Cahoonshee on the Origin of Man.
At the close of Chapter VI, we left Quick and Cahoonshee conversing
by the light of a pine knot fire at Quick’s cabin on the Shinglekill.
Here they smoked the pipe of peace, and pledged to each other eternal
friendship. During the night it was arranged that the next morning they
would go to the Heart Rock, on the Steynekill, and erect a cabin for
Cahoonshee. The cabin was built a few rods from the Steneykill brook,
near a spring. At this place Cahoonshee spent part of his time, and the
balance at Quick’s. Thus, a mutual friendship was established between the
white man and Indian that lasted through life.
Cahoonshee keenly felt the degradation of his people. The education he
had received in Europe had swept from his mind the Indian superstitions
that were cherished and practiced by his fathers. He believed that all
European nations were combined to drive the Indian from the forest and
appropriate the land to themselves. Yet he held to the religion of his
fathers, really seeing no difference between the white man’s God and the
Indian’s Great Spirit. He believed in a first cause. This cause began
to operate at the beginning of time. That time began when matter began
to move. He believed that this first cause was an intelligent cause. He
ignored nothingness—or rather claimed that there was no such thing as
nothing. He rejected the common term of Spirit, and advocated that a
Spirit was an actual entity, although as invisible as air or gas. That
this Spirit, this entity was substance, although it could neither be
seen, heard or felt. That this entity possessed certain attributes, among
which were power, plan and design.
The reader will perceive that such a man, with such a mind, having the
exalted views of Cahoonshee, would not feel at home with either white
man or Indian. He was ahead of the age, and saw in the dim future the
extinction of his race. His tribe was already extinct except himself. He
believed that the merciless white would continue to drive the powerless
Indian west, until the bones of his race would bleach on the western
slope, and be washed by the Pacific.
It was for these reasons that he wished to return to the scenes of his
childhood, and spend the rest of his days in comparative solitude.
Yet he had one idea, and that idea was to acquire and impart knowledge.
But the world was not prepared to listen to such depth of thought.
He resolved at death to leave one pupil behind. That pupil should be a
white man. That man should be Charles Drake. That he had succeeded, in
a measure, is evident from the conversation Drake and Tom had at the
Lifting Rocks, as narrated in Chapter III. His mode of instruction was in
the true Indian style.
A few evenings after Cahoonshee had taken up his quarters in his cabin on
the Steynekill, he and Drake were sitting together, when the moon began
to light up the eastern sky. Drake watched it intently until the full
moon arose above the horizon.
Cahoonshee, he said, you say that the sun is a burning mass, a liquid
flame, and that it is the heat from this mass that warms the earth. Is
that beautiful moon also a mass of fire?
It is supposed not, replied Cahoonshee. We derive but little heat from
the moon. It has cooled off, and it is only the reflection of the sun on
that planet that makes it appear so bright to us.
You say that it has cooled off. What do you mean by that? Was it once
like the sun, a blaze of fire?
Of course, Drake, no one has ever been to the moon to make a personal
inspection. Yet the wise men of the east think they have good reasons for
believing that the moon, and this earth, and all the planets and stars we
see in the heavens, were once a burning mass of fire, that the moon has
cooled off, and is now a cold, uninhabited world.
You do not mean to say that this earth on which we live was, at one time
a seething mass of fire?
I do not mean to assert that, I simply say, that by investigation, I am
led to believe that such was the case.
Cahoonshee, where do you say that man came from? and what was the reason
for the great difference between the white man and the Indian?
Ah, Drake, you have opened a subject that is but little understood, and
one that I am not capable of satisfactorily answering. Yet, I will give
you my views.
Betsy’s bible gives an account of the creation of man. That God made
him from the dust of the earth, and in His own image. But you should
understand that this is the white man’s bible, and in it the Indians are
called heathens. But the Indian’s bible is much older, and plainer to be
read.
_It is Nature’s book._
The rocks, rivers and mountains are its chapters. Beasts, birds and
reptiles are its verses, and the Great Spirit is its author. And within
this book will be found all that does or ever did exist. The constituent
parts are the mineral, animal and vegetable kingdoms of the world. Each
has within itself a principle of organic life, but of itself cannot
produce either animal or vegetable life, but a combination of these
elements, by a chemical process, known only to nature, produces something
unlike either the constituent parts. Thus the principle the germ of all
animal and vegetable life is contained in the natural world, and it only
requires that these different properties should be combined in order to
work out the natural result.
It is done by the same power and upon the same principles that draws the
apple to the ground, and balances the planet in its orbit.
Thus, the origin of all animals and vegetables are to be found in earth,
air and water, and by a combination of these properties, under favorable
circumstances, nature’s desired result is accomplished.
Therefore, nature produces from nature just what nature requires.
Thus we find that at this day, seed, dug thousands of feet beneath the
earth, sprout, grow and bring forth fruit and vegetation unlike any that
have grown before. While buried in the bowels of the earth, there was no
opportunity for developement, no opportunity for chemical combination.
But when brought in contact with the rays of the sun, the soil of the
earth and the gases of the air, the life principle within the seed
springs forth, and it becomes a beautiful flower or an animal—perhaps a
man. It is either vegetable or animal. Sometimes both.
Man sprang to the earth in every quarter of the globe where nature had
prepared the way and furnished substance on which he could live. Thus,
men in different countries and continents were different in structure,
color and language. Thus I account for the white, brown and black races.
The white man finds his God and religion in the bible. The Indian finds
the Great Spirit in nature. The Indian saw the wonderful works of nature
going on before his eyes. He saw the sun in the heavens, and wondered
from whence came the fuel. He saw the vaulted heavens dotted with stars,
and wondered what held them in their places. He heard the thunder and saw
the lightning flash, and asked from whence came this power. He saw his
fellow struck with death, and asked, “is this the last of man?”
He sought a solution of these problems by studying the nature of that
power that could perform such great and mighty works. And having came to
the conclusion, by a course of reasoning, that this power emanated from
a source above and beyond nature, he began to worship that power, and
conceived that this certain something possessed certain attributes, among
which was power, plan and design. That if there was a design, then there
must have been a designer. This designer the Indian called the Great
Spirit.
Thus, the Indian was a religious animal. And here the worship of the
Great Unknown and Unseen commenced. And inasmuch as this unknown
power was intangible and could not be seen, the Indians worshiped
representative Gods. Some worshiped the sun, some the moon, and some the
monsters of the deep. The Indians worshiped the God of the valley, the
mountains, the rocks and rills, the rivers and springs.
Thus I have tried to answer your question. At another time I will still
further unfold this mystery.