INITIATION OF BOYS.
I do not know how to give a better name to a superstitious practice
which is very common among the Indians, and, indeed, is universal among
those nations that I have become acquainted with. By certain methods
which I shall presently describe, they put the mind of a boy in a state
of perturbation, so as to excite dreams and visions; by means of which
they pretend that the boy receives instructions from certain spirits or
unknown agents as to his conduct in life, that he is informed of his
future destination and of the wonders he is to perform in his future
career through the world.
When a boy is to be thus _initiated_, he is put under an alternate
course of physic and fasting, either taking no food whatever, or
swallowing the most powerful and nauseous medicines, and occasionally
he is made to drink decoctions of an intoxicating nature, until his
mind becomes sufficiently bewildered, so that he sees or fancies that
he sees visions, and has extraordinary dreams, for which, of course, he
has been prepared beforehand. He will fancy himself flying through the
air, walking under ground, stepping from one ridge or hill to the other
across the valley beneath, fighting and conquering giants and monsters,
and defeating whole hosts by his single arm. Then he has interviews
with the Mannitto or with spirits, who inform him of what he was before
he was born and what he will be after his death. His fate in this life
is laid entirely open before him, the spirit tells him what is to be
his future employment, whether he will be a valiant warrior, a mighty
hunter, a doctor, a conjurer, or a prophet. There are even those who
learn or pretend to learn in this way the time and manner of their
death.
When a boy has been thus initiated, a name is given to him analogous to
the visions that he has seen, and to the destiny that is supposed to
be prepared for him. The boy, imagining all that happened to him while
under perturbation, to have been real, sets out in the world with lofty
notions of himself, and animated with courage for the most desperate
undertakings.
The belief in the truth of those visions is universal among the
Indians. I have spoken with several of their old men, who had been
highly distinguished for their valour, and asked them whether they
ascribed their achievements to natural or supernatural causes, and they
uniformly answered, that as they knew beforehand what they could do,
they did it of course. When I carried my questions farther, and asked
them how they knew what they could do? they never failed to refer to
the dreams and visions which they had while under perturbation, in the
manner I have above mentioned.
I always found it vain to attempt to undeceive them on this subject.
They never were at a loss for examples to shew that the dreams they
had had were not the work of a heated imagination, but that they came
to them through the agency of a mannitto. They could always cite
numerous instances of valiant men, who, in former times, in consequence
of such dreams, had boldly attacked their enemy with nothing but the
_Tamahican_[201] in their hand, had not looked about to survey the
number of their opponents, but had gone straight forward, striking all
down before them; some, they said, in the French wars, had entered
houses of the English filled with people, who, before they had time to
look about, were all killed and laid in a heap. Such was the strength,
the power and the courage conveyed to them in their supernatural
dreams, and which nothing could resist.
If they stopped here in their relations, I might, perhaps, consider
this practice of putting boys under perturbation, as a kind of military
school or exercise, intended to create in them a more than ordinary
courage, and make them undaunted warriors. It certainly has this effect
on some, who fancying themselves under the immediate protection of
the celestial powers, despise all dangers, and really perform acts of
astonishing bravery. But it must be observed, that all that are thus
initiated are not designed for a military life, and that several learn
by their dreams that they are to be physicians, sorcerers, or that
their lives are to be devoted to some other civil employment. And it is
astonishing what a number of superstitious notions are infused into the
minds of the unsuspecting youth, by means of those dreams, which are
useless, at least, for making good warriors or hunters. There are even
some who by that means are taught to believe in the transmigration of
souls.
I once took great pains to dissuade from these notions a very sensible
Indian, much esteemed by all who knew him, even among the whites. All
that I could say or urge was not able to convince him that at the
time of his _initiation_ (as I call it) his mind was in a state of
temporary derangement. He declared that he had a clear recollection of
the dreams and visions that had occurred to him at the time, and was
sure that they came from the agency of celestial spirits. He asserted
very strange things, of his own supernatural knowledge, which he had
obtained not only at the time of his initiation, but at other times,
even before he was born. He said he knew he had lived through two
generations; that he had died twice and was born a third time, to live
out the then present race, after which he was to die and never more
to come to this country again. He well remembered what the women had
predicted while he was yet in his mother’s womb; some had foretold
that he would be a boy, and others a girl; he had distinctly overheard
their discourses, and could repeat correctly every thing that they had
said. It would be too long to relate all the wild stories of the same
kind which this otherwise intelligent Indian said of himself, with a
tone and manner which indicated the most intimate conviction, and left
no doubt in my mind that he did not mean to deceive others, but was
himself deceived.
I have known several other Indians who firmly believed that they knew,
by means of these visions, what was to become of them when they should
die, how their souls were to retire from their bodies and take their
abodes into those of infants yet unborn; in short, there is nothing so
wild and so extraordinary that they will not imagine and to which, when
once it has taken hold of their imagination, they will not give full
credit. In this they are not a little aided by certain superstitious
notions which form a part of their traditionary belief, and of which I
shall take notice in the next chapter.