the deep valleys, others crawling to get into caverns, and under their favourite rocks. But we find the latter, in their state-houses and temples, following the Jerusalem copy in a surprizing manner. Those of them who yet retain a supposed most holy place, contrary to the usage of the old heathen world, have it standing at the west end of the holy quadrangular ground: and they always appoint those of the meanest rank, to sit on the seats of the eastern square, so that their backs are to the east, and faces to the west^[XXVI]. The red square looks north; and the second men’s cabbin, as the traders term the other square, of course looks south, which is a strong imitation of Solomon’s temple, that was modelled according to the divine plan of the Israelitish camp in the wilderness. We find them also sanctifying themselves, according to the emblematical laws of purity, offering their annual sacrifice in the centre of their quadrangular temples, under the meridian light of the sun. Their magi are devoted to, and bear the name of the great holy One; their supposed prophets likewise that of the divine fire; and each of them 119bear the emblems of purity and holiness—while in their religious duties, they sing Aleluiah, YO He Wah, &c. both day and night. Thus different are the various gods, {112} temples, prophets, and priests of all the idolatrous nations of antiquity, from the savage Americans; which shews with convincing clearness, especially by recollecting the former arguments, that the American Aborigines were never idolaters, nor violated the second commandment in worshipping the incomprehensible, omnipresent, divine essence, after the manner described by the popish historians of Peru and Mexico; but that the greatest part of their civil and religious system, is a strong old picture of the Israelitish, much less defaced than might be reasonably expected from the circumstances of time and place.

Every spring season, one town or more of the Missisippi Floridians,^[40] keep a great solemn feast of love, to renew their old friendship. They call this annual feast, Hottuk Aimpa, Heettla, Tanáa, “the people eat, dance, and walk as twined together”—The short name of their yearly feast of love, is Hottuk Impanáa, “eating by a strong religious, or social principle;” Impanáa signifies several threads or strands twisted, or warped together. Hissoobistarákshe, and Yelphòha Panáa, is “a twisted horse-rope,” and “warped garter^[XXVII].” This is also contrary to the usage of the old heathen world, whose festivals were in honour to their chief idols, and very often accompanied with detestable lewdness and debauchery.

They assemble three nights previous to their annual feast of love; on the fourth night they eat together. During the intermediate space, the young men and women dance in circles from the evening till morning. The men masque their faces with large pieces of gourds of different shapes and hieroglyphic paintings. Some of them fix a pair of young buffalo horns to their head; others the tail, behind. When the dance and their time is expired, the men turn out a hunting, and bring in a sufficient quantity of venison, for the feast of renewing their love, and confirming their friendship with each other. The women dress 120it, and bring the best they have along with it; which a few springs past, was only a variety of Esau’s small red acorn pottage, as their crops had failed. When they have eaten together, they fix in the ground a large pole with a bush tied at the top, over which {113} they throw a ball. Till the corn is in, they meet there almost every day, and play for venison and cakes, the men against the women; which the old people say they have observed for time out of mind.

Before I conclude this argument, I must here observe, that when the Indians meet at night to gladden and unite their hearts before Yohewah, they sing Yohèwà-shoo Yohèwà-shoo, Yohewàhshee Yohewàhshee, and Yohewàhshai Yohewàhshai, with much energy. The first word is nearly in Hebrew characters, יהושע, the name of Joshua, or saviour, Numb. xiii. 8. That ע is properly expressed by our double vowel oo, let it be observed, that as בעל is “a ruler,” or “commanding”—so the Indians say Boole Hakse “strike a person, that is criminal.” In like manner they sing Meshi Yo, Meshi Yo, Meshi He, Meshi He, Meshi Wah Meshi Wah; likewise, Meshi Hah Yo, &c.; and Meshi Wàh Háh Meshi Wàh Hé, transposing and accenting each syllable differently, so as to make them appear different words. But they commonly make those words end with one syllable of the divine name, Yo He Wah. If we connect this with the former part of the subject, and consider they are commonly anointed all over, in the time of their religious songs and circuiting dances, the words seem to glance at the Hebrew original, and perhaps they are sometimes synonymous; for ומו signifies oil; the person anointed משח, Messiah, and he who anointed משיחו, which with the Indians is Meshiháh Yo.

That these red savages formerly understood the radical meaning, and emblematical design, of the important words they use in their religious dances and sacred hymns, is pretty obvious, if we consider the reverence they pay to the mysterious divine name YO He Wah, in pausing during a long breath on each of the two first syllables; their defining good by joining Wah to the end of a word, which otherwise expresses moral evil, as before noticed; and again by making the same word a negative of good, by separating the first syllable of that divine name into two syllables, and adding U as a superlative termination, Y-O-U: all their sacred songs seem likewise to illustrate it very clearly; Halelu-Yah, Shilu Wah, Meshi Wah, Meshiha Yo, &c. The words 121which they repeat in their divine hymns, while dancing in three circles around their supposed holy fire, are deemed so sacred, that they have not been known ever to mention them at any other time: and as they are a most erect {114} people, their bowing posture during the time of those religious acclamations and invocations, helps to confirm their Hebrew origin.

Argument IX.

The Hebrews offered DAILY SACRIFICE, which the prophet Daniel calls Tamid, “the daily.” It was an offering of a lamb every morning and evening, at the charges of the common treasury of the temple, and except the skin and intrails, it was burnt to ashes—upon which account they called it, Oolah Kalile, to ascend and consume. The Indians have a similar religious service. The Indian women always throw a small piece of the fattest of the meat into the fire when they are eating, and frequently before they begin to eat. Sometimes they view it with a pleasing attention, and pretend to draw omens from it. They firmly believe such a method to be a great means of producing temporal good things, and of averting those that are evil: and they are so far from making this fat-offering through pride or hypocrisy, that they perform it when they think they are not seen by those of contrary principles, who might ridicule them without teaching them better.

Instead of blaming their religious conduct, as some have done, I advised them to persist in their religious duty to Ishtohoollo Aba, because he never failed to be kind to those who firmly shaked hands with the old beloved speech, particularly the moral precepts, and after they died, he would bring them to their beloved land; and took occasion to shew them the innumerable advantages their reputed forefathers were blest with, while they obeyed the divine law.

The white people, (I had almost said christians) who have become Indian proselytes of justice, by living according to the Indian religious system, assure us, that the Indian men observe the daily sacrifice both at home, and in the woods, with new-killed venison; but that otherwise they decline it. The difficulty of getting salt for religious uses from the sea-shore, and likewise its irritating quality when eaten by those who have green wounds, might in time occasion them to discontinue that part of the 122sacrifice. {115} They make salt for domestic use, out of a saltish kind of grass, which grows on rocks, by burning it to ashes, making strong lye of it, and boiling it in earthen pots to a proper consistence. They do not offer any fruits of the field, except at the first-fruit-offering: so that their neglect of sacrifice, at certain times, seems not to be the effect of an ignorant or vicious, but of their intelligent and virtuous disposition, and to be a strong circumstantial evidence of their Israelitish extraction.

Though they believe the upper heavens to be inhabited by Ishtohoollo Aba, and a great multitude of inferior good spirits; yet they are firmly persuaded that the divine omnipresent Spirit of fire and light resides on earth, in their annual sacred fire while it is unpolluted; and that he kindly accepts their lawful offerings, if their own conduct is agreeable to the old divine law, which was delivered to their forefathers. The former notion of the Deity, is agreeable to those natural images, with which the divine penmen, through all the prophetic writings, have drawn Yohewah Elohim. When God was pleased with Aaron’s priesthood and offerings, the holy fire descended and consumed the burnt-offering on the altar, &c.

By the divine records of the Hebrews, this was the emblematical token of the divine presence; and the smoke of the victim ascending toward heaven, is represented as a sweet savour to God. The people who have lived so long apart from the rest of mankind, are not to be wondered at, if they have forgotten the end and meaning of the sacrifice; and are rather to be pitied for seeming to believe, like the ignorant part of the Israelites, that the virtue is either in the form of offering the sacrifice, or in the divinity they imagine to reside on earth in the sacred annual fire; likewise, for seeming to have forgotten that the virtue was in the thing typified.

In the year 1748, when I was at the Koosàh on my way to the Chikkasah country, I had a conversation on this subject, with several of the more intelligent of the Muskohge traders. One of them told me, that just before, while he and several others were drinking spirituous liquors with the Indians, one of the warriors having drank to excess, reeled into the fire, and burned himself very much. He roared, foamed, and spoke the worst things against God, that their language could express. He upbraided him with {116} ingratitude, for having treated him so 123barbarously in return for his religious offerings, affirming he had always sacrificed to him the first young buck he killed in the new year; as in a constant manner he offered him when at home, some of the fattest of the meat, even when he was at short allowance, on purpose that he might shine upon him as a kind God.—And he added, “now you have proved as an evil spirit, by biting me so severely who was your constant devotee, and are a kind God to those accursed nothings, who are laughing at you as a rogue, and at me as a fool, I assure you, I shall renounce you from this time forward, and instead of making you look merry with fat meat, you shall appear sad with water, for spoiling the old beloved speech. I am a beloved warrior, and consequently I scorn to lie; you shall therefore immediately fly up above the clouds, for I shall piss upon you.” From that time, his brethen said, God forsook that terrestrial residence, and the warrior became godless. This information exactly agrees with many such instances of Indian impiety, that happened within my own observation—and shews the bad consequences of that evil habit of using spirituous liquors intemperately, which they have been taught by the Europeans.

The Indians have among them the resemblance of the Jewish Sin-Offering, and Trespass-Offering, for they commonly pull their new-killed venison (before they dress it) several times through the smoke and flame of the fire, both by the way of a sacrifice, and to consume the blood, life, or animal spirits of the beast, which with them would be a most horrid abomination to eat.^[41] And they sacrifice in the woods, the milt, or a large fat piece of the first buck they kill, both in their summer and winter hunt; and frequently the whole carcass. This they offer up, either as a thanksgiving for the recovery of health, and for 124their former success in hunting; or that the divine care and goodness may be still continued to them.

When the Hebrews doubted whether they had sinned against any of the divine precepts, they were obliged by the law to bring to the priest a ram of their flock, to be sacrificed, which they called Ascham. When the priest offered this, the person was forgiven. Their sacrifices and offerings were called Shilomim, as they typified Shilo-Berith, “the purifying root,” who was to procure them peace, rest, and plenty. The Indian imitates the Israelite {117} in his religious offerings, according to the circumstances of things; the Hebrew laid his hands on the head of the clean and tame victim, to load it with his sins, when it was to be killed. The Indian religiously chuses that animal which in America comes nearest to the divine law of sacrifice, according to what God has enabled him; he shoots down a buck, and sacrifices either the whole carcass, or some choice part of it, upon a fire of green wood to burn away, and ascend to Yohewah. Then he purifies himself in water, and believes himself secure from temporal evils. Formerly, every hunter observed the very same religious œconomy; but now it is practiced only by those who are the most retentive of their old religious mysteries.

The Muskohge Indians sacrifice a piece of every deer they kill at their hunting camps, or near home; if the latter, they dip their middle finger in the broth, and sprinkle it over the domestic tombs of their dead, to keep them out of the power of evil spirits, according to their mythology; which seems to proceed from a traditional knowledge, though corruption of the Hebrew law of sprinkling and of blood.

The Indians observe another religious custom of the Hebrews, in making a Peace-Offering, or sacrifice of gratitude, if the Deity in the supposed holy ark is propitious to their campaign against the enemy, and brings them all safe home. If they have lost any in war, they always decline it, because they imagine by some neglect of duty, they are impure: then they only mourn their vicious conduct which defiled the ark, and thereby occasioned the loss. Like the Israelites, they believe their sins are the true cause of all their evils, and that the divinity in their ark, will always bless the more religious party with the best success. This is their invariable sentiment, and is the sole reason of their mortifying themselves in so severe a manner while they are out at war, living very scantily, even in a buffalo-range, 125under a strict rule, lest by luxury their hearts should grow evil, and give them occasion to mourn.

The common sort of Indians, in these corrupt times, only sacrifice a small piece of unsalted fat meat, when they are rejoicing in the divine presence, singing Yo Yo, &c. for their success and safety: but, according to the religious custom of the Hebrews, who offered sacrifices of thanksgiving {118} for every notable favour that Elohim had conferred either on individuals, or the body,—both the war-leader and his religious assistant go into the woods as soon as they are purified, and there sacrifice the first deer they kill; yet, as hath been observed, they always celebrate the annual expiation of sins in their religious temples.

The red Hebrews imagine their temples to have such a typical holiness, more than any other place, that if they offered up the annual sacrifice elsewhere, it would not atone for the people, but rather bring down the anger of Ishtohoollo Aba, and utterly spoil the power of their holy places and holy things. They who sacrifice in the woods, do it only on the particular occasions now mentioned; unless incited by a dream, which they esteem a monitory lesson of the Deity, according to a similar opinion of the Hebrews. To conclude this argument, it is well known, that the heathens offered the most abominable and impure sacrifices to a multiplicity of idol gods; some on favourite high places, others in thick groves, yea, offerings of their own children were made! and they likewise prostituted their young women in honour of their deities. The former is so atrocious in the eyes of the American Hebrews, that they reckon there needs no human law to prevent so unnatural a crime; the vilest reptiles being endued with an intense love to their young ones: and as to the latter, if even a great war-leader is known to cohabit with his own wife, while sanctifying himself according to their mode on any religious occasion, he is deemed unclean for the space of three days and nights; or should he during the annual atonement of sins, it is deemed so dangerous a pollution, as to demand a strict exclusion from the rest of the sanctified head-men and warriors, till the general atonement has been made at the temple, to appease the offended Deity: besides, as a shameful badge of his impiety, his clothes are stripped off. Thus different are the various modes and subjects of the heathenish worship and offerings, from those of the savage Americans. The surprizing purity the latter still observe in their religious ceremonies, under the 126circumstances of time and place, points strongly at their origin. {119}

Argument X.

The Hebrews had various Ablutions and Anointings, according to the Mosaic ritual—and all the Indian nations constantly observe similar customs from religious motives. Their frequent bathing, or dipping themselves and their children in rivers, even in the severest weather, seems to be as truly Jewish, as the other rites and ceremonies which have been mentioned. Frequent washing of the body was highly necessary to the health of the Hebrews in their warm climate, and populous state—but it is useless in this point of view to the red Americans, as their towns are widely distant from each other, thin peopled, and situated in cold regions. However, they practise it as a religious duty, unless in very hot weather, which they find by experience to be prejudicial to their health, when they observe the law of mercy, rather than that of sacrifice. In the coldest weather, and when the ground is covered with snow, against their bodily ease and pleasure, men and children turn out of their warm houses or stoves, reeking with sweat, singing their usual sacred notes, Yo Yo, &c. at the dawn of day, adoring YO He Wah, at the gladsome sight of the morn; and thus they skip along, echoing praises, till they get to the river, when they instantaneously plunge into it.^[42] If the water is frozen, they break the ice with a religious impatience: After bathing, they return home, rejoicing as they run for having so well performed their religious duty, and thus purged away the impurities of the preceding day by ablution. The neglect of this hath been deemed so heinous a crime, that they have raked the legs and arms of the delinquent with snake’s teeth, not allowing warm water to relax the stiffened skin. This is called dry-scratching;^[43] for their method of bleeding consists in scratching the legs and arms with goir-fish teeth, when the skin has been first well loosened by warm water. The criminals, through a false imitation of true martial virtue, scorn to move themselves in the least out of their erect posture, 127be the pain ever so intolerable; if they did, they would be laughed at, even by their own relations—first, for being vicious; and next, for being timorous. This will help to lessen our surprize at the uncommon patience and constancy with which they are endued, beyond the rest of mankind, in suffering long-continued torture; especially as it is one {120} of the first, and strongest impressions they take; and they have constant lessons and examples of fortitude, exhibited before their eyes.

The Hebrews had convenient separate places for their women to bathe in, and purify themselves as occasion required: and at the temple (and the synagogues, after the captivity) they worshipped apart from the men, lest they should attract one another’s attention from the divine worship: and it was customary for the women to go veiled, for fear of being seen, when they walked the streets. No doubt but jealousy had as great a share in introducing this custom as modesty, especially while poligamy was suffered in the rich. But the scantiness of the Jewish American’s circumstances, has obliged them to purify themselves in the open rivers, where modesty forbad them to expose their women; who by this means, are now less religious than the men in that duty, for they only purify themselves as their discretion directs them. In imitation of the Hebrew women being kept apart from the men at their worship, the Indians intirely exclude their females from their temples by ancient custom, except six old beloved women, who are admitted to sing, dance, and rejoice, in the time of their annual expiation of sins, and then retire. In their town-houses also they separate them from the warriors, placing them on the ground at each side of the entrance of the door within, as if they were only casual spectators.

It may be objected, that the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans worshipped their Gods, at the dawn of day: and the Persian Magi, with all the other worshippers of fire, paid their religious devoirs to the rising sun, but, as the Indians are plainly not idolaters, or poly-theists; as they sing to, and invoke Yah, and YO He Wah, the divine essence, as they run along at the dawn of day to purify themselves by ablution; it seems sufficiently clear, they are not descended from either of the last mentioned states, but that their origin is from the Israelites. This law of purity, bathing in water, was essential to the Jews—and the Indians to this day would exclude the men from religious communion who neglected to observe it. 128f It was customary with the Jews also after bathing to anoint themselves with oil. All the orientalists had a kind of sacred respect to Oil; particularly the Jews. With them, the same word which signified “noon-day” or splendor, צהר, denoted also “lucid oil.”—And the olive-tree is derived {121} from the verb, to shine—Because, the fruit thereof tended to give their faces a favourite glistering colour. ’Tis well known that oil was applied by the Jews to the most sacred, as well as common uses. Their kings, prophets and priests, at their inauguration and consecration were anointed with oil—and the promised Saviour was himself described, by the epithet “anointed,” and is said Psal. xlv. 7. to be “anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.” We shall on this point, discover no small resemblance and conformity in the American Indians.

The Indian priests and prophets are initiated by unction. The Chikkasah some time ago set apart some of their old men of the religious order. They first obliged them to sweat themselves for the space of three days and nights, in a small green hut, made on purpose, at a considerable distance from any dwelling; through a scrupulous fear of contracting pollution by contact, or from the effluvia of polluted people—and a strong desire of secreting their religious mysteries. During that interval, they were allowed to eat nothing but green tobacco, nor to drink any thing except warm water, highly imbittered with the button-snake-root, to cleanse their bodies, and prepare them to serve in their holy, or beloved office, before the divine essence, whom during this preparation they constantly invoke by his essential name, as before described. After which, their priestly garments and ornaments, mentioned under a former argument, page 84, are put on, and, then bear’s oil is poured upon their head.—If they could procure olive, or palm oil, instead of bear’s oil, doubtless they would prefer and use it in their sacred ceremonies; especially, as they are often destitute of their favourite bear’s oil for domestic uses.

The Jewish women were so exceedingly addicted to anoint their faces and bodies, that they often preferred oil to the necessaries of life; the widow who addressed herself to Elisha, though she was in the most pinching straits, and wanted every thing else, yet had a pot of oil to anoint herself. This custom of anointing became universal, among the eastern nations. They were not satisfied with perfuming themselves with sweet oils 129and fine essences; but anointed birds—as in the ninth ode of Anacreon;

Tot unde nunc odores?

Huc advolans per auras,

Spirasque, depulisque; {122}

The poet introduces two doves conversing together; one of which carried a letter to Bathyllus, the anointed beau; and the other wishes her much joy, for her perfumed wings that diffused such an agreeable smell around. And the same poet orders the painter to draw this Samian beau, with his hair wet with essence, to give him a fine appearance. Nitidas comas ejus facilto. Ode 29. Virgil describes Turnus, just after the same manner,

Vibratos calido ferro, myrrhaque madentes.

Æneid, 1. 12.

Homer tells us, that Telemachus and Philistratus anointed their whole bodies with essences, after they had visited the palace of Menelaus, and before they sat down at table. Odyss. 1. 4.

The Jews reckoned it a singular piece of disrespect to their guest, if they offered him no oil. When any of them paid a friendly visit, they had essences presented to anoint their heads; to which custom of civility the Saviour alludes in his reproof of the parsimonious Pharisee, at whose house he dined. Luke vii. 46.

All the Indian Americans, especially the female sex, reckon their bear’s oil or grease,^[44] very valuable, and use it after the same manner as the Asiatics did their fine essences and sweet perfumes; the young warriors and women are uneasy, unless their hair is always shining with it; which is probably the reason that none of their heads are bald. But enough is said on this head, to shew that they seem to have derived this custom from the east.

Argument XI.

The Indians have customs consonant to the Mosaic Laws of Uncleanness. They oblige their women in their lunar retreats,^[45] 130to build small huts, at as considerable a distance from their dwelling-houses, as they imagine may be out of the enemies reach; where, during the space of that period, they are obliged to stay at the risque of their lives. Should they be known to violate that ancient law, they must answer for every misfortune that befalls {123} any of the people, as a certain effect of the divine fire; though the lurking enemy sometimes kills them in their religious retirement. Notwithstanding they reckon it conveys a most horrid and dangerous pollution to those who touch, or go near them, or walk any where within the circle of their retreats; and are in fear of thereby spoiling the supposed purity and power of their holy ark, which they always carry to war; yet the enemy believe they can so cleanse themselves with the consecrated herbs, roots, &c. which the chieftain carries in the beloved war-ark, as to secure them in this point from bodily danger, because it was done against their enemies.

The non-observance of this separation, a breach of the marriage-law, and murder, they esteem the most capital crimes. When the time of the women’s separation is ended, they always purify themselves in deep running water, return home, dress, and anoint themselves. They ascribe these monthly periods, to the female structure, not to the anger of Ishtohoollo Aba.

Correspondent to the Mosaic law of women’s purification after travel,^[46] the Indian women absent themselves from their husbands and all public company, for a considerable time.—The Muskōhge women are separate for three moons, exclusive of that moon in which they are delivered. By the Jewish law, women after a male-birth were forbidden to enter the temple; and even, the very touch of sacred things, forty days.—And after a female, the time of separation was doubled.

Should any of the Indian women violate this law of purity, they would be censured, and suffer for any sudden sickness, or death that might happen among the people, as the necessary effect of the divine anger for their polluting sin, contrary to 131their old traditional law of female purity. Like the greater part of the Israelites, it is the fear of temporal evils, and the prospect of temporal good, that makes them so tenacious and observant of their laws. At the stated period, the Indian women’s impurity is finished by ablution, and they are again admitted to social and holy privileges.

By the Levitical law, the people who had running issues, or sores, were deemed unclean, and strictly ordered apart from the rest, for fear of polluting them; for every thing they touched became unclean. The Indians, in as strict a manner, observe the very same law; they follow the ancient {124} Israelitish copy so close, as to build a small hut at a considerable distance from the houses of the village, for every one of their warriors wounded in war, and confine them there, (as the Jewish lepers formerly were, without the walls of the city) for the space of four moons, including that moon in which they were wounded, as in the case of their women after travel: and they keep them strictly separate, lest the impurity of the one should prevent the cure of the other. The reputed prophet, or divine physician, daily pays them a due attendance, always invoking YO He Wah to bless the means they apply on the sad occasion; which is chiefly mountain allum, and medicinal herbs, always injoyning a very abstemious life, prohibiting them women and salt in particular, during the time of the cure, or sanctifying the reputed sinners. Like the Israelites, they firmly believe that safety, or wounds, &c. immediately proceed from the pleased, or angry deity, for their virtuous, or vicious conduct, in observing, or violating the divine law.

In this long space of purification, each patient is allowed only a superannuated woman to attend him, who is past the temptations of sinning with men, lest the introduction of a young one should either seduce him to folly; or she having committed it with others—or by not observing her appointed time of living apart from the rest, might thereby defile the place, and totally prevent the cure. But what is yet more surprising in their physical, or rather theological regimen, is, that the physician is so religiously cautious of not admitting polluted persons to visit any of his patients, lest the defilement should retard the cure, or spoil the warriors, that before he introduces any man, even any of their priests, who are married according to the law, he obliges him to assert either by a double affirmative, or by two 132negatives, that he has not known even his own wife, in the space of the last natural day. This law of purity was peculiar to the Hebrews, to deem those unclean who cohabited with their wives, till they purified themselves in clean water. Now as the heathen world observed no such law, it seems that the primitive Americans derived this religious custom also from divine precept; and that these ceremonial rites were originally copied from the Mosaic institution.

The Israelites became unclean only by touching their dead, for the space of seven days; and the high-priest was prohibited to come near the dead. ’Tis much the same with the Indians to this day. To prevent pollution, when the sick person is past hope of recovery, they {125} dig a grave, prepare the tomb, anoint his hair, and paint his face; and when his breath ceases, they hasten the remaining funeral preparations, and soon bury the corpse.^[47] One of a different family will never, or very rarely pollute himself for a stranger; though when living, he would cheerfully hazard his life for his safety: the relations, who become unclean by performing the funeral duties, must live apart from the clean for several days, and be cleansed by some of their religious order, who chiefly apply the button-snake-root for their purification, as formerly described: then they purify themselves by ablution. After three days, the funeral assistants may convene at the town-house, and follow their usual diversions. But the relations live recluse a long time, mourning the dead.^[XXVIII][48]

133The Cheerake, notwithstanding they have corrupted most of their primitive customs, observe this law of purity in so strict a manner, as not to touch the corpse of their nearest relation though in the woods. The fear of pollution (not the want of natural affection, as the unskilful observe) keeps them also from burying their dead, in our reputed unsanctified ground, if any die as they are going to Charles-town, and returning home; because they are distant from their own holy places and holy things, where only they could perform the religious obsequies of their dead, and purify themselves according to law. An incident of this kind happened several years since, a little below Ninety-six, as well as at the Conggarees, in South-Carolina:—at the former place, the corpse by our humanity was interred; but at the latter, even the twin-born brother of an Indian christian lady well known by the name of the Dark-lanthorn, left her dead and unburied.

The conversion of this rara avis was in the following extraordinary manner.—There was a gentleman who married her according to the manner of the Cheeràke; but observing that marriages were commonly of a short {126} duration in that wanton female government, he flattered himself of ingrossing her affections, could he be so happy as to get her sanctified by one of our own beloved men with a large quantity of holy water in baptism—and be taught the conjugal duty, by virtue of her new christian name, when they were married a-new. As she was no stranger in the English settlements, he soon persuaded her to go down to the Conggarees, to get the beloved speech, and many fine things beside. As the priest was one of those sons of wisdom, the church sent us in her maternal benevolence, both to keep and draw us from essential errors, he readily knew the value of a convert, and grasping at the opportunity, he changed her from a wild savage to a believing christian in a trice.

He asked her a few articles of her creed, which were soon answered by the bridegroom, as interpreter, from some words she spoke on a trifling question he asked her. When the priest proposed to her a religious question, the bridegroom, by reason of their low ideas, and the idiom of their dialects, was obliged to mention some of the virtues, and say he recommended to her a very strict chastity in the married state. “Very well, said she, that’s a good speech, and fit for every woman alike, unless she is very old—But what says he now?” The interpreter, after a 134short pause, replied, that he was urging her to use a proper care in domestic life. “You evil spirit, said she, when was I wasteful, or careless at home?” He replied, “never”: “Well then, said she, tell him his speech is troublesome and light.—But, first, where are those fine things you promised me?” He bid her be patient a little, and she should have plenty of every thing she liked best; at this she smiled. Now the religious man was fully confirmed in the hope of her conversion; however, he asked if she understood, and believed that needful article, the doctrine of the trinity. The bridegroom swore heartily, that if he brought out all the other articles of his old book, she both knew and believed them, for she was a sensible young woman.

The bridegroom had a very difficult part to act, both to please the humour of his Venus, and to satisfy the inquisitive temper of our religious son of Apollo; he behaved pretty well however, till he was desired to ask her belief of the uni-trinity, and tri-unity of the deity; which the beloved man endeavoured to explain. On this, she smartly asked him the subject of their long and crooked-like discourse. But, as his patience was now exhausted, {127} instead of answering her question, he said with a loud voice, that he believed the religious man had picked out all the crabbed parts of his old book, only to puzzle and stagger her young christian faith; otherwise how could he desire him to persuade such a sharp-discerning young woman, that one was three, and three, one? Besides, that if his book had any such question, it belonged only to the deep parts of arithmetic, in which the very Indian beloved men were untaught. He assured the priest, that the Indians did not mind what religion the women were of, or whether they had any; and that the bride would take it very kindly, if he shortened his discourse, as nothing can disturb the Indian women so much as long lectures.

The Dark-lanthorn, (which was the name of the bride) became very uneasy, both by the delay of time, and the various passions she attentively read in the bridegroom’s face and speech, and she asked him sharply the meaning of such a long discourse. He instantly cried out, that the whole affair was spoiled, unless it was brought to a speedy conclusion: but the religious man insisted upon her belief of that article, before he could proceed any farther. But by way of comfort, he assured him it should be the very last question he would propose, till he put the holy water on her face, and read over the marriage ceremony. The 135bridegroom revived at this good news, immediately sent the bowl around, with a cheerful countenance; which the bride observing, she asked him the reason of his sudden joyful looks.—But, what with the length of the lecture, the close application of the bowl, and an over-joy of soon obtaining his wishes, he proposed the wrong question; for instead of asking her belief of the mysterious union of the tri-une deity, he only mentioned the manly faculties of nature. The bride smiled, and asked if the beloved man borrowed that speech from his beloved marriage-book? Or whether he was married, as he was so waggish, and knowing in those affairs.—The priest imagining her cheerful looks proceeded from her swallowing his doctrine, immediately called for a bowl of water to initiate his new convert. As the bridegroom could not mediate with his usual friendly offices in this affair, he persuaded her to let the beloved man put some beloved water on her face, and it would be a sure pledge of a lasting friendship between her and the English, and intitle her to every thing she liked best. By the persuasive force of his promises, she consented: and had the constancy, though so ignorant a {128} novitiate in our sacred mysteries, to go through her catechism, and the long marriage ceremony,—although it was often interrupted by the bowl. This being over, she proceeded to go to bed with her partner, while the beloved man sung a psalm at the door, concerning the fruitful vine. Her name he soon entered in capital letters, to grace the first title-page of his church book of converts; which he often shewed to his English sheep, and with much satisfaction would inform them how, by the co-operation of the Deity, his earnest endeavours changed an Indian Dark-lanthorn into a lamp of christian light. However, afterward to his great grief, he was obliged on account of her adulteries, to erase her name from thence, and enter it anew in some of the crowded pages of female delinquents.

When an Israelite died in any house or tent, all who were in it, and the furniture belonging to it contracted a pollution, which continued for seven days. All likewise who touched the body of a dead person, or his grave, were impure for seven days. Similar notions prevail among the Indians. The Choktah are so exceedingly infatuated in favour of the infallible judgment of their pretended prophets, as to allow them without the least regret, to dislocate the necks of any of their sick who are in a weak state of body, to put them out of their pain, when they presume 136to reveal the determined will of the Deity to shorten his days, which is asserted to be communicated in a dream; by the time that this theo-physical operation is performed on a patient, they have a scaffold prepared opposite to the door, whereon he is to lie till they remove the bones in the fourth moon after, to the remote bone-house of that family: they immediately carry out the corpse, mourn over it, and place it in that dormitory, which is strongly pallisadoed around, lest the children should become polluted even by passing under the dead. Formerly when the owner of a house died, they set fire to it, and to all the provisions of every kind; or sold the whole at a cheap rate to the trading people, without paying the least regard to the scarcity of the times. Many of them still observe the same rule, through a wild imitation of a ceremonial observance of the Israelites, in burning the bed whereon a dead person lay, because of its impurity. This is no copy from the ancient heathens, but from the Hebrews. {129}

Argument XII.

Like the Jews, the greatest part of the southern Indians abstain from most things that are either in themselves, or in the general apprehension of mankind, loathsome, or unclean: where we find a deviation from that general rule among any of them, it is a corruption—either owing to their intercourse with Europeans, or having contracted an ill habit from necessity. They generally affix very vicious ideas to the eating of impure things; and all their prophets, priests, old warriors and war-chieftains, before they enter on their religious duties, and while they are engaged in them, observe the strictest abstinence in this point. Formerly, if any of them did eat in white people’s houses, or even of what had been dressed there, while they were sanctifying themselves, it was deemed a dangerous sin of pollution. When some of them first corrupted their primitive virtue, by drinking of our spirituous liquors, the religious spectators called it ooka hoome, “bitter waters;” alluding, I conjecture, to the bitter waters of jealousy, that produced swelling and death to those who committed adultery, but had no power over the innocent. That this name is not accidental, but designedly pointed, and expressive of the bitter waters of God, seems obvious, not only from the image they still retain of them, but likewise when any of them refuse 137our invitation of drinking spirituous liquors in company with us, they say Ahiskola Awa, Ooka HoomehHoomeh Ishto, “I will not drink, they are the bitter waters of the great One.” Though Ishto, one of the names of God, subjoined to nouns, denotes a superlative degree, in this case they deviate from that general rule—and for this reason they never affix the idea of bitter to the spirituous liquors we drink among them. Hoomeh is the only word they have to convey the meaning of bitter; as Aneh Hoomeh, “bitter ears,” or pepper.

They reckon all birds of prey, and birds of night, to be unclean, and unlawful to be eaten. Not long ago, when the Indians were making their winter’s hunt, and the old women were without flesh-meat at home, I shot a small fat hawk, and desired one of them to take and dress it; but though I strongly importuned her by way of trial, she, as earnestly refused it for {130} fear of contracting pollution, which she called the “accursed sickness,” supposing disease would be the necessary effect of such an impurity. Eagles of every kind they esteem unclean food; likewise ravens (though the name of a tribe with them) crows, buzzards, swallows, bats, and every species of owls: and they believe that swallowing flies, musketoes, or gnats, always breeds sickness, or worms, according to the quantity that goes into them; which though it may not imply extraordinary skill in physic, shews their retention of the ancient law, which prohibited the swallowing of flies: for to this that divine sarcasm alludes, “swallowing a camel, and straining at a gnat.” Such insects were deemed unclean, as well as vexatious and hurtful. The God of Ekron was Beelzebub, or the God and ruler of flies.

None of them will eat of any animal whatsoever, if they either know, or suspect that it died of itself. I lately asked one of the women the reason of throwing a dung-hill-fowl out of doors, on the corn-house; she said, that she was afraid, Oophe Abeeka Hakset Illeh, “it died with the distemper of the mad dogs,” and that if she had eaten it, it would have affected her in the very same manner. I said, if so, she did well to save herself from danger, but at the same time, it seemed she had forgotten the cats. She replied, “that such impure animals would not contract the accursed sickness, on account of any evil thing they eat; but that the people who ate of the flesh of the swine that fed on such polluting food, would certainly become mad.”

In the year 1766, a madness seized the wild beasts in the 138remote woods of West-Florida, and about the same time the domestic dogs were attacked with the like distemper; the deer were equally infected. The Indians in their winter’s hunt, found several lying dead, some in a helpless condition, and others fierce and mad. But though they are all fond of increasing their number of deer-skins, both from emulation and for profit, yet none of them durst venture to slay them, lest they should pollute themselves, and thereby incur bodily evils. The head-man of the camp told me, he cautioned one of the Hottuk Hakse, who had resided a long time at Savannah, from touching such deer, saying to him Chehaksinna, “Do not become vicious and mad,” for Isse Hakset Illehtàhah, “the deer were mad, and are dead;” adding, that if he acted the part of Hakse, he would cause both himself,{131} and the rest of the hunting camp to be spoiled; nevertheless he shut his ears against his honest speech, and brought those dangerous deer-skins to camp. But the people would not afterward associate with him; and he soon paid dear for being Hakse, by a sharp splintered root of a cane running almost through his foot, near the very place where he first polluted himself; and he was afraid some worse ill was still in wait for him.

In 1767, the Indians were struck with a disease, which they were unacquainted with before. It began with sharp pains in the head, at the lower part of each of the ears, and swelled the face and throat in a very extraordinary manner, and also the testicles. It continued about a fortnight, and in the like space of time went off gradually, without any dangerous consequence, or use of outward or inward remedies: they called it Wahka Abeeka, “the cattle’s distemper,” or sickness. Some of their young men had by stealth killed and eaten a few of the cattle which the traders had brought up, and they imagined they had thus polluted themselves, and were smitten in that strange manner, by having their heads, necks, &c. magnified like the same parts of a sick bull. They first concluded, either to kill all the cattle, or send them immediately off their land, to prevent the like mischief, or greater ills from befalling the beloved people—for their cunning old physicians or prophets would not undertake to cure them, in order to inflame the people to execute the former resolution; being jealous of encroachments, and afraid the cattle would spoil their open corn-fields; upon which account, the traders arguments had no weight with these red Hebrew 139philosophers. But fortunately, one of their head warriors had a few cattle soon presented to him, to keep off the wolf; and his reasoning proved so weighty, as to alter their resolution, and produce in them a contrary belief.

They reckon all those animals to be unclean, that are either carnivorous, or live on nasty food; as hogs,^[49] wolves, panthers, foxes, cats, mice, rats. And if we except the bear, they deem all beasts of prey unhallowed, and polluted food; all amphibious quadrupeds they rank in the same class. Our old traders remember when they first began the custom of eating beavers: and to this day none eat of them, except those who kill {132} them; though the flesh is very wholesome, on account of the bark of trees they live upon. It must be acknowledged, they are all degenerating apace, insomuch, that the Choktah Indians, on account of their scantiness of ammunition while they traded with the French, took to eat horse-flesh, and even snakes of every kind; though each of these species, and every sort of reptiles, are accounted by the other neighbouring nations, impure food in the highest degree. And they ridicule the Choktah for their cannibal apostacy, and term them in common speech, “the evil, ugly, Choktah.”

They abhor moles so exceedingly, that they will not allow their children even to touch them, for fear of hurting their eyesight; reckoning it contagious. They believe that nature is possest of such a property, as to transfuse into men and animals the qualities, either of the food they use, or of those objects that are presented to their senses;^[50] he who feeds on venison, is according to their physical system, swifter and more sagacious than the man who lives on the flesh of the clumsy bear, or helpless dunghill fowls, the slow-footed tame cattle, or the heavy wallowing swine. This is the reason that several of their old men recommend, and say, that formerly their greatest chieftains observed a constant rule in their diet, and seldom ate of any animal of a gross quality, or heavy motion of body, fancying 140it conveyed a dullness through the whole system, and disabled them from exerting themselves with proper vigour in their martial, civil, and religious duties.

I have already shewn their aversion to eating of unsanctified fruits; and in this argument, that they abstain from several other things, contrary to the usage of all the old heathen world. It may be objected, that now they seldom refuse to eat hogs flesh, when the traders invite them to it; but this proceeds entirely from vicious imitation, and which is common with the most civilized nations. When swine were first brought among them, they deemed it such a horrid abomination in any of their people to eat that filthy and impure food, that they excluded the criminal from all religious communion in their circular town-house, or in their quadrangular holy ground at the annual expiation of sins, equally as if he had eaten unsanctified fruits. After the yearly atonement was made at the temple, he was indeed readmitted to his usual privileges. Formerly, none of their beloved {133} men, or warriors, would eat or drink with us on the most pressing invitation, through fear of polluting themselves, they deemed us such impure animals. Our eating the flesh of swine, and venison, with the gravy in it, helped to rivet their dislike, for this they reckon as blood.

I once asked the Archimagus, to sit down and partake of my dinner; but he excused himself, saying, he had in a few days some holy duty to perform, and that if he eat evil or accursed food, it would spoil him,—alluding to swine’s flesh. Though most of their virtue hath lately been corrupted, in this particular they still affix vicious and contemptible ideas to the eating of swine’s flesh; insomuch, that Shúkàpa, “swine eater,” is the most opprobious epithet they can use to brand us with: they commonly subjoin Akanggàpa, “eater of dunghill fowls.” Both together, signifying “filthy, helpless animals.” By our surprising mismanagement in allowing them a long time to insult, abuse, rob, and murder the innocent British subjects at pleasure, without the least satisfaction, all the Indian nations formerly despised the English, as a swarm of tame fowls, and termed them so, in their set speeches.

The Indians through a strong principle of religion, abstain in the strictest manner, from eating the Blood of any animal; as it contains the life, and spirit of the beast, and was the very essence of the sacrifices that were to be offered up for sinners. 141And this was the Jewish opinion and law of sacrifice, Lev. xvii. 11. “for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood, which maketh an atonement for the soul.” When the English traders have been making sausages mixt with hog’s blood, I have observed the Indians to cast their eyes upon them, with the horror of their reputed fore-fathers, when they viewed the predicted abomination of desolation, fulfilled by Antiochus, in defiling the temple.

An instance lately happened, which sufficiently shews their utter aversion to blood. A Chikkesah woman, a domestic of one of the traders, being very ill with a complication of disorders, the Indian physician seemed to use his best endeavours to cure her, but without the least visible effect. {134} To preserve his medical credit with the people, he at last ascribed her ailment to the eating of swine’s flesh, blood, and other polluting food: and said, that such an ugly, or accursed sickness, overcame the power of all his beloved songs, and physic; and in anger, he left his supposed criminal patient to be punished by Loak Ishtohoollo. I asked her some time afterwards, what her ailments were, and what she imagined might have occasioned them? She said, she was full of pain, that she had Abeeka Ookproo, “the accursed sickness,” because she had eaten a great many fowls after the manner of the white people, with the Issish Ookproo, “accursed blood,” in them. In time she recovered, and now strictly abstains from tame fowls, unless they are bled to death, for fear of incurring future evil, by the like pollution.