the dark picture of slavery, the natural tendency of the system is to
turn any form of society into a moral desert. Christian nations are
beginning to be aware of this; and the hand of Divine Providence is
now visibly seen removing this “costly iniquity” from the face of the
earth.
[Illustration: The mother of Washington receiving Lafayette in her
garden.]
AMERICA.
Before America was settled by Europeans, it was inhabited by Indian
tribes, which greatly resembled each other in the treatment of their
women. Every thing except war and hunting was considered beneath the
dignity of man. During long and wearisome marches, women were obliged
to carry children, provisions, and hammocks on their shoulders; they
had the sole care of the horses and dogs, cut wood, pitched the tents,
raised the corn, and made the clothing. When the husband killed game,
he left it by a tree in the forest, returned home, and sent his wife
several miles in search of it. In most of the tribes, women were not
allowed to eat and drink with men, but stood and served them, and then
ate what they left.
When the Spaniards arrived in South America, the Indian women,
delighted with attentions to which they had been entirely unaccustomed,
often betrayed the conspiracies formed against them, supplied them with
food, and acted as guides.
Father Joseph reproved a female savage on the banks of the Orinoco,
because she destroyed her infant daughter. She replied, “I wish my
mother had thus prevented the manifold sufferings I have endured.
Consider, Father, our deplorable situation. Our husbands go out to
hunt; we are dragged along with one infant at our breast, and another
in a basket. Though tired with long walking, we are not allowed to
sleep when we return, but must labor the whole night in grinding maize
to make chica for them. They get drunk, and beat us, draw us by the
hair of the head, and tread us under foot. And after a slavery of
perhaps twenty years, what have we to comfort us? A young wife is then
brought home, and permitted to abuse us and our children. What kindness
can we show our daughters equal to putting them to death? Would to God
my mother had put me under ground the moment I was born.”
The Mexicans and Peruvians, particularly the latter, were more
enlightened and refined than the other native tribes. The rich
ornaments of gold and pearl worn by the Peruvians, surprised their
European visiters, even more than the gentleness, modesty, and
benevolence of their characters. They had a temple of the sun, to
whose service young virgins were dedicated, and instructed in many
accomplishments.
The parents of a young Mexican having selected a suitable wife, priests
are consulted, and the match concludes or not, according to their
predictions. If their answers are favorable, the girl is asked of her
parents by certain women styled solicitors, who are chosen from the
most respectable of the youth’s kindred. The first demand is always
refused; the second receives a more favorable answer; and when consent
is finally obtained, the bride, after proper exhortation from her
parents, is conducted to the house of her father-in-law. If wealthy,
she is carried in a litter. The bridegroom and his relations receive
her at the gate, where four women are stationed bearing torches. As
soon as the young couple meet, they offer incense to each other. They
then sit on a curiously wrought mat, in the centre of the hall, near
the fire, and the priest ties the bride’s gown to the bridegroom’s
mantle. They offer sacrifices to the gods, and exchange presents. The
guests are then entertained with feasting and dancing in the open
air; but the newly married are shut up in the house for four days. At
the end of that period they appear in their richest attire, and give
dresses to the company, in proportion to their wealth.
Gumilla, in his History of the River Orinoco, says there is one nation
that marry old men to girls and old women to lads, that age may
correct the petulance of youth. They say, to join together people equal
in youth and imprudence, is to join one fool to another. The first
marriage is however only a kind of apprenticeship; for after a while
the young people are allowed to marry those of their own age.
Among several tribes of North American Indians, the lover begins his
suit by going at midnight to the tent, or lodge, of his mistress. He
lights a splinter of wood, and holds it to her face to awaken her. If
she leaves the torch burning, it is a signal that she rejects him;
but if she blows it out, he understands that he is at liberty to
communicate his intentions.
In some places, when the lover approaches the hut of his mistress, he
begs leave to enter it by signs. If permission is obtained, he goes in
and sits down by her in silence. If she suffers him to remain, without
any expression of disapprobation, it is an indication that she favors
his suit; but if she offers him food or drink, he understands it as a
refusal.
Indian marriages are generally performed in the following manner: The
young couple are seated on a mat in the centre of the room. The bride,
or bridegroom, hold a rod or wand between them, while some elderly
person harangues them concerning their reciprocal duties. He tells the
husband that he must catch plenty of venison and furs for his wife; and
the bride is urged to cook his food well, mend his clothes, and take
off his moccasins and leggins, when he comes home from hunting. The rod
is then broken, and a piece given to the witnesses, in testimony of
the contract. The company form a circle and dance and sing around them.
Before they separate, they partake of a plentiful feast provided for
the occasion. A strap, a kettle, and a fagot, are put into the bride’s
apartment, in token of her employments. At Dacotah weddings, the bride
is carried forcibly to her husband’s dwelling, making resistance at
every step. In some parts of Old Mexico, the bridegroom was carried
off by his relations, as if he were the one forced into wedlock. A
Dacotah lover puts on leggins of different colors, seats himself on
a log near the wigwam of his beloved, and sings, or plays on some
musical instrument. The following has been given as a sample of Indian
love-songs, by a writer well acquainted with their manners:
“She is handsomer than scarlet or wampum;
I will put on a blue leggin and run after her;
And she will flee as if afraid.
But I see, as she turns her head over her shoulder,
And mocks and laughs, and rails at me,
That her fears are nothing but pretence.
She is handsomer than scarlet and wampum;
I will put on a blue leggin and run after her.”
The Indians, both men and women, had great love of finery. Their caps,
belts, and moccasins were plentifully embroidered with beads and
shells, which they called wampum. The chiefs considered a coronet of
feathers peculiarly beautiful; but this ornament, generally indicative
of successful war, was seldom worn by women. But even among these rude
people, jokes concerning female love of dress were not wanting. A few
years since, the writer conversed with two Penobscot Indians, the one
old, the other young, and very handsome. The youth wore a scarlet band
upon his hat, and his wampum belt was curiously embroidered; the other
had an old blanket carelessly wrapped about him. “Where is your wampum
belt?” said I. With a look of quiet scorn, he replied, “What for me
wear ribbons and beads? Me no want to catch ’em squaw.”[3]
[3] Indians call their women _squaws_, and infants _papooses_.
Among the Hohays are men who dress in a female garb, and perform all
manner of female avocations. They are called _Winktahs_, and treated
with the utmost contempt.
The Indian bridegroom generally pays his father-in-law for his bride;
and even in their primitive form of society, he who can offer a large
price is most likely to be acceptable to parents. Handsome Indian
girls are not unfrequently disposed of contrary to their inclinations.
They are not permitted to marry relations within so near a degree of
consanguinity as cousins. Suicide is common among the women of these
savage tribes. When thwarted in love, or driven to desperation by ill
usage, they frequently hang themselves to the branch of a tree, rush
into the sea, or throw themselves from a precipice. The men very rarely
destroy their own lives. They seldom have more than one wife at a time;
but they change just when they please, interchange with each other, and
lend to visiters, without scandal. When a wife becomes old, a younger
one is often purchased; and the first one may either kill herself, or
tamely submit to be the drudge of the family. In several tribes, the
pieces of stick given to the witnesses at the marriage are burnt, in
sign of divorce. But, generally speaking, new connections are formed
without any formal dissolution of the old one.
When the sachem of Saugus married the daughter of the chief of
Pennakook, a great feast was given, and the bride and bridegroom
escorted to their dwelling by some of the most honorable men of her
father’s tribe, who were feasted several days at the expense of the
husband. Some time after, the wife expressed a wish to visit her
father, and was permitted to do so, with a select escort to accompany
her. When she desired to return, the old chief sent to the sachem to
come and take her away. This offended the young man’s pride. “I sent
her to you in a manner that became a chief,” he replied; “and now that
she intends to return to me, I expect the same from you.” The chief of
Pennakook considered this an insolent message. He would not allow his
daughter to return unless her husband sent for her; the sachem would
not submit to the terms; and the young couple saw each other no more.
The Indians pride themselves on stoicism, and at no period of their
history have been addicted to voluptuousness. Their sense of manliness
and dignity prevents them from being immodest. In this respect, their
deportment towards women is abundantly more praiseworthy than that of
civilized nations.
When it was proposed (either facetiously or otherwise) that women
should be members of parliament, an Englishman objected to it,
on the ground that a lady, who sat with committees of gentlemen,
might sometimes meet with a species of impoliteness that would be
embarrassing. If _this_ be a reason why women should not transact
public business, it is a fact exceedingly disgraceful to civilized
men. Female captives taken by Indians, though treated with the most
diabolical cruelty, according to their savage mode of warfare, have
travelled with powerful warriors days and weeks, through the loneliest
paths of the forest, and never been subjected to the slightest personal
insult.
Notwithstanding the habitual taciturnity of Indians, and their pride
of concealing all emotion, the potent passion of love sometimes gets
the mastery of them, as well as of other men. One of their strongest
excitements to bravery, is the hopes of gaining favor in the bright
eyes of some beautiful maiden; and it is often a matter of peculiar
pride with them to obtain the handsomest furs to decorate a wife,
and to furnish an abundant supply of venison for her comfortable
subsistence. An Indian woman is always proud of having a good hunter
for a husband; and a lover is often told that he must signalize himself
by more daring exploits, before he can hope to be received into favor.
Mr. Heckewelder, in his interesting account of the American Indians,
relates the following anecdote: “In the year 1762, I was witness to
a remarkable instance of the disposition of Indians to indulge their
wives. There was a famine in the land, and a sick Indian woman
expressed a great desire for a mess of Indian corn. Her husband,
having heard that a trader at Lower Sandusky had a little, set off on
horseback for that place, one hundred miles distant, and returned with
as much corn as filled the crown of his hat, for which he gave his
horse in exchange, and came home on foot, bringing his saddle back with
him.
“It very seldom happens that an Indian condescends to quarrel with
his wife, or abuse her, though she has given him just cause. In such
a case, the man, without replying, or saying a single word, will take
his gun and go into the woods, and remain there a week, or perhaps a
fortnight, living on the meat he has killed, before he returns home
again; well knowing that he cannot inflict a greater punishment on his
wife for her conduct to him, than by absenting himself for a while;
for she is not only kept in suspense, uncertain whether he will return
again, but is soon reported as a bad and quarrelsome woman; for, as on
those occasions a man does not tell his wife on what day or at what
time he will be back again, which he never, when they are on good
terms, neglects to do, she is at once put to shame by her neighbors,
who, soon suspecting something, do not fail to put such questions to
her as she either cannot, or is ashamed to answer. When he at length
does return, she endeavors to let him see, by her attentions, that
she has repented, though neither speak to each other a single word on
the subject of what has passed. And as his children, if he has any,
will on his return hang about him, and soothe him with their caresses,
he is on their account ready to forgive, or at least to say nothing
unpleasant to their mother.”
The women of these savage tribes, like the female peasantry of Europe,
have very hardy constitutions. When an infant is a few hours old,
they carry it to some neighboring stream and plunge it in the water,
even if they have to break the ice for that purpose. Until it is old
enough to crawl about, they lay it down on a clean piece of bark, while
they attend to their customary avocations; when obliged to travel,
they carry it swung at their backs, in a strip of cloth, or a basket.
Some tribes have the habit of placing boys on the skin of a panther,
and girls on that of a fawn, from an idea that they will imbibe the
qualities of those animals. Names are usually bestowed to indicate some
personal or moral quality; as _Parrot-nosed_, _Serpent-eyed_, _The
Timid Fawn_, &c. These names are often added to others, signifying _The
First Son_, _The Second Son_, _The First Daughter_, &c.
Most of the North American tribes make it a fundamental principle of
education never to strike a child. When a fault is committed, the
mother begins to cry; if her son or daughter ask what is the matter,
she replies, “You disgrace me.” This reproach is keenly felt, and
generally produces amendment. If a young person is more obdurate than
common, the parents throw a glass of water in his face, and this is
considered a most disgraceful punishment. They seldom refuse a child
any thing. Hence when the avenger of blood is implacable, the culprit
is often led into his presence by a little child, prettily adorned,
and taught to lisp a prayer for pardon; and a petition for mercy from
such innocent lips, is rarely denied even by the sternest warrior.
Pocahontas was only twelve years old when her intercession saved the
life of captain Smith.
Both girls and boys are early taught to endure without a murmur the
utmost rigors of climate, excess of labor, and the extremity of pain.
It is common to try their fortitude by ordering them to hold their
hands in the fire, till permission is given to withdraw them; and
if even their countenances give indication of agony, it is deemed
dishonorable. When taken captive in war they have need of their utmost
powers of endurance; for their enemies exercise all their ingenuity in
torture. Yet such is the force of education, that women, as well as
men, will smile and utter jeering words, while their nails are pulled
out by the roots, their feet crushed between stones, and their flesh
torn with red-hot pincers.
It is an almost universal rule that women are more tender-hearted than
men; but the North American Indians seem to furnish an exception. When
a prisoner is tied to the stake, women are even more furious and active
than men, in the work of cruelty. If any one of the tribe chooses to
adopt the prisoner, his life is spared, and they cease to torment him.
Parents, who have lost their own children in battle, often resort to
this expedient, and bring up their adopted sons and daughters with
great kindness.
The power of Indian husbands is absolute. If they detect a wife in
unfaithfulness, they generally cut off her nose, or take off part
of her scalp. In a sudden fit of anger they sometimes kill both her
and her paramour; and this goes unpunished, though it is considered
more proper to call a council of the elders to decide the matter.
Those stern old men do not approve of very furious transports on such
occasions; because they deem it undignified to make such a fuss about
a woman, so long as the world contains plenty of individuals to supply
her place.
Dancing was a common amusement with the Indians. Their war-dances were
performed by men; but there were others appropriated to women, or in
which both sexes united. Captain Smith gives the following account of
an “anticke” prepared by Pocahontas for his reception at her father’s
place of residence: “Thirty young women came out of the woods, covered
onely with a few greene leaues, their bodies all painted, some of one
colour, some of another, but all differing. Their leader had a fayre
payre of bucks hornes on her head, and an otter-skinne at her girdle,
and another at her arme, a quiver of arrowes at her backe, a bow and
arrows in her hand. The next had in her hand a sword, and another a
club, another a pot-sticke, all horned alike; the rest every one with
their seuerall devises. These fiends, with most hellish shouts and
cryes, rushing from among the trees, cast themselves in a ring about
the fire, singing and dancing with most excellent ill varietie, oft
falling into their infernall passions, and solemnly again to sing and
daunce. Having spent neare an houre in this mascarado, as they entred,
in like manner they departed.”
Captain Smith does not give a very gallant account of an entertainment
intended as a particular compliment to his arrival. The dance, like
most savage dances, was unquestionably a pantomime; and he probably did
not understand what it was intended to represent.
The Indian women sometimes accompany the men on hunting excursions,
for the purpose of bringing home the game; and in time of battle they
often encourage and assist the warriors. In addition to the toilsome
occupations already alluded to, they made garments of skins, sewed
with sinews and thorns, wove neat mats and baskets, and embroidered
very prettily with shells, feathers, and grass of various colors. When
first visited by Europeans, they wore furs in winter, and mats tied
about them in summer; but they soon learned to substitute blankets,
and strips of cloth. Those that can afford it, have ears, neck, arms,
and waist plentifully decorated with beads, pebbles, fishes’ teeth,
or shells. The Indians of California perforate the lobes of the ears,
and insert pieces of wood five or six inches long, ornamented with
feathers. On the North-West coast, the women make a horizontal incision
in the lower lip, for the purpose of introducing a wooden plug, which
makes the lip protrude in a hideous manner. In the neighborhood of
Kotzebue’s sound, they wear large beads suspended from the nose,
and when they experience inconvenience from these ornaments, they
stow them away in the nostrils. The Guiana females stick thorns, or
pins, through the lower lip; the heads are inside, and the points
rest upon the chin. They have likewise the habit of putting a band
round the ankle and knee, when girls are ten or twelve years old; as
this is never removed, it produces an unnatural compression, and the
calf of the leg swells to an unwieldy size. Indians of both sexes
paint themselves in various colors and patterns, and are more or less
addicted to tattooing; though it is by no means practised to the extent
that it is among the South sea islanders.
Before America was visited by Europeans, the Indian tribes were
universally temperate, healthy, and cleanly in their habits; but they
have now acquired most of the evils of civilization, with few of its
advantages. They have a reddish brown complexion, keen black eyes,
regular white teeth, and sleek, shining black hair, which the women
usually suffer to flow over the shoulders. Those who live near the sea
never become bald, and their hair does not turn gray; perhaps this may
be owing to the frequent habit of bathing in salt water, which always
has a salutary effect on the hair.
The vigorous forms of their children may be attributed to active
habits, and to the entire freedom of their limbs from all bands,
ligatures, or clothing. Several tribes have the habit of flattening
the forehead, by heavy pressure during infancy. To be childless is
considered almost as great a misfortune as it was among the Jews. A
man will never divorce a wife who has brought him sons, and though he
may perchance marry several others, he always considers her as entitled
to peculiar respect.
Indian women are usually well skilled in simple remedies, and are the
physicians of their tribes. In some places, medicine is considered
peculiarly efficacious if it is prepared and administered by the
hand of a maiden. The healing art is intimately connected in their
minds with magic, and medicines are seldom given without prayers and
incantations, to avert the influence of evil spirits. There are in
almost every tribe individuals who claim the gift of prophecy, and
endeavor to foretel future events by conjurations and dreams. I am
not aware that they consider women more frequently endowed with this
supernatural power than men.
Some tribes bury their dead, others expose them on scaffolds suspended
in high trees. The arms and horse of a warrior are buried with him for
his use in another world; and a mortar, kettle, and other utensils of
daily use accompany the corpse of a female. When a great chief dies,
his wives, and many of his attendants, are sometimes obliged to follow
him to the world of spirits. The tribe of Natchez is ruled by a chief
called The Great Sun; and when any woman of the blood of the Suns
dies, it becomes necessary that her husband and attendants should be
sacrificed in honor of her decease. The widows of illustrious chiefs
generally take pride in devoting themselves to death with stoical
firmness. The wife of The Stung Serpent, who was brother to The Great
Sun, thus addressed her children when she was about to leave them:
“Your father waits for me in the land of spirits. If I were to yield to
your tears, I should injure my love, and fail in my duty. You that are
descended of his blood, and fed by my milk, ought not to weep. Rather
rejoice that you are Suns and warriors, bound to give examples of
firmness to the whole nation.” The victims, having been made giddy by
swallowing little balls of tobacco, are strangled, and placed near the
corpse upon mats, ranged according to their rank.
The Indians, both men and women, lament for the dead with loud howling
and lamentation, blacken their faces, and wound themselves with flints,
knives, and splinters of wood. When the women are going out to work, or
returning from their labors, the widows of the tribe often join in a
sort of dirge, or mourning chorus.
As sailors have the superstition that it brings bad luck to have a
woman on board a ship, so the Indians believe that the fleetest horse
in the world would lose his speed, if a woman were suffered to mount
him; hence when it becomes necessary for women to ride, they are placed
on old worn-out animals.
Among the Dacotahs a particular lodge is set apart for councils, and
the reception of strangers. The women supply it with wood and water,
but are never permitted to enter it. This tribe have an institution
called the Lodge of the Grand Medicine, the ceremonies of which are
celebrated in secret, and the members know each other by certain
signs. It differs from Free-Masonry, in allowing women to be among the
initiated.