THE NATIVE PRIESTHOOD.
Their titles.--Practitioners of the healing art by supernatural
means.--Their power derived from natural magic and the exercise of
the clairvoyant and mesmeric faculties.--Examples.--Epidemic
hysteria.--Their social position.--Their duties as religious
functionaries.--Terms of admission to the Priesthood.--Inner
organization in various nations.--Their esoteric languages and
secret societies.
Thus picking painfully amid the ruins of a race gone to wreck centuries
ago, thus rejecting much foreign rubbish and scrutinizing each stone
that lies around, if we still are unable to rebuild the edifice in its
pristine symmetry and beauty, yet we can at least discern and trace the
ground plan and outlines of the fane it raised to God. Before leaving
the field to the richer returns of more fortunate workmen, it will not
be inappropriate to add a sketch of the ministers of these religions,
the servants in this temple.
Shamans, conjurers, sorcerers, medicine men, wizards, and many another
hard name have been given them, but I shall call them _priests_, for in
their poor way, as well as any other priesthood, they set up to be the
agents of the gods, and the interpreters of divinity. No tribe was so
devoid of religious sentiment as to be without them. Their power was
terrible, and their use of it unscrupulous. Neither men nor gods, death
nor life, the winds nor the waves, were beyond their control. Like Old
Men of the Sea, they have clung to the neck of their nations, throttling
all attempts at progress, binding them to the thraldom of superstition
and profligacy, dragging them down to wretchedness and death.
Christianity and civilization meet in them their most determined, most
implacable foes. But what is this but the story of priestcraft and
intolerance everywhere, which Old Spain can repeat as well as New Spain,
the white race as well as the red? Blind leaders of the blind, dupers
and duped fall into the ditch.
In their own languages they are variously called; by the Algonkins and
Dakotas, "those knowing divine things" and "dreamers of the gods"
(_manitousiou_, _wakanwacipi_); in Mexico, "masters or guardians of the
divine things" (_teopixqui_, _teotecuhtli_); in Cherokee, their title
means, "possessed of the divine fire" (_atsilung kelawhi_); in Iroquois,
"keepers of the faith" (_honundeunt_); in Quichua, "the learned"
(_amauta_); in Maya, "the listeners" (_cocome_). The popular term in
French and English of "medicine men" is not such a misnomer as might be
supposed. The noble science of medicine is connected with divinity not
only by the rudest savage but the profoundest philosopher, as has been
already adverted to. When sickness is looked upon as the effect of the
anger of a god, or as the malicious infliction of a sorcerer, it is
natural to seek help from those who assume to control the unseen world,
and influence the fiats of the Almighty. The recovery from disease is
the kindliest exhibition of divine power. Therefore the earliest canons
of medicine in India and Egypt are attributed to no less distinguished
authors than the gods Brahma and Thoth;[265-1] therefore the earliest
practitioners of the healing art are universally the ministers of
religion.
But, however creditable this origin is to medicine, its partnership with
theology was no particular advantage to it. These mystical doctors
shared the contempt still so prevalent among ourselves for a treatment
based on experiment and reason, and regarded the administration of
emetics and purgatives, baths and diuretics, with a contempt quite equal
to that of the disciples of Hahnemann. The practitioners of the rational
school formed a separate class among the Indians, and had nothing to do
with amulets, powwows, or spirits.[265-2] They were of different name
and standing, and though held in less estimation, such valuable
additions to the pharmacopoeia as guaiacum, cinchona, and ipecacuanha,
were learned from them. The priesthood scorned such ignoble means. Were
they summoned to a patient, they drowned his groans in a barbarous
clangor of instruments in order to fright away the demon that possessed
him; they sucked and blew upon the diseased organ, they sprinkled him
with water, and catching it again threw it on the ground, thus drowning
out the disease; they rubbed the part with their hands, and exhibiting a
bone or splinter asserted that they drew it from the body, and that it
had been the cause of the malady, they manufactured a little image to
represent the spirit of sickness, and spitefully knocked it to pieces,
thus vicariously destroying its prototype; they sang doleful and
monotonous chants at the top of their voices, screwed their
countenances into hideous grimaces, twisted their bodies into unheard of
contortions, and by all accounts did their utmost to merit the
honorarium they demanded for their services. A double motive spurred
them to spare no pains. For if they failed, not only was their
reputation gone, but the next expert called in was likely enough to
hint, with that urbanity so traditional in the profession, that the
illness was in fact caused or much increased by the antagonistic nature
of the remedies previously employed, whereupon the chances were that the
doctor's life fell into greater jeopardy than that of his quondam
patient.
Considering the probable result of this treatment, we may be allowed to
doubt whether it redounded on the whole very much to the honor of the
fraternity. Their strong points are rather to be looked for in the real
knowledge gained by a solitary and reflective life, by an earnest study
of the appearances of nature, and of those hints and forest signs which
are wholly lost on the white man and beyond the ordinary insight of a
native. Travellers often tell of changes of the weather predicted by
them with astonishing foresight, and of information of singular accuracy
and extent gleaned from most meagre materials. There is nothing in this
to shock our sense of probability--much to elevate our opinion of the
native sagacity. They were also adepts in tricks of sleight of hand, and
had no mean acquaintance with what is called natural magic. They would
allow themselves to be tied hand and foot with knots innumerable, and at
a sign would shake them loose as so many wisps of straw; they would spit
fire and swallow hot coals, pick glowing stones from the flames, walk
naked through a fire, and plunge their arms to the shoulder in kettles
of boiling water with apparent impunity.[267-1] Nor was this all. With a
skill not inferior to that of the jugglers of India, they could plunge
knives into vital parts, vomit blood, or kill one another out and out to
all appearances, and yet in a few minutes be as well as ever; they could
set fire to articles of clothing and even houses, and by a touch of
their magic restore them instantly as perfect as before.[267-2] If it
were not within our power to see most of these miracles performed any
night in one of our great cities by a well dressed professional, we
would at once deny their possibility. As it is, they astonish us only
too little.
One of the most peculiar and characteristic exhibitions of their power,
was to summon a spirit to answer inquiries concerning the future and the
absent. A great similarity marked this proceeding in all northern tribes
from the Eskimos to the Mexicans. A circular or conical lodge of stout
poles four or eight in number planted firmly in the ground, was covered
with skins or mats, a small aperture only being left for the seer to
enter. Once in, he carefully closed the hole and commenced his
incantations. Soon the lodge trembles, the strong poles shake and bend
as with the united strength of a dozen men, and strange, unearthly
sounds, now far aloft in the air, now deep in the ground, anon
approaching near and nearer, reach the ears of the spectators. At length
the priest announces that the spirit is present, and is prepared to
answer questions. An indispensable preliminary to any inquiry is to
insert a handful of tobacco, or a string of beads, or some such douceur
under the skins, ostensibly for the behoof of the celestial visitor, who
would seem not to be above earthly wants and vanities. The replies
received, though occasionally singularly clear and correct, are usually
of that profoundly ambiguous purport which leaves the anxious inquirer
little wiser than he was before. For all this, ventriloquism, trickery,
and shrewd knavery are sufficient explanations. Nor does it materially
interfere with this view, that converted Indians, on whose veracity we
can implicitly rely, have repeatedly averred that in performing this
rite they themselves did not move the medicine lodge; for nothing is
easier than in the state of nervous excitement they were then in to be
self-deceived, as the now familiar phenomenon of table-turning
illustrates.
But there is something more than these vulgar arts now and then to be
perceived. There are statements supported by unquestionable testimony,
which ought not to be passed over in silence, and yet I cannot but
approach them with hesitation. They are so revolting to the laws of
exact science, so alien, I had almost said, to the experience of our
lives. Yet is this true, or are such experiences only ignored and put
aside without serious consideration? Are there not in the history of
each of us passages which strike our retrospective thought with awe,
almost with terror? Are there not in nearly every community individuals
who possess a mysterious power, concerning whose origin, mode of action,
and limits, we and they are alike in the dark? I refer to such organic
forces as are popularly summed up under the words clairvoyance,
mesmerism, rhabdomancy, animal magnetism, physical spiritualism.
Civilized thousands stake their faith and hope here and hereafter, on
the truths of these manifestations; rational medicine recognizes their
existence, and while it attributes them to morbid and exceptional
influences, confesses its want of more exact knowledge, and refrains
from barren theorizing. Let us follow her example, and hold it enough to
show that such powers, whatever they are, were known to the native
priesthood as well as the modern spiritualists, and the miracle mongers
of the Middle Ages.
Their highest development is what our ancestors called "second sight."
That under certain conditions knowledge can pass from one mind to
another otherwise than through the ordinary channels of the senses, is
familiarly shown by the examples of persons _en rapport_. The limit to
this we do not know, but it is not unlikely that clairvoyance or second
sight is based upon it. In his autobiography, the celebrated Sac chief
Black Hawk, relates that his great grandfather "was inspired by a belief
that at the end of four years, he should see a white man, who would be
to him a father." Under the direction of this vision he travelled
eastward to a certain spot, and there, as he was forewarned, met a
Frenchman, through whom the nation was brought into alliance with
France.[269-1] No one at all versed in the Indian character will doubt
the implicit faith with which this legend was told and heard. But we may
be pardoned our scepticism, seeing there are so many chances of error.
It is not so with an anecdote related by Captain Jonathan Carver, a
cool-headed English trader, whose little book of travels is an
unquestioned authority. In 1767, he was among the Killistenoes at a time
when they were in great straits for food, and depending upon the arrival
of the traders to rescue them from starvation. They persuaded the chief
priest to consult the divinities as to when the relief would arrive.
After the usual preliminaries, this magnate announced that next day,
precisely when the sun reached the zenith, a canoe would arrive with
further tidings. At the appointed hour the whole village, together with
the incredulous Englishman, was on the beach, and sure enough, at the
minute specified, a canoe swung round a distant point of land, and
rapidly approaching the shore brought the expected news.[270-1]
Charlevoix is nearly as trustworthy a writer as Carver. Yet he
deliberately relates an equally singular instance.[270-2]
But these examples are surpassed by one described in the _Atlantic
Monthly_ of July, 1866, the author of which, John Mason Brown, Esq., has
assured me of its accuracy in every particular. Some years since, at the
head of a party of voyageurs, he set forth in search of a band of
Indians somewhere on the vast plains along the tributaries of the
Copper-mine and Mackenzie rivers. Danger, disappointment, and the
fatigues of the road, induced one after another to turn back, until of
the original ten only three remained. They also were on the point of
giving up the apparently hopeless quest, when they were met by some
warriors of the very band they were seeking. These had been sent out by
one of their medicine men to find three whites, whose horses, arms,
attire, and personal appearance he minutely described, which description
was repeated to Mr. Brown by the warriors before they saw his two
companions. When afterwards, the priest, a frank and simple-minded man,
was asked to explain this extraordinary occurrence, he could offer no
other explanation than that "he saw them coming, and heard them talk on
their journey."[271-1]
Many tales such as these have been recorded by travellers, and however
much they may shock our sense of probability, as well-authenticated
exhibitions of a power which sways the Indian mind, and which has ever
prejudiced it so unchangeably against Christianity and civilization,
they cannot be disregarded. Whether they too are but specimens of
refined knavery, whether they are instigations of the Devil, or whether
they must be classed with other facts as illustrating certain obscure
and curious mental faculties, each may decide as the bent of his mind
inclines him, for science makes no decision.
Those nervous conditions associated with the name of Mesmer were nothing
new to the Indian magicians. Rubbing and stroking the sick, and the
laying on of hands, were very common parts of their clinical procedures,
and at the initiations to their societies they were frequently
exhibited. Observers have related that among the Nez Perces of Oregon,
the novice was put to sleep by songs, incantations, and "certain passes
of the hand," and that with the Dakotas he would be struck lightly on
the breast at a preconcerted moment, and instantly "would drop prostrate
on his face, his muscles rigid and quivering in every fibre."[272-1]
There is no occasion to suppose deceit in this. It finds its parallel in
every race and every age, and rests on a characteristic trait of certain
epochs and certain men, which leads them to seek the divine, not in
thoughtful contemplation on the laws of the universe and the facts of
self-consciousness, but in an entire immolation of the latter, a sinking
of their own individuality in that of the spirits whose alliance they
seek. This is an outgrowth of that ignoring of the universality of Law,
which belongs to the lower stages of enlightenment.[273-1] And as this
is never done with impunity, but with iron certainty brings its
punishment with it, the study of the mental conditions thus evoked, and
the results which follow them, offers a salutary subject of reflection
to the theologian as well as the physician. For these examples of
nervous pathology are identical in kind, and alike in consequences,
whether witnessed in the primitive forests of the New World, among the
convulsionists of St. Medard, or in the excited scenes of a religious
revival in one of our own churches.
Sleeplessness and abstemiousness, carried to the utmost verge of human
endurance--seclusion, and the pertinacious fixing of the mind on one
subject--obstinate gloating on some morbid fancy, rarely failed to bring
about hallucinations with all the garb of reality. Physicians are well
aware that the more frequently these diseased conditions of the mind are
sought, the more readily they are found. Then, again, they were often
induced by intoxicating and narcotic herbs. Tobacco, the maguey, coca;
in California the chucuaco; among the Mexicans the snake plant,
ollinhiqui or coaxihuitl; and among the southern tribes of our own
country the cassine yupon and iris versicolor,[273-2] were used; and, it
is even said, were cultivated for this purpose. The seer must work
himself up to a prophetic fury, or speechless lie in apparent death
before the mind of the gods would be opened to him. Trance and ecstasy
were the two avenues he knew to divinity; fasting and seclusion the
means employed to discover them. His ideal was of a prophet who dwelt
far from men, without need of food, in constant communion with divinity.
Such an one, in the legends of the Tupis, resided on a mountain
glittering with gold and silver, near the river Uaupe, his only
companion a dog, his only occupation dreaming of the gods. When,
however, an eclipse was near, his dog would bark; and then, taking the
form of a bird, he would fly over the villages, and learn the changes
that had taken place.[274-1]
But man cannot trample with impunity on the laws of his physical life,
and the consequences of these deprivations and morbid excitements of the
brain show themselves in terrible pictures. Not unfrequently they were
carried to the pitch of raving mania, reminding one of the worst forms
of the Berserker fury of the Scandinavians, or the Bacchic rage of
Greece. The enthusiast, maddened with the fancies of a disordered
intellect, would start forth from his seclusion in an access of demoniac
frenzy. Then woe to the dog, the child, the slave, or the woman who
crossed his path; for nothing but blood could satisfy his inappeasable
craving, and they fell instant victims to his madness. But were it a
strong man, he bared his arm, and let the frenzied hermit bury his teeth
in the quivering flesh. Such is a scene at this day not uncommon on the
northwest coast, and few of the natives around Milbank Sound are without
the scars the result of this horrid custom.[275-1]
This frenzy, terrible enough in individuals, had its most disastrous
effects when with that peculiar facility of contagion which marks
hysterical maladies, it swept through whole villages, transforming them
into bedlams filled with unrestrained madmen. Those who have studied the
strange and terrible mental epidemics that visited Europe in the middle
ages, such as the tarantula dance of Apulia, the chorea Germanorum, and
the great St. Vitus' dance, will be prepared to appreciate the nature of
a scene at a Huron village, described by Father le Jeune in 1639. A
festival of three days and three nights had been in progress to relieve
a woman who, from the description, seems to have been suffering from
some obscure nervous complaint. Toward the close of this vigil, which
throughout was marked by all sorts of debaucheries and excesses, all the
participants seemed suddenly seized by ten thousand devils. They ran
howling and shrieking through the town, breaking everything destructible
in the cabins, killing dogs, beating the women and children, tearing
their garments, and scattering the fires in every direction with bare
hands and feet. Some of them dropped senseless, to remain long or
permanently insane, but the others continued until worn out with
exhaustion. The Father learned that during these orgies not unfrequently
whole villages were consumed, and the total extirpation of some families
had resulted. No wonder that he saw in them the diabolical workings of
the prince of evil, but the physician is rather inclined to class them
with those cases of epidemic hysteria, the common products of violent
and ill-directed mental stimuli.[276-1]
These various considerations prove beyond a doubt that the power of the
priesthood did by no means rest exclusively on deception. They indorse
and explain the assertions of converted natives, that their power as
prophets was something real, and entirely inexplicable to themselves.
And they make it easily understood how those missionaries failed who
attempted to persuade them that all this boasted power was false. More
correct views than these ought to have been suggested by the facts
themselves, for it is indisputable that these magicians did not
hesitate at times to test their strength on each other. In these strange
duels _a l'outrance_, one would be seated opposite his antagonist,
surrounded with the mysterious emblems of his craft, and call upon his
gods one after another to strike his enemy dead. Sometimes one,
"gathering his medicine," as it was termed, feeling within himself that
hidden force of will which makes itself acknowledged even without words,
would rise in his might, and in a loud and severe voice command his
opponent to die! Straightway the latter would drop dead, or yielding in
craven fear to a superior volition, forsake the implements of his art,
and with an awful terror at his heart, creep to his lodge, refuse all
nourishment, and presently perish. Still more terrible was the tyranny
they exerted on the superstitious minds of the masses. Let an Indian
once be possessed of the idea that he is bewitched, and he will probably
reject all food, and sink under the phantoms of his own fancy.
How deep the superstitious veneration of these men has struck its roots
in the soul of the Indian, it is difficult for civilized minds to
conceive. Their power is currently supposed to be without any bounds,
"extending to the raising of the dead and the control of all laws of
nature."[277-1] The grave offers no escape from their omnipotent arms.
The Sacs and Foxes, Algonkin tribes, think that the soul cannot leave
the corpse until set free by the medicine men at their great annual
feast;[277-2] and the Puelches of Buenos Ayres guard a profound silence
as they pass by the tomb of some redoubted necromancer, lest they should
disturb his repose, and suffer from his malignant skill.[278-1]
While thus investigating their real and supposed power over the physical
and mental world, their strictly priestly functions, as performers of
the rites of religion, have not been touched upon. Among the ruder
tribes these, indeed, were of the most rudimentary character.
Sacrifices, chiefly in the form of feasts, where every one crammed to
his utmost, dances, often winding up with the wildest scenes of
licentiousness, the repetition of long and monotonous chants, the making
of the new fire, these are the ceremonies that satisfy the religious
wants of savages. The priest finds a further sphere for his activity in
manufacturing and consecrating amulets to keep off ill luck, in
interpreting dreams, and especially in lifting the veil of the future.
In Peru, for example, they were divided into classes, who made the
various means of divination specialties. Some caused the idols to speak,
others derived their foreknowledge from words spoken by the dead, others
predicted by leaves of tobacco or the grains and juice of cocoa, while
to still other classes, the shapes of grains of maize taken at random,
the appearance of animal excrement, the forms assumed by the smoke
rising from burning victims, the entrails and viscera of animals, the
course taken by a certain species of spider, the visions seen in
drunkeness,[TN-16] the flights of birds, and the directions in which
fruits would fall, all offered so many separate fields of
prognostication, the professors of which were distinguished by different
ranks and titles.[279-1]
As the intellectual force of the nation was chiefly centred in this
class, they became the acknowledged depositaries of its sacred legends,
the instructors in the art of preserving thought; and from their duty to
regulate festivals, sprang the observation of the motions of the
heavenly bodies, the adjustment of the calendars, and the pseudo-science
of judicial astrology. The latter was carried to as subtle a pitch of
refinement in Mexico as in the old world; and large portions of the
ancient writers are taken up with explaining the method adopted by the
native astrologers to cast the horoscope, and reckon the nativity of the
newly-born infant.
How was this superior power obtained? What were the terms of admission
to this privileged class? In the ruder communities the power was
strictly personal. It was revealed to its possessor by the character of
the visions he perceived at the ordeal he passed through on arriving at
puberty; and by the northern nations was said to be the manifestation of
a more potent personal spirit than ordinary. It was not a faculty, but
an inspiration; not an inborn strength, but a spiritual gift. The
curious theory of the Dakotas, as recorded by the Rev. Mr. Pond, was
that the necromant first wakes to consciousness as a winged seed, wafted
hither and thither by the intelligent action of the Four Winds. In this
form he visits the homes of the different classes of divinities, and
learns the chants, feasts, and dances, which it is proper for the human
race to observe, the art of omnipresence or clairvoyance, the means of
inflicting and healing diseases, and the occult secrets of nature, man,
and divinity. This is called "dreaming of the gods." When this
instruction is completed, the seed enters one about to become a mother,
assumes human form, and in due time manifests his powers. _Four_ such
incarnations await it, each of increasing might, and then the spirit
returns to its original nothingness. The same necessity of death and
resurrection was entertained by the Eskimos. To become of the highest
order of priests, it was supposed requisite, says Bishop Egede, that one
of the lower order should be drowned and eaten by sea monsters. Then,
when his bones, one after another, were all washed ashore, his spirit,
which meanwhile had been learning the secrets of the invisible world,
would return to them, and, clothed in flesh, he would go back to his
tribe. At other times a vague and indescribable longing seizes a young
person, a morbid appetite possesses them, or they fall a prey to an
inappeasable and aimless restlessness, or a causeless melancholy. These
signs the old priests recognize as the expression of a personal spirit
of the higher order. They take charge of the youth, and educate him to
the mysteries of their craft. For months or years he is condemned to
entire seclusion, receiving no visits but from the brethren of his
order. At length he is initiated with ceremonies of more or less pomp
into the brotherhood, and from that time assumes that gravity of
demeanor, sententious style of expression, and general air of mystery
and importance, everywhere deemed so eminently becoming in a doctor and
a priest. A peculiarity of the Moxos was, that they thought none
designated for the office but such as had escaped from the claws of the
South American tiger, which, indeed, it is said they worshipped as a
god.[281-1]
Occasionally, in very uncultivated tribes, some family or totem claimed
a monopoly of the priesthood. Thus, among the Nez Perces of Oregon, it
was transmitted in one family from father to son and daughter, but
always with the proviso that the children at the proper age reported
dreams of a satisfactory character.[281-2] Perhaps alone of the Algonkin
tribes the Shawnees confined it to one totem, but it is remarkable that
the greatest of their prophets, Elskataway, brother of Tecumseh, was not
a member of this clan. From the most remote times, the Cherokees have
had one family set apart for the priestly office. This was when first
known to the whites that of the Nicotani, but its members, puffed up
with pride and insolence, abused their birthright so shamefully, and
prostituted it so flagrantly to their own advantage, that with savage
justice they were massacred to the last man. Another was appointed in
their place who to this day officiates in all religious rites. They
have, however, the superstition, possibly borrowed from Europeans, that
the _seventh_ son is a natural born prophet, with the gift of healing by
touch.[281-3] Adair states that their former neighbors, the Choctaws,
permitted the office of high priest, or Great Beloved Man, to remain in
one family, passing from father to eldest son, and the very influential
_piaches_ of the Carib tribes very generally transmitted their rank and
position to their children.
In ancient Anahuac the prelacy was as systematic and its rules as well
defined, as in the Church of Rome. Except those in the service of
Huitzilopochtli, and perhaps a few other gods, none obtained the
priestly office by right of descent, but were dedicated to it from early
childhood. Their education was completed at the _Calmecac_, a sort of
ecclesiastical college, where instruction was given in all the wisdom of
the ancients, and the esoteric lore of their craft. The art of mixing
colors and tracing designs, the ideographic writing and phonetic
hieroglyphs, the songs and prayers used in public worship, the national
traditions and the principles of astrology, the hidden meaning of
symbols and the use of musical instruments, all formed parts of the
really extensive course of instruction they there received. When they
manifested a satisfactory acquaintance with this curriculum, they were
appointed by their superiors to such positions as their natural talents
and the use they had made of them qualified them for, some to instruct
children, others to the service of the temples, and others again to take
charge of what we may call country parishes. Implicit subordination of
all to the high priest of Huitzilopochtli, hereditary _pontifex
maximus_, chastity, or at least temperate indulgence in pleasure,
gravity of carriage, and strict attention to duty, were laws laid upon
all.
The state religion of Peru was conducted under the supervision of a
high priest of the Inca family, and its ministers, as in Mexico, could
be of either sex, and hold office either by inheritance, education, or
election. For political reasons, the most important posts were usually
enjoyed by relatives of the ruler, but this was usage, not law. It is
stated by Garcilasso de la Vega[283-1] that they served in the temples
by turns, each being on duty the fourth of a lunar month at a time. Were
this substantiated it would offer the only example of the regulation of
public life by a week of seven days to be found in the New World.
In every country there is perceptible a desire in this class of men to
surround themselves with mystery, and to concentrate and increase their
power by forming an intimate alliance among themselves. They affected
singularity in dress and a professional costume. Bartram describes the
junior priests of the Creeks as dressed in white robes and carrying on
their head or arm "a great owlskin, stuffed very ingeniously, as an
insignia of wisdom and divination. These bachelors are also
distinguishable from the other people by their taciturnity, grave and
solemn countenance, dignified step, and singing to themselves songs or
hymns, in a low sweet voice, as they stroll about the towns."[283-2] The
priests of the civilized nations adopted various modes of dress to
typify the divinity which they served, and their appearance was often in
the highest degree unprepossessing.
To add to their self-importance they pretended to converse in a tongue
different from that used in ordinary life, and the chants containing
the prayers and legends were often in this esoteric dialect. Fragments
of one or two of these have floated down to us from the Aztec
priesthood. The travellers Balboa and Coreal, mention that the temple
services of Peru were conducted in a language not understood by the
masses,[284-1] and the incantations of the priests of Powhatan were not
in ordinary Algonkin, but some obscure jargon.[284-2] The same
peculiarity has been observed among the Dakotas and Eskimos, and in
these nations, fortunately, it fell under the notice of competent
linguistic scholars, who have submitted it to a searching examination.
The results of their labors prove that certainly in these two instances
the supposed foreign tongues were nothing more than the ordinary
dialects of the country modified by an affected accentuation, by the
introduction of a few cabalistic terms, and by the use of descriptive
circumlocutions and figurative words in place of ordinary expressions, a
slang, in short, such as rascals and pedants invariably coin whenever
they associate.[285-1]
All these stratagems were intended to shroud with impenetrable secrecy
the mysteries of the brotherhood. With the same motive, the priests
formed societies of different grades of illumination, only to be entered
by those willing to undergo trying ordeals, whose secrets were not to be
revealed under the severest penalties. The Algonkins had three such
grades, the _waubeno_, the _meda_, and the _jossakeed_, the last being
the highest. To this no white man was ever admitted. All tribes appear
to have been controlled by these secret societies. Alexander von
Humboldt mentions one, called that of the Botuto or Holy Trumpet, among
the Indians of the Orinoko, whose members must vow celibacy and submit
to severe scourgings and fasts. The Collahuayas of Peru were a guild of
itinerant quacks and magicians, who never remained permanently in one
spot.
Withal, there was no class of persons who so widely and deeply
influenced the culture and shaped the destiny of the Indian tribes, as
their priests. In attempting to gain a true conception of the race's
capacities and history, there is no one element of their social life
which demands closer attention than the power of these teachers.
Hitherto, they have been spoken of with a contempt which I hope this
chapter shows is unjustifiable. However much we may deplore the use they
made of their skill, we must estimate it fairly, and grant it its due
weight in measuring the influence of the religious sentiment on the
history of man.
FOOTNOTES:
[265-1] Haeser, _Geschichte der Medicin_, pp. 4, 7: Jena, 1845.
[265-2] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. p. 440.
[267-1] Carver, _Travels in North America_, p. 73: Boston, 1802;
_Narrative of John Tanner_, p. 135.
[267-2] Sahagun, _Hist. de la Nueva Espana_, lib. x. cap. 20; _Le Livre
Sacre des Quiches_, p. 177; _Lett. sur les Superstit. du Perou_, pp. 89,
91.
[269-1] _Life of Black Hawk_, p. 13.
[270-1] _Travs. in North America_, p. 74.
[270-2] _Journal Historique_, p. 362.
[271-1] Sometimes facts like this can be explained by the quickness of
perception acquired by constant exposure to danger. The mind takes
cognizance unconsciously of trifling incidents, the sum of which leads it
to a conviction which the individual regards almost as an inspiration.
This is the explanation of _presentiments_. But this does not apply to
cases like that of Swedenborg, who described a conflagration going on at
Stockholm, when he was at Gottenberg, three hundred miles away.
Psychologists who scorn any method of studying the mind but through
physiology, are at a loss in such cases, and take refuge in refusing them
credence. Theologians call them inspirations either of devils or angels,
as they happen to agree or disagree in religious views with the person
experiencing them. True science reserves its opinion until further
observation enlightens it.
[272-1] Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, iii. p. 287; v. p. 652.
[273-1] "The progress from deepest ignorance to highest enlightenment,"
remarks Herbert Spencer in his _Social Statics_, "is a progress from
entire unconsciousness of law, to the conviction that law is universal
and inevitable."
[273-2] The Creeks had, according to Hawkins, not less than seven sacred
plants; chief of them were the cassine yupon, called by botanists _Ilex
vomitoria_, or _Ilex cassina_, of the natural order Aquifoliaceae; and the
blue flag, _Iris versicolor_, natural order Iridaceae. The former is a
powerful diuretic and mild emetic, and grows only near the sea. The
latter is an active emeto-cathartic, and is abundant on swampy grounds
throughout the Southern States. From it was formed the celebrated "black
drink," with which they opened their councils, and which served them in
place of spirits.
[274-1] Martius, _Von dem Rechtzustande unter den Ureinwohnern
Brasiliens_, p. 32.
[275-1] Mr. Anderson, in the _Am. Hist. Mag._, vii. p. 79.
[276-1] Such spectacles were nothing uncommon. They are frequently
mentioned in the Jesuit Relations, and they were the chief obstacles to
missionary labor. In the debauches and excesses that excited these
temporary manias, in the recklessness of life and property they fostered,
and in their disastrous effects on mind and body, are depicted more than
in any other one trait the thorough depravity of the race and its
tendency to ruin. In the quaint words of one of the Catholic fathers, "If
the old proverb is true that every man has a grain of madness in his
composition, it must be confessed that this is a people where each has at
least half an ounce" (De Quen, _Rel. de la Nouv. France_, 1656, p. 27).
For the instance in the text see _Rel. de la Nouv. France_, An 1639, pp.
88-94.
[277-1] Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, v. p. 423.
[277-2] J. M. Stanley, in the _Smithsonian Miscellaneous Contributions_,
ii. p. 38.
[278-1] D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, ii. p. 81.
[279-1] See Balboa, _Hist. du Perou_, pp. 28-30.
[281-1] D'Orbigny, _L'Homme Americain_, ii. p. 235.
[281-2] Schoolcraft, _Ind. Tribes_, v. p. 652.
[281-3] Dr. Mac Gowan, in the _Amer. Hist. Mag._, x. p. 139; Whipple,
_Rep. on the Ind. Tribes_, p. 35.
[283-1] _Hist. des Incas_, lib. iii. ch. 22.
[283-2] _Travels in the Carolinas_, p. 504.
[284-1] _Hist. du Perou_, p. 128; _Voiages aux Indes Occidentales_, ii.
p. 97.
[284-2] Beverly, _Hist. de la Virginie_, p. 266. The dialect he specifies
is "celle d'Occaniches," and on page 252 he says, "On dit que la langue
universelle des Indiens de ces Quartiers est celle des _Occaniches_,
quoiqu'ils ne soient qu'une petite Nation, depuis que les Anglois
connoissent ce Pais; mais je ne sais pas la difference qui'l y a entre
cette langue et celle des Algonkins." (French trans., Orleans, 1707.)
This is undoubtedly the same people that Johannes Lederer, a German
traveller, visited in 1670, and calls _Akenatzi_. They dwelt on an
island, in a branch of the Chowan River, the Sapona, or Deep River
(Lederer's _Discovery of North America_, in Harris, Voyages, p. 20).
Thirty years later the English surveyor, Lawson, found them in the same
spot, and speaks of them as the _Acanechos_ (see _Am. Hist. Mag._, i. p.
163). Their totem was that of the serpent, and their name is not
altogether unlike the Tuscarora name of this animal _usquauhne_. As the
serpent was so widely a sacred animal, this gives Beverly's remarks an
unusual significance. It by no means follows from this name that they
were of Iroquois descent. Lederer travelled with a Tuscarora (Iroquois)
interpreter, who gave them their name in his own tongue. On the contrary,
it is extremely probable that they were an Algonkin totem, which had the
exclusive right to the priesthood.
[285-1] Riggs, _Gram. and Dict. of the Dakota_, p. ix; Kane, _Second
Grinnell Expedition_, ii. p. 127. Paul Egede gives a number of words and
expressions in the dialect of the sorcerers, _Nachrichten von Groenland_,
p. 122.