GODS, SUPERNATURAL BEINGS, AND WORSHIP.
ESKIMO WITCHCRAFT -- THE TINNEH AND THE KONIAGAS -- KUGANS OF
THE ALEUTS -- THE THLINKEETS, THE HAIDAHS, AND THE NOOTKAS --
PARADISE LOST OF THE OKANAGANS -- THE SALISH, THE CLALLAMS, THE
CHINOOKS, THE CAYUSES, THE WALLA WALLAS, AND THE NEZ PERCÉS --
SHOSHONE GHOULS -- NORTHERN CALIFORNIA -- THE SUN AT MONTEREY
-- OUIOT AND CHINIGCHINICH -- ANTAGONISTIC GODS OF LOWER
CALIFORNIA -- COMANCHES, APACHES, AND NAVAJOS -- MONTEZUMA OF
THE PUEBLOS -- MOQUIS AND MOJAVES -- PRIMEVAL RACE OF NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA.
We now come to the broadest, whether or not it be the most important,
branch of our subject, namely, the gods and spirits that men worship
or know of. Commencing at the extreme north, we shall follow them
through the various nations of our territory toward the south. Very
wild and conflicting is the general mass of evidence bearing on a
belief in supernatural existences. Not only from the nature of the
subject is it allied to questions and matters the most abstruse and
transcendental--in the expression of which the exactest dialectic
terminology must often be at fault; much more the rude and stammering
speech of savages--but it is also apt to call up prejudices of the
most warping and contradictory kind in the minds of those through
whose relation it must pass to us. However hopeless the task, I will
strive to hold an equal beam of historical truth, and putting away
speculations of either extreme, try to give the naked expression of
the belief of the peoples we deal with--however stupid, however
absurd--and not what they ought to believe, or may be supposed to
believe, according to the ingenious speculations of different
theorists.
[Sidenote: ESKIMO SHAMANISM.]
The Eskimos do not appear to recognize any supreme deity, but only an
indefinite number of supernatural beings varying in name, power, and
character--the evil seeming to predominate. They carry on the person a
small ivory image rudely carved to represent some animal, as a kind of
talisman; these are thought to further success in hunting, fishing and
other pursuits, but can hardly be looked upon with any great
reverence, as they are generally to be bought of their owners for a
reasonable price. All supernatural business is transacted through the
medium of shamáns;--functionaries answering to the medicine-men of
eastern Indian tribes;--of these there are both male and female, each
practising on or for the benefit of his or her own respective sex. The
rites of their black art differ somewhat, according to Dall, from
those of their Tinneh neighbors, and very much from those of the
Tschuktschi and other Siberian tribes; and their whole religion may be
summed up as a vague fear finding its expression in witchcraft.[V-1]
The Tinneh, that great people stretching north of the fifty-fifth
parallel nearly to the Arctic Ocean and to the Pacific, do not seem in
any of their various tribes to have a single expressed idea with
regard to a supreme power. The Loucheux branch recognize a certain
personage, resident in the moon, whom they supplicate for success in
starting on a hunting expedition. This being once lived among them as
a poor ragged boy that an old woman had found and was bringing up; and
who made himself ridiculous to his fellows by making a pair of very
large snow-shoes; for the people could not see what a starveling like
him should want with shoes of such unusual size. Times of great
scarcity troubled the hunters, and they would often have fared badly
had they not invariably on such occasions come across a new broad
trail that led to a head or two of freshly killed game. They were glad
enough to get the game and without scruples as to its appropriation;
still they felt curious as to whence it came and how. Suspicion at
last pointing to the boy and his great shoes, as being in some way
implicated in the affair, he was watched. It soon became evident that
he was indeed the benefactor of the Loucheux, and the secret hunter
whose quarry had so often replenished their empty pots; yet the people
were far from being adequately grateful, and continued to treat him
with little kindness or respect. On one occasion they refused him a
certain piece of fat--him who had so often saved their lives by his
timely bounty! That night the lad disappeared, leaving only his
clothes behind, hanging on a tree. He returned to them in a month,
however, appearing as a man and dressed as a man. He told them that he
had taken up his home in the moon; that he would always look down with
a kindly eye to their success in hunting; but he added, that as a
punishment for their shameless greed and ingratitude in refusing him
the piece of fat, all animals should be lean the long winter through,
and fat only in summer; as has since been the case.
[Sidenote: SPIRITS WITH THE KONIAGAS AND TINNEH.]
According to Hearne, the Tinneh believe in a kind of spirits, or
fairies, called _nantena_, which people the earth, the sea, and the
air, and are instrumental for both good and evil. Some of them believe
in a good spirit called Tihugun, 'my old friend,' supposed to reside
in the sun and in the moon; they have also a bad spirit, Chutsain,
apparently only a personification of death, and for this reason called
bad.
They have no regular order of shamáns; any one when the spirit moves
him may take upon himself their duties and pretensions, though some by
happy chances, or peculiar cunning, are much more highly esteemed in
this regard than others, and are supported by voluntary contributions.
The conjurer often shuts himself in his tent and abstains from food
for days till his earthly grossness thins away, and the spirits and
things unseen are constrained to appear at his behest. The younger
Tinneh care for none of these things; the strong limb and the keen
eye, holding their own well in the jostle of life, mock at the terrors
of the invisible; but as the pulses dwindle with disease or age, and
the knees strike together in the shadow of impending death, the shamán
is hired to expel the evil things of which the patient is possessed.
Among the Tacullies, a confession is often resorted to at this stage,
on the truth and accuracy of which depend the chances of a recovery.
As Harmon says, "the crimes which they most frequently confess
discover something of their moral character and therefore deserve to
be mentioned;" but in truth I cannot mention them; both with women and
with men a filthiness and bestiality worse than the sins of Sodom and
Gomorrah defy the stomach of description. The same thing is true of
the tedious and disgusting rites performed by the Tinneh shamáns over
the sick and at various other emergencies. They blow on the invalid,
leap about him or upon him, shriek, sing, groan, gesticulate, and foam
at the mouth, with other details of hocus-pocus varying indefinitely
with tribe and locality. The existence of a soul is for the most part
denied, and the spirits with whom dealings are had are not spirits
that were ever in or of men; neither are they regarded by men with any
sentiment of love or kindly respect; fear and self-interest are the
bonds--where any bonds exist--that link the Tinneh with powers
supernal or infernal.[V-2]
The Koniagas have the usual legion of spirits haunting water, earth,
and air, whose wrath is only to be appeased by offerings to the
shamáns; and sometimes, though very rarely, by human sacrifices of
slaves. They have also a chief deity or spirit, called Shljam Schoá,
and a power for evil called Eyak.[V-3]
Of the Aleuts, it is said that their rites showed a much higher
religious development than was to be found among any of their
neighbors; the labors of the Russian priests have, however, been
successful enough among them to obliterate all remembrance of aught
but the outlines of their ancient cult. They recognize a creator-god,
but without worshiping him; he had made the world, but he did not
guide it; men had nothing to do any longer with him, but only with the
lesser _kugans_, or spirits, to whom the direction and care of earthly
affairs have been committed. The stars and the sun and the moon were
worshiped, or the spirits of them among others, and avenged themselves
on those that adored them not. The offended sun smote the eyes of a
scoffer with blindness, the moon stoned him to death, and the stars
constrained him to count their number--hopeless task that always left
the victim a staring maniac. The shamáns do not seem to have enjoyed
that distinction among the Aleuts that their monopoly of mediation
between man and the invisible world gave them among other nations.
They were generally very poor, living in want and dying in misery;
they had no part nor lot in the joys or sorrows of social life; never
at feast, at wedding, or at a funeral was their face seen. They lived
and wandered men forbid, driven to and fro by phantoms that were their
masters and not their slaves. The Aleuts had no permanent idols, nor
any worshiping-places built with hands; near every village was some
sanctified high place or rock, sacred as a Sinai against the foot of
woman or youth, and whoever profaned it became immediately mad or sick
to death. Only the men and the old men visited the place leaving there
their offerings of skins or feathers with unknown mysterious
ceremonies.
The use of amulets was universal; and more than shield or spear to the
warrior going to battle was a belt of sea-weed woven in magic knots.
What a philosopher's stone was to a Roger Bacon or a Paracelsus, was
the _tkhimkee_, a marvelous pebble thrown up at rare intervals by the
sea, to the Aleutian hunter. No beast could resist its attraction; he
that carried it had no need to chase his prey, he had only to wait and
strike as the animal walked up to its death. Another potent charm was
grease taken from a dead man's body; the spearhead touched with this
was sure to reach a mortal spot in the whale at which it was hurled.
[Sidenote: ALEUTIAN MYSTERY-DANCE.]
There are dim Aleutian traditions of certain religious night dances
held in the month of December. Wooden idols, or figures of some kind,
were made for the occasion and carried from island to island with many
esoteric ceremonies. Then was to be seen a marvelous sight. The men
and women were put far apart; in the middle of each party a wooden
figure was set up; certain great wooden masks or blinders were put on
each person, so contrived that the wearer could see nothing outside a
little circle round his feet. Then every one stripped, and there upon
the snow, under the moonlight, in the bitter Arctic night, danced
naked before the image--say rather before the god, for as they danced
a kugan descended and entered into the wooden figure. Woe to him or to
her whose drift-wood mask fell, or was lifted, in the whirl of that
awful dance; the stare of the Gorgon was not more fatal than a glance
of the demon that possessed the idol; and for any one to look on one
of the opposite sex, however it came about, he might be even counted
as one dead. When the dance was over, the idols and the masks were
broken and cast away. It may be added that such masks as this were
needed, even by prophets in their interviews with the great spirits
that know all mortal consequences; and that when a man died such a
mask was put over his eyes--O naked and shivering soul, face to face
with the darkest kugan of all we will shelter thee what we can.[V-4]
The Thlinkeets are said not to believe in any supreme being. They have
that Yehl, the Raven, and that Khanukh, the Wolf, whom we are already
to some extent acquainted with; but neither the exact rank and
character of these in the supernatural world, nor even their
comparative rank, can be established above contradiction. Thus Yehl is
said to be the creator of all beings and things, yet we have not
forgotten how Khanukh wrung from the unwilling lips of him the
confession: Thou art older that I. It is again said of Yehl that his
power is unlimited; but alas, we have seen him helpless in the magic
darkness raised by Khanukh, and howling as a frightened child might do
in a gloomy corridor. The nature of Yehl is kind and he loves men,
while the reverse is generally considered true of Khanukh; but Yehl,
too, when his anger is stirred up sends sickness and evil fortune.
Yehl existed before his birth upon earth; he cannot die nor even
become older. Where the sources of the Nass are, whence the east-wind
comes, is Nass-Shakieyehl, the home of Yehl; the east-wind brings news
of him. By an unknown mother a son was born to him, who loves mankind
even more than his father, and provides their food in due season. To
conclude the matter, Yehl is, if not the central figure, at least the
most prominent in the Thlinkeet pantheon, and the alpha and the omega
of Thlinkeet philosophy and theology is summed up in their favorite
aphorism: As Yehl acted and lived, so also will we live and do. After
Yehl and Khanukh, the Thlinkeets believe in the brother and sister,
Chethl and Ahgishanakhou, the Thunder or Thunder-bird, and the
Under-ground Woman. Chethl is a kind of great northern rukh that
snatches up and swallows a whale without difficulty, while his wings
and eyes produce thunder and lightning as already described; his
sister Ahgishanakhou sits alone below and guards the Irminsul that
supports the world of the North-west.[V-5]
[Sidenote: THE THLINKEET SHAMÁN.]
The Thlinkeets have no idols, unless the little images sometimes
carried by the magicians for charming with may be called by that name;
they have no worship nor priests, unless their sorcerers and the rites
of them may be entitled to these appellations. These sorcerers or
shamáns seem to be much respected; their words and actions are
generally believed and acquiesced in by all; though the death of a
patient or victim, or supposed victim, is sometimes avenged upon them
by the relatives of the deceased. Shamánism is mostly hereditary; as a
natural course of things the long array of apparatus, masks, dresses,
and so on, is inherited by the son or grandson of the deceased
conjurer. The young man must, however, prove himself worthy of his
position before it becomes assured to him, by calling up and
communicating with spirits. The future shamán retires into a lonely
forest or up some mountain, where he lives retired, feeding only on
the roots of the _panax-horridum_, and waiting for the spirits to come
to him, which they are generally supposed to do in from two to four
weeks. If all go well the meeting takes place, and the chief of the
spirits sends to the neophyte a river-otter, in the tongue of which
animal is supposed to be hid the whole power and secret of shamánism.
The man meets the beast face to face, and four times, each time in a
different fashion, he pronounces the syllable 'Oh!' Upon this the
otter falls instantly, reaching out at the same time its tongue, which
the man cuts off and preserves; hiding it away in a close place, for
if any one not initiated should look on this talisman the sight would
drive him mad. The otter is skinned by the new shamán and the skin
kept for a sign of his profession, while the flesh is buried; it was
unlawful to kill a river-otter save on such occasions as have been
described. If, however, the spirits will not visit the would-be
shamán, nor give him any opportunity to get the otter-tongue as
described above, the neophyte visits the tomb of a dead shamán and
keeps an awful vigil over night, holding in his living mouth a finger
of the dead man or one of his teeth; this constrains the spirits very
powerfully to send the necessary otter. When all these things have
been done the shamán returns to his family emaciated and worn out, and
his new powers are immediately put to the test. His reputation depends
on the number of spirits at his command. The spirits are called _yek_,
and to every conjurer a certain number of them are attached as
familiars, while there are others on whom he may call in an emergency;
indeed every man of whatever rank or profession is attended by a
familiar spirit or demon, who only abandons his charge when the man
becomes exceedingly bad. The world of spirits in general is divided
into three classes: _keeyek_, _tákeeyek_, and _tékeeyek_. The
first-class, 'the Upper Ones,' dwell in the north and seem to be
connected with the northern lights; they are the spirits of the brave
fallen in battle. The other two classes are the spirits of those that
died a natural death, and their dwelling is called _takankóu_. The
tákeeyek, 'land-spirits,' appear to the shamáns in the form of land
animals. With regard to the tékeeyek, 'sea-spirits' which appear in
the form of marine animals, there is some dispute among the Thlinkeets
as to whether these spirits were ever the spirits of men like those of
the other two classes, or whether they were merely the souls of sea
animals.
The supreme feat of a conjurer's power is to throw one of his liege
spirits into the body of one who refuses to believe in his power; upon
which the possessed is taken with swooning and fits. The hair of a
shamán is never cut. As among the Aleuts, a wooden mask is necessary
to his safe intercourse with any spirit; separate masks are worn for
interviews with separate spirits. When a shamán sickens, his relatives
fast for his recovery; when he dies, his body is not burned like that
of other men, but put in a box which is set up on a high frame. The
first night following his death his body is left in that corner of his
hut in which he died. On the second night it is carried to another
corner, and so on for four nights till it has occupied successively
all the corners of the yourt, all the occupants of which are supposed
to fast during this time. On the fifth day the body is tied down on a
board, and two bones that the dead man had often used in his rites
when alive are stuck, the one in his hair and the other in the bridge
of his nose. The head is then covered with a willow basket, and the
body taken to its place of sepulture, which is always near the
sea-shore; no Thlinkeet ever passes the spot without dropping a little
tobacco into the water to conciliate the manes of the mighty
dead.[V-6]
[Sidenote: SOLAR SPIRIT OF THE HAIDAHS.]
The Haidahs believe the great solar spirit to be the creator and
supreme ruler; they do not however confuse him with the material sun,
who is a shining man walking round the fixed earth and wearing a
"radiated" crown. Sometimes the moon is also connected in a confused
indefinite way with the great spirit. There is an evil spirit who,
according to Dunn, is provided with hoofs and horns, though nothing is
said as to the fashion of them, whether orthodox or not. The Haidahs,
at least those seen by Mr Poole on Queen Charlotte Island, have no
worship, nor did they look upon themselves as in any way responsible
to any deity for their actions. As with their northern neighbors, a
belief in goblins, spectres, and sorcery seems to be the sum of their
religion.
With some at least of the Haidahs there was in existence a rite of
this sorcery attended by circumstances of more than ordinary barbarity
and ferocity. When the salmon season is over and the provisions of
winter have been stored away, feasting and conjuring begin. The
chief--who seems to be the principal sorcerer, and indeed to possess
little authority save from his connection with the preterhuman
powers--goes off to the loneliest and wildest retreat he knows of or
can discover in the mountains or forest, and half starves himself
there for some weeks till he is worked up to a frenzy of religious
insanity and the _nawloks_--fearful beings of some kind not
human--consent to communicate with him by voices or otherwise. During
all this observance, the chief is called _taamish_, and woe to the
unlucky Haidah who happens by chance so much as to look on him during
its continuance; even if the taamish do not instantly slay the
intruder, his neighbors are certain to do so when the thing comes to
their knowledge, and if the victim attempt to conceal the affair, or
do not himself confess it, the most cruel tortures are added to his
fate. At last the inspired demoniac returns to his village, naked save
a bear-skin or a ragged blanket, with a chaplet on his head and a red
band of alder-bark about his neck. He springs on the first person he
meets, bites out and swallows one or more mouthfuls of the man's
living flesh wherever he can fix his teeth, then rushes to another and
another, repeating his revolting meal till he falls into a torpor from
his sudden and half-masticated surfeit of flesh. For some days after
this he lies in a kind of coma, "like an over-gorged beast of prey,"
as Dunn says; the same observer adding that his breath during that
time is "like an exhalation from a grave." The victims of this
ferocity dare not resist the bite of the taamish; on the contrary,
they are sometimes willing to offer themselves to the ordeal, and are
always proud of its scars.[V-7]
[Sidenote: NOOTKA GODS.]
The Nootkas acknowledge the existence of a great personage called
Quahootze, whose habitation is apparently in the sky, but of whose
nature little is known. When a storm begins to rage dangerously the
Nootkas climb to the top of their houses and looking upwards to this
great god, they beat drums and chant and call upon his name, imploring
him to still the tempest. They fast, as something agreeable to the
same deity, before setting out on the hunt, and, if their success
warrant it, hold a feast in his honor after their return. This
festival is held usually in December, and it was formerly the custom
to finish it with a human sacrifice, an atrocity now happily fallen
into disuse; a boy, with knives stuck through the superficial flesh of
his arms, legs, and sides, being exhibited as a substitute for the
ancient victim.
Matlose is a famous hob-goblin of the Nootkas; he is a very Caliban of
spirits; his head is like the head of something that might have been a
man but is not; his uncouth bulk is horrid with black bristles; his
monstrous teeth and nails are like the fangs and claws of a bear.
Whoever hears his terrible voice falls like one smitten, and his
curved claws rend a prey into morsels with a single stroke.
The Nootkas, like so many American peoples, have a tradition of a
supernatural teacher and benefactor, an old man that came to them up
the Sound long ago. His canoe was copper, and the paddles of it
copper; every thing he had on him or about him was of the same metal.
He landed and instructed the men of that day in many things; telling
them that he came from the sky, that their country should be
eventually destroyed, that they should all die, but after death rise
and live with him above. Then all the people rose up angry, and took
his canoe from him, and slew him; a crime from which their descendants
have derived much benefit, for copper and the use of it have remained
with them ever since. Huge images, carved in wood, still stand in
their houses intended to represent the form and hold in remembrance
the visit of this old man--by which visit is not improbably intended
to be signified an avatar or incarnation of that chief deity, or
great spirit, worshiped by many Californian tribes as 'the Old Man
above.'
The Ahts regard the moon and the sun as their highest deities, the
moon being the husband and the sun the wife. To the moon chiefly, as
the more powerful deity, they pray for what they require; and to both
moon and sun, as to all good deities, their prayers are addressed
directly and without the intervention of the sorcerers.
Quawteaht--which seems to be a local Aht modification of Quahootze--who
made most things that are in the world, was the first to teach the
people to worship these luminaries who, over all and seeing all, are
more powerful than himself, though more distant and less active. There
is also that Tootooch, thunder-bird, of which so much has been already
said.
The Nootkas, in general, believe in the existence of numberless
spirits of various kinds, and in the efficacy of sorcery. As in
neighboring nations, the shamán gains or renews his inspiration by
fasting and solitary meditation in some retired place, re-appearing at
the end of his vigil half-starved and half-insane, but filled with the
black virtue of his art. He does not generally collect a meal of
living human flesh like the taamish of the preceding family, but he is
satisfied with what his teeth can tear from the corpses in the
burial-places. Old women are admitted to a share in the powers of
sorcery and prophecy and the interpretation of omens and dreams; the
latter a most important function, as few days and nights pass over a
Nootka house that do not give occasion by some vision or occurrence
for the office of the sibyl or the augur.[V-8]
[Sidenote: PARADISE LOST OF THE OKANAGANS.]
The Okanagans believe in a good spirit or master of life, called
Elemehumkillanwaist or Skyappe; and in a bad spirit Kishtsamah or
Chacha; both moving constantly through the air, so that nothing can be
done without their knowledge. The Okanagans have no worship public or
private, but before engaging in anything of importance they offer up a
short prayer to the good spirit for assistance; again on state
occasions, a pipe is passed round and each one smokes three whiffs
toward the rising sun, the same toward the setting, and the same
respectively toward the heaven above and the earth beneath. Then they
have their great mythic ruler and heroine, Scomalt, whose story is
intimately connected with a kind of Okanagan fall or paradise lost.
Long ago, so long ago that the sun was quite young and very small and
no bigger than a star, there was an island far out at sea called
Samahtumiwhoolah, or the White Man's Island. It was inhabited by a
white race of gigantic stature, and governed by a tall fair woman
called Scomalt; and she was a great and strong 'medicine,' this
Scomalt. At last the peace of the island was destroyed by war, and the
noise of battle was heard, the white men fighting the one with the
other; and Scomalt was exceedingly wroth. She rose up and said: lo,
now I will drive these wicked far from me; my soul shall be no longer
vexed concerning them, neither shall they trouble the faithful of my
people with their strivings any more. And she drove the rebellious
together to the uttermost end of the island, and broke off the piece
of land on which they were huddled, and pushed it out to sea to drift
whither it would. This floating island was tossed to and fro many days
and buffeted of the winds exceedingly, so that all the people thereon
died save one man and one woman, who, seeing their island was ready to
sink, made themselves a canoe and gat them away toward the west. After
paddling day and night for many suns, they came to certain islands,
whence steering through them, they came at last to where the mainland
was, being the territory that the Okanagans now inhabit; it was,
however, much smaller in those days, having grown much since. This man
and woman were so sorely weather-beaten when they landed that they
found their original whiteness quite gone, and a dusky reddish color
in its place. All the people of the continent are descended from this
pair, and the dingy skin of their storm-tossed ancestors has become a
characteristic of the race. And even, as in time past the wrath of the
fair Scomalt loosed the island of their ancestors from its mainland,
and sent it adrift with its burden of sinful men, so in a time to
come, the deep lakes, that like some Hannibal's vinegar soften the
rocks of the foundations of the world, and the rivers that run for
ever and gnaw them away, shall set the earth afloat again; then shall
the end of the world be, the awful _itsowleigh_.[V-9]
The Salish tribes believe the sun to be the chief deity, and certain
ceremonies, described by Mr Lord as having taken place on the death of
a chief, seem to indicate that fire is in some way connected with the
great light.[V-10] The chief is ex officio a kind of priest, presiding
for the most part at the various observances by which the deity of the
sun is recognized. There is the usual belief in sorcery and second
sight, and individuals succeed, by force of special gifts for fasting
and lonely meditation, in having themselves accounted conjurers--an
honor of dubious profit, as medicine-men are constantly liable to be
shot by an enraged relative of any one whose death they may be
supposed to have brought about.
[Sidenote: DEITIES OF THE CLALLAMS.]
The Clallams, a coast tribe on the mainland opposite the south end of
Vancouver Island, have a principal good deity called by various names,
and an evil spirit called Skoocoom; to these some add a certain
Teyutlma, 'the genius of good fortune.' The medicine-men of the tribe
are supposed to have much influence both for good and evil with these
spirits and with all the demon race, or _sehuiáb_ as the latter are
sometimes called. In this tribe the various conjurers are united by
the bonds of a secret society, the initiation into which is attended
by a good deal of ceremony and expense. Three days and three nights
must the novice of the order fast alone in a mysterious lodge prepared
for him, round which during all that time the brethren already
initiated sing and dance. This period elapsed, during which it would
seem that the old nature has been killed out of him, he is taken up
like one dead and soused into the nearest cold water, where he is
washed till he revives; which thing they call "washing the dead." When
his senses are sufficiently gathered to him, he is set on his feet;
upon which he runs off into the forest, whence he soon reappears a
perfect medicine-man, rattle in hand and decked out with the various
trappings of his profession. He then parts all his worldly gear among
his friends, himself henceforth to be supported only by the fees of
his new calling.[V-11]
Ikánam, the creator of the universe, is a powerful deity among the
Chinooks, who have a mountain named after him from a belief that he
there turned himself into stone. After him, or before him as many say,
comes Italapas, the Coyote, who created men after an imperfect
fashion,[V-12] taught them how to make nets and catch salmon, how to
make a fire, and how to cook; for this the first fruits of the fishing
season are always sacred to him, and his figure is to be found carved
on the head of almost every Chinook canoe on the Columbia. They have a
fire-spirit, an evil spirit, and a body of familiar spirits,
_tamanowas_. Each person has his special spirit, selected by him at an
early age, sometimes by fasting and other mortification of the flesh,
sometimes by the adoption of the first object the child or young man
sees, or thinks he sees, on visiting the woods. These spirits have a
great effect on the imagination of the Chinooks, and their supposed
directions are followed under pain of mysterious and awful
punishments; people converse--"particularly when in the water"--with
them, apparently talking to themselves in low monotonous tones. Some
say that when a man dies his tamanowa passes to his son; but the whole
matter is darkened with much mystery and secrecy; the name of one's
familiar spirit or guardian never being mentioned even to the nearest
friend. A similar custom forbids the mention of a dead man's name, at
least till many years have elapsed after the bereavement.
The Chinook medicine-men are possessed of the usual powers of converse
and mediation with the spirits good and evil; there are two classes of
them, employed in all cases of sickness--the _etaminuas_, or priests,
who intercede for the soul of the patient, and, if necessary, for its
safe passage to the land of spirits--and the _keelalles_, or doctors,
sometimes women, whose duty it is to administer medical as well as
spiritual aid.[V-13]
With the Cayuses and the Walla-Wallas any one may become a
medicine-man; among the Nez Percés the office belongs to an hereditary
order. Women are sometimes trained to the profession, but they are not
believed to hold such extreme powers as the males, nor are they
murdered on the supposed exercise of some fatal influence. For, as
with the Chinooks[V-14] so here, the reputation of sorcerer is at once
the most terrible to others and the most dangerous to one's self that
one can have. His is a power of life, and death; his evil eye can
wither and freeze a hated life if not as swiftly at least as surely as
the stare of the Medusa; he is mortal, however--he can slay your
friend or yourself, and death is bitter, but then how sweet an anodyne
is revenge! There is no strong magic can avail when the heart's blood
trickles down the avenger's shaft, no cunning enchantment that can
keep the life in when his tomahawk crumbles the skull like a
potsherd--and so it comes about that the conjurers walk everywhere
with their life in their hand, and are constrained to be very wary in
their exercise of their nefarious powers.[V-15]
[Sidenote: SHOSHONE DEMONS.]
The Shoshone legends people certain parts of the mountains of Montana
with little imps or demons called _ninumbees_, who are about two feet
long, perfectly naked, and provided each with a tail. These limbs of
the evil one are accustomed to eat up any unguarded infant they may
find, leaving in its stead one of their own baneful race. When the
mother comes to suckle what she supposes to be her child, the fiendish
changeling seizes her breast and begins to devour it; then, although
her screams and the alarm thereby given soon force the malicious imp
to make his escape, there is no hope further; she dies within the
twenty-four hours, and if not well watched in the meantime, the little
demon will even return and make an end of her by finishing his
interrupted meal. There is another variety of these hobgoblins call
_pahonahs_, 'water-infants,' who devour women and children as do their
brother-fiends of the mountain, and complete the ring of ghoulish
terror that closes round the Shoshone child and mother.[V-16]
The Californian tribes, taken as a whole, are pretty uniform in the
main features of their theogonic beliefs. They seem, without
exception, to have had a hazy conception of a lofty, almost supreme
being; for the most part referred to as a Great Man, the Old Man
Above, the One Above; attributing to him, however, as is usual in such
cases, nothing but the vaguest and most negative functions and
qualities. The real, practical power that most interested them, who
had most to do with them and they with him, was a demon, or body of
demons, of a tolerably pronounced character. In the face of divers
assertions to the effect that no such thing as a devil proper has ever
been found in savage mythology, we would draw attention to the
following extract from the _Pomo_ manuscript of Mr Powers--a gentleman
who, both by his study and by personal investigation, has made himself
one of the best qualified authorities on the belief of the native
Californian, and whose dealings have been for the most part with
tribes that have never had any friendly intercourse with white
men:--"Of course the thin and meagre imagination of the American
savages was not equal to the creation of Milton's magnificent imperial
Satan, or of Goethe's Mephistopheles, with his subtle intellect, his
vast powers, his malignant mirth; but in so far as the Indian fiends
or devils have the ability, they are wholly as wicked as these. They
are totally bad, they have no good thing in them, they think only
evil; but they are weak and undignified and absurd; they are as much
beneath Satan as the 'Big Indians' who invent them are inferior in
imagination to John Milton."[V-17]
A definite location is generally assigned to the evil one as his
favorite residence or resort; thus the Californians in the county of
Siskiyou, give over Devil's Castle, its mount and lake, to the
malignant spirits, and avoid the vicinity of these places with all
possible care.
[Sidenote: SACRED FIRES.]
The medicine-man of these people is a personage of some importance,
dressing in the most costly furs; he is a non-combatant, not coming on
the field till after the fight; among other duties, it is absolutely
necessary for him to visit any camp from which the tribe has been
driven by the enemy, there to chant the death-song and appease the
angry spirit that wrought this judgment of defeat, for only after this
has been done is it thought safe to light again the lodge-fires on the
old hearths. Once lit these lodge-fires are never allowed to go out
during times of peace; it would be a bad omen, and omens are
everything with these men, and deducible from all things. The power of
prophecy is thoroughly believed in, and is credited not only to
special seers, but also to distinguished warriors going into battle;
in the latter case, as far at least as their own several fate is
concerned; this, according to Mr Miller, they often predict with
startling accuracy.[V-18]
There is a strange sacredness mixed up with the sweat-house and its
use, among the Cahrocs, the Eurocs, and many other tribes. The men of
every village spend the winter and rainy season in its warm shelter;
but squaws are forbidden to enter, under penalty of death, except when
they are initiated into the ranks of the 'medicines.' So consistent
are the Indians in this matter, that women are not allowed even to
gather the wood that is to be burned in the sacred fire of a
sweat-house; all is done by men, and that only with certain
precautions and ceremonies. The sacred fire is lit every year in
September by a 'medicine' who has gone out into the forest and fasted
and meditated for ten days; and, till a certain time has elapsed, no
secular eye must behold so much as the smoke of it under awful
penalties. The flame once burning is never suffered to go out till the
spring begins to render further heat unnecessary and inconvenient.
On one only occasion is the ban lifted from the head of women; when a
female is being admitted to the medicine ranks, she is made to dance
in the sweat-house till she falls exhausted. It does not appear,
however, that even by becoming a medicine can she hope to see twice
the interior of this lodge.
The admission of a man to the medicine is a much severer affair. He
must retire to the forest for ten days, eating no meat the while, and
only enough acorn-porridge to keep the life in him; the ten days past,
he returns to the sweat-house and leaps up and down till he falls,
just as the woman did.
The doctors or sorcerers are of two kinds, 'root doctors' and 'barking
doctors.' To the barking doctor falls the diagnosis of a case of
sickness. He, or she, squats down opposite the patient, and barks at
him after the manner of an enraged cur, for hours together. If it be a
poisoning case, or a case of malady inflicted by some conjurer, the
barking doctor then goes on to suck the evil thing out through the
skin or administer emetics, as may be deemed desirable. If the case,
however, be one of less serious proportions, the 'barker,' after
having made his diagnosis, retires, and the root-doctor comes in, who,
with his herbs and simples and a few minor incantations, proceeds to
cure the ailment. If a patient die, then the medicine is forced to
return his fee; and if he refuse to attend on anyone and the person
die, then he is forced to pay to the relatives a sum equal to that
which was tendered to him as a fee in the beginning of the affair;
thus like all professions, that of a medicine has its draw-backs as
well as advantages.
Several Northern Californian tribes have secret societies which meet
in a lodge set apart, or in a sweat-house, and engage in mummeries of
various kinds, all to frighten their women. The men pretend to
converse with the devil, and make their meeting-place shake and ring
again with yells and whoops. In some instances, one of their number,
disguised as the master fiend himself, issues from the haunted lodge,
and rushes like a madman through the village, doing his best to
frighten contumacious women and children out of their senses. This, it
would seem, has been going on from time immemorial and the poor women
are still gulled by it, and even frightened into more or less
prolonged fits of wifely propriety and less easy virtue.
[Sidenote: CALIFORNIAN DEITIES.]
The coast tribes of Del Norte County, California, live in constant
terror of a malignant spirit that takes the form of certain animals,
the form of a bat, of a hawk, of a tarantula, and so on--but
especially delights in and affects that of a screech-owl. The belief
of the Russian-River tribes and others is practically identical with
this.
The Cahrocs have, as we already know, some conception of a great
deity, called Chareya, the Old Man Above; he is wont to appear upon
earth at times to some of the most favored sorcerers; he is described
as wearing a close tunic, with a medicine-bag, and as having long
white hair that falls venerably about his shoulders. Practically,
however, the Cahrocs, like the majority of Californian tribes,
venerate chiefly the coyote. Great dread is also had of certain
forest-demons of nocturnal habits; these, say the Eurocs, take the
form of bears and shoot arrows at benighted wayfarers.[V-19]
Between the foregoing outlines of Californian belief and those
connected with the remaining tribes, passing south, we can detect no
salient difference till we reach the Olchones, a coast tribe between
San Francisco and Monterey; the sun here begins to be connected, or
identified by name, with that great spirit, or rather, that Big Man,
who made the earth and who rules in the sky.[V-20] So we find it again
both around Monterey and around San Luis Obispo; the first fruits of
the earth were offered in these neighborhoods to the great light, and
his rising was greeted with cries of joy.[V-21]
Father Gerónimo Boscana[V-22] gives us the following relation of the
faith and worship of the Acagchemem nations, in the valley and
neighborhood of San Juan Capistrano, California. Part of it would fall
naturally into that part of this work alloted to origin; but the whole
is so intimately mixed with so much concerning the life, deeds, and
worship of various supernatural personages that it has seemed better
to fit its present position than any other. Of the first part of the
tradition there are two versions--if indeed they be versions of the
same tradition. We give first that version held by the _serranos_, or
highlanders, of the interior country, three or four leagues inland
from the said San Juan Capistrano:--
Before the material world at all existed there lived two beings,
brother and sister, of a nature that can not be explained; the brother
living above, and his name meaning the Heavens, the sister living
below and her name signifying Earth. From the union of these two,
there sprang a numerous offspring. Earth and sand were the first
fruits of this marriage; then were born rocks and stones; then trees
both great and small; then grass and herbs; then animals; lastly was
born a great personage called Ouiot, who was a "grand captain." By
some unknown mother many children of a medicine race were born to this
Ouiot. All these things happened in the north; and afterward when men
were created they were created in the north; but as the people
multiplied they moved toward the south, the earth growing larger also
and extending itself in the same direction.
[Sidenote: THE COYOTE OF THE ACAGCHEMEMS.]
In process of time, Ouiot becoming old, his children plotted to kill
him, alleging that the infirmities of age made him unfit any longer
to govern them or attend to their welfare. So they put a strong poison
in his drink, and when he drank of it a sore sickness came upon him;
he rose up and left his home in the mountains and went down to what is
now the sea-shore, though at that time there was no sea there. His
mother, whose name is the Earth, mixed him an antidote in a large
shell, and set the potion out in the sun to brew; but the fragrance of
it attracted the attention of the Coyote, who came and overset the
shell. So Ouiot sickened to death, and though he told his children
that he would shortly return and be with them again, he has never been
seen since. All the people made a great pile of wood and burnt his
body there, and just as the ceremony began the Coyote leaped upon the
body, saying that he would burn with it; but he only tore a piece of
flesh from the stomach and ate it and escaped. After that the title of
the Coyote was changed from Eyacque, which means Sub-captain, to Eno,
that is to say, Thief and Cannibal.
When now the funeral rites were over, a general council was held and
arrangements made for collecting animal and vegetable food; for up to
this time the children and descendants of Ouiot had nothing to eat but
a kind of white clay. And while they consulted together, behold a
marvelous thing appeared before them, and they spoke to it saying: Art
thou our captain, Ouiot. But the spectre said: Nay, for I am greater
than Ouiot; my habitation is above, and my name is Chinigchinich. Then
he spoke further, having been told for what they were come together: I
create all things, and I go now to make man, another people like unto
you; as for you I give you power, each after his kind, to produce all
good and pleasant things. One of you shall bring rain, and another
dew, and another make the acorn grow, and others other seeds, and yet
others shall cause all kinds of game to abound in the land; and your
children shall have this power for ever, and they shall be sorcerers
to the men I go to create, and shall receive gifts of them, that the
game fail not and the harvests be sure. Then Chinigchinich made man;
out of the clay of the lake he formed him, male and female; and the
present Californians are the descendants of the one or more pairs
there and thus created.
So ends the known tradition of the mountaineers; we must now go back
and take up the story anew at its beginning, as told by the
_playanos_, or people of the valley of San Juan Capistrano. These say
that an invisible all-powerful being, called Nocuma, made the world
and all that it contains of things that grow and move. He made it
round like a ball and held it in his hands, where it rolled about a
good deal at first, till he steadied it by sticking a heavy black rock
called _tosaut_ into it, as a kind of ballast. The sea was at this
time only a little stream running round the world, and so crowded with
fish that their twinkling fins had no longer room to move; so great
was the press that some of the more foolish fry were for effecting a
landing and founding a colony, upon the dry land, and it was only with
the utmost difficulty that they were persuaded by their elders, that
the killing air and baneful sun and the want of feet must infallibly
prove the destruction before many days of all who took part in such a
desperate enterprise. The proper plan was evidently to improve and
enlarge their present home; and to this end, principally by the aid of
one very large fish, they broke the great rock tosaut in two, finding
a bladder in the centre filled with a very bitter substance. The taste
of it pleased the fish, so they emptied it into the water, and
instantly the water became salt and swelled up and overflowed a great
part of the old earth, and made itself the new boundaries that remain
to this day.
Then Nocuma created a man, shaping him out of the soil of the earth,
calling him Ejoni. A woman also the great god made, presumably of the
same material as the man, calling her Aé. Many children were born to
this first pair, and their descendants multiplied over the land. The
name of one of these last was Sirout, that is to say, Handful of
Tobacco, and the name of his wife was Ycaiut, which means Above; and
to Sirout and Ycaiut was born a son, while they lived in a place
north-east about eight leagues from San Juan Capistrano. The name of
this son was Ouiot, that is to say Dominator; he grew a fierce and
redoubtable warrior; haughty, ambitious, tyrannous, he extended his
lordship on every side, ruling everywhere as with a rod of iron; and
the people conspired against him. It was determined that he should die
by poison; a piece of the rock tosaut was ground up in so deadly a way
that its mere external application was sufficient to cause death.
Ouiot, notwithstanding that he held himself constantly on the alert,
having been warned of his danger by a small burrowing animal called
the _cucumel_, was unable to avoid his fate; a few grains of the
cankerous mixture were dropped upon his breast while he slept, and the
strong mineral ate its way to the very springs of his life. All the
wise men of the land were called to his assistance; but there was
nothing for him save to die. His body was burned on a great pile with
songs of joy and dances, and the nation rejoiced.
[Sidenote: THE FIRST MEDICINE-MAN.]
While the people were gathered to this end, it was thought advisable
to consult on the feasibility of procuring seed and flesh to eat
instead of the clay which had up to this time been the sole food of
the human family. And while they yet talked together, there appeared
to them, coming they knew not whence, one called Attajen, "which name
implies man, or rational being." And Attajen, understanding their
desires, chose out certain of the elders among them, and to these gave
he power; one that he might cause rain to fall, to another that he
might cause game to abound, and so with the rest, to each his power
and gift, and to the successors of each for ever. These were the first
medicine-men.
Many years having elapsed since the death of Ouiot, there appeared in
the same place one called Ouiamot, reputed son of Tacu and
Auzar--people unknown, but natives; it is thought by Boscana, of "some
distant land." This Ouiamot is better known by his great name
Chinigchinich, which means Almighty. He first manifested his powers
to the people on a day when they had met in congregation for some
purpose or other; he appeared dancing before them crowned with a kind
of high crown made of tall feathers stuck into a circlet of some kind,
girt with a kind of petticoat of feathers, and having his flesh
painted black and red. Thus decorated he was called the _tobet_.
Having danced some time, Chinigchinich called out the medicine-men, or
_puplems_ as they were called, among whom it would appear the chiefs
are always numbered, and confirmed their power; telling them that he
had come from the stars to instruct them in dancing and all other
things, and commanding that in all their necessities they should array
themselves in the tobet, and so dance as he had danced, supplicating
him by his great name, that thus they might receive of their
petitions. He taught them how to worship him, how to build
_vanquechs_, or places of worship, and how to direct their conduct in
various affairs of life. Then he prepared to die, and the people asked
him if they should bury him; but he warned them against attempting
such a thing: If ye buried me, he said, ye would tread upon my grave,
and for that my hand would be heavy upon you; look to it, and to all
your ways, for lo, I go up where the high stars are, where mine eyes
shall see all the ways of men; and whosoever will not keep my
commandments nor observe the things I have taught, behold disease
shall plague all his body, and no food shall come near his lips, the
bear shall rend his flesh, and the crooked tooth of the serpent shall
sting him.
[Sidenote: SANCTUARIES OF REFUGE.]
The vanquech, or place of worship, seems to have been an unroofed
inclosure of stakes, within which, on a hurdle, was placed the image
of the god Chinigchinich. This image was the skin of a coyote or that
of a mountain-cat stuffed with the feathers of certain birds, and with
various other things, so that it looked like a live animal; a bow and
some arrows were attached to it on the outside, and other arrows were
thrust down its throat so that the feathers of them appeared at the
mouth as out of a quiver. The whole place of the inclosure was sacred,
and not to be approached without reverence; it does not seem that
sacrifices formed any part of the worship there offered, but only
prayer, and sometimes a kind of pantomime connected with the
undertaking desired to be furthered--thus, desiring success in hunting
one mimicked the actions of the chase, leaping and twanging one's bow.
Each vanquech was a city of refuge, with rights of sanctuary exceeding
any ever granted in Jewish or Christian countries. Not only was every
criminal safe there whatever his crime, but the crime was as it were
blotted out from that moment, and the offender was at liberty to leave
the sanctuary and walk about as before; it was not lawful even to
mention his crime; all that the avenger could do was to point at him
and deride him, saying: Lo, a coward, who has been forced to flee to
Chinigchinich! This flight was rendered so much a meaner thing in that
it only turned the punishment from the head of him that fled upon that
of some of his relatives; life went for life, eye for eye, and tooth
for tooth, even to the third and fourth generation, for justice' sake.
Besides Chinigchinich they worshiped, or at any rate feared, a god
called Touch; who inhabited the mountains and the bowels of the earth,
appearing, however, from time to time in the form of various animals
of a terrifying kind. Every child at the age of six or seven received,
sent to him from this god, some animal as a protector. To find out
what this animal or spirit in the shape of animal was, narcotic drinks
were swallowed, or the subject fasted and watched in the vanquech for
a given time, generally three days. He whose rank entitled him to wait
for his guardian apparition in the sacred inclosure, was set there by
the side of the god's image, and on the ground before him was sketched
by one of the wise men an uncouth figure of some animal. The child was
then left to complete his vigil, being warned at the same time to
endure its hardships with patience, in that any attempt to infringe
upon its rules, by eating or drinking or otherwise, would be reported
to the god by the sprawling figure the enchanter had drawn in the
clay, and that in such a case the punishment of Chinigchinich would be
terrible. After all this was over, a scar was made on the child's
right arm, and sometimes on the thick part of the leg also, by
covering the part, "according to the figure required," with a peculiar
herb dried and powdered, and setting fire to it. This was a brand or
seal required by Chinigchinich, and was besides supposed to strengthen
the nerves and give "a better pulse for the management of the
bow."[V-23]
The Acagchemems, like many other Californian tribes,[V-24] regard the
great buzzard with sentiments of veneration, while they seem to have
had connected with it several rites and ideas peculiar to themselves.
They called this bird the _panes_, and once every year they had a
festival of the same name, in which the principal ceremony was the
killing of a buzzard without losing a drop of its blood. It was next
skinned, all possible care being taken to preserve the feathers
entire, as these were used in making the feathered petticoat and
diadem, already described as part of the tobet. Last of all the body
was buried within the sacred inclosure amid great apparent grief from
the old women, they mourning as over the loss of relative or friend.
Tradition explained this: the panes had indeed been once a woman,
whom, wandering in the mountain ways, the great god Chinigchinich had
come suddenly upon and changed into a bird. How this was connected
with the killing of her anew every year by the people, and with
certain extraordinary ideas held relative to that killing is, however,
by no means clear; for it was believed that as often as the bird was
killed it was made alive again, and more, and faith to move
mountains--that the birds killed in one same yearly feast in many
separate villages were one and the same bird. How these things were or
why, none knew, it was enough that they were a commandment and
ordinance of Chinigchinich, whose ways were not as the ways of
men.[V-25]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AND THERE WAS WAR IN HEAVEN.]
The Pericues of Lower California were divided into two sects,
worshiping two hostile divinities who made a war of extermination upon
each other. The tradition explains that there was a great lord in
heaven, called Niparaya, who made earth and sea, and was almighty and
invisible. His wife was Anayicoyondi, a goddess who, though possessing
no body, bore him in a divinely mysterious manner three children; one
of whom, Quaayayp, was a real man and born on earth, on the Acaragui
mountains. Very powerful this young god was, and a long time he lived
with the ancestors of the Pericues, whom it is almost to be inferred
that he created; at any rate we are told that he was able to make men,
drawing them up out of the earth. The men at last killed this their
great hero and teacher, and put a crown of thorns upon his head.[V-26]
Somewhere or other he remains lying dead to this day, and he remains
constantly beautiful, neither does his body know corruption. Blood
drips constantly from his wounds, and he can speak no more, being
dead; yet there is an owl that speaks to him. And besides the
before-spoken-of god Niparaya in heaven, there was another and hostile
god called Wac or Tuparan. According to the Niparaya sect, this Wac
had made war on their favorite god, and been by him defeated and cast
forth of heaven into a cave under the earth, of which cave the whales
of the sea were the guardians. With a perverse, though not unnatural
obstinacy, the sect that held Wac or Tuparan to be their great god
persisted in holding ideas peculiar to themselves with regard to the
truth of the foregoing story; and their account of the great war in
heaven and its results differed from the other, as differ the creeds
of heterodox and orthodox everywhere; they ascribe, for example, part
of the creation to other gods besides Niparaya.[V-27] The Cochimis and
remaining natives of the Californian peninsula seem to have held in
the main much the same ideas with regard to the gods and powers above
them as the Pericues held, and the sorcerers of all had the common
blowings, leapings, fastings, and other mummeries that make these
professors of the sinister art so much alike everywhere in our
territory.[V-28]
* * * * *
The natives of Nevada have ideas respecting a great kind Spirit of
some kind, as well as a myth concerning an evil one; but they have no
special class set apart as medicine-men.[V-29] The Utah belief seems to
be as nearly as possible identical with that of Nevada.[V-30]
The Comanches acknowledge more or less vaguely a Supreme Spirit, but
seem to use the Sun and the Earth as mediators with and, in some sort,
as embodiments of him. They have a recognized body of sorcerers called
_puyacantes_, and various religious ceremonies and chants; for the
most part of a simple kind, and directed to the Sun as the great
source of life, and to the Earth as the producer and receptacle of all
that sustains life. According to the Abbé Domenech, every Comanche
wears a little figure of the sun attached to his neck, or has a
picture of it painted on his shield; from the ears of each hang also
two crescents, which may possibly represent the moon.[V-31]
The Apaches recognize a supreme power in heaven under the name
Yaxtaxitaxitanne, the creator and master of all things; but they
render him no open service nor worship. To any taciturn cunning man
they are accustomed to credit intercourse with a preternatural power
of some kind, and to look to him as a sort of oracle in various
emergencies. This is, in fact, their medicine-man, and in cases of
illness he pretends to perform cures by the aid of herbs and
ceremonies of various kinds.[V-32]
The Navajos, having the usual class of sorcerers, call their good
deity Whaillahay, and their evil one Chinday; the principal use of
their good god seems to be to protect them from their evil one. In
smoking they sometimes puff their tobacco-smoke toward heaven with
great formality; this is said to bring rain; to the same end certain
long round stones, thought to be cast down by the clouds in a
thunderstorm, are used with various ceremonies.
The sun, moon, and stars are thought to be powers connected with rain
and fine weather; while the god Montezuma of their Pueblo neighbors is
unknown among them.[V-33]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MONTEZUMA OF THE PUEBLOS.]
All the Pueblo cities, though speaking different languages hold
substantially the same faith. They seem to assent to the statement of
the existence of a great and good spirit whose name is too sacred to
be mentioned; but most say that Montezuma is his equal; and some,
again, that the Sun is the same as or equal to Montezuma. There are,
besides, the lesser divinities of water--Montezuma being considered
in one aspect as the great rain-god, and as such often mentioned as
being aided by or being in connection with a serpent. Over and above
all these, the existence of a general class or body of evil spirits is
taken for granted.
Many places in New Mexico claim to be the birthplace of the great
leader, teacher, and god Montezuma. At any rate he is traditionally
supposed to have appeared among the Pueblos before they had arrived at
or built their present towns. Some traditions would make him either
the ancestor or the creator of the same people; but the most regard
him as a kind of semi or wholly divine priest, prophet, leader, and
legislator. Under restrictions pointed out in a former note,[V-34] we
may fairly regard him as at once the Melchizedek, the Moses, and the
Messiah of these Pueblo desert wanderers from an Egypt that history is
ignorant of, and whose name even tradition whispers not. He taught his
people to build cities with tall houses, to construct estufas, or
semi-sacred sweat-houses, and to kindle and guard the sacred fire.
At Acoma, it is said by some, was established the first Pueblo, and
thence the people marched southward, forming others. Acoma was one,
and Pecos another. At this last, Montezuma planted a tree upside down,
and said that, on his leaving them, a strange nation should oppress
them for many years, years also in which there should be no rain, but
that they were to persist in watching the sacred fire until the tree
fell, when he would return, with a white race which should destroy
their enemies; and then rain should fall again and the earth be
fertile. It is said that this tree fell from its abnormal position, as
the American army entered Santa Fé.
[Sidenote: HE IS NOT DEAD BUT SLEEPETH.]
The watching of the fire, kept up in subterranean estufas, under a
covering of ashes generally, and in the basin of a small altar, was no
light task. The warriors took the post by turns, some said, for two
successive days and nights, sans food, sans drink, sans sleep, sans
everything. Others affirm that this watching was kept up till
exhaustion and even death relieved the guard--the last not to be
wondered at, seeing the insufferable closeness of the place and the
accumulation of carbonic acid. The remains of the dead were, it was
sometimes supposed, carried off by a monstrous serpent. This holy fire
was believed to be the palladium of the city, and the watchers by it
could well dream of that day, when, coming with the sun, Montezuma
should descend by the column of smoke whose roots they fed, and should
fill the shabby little estufa with a glory like that in a wilderness
tabernacle they knew not of, where a more awful pillar of smoke
shadowed the mystic cherubim. Hope dies hard, and the dim memories of
a great past never quite fade away from among any people. No true-born
British bard ever doubted of Arthur's return from his kingly rest in
Avalon, nor that the flash of Excalibar should be one day again as the
lightning of death in the eyes of the hated Saxon. The herders on the
shore of Lucerne know that were Switzerland in peril, the Tell would
spring from his sleep as at the crack of doom. "When Germany is at her
lowest then is her greatness nearest" say the weird old ballads of
that land; for then shall the Great Kaiser rise from the vault in the
Kyffhäuser--Barbarossa shall rise, though his beard be grown through
the long stone table. Neither is the Frank without his savior: Sing, O
troubadours, sing and strike the chords proudly! Who shall prevail
while Charlemagne but sleeps in the shadow of the Untersberg?--And so
our Pueblo sentinel climbing the housetop at Pecos, looking ever
eastward from Santo Domingo on the Rio Grande; he too waits for the
beautiful feet upon the mountains and the plumes of him--
Who dwelt up in the yellow sun,
And sorrowing for man's despair,
Slid by his trailing yellow hair
To earth, to rule with love and bring
The blessedness of peace.[V-35]
The Pueblo chiefs seem to be at the same time priests; they perform
the various simple rites by which the power of the sun and of
Montezuma is recognized as well as the power--according to some
accounts--of "the Great Snake, to whom by order of Montezuma they are
to look for life;" they also officiate in certain ceremonies with
which they pray for rain. There are painted representations of the
Great Snake, together with that of a misshapen red-haired man declared
to stand for Montezuma. Of this last there was also in 1845, in the
pueblo of Laguna, a rude effigy or idol, intended, apparently, to
represent only the head of the deity; it was made of tanned skin in
the form of a brimless hat or cylinder open at the bottom. Half-way
round, it was painted red; the other half was green. The green side
was rudely marked to suggest a face: two triangles were cut for eyes;
there was no nose; a circular leather patch served for a mouth, and
two other patches in an appropriate situation suggested ears. Crowning
the head was a small tuft of leather, said to be supplemented by
feathers on festal occasions. A sorry image one would say, yet one
looked upon by its exhibitors with apparently the greatest veneration;
they kneeling in a most devoted manner, going through a form of
prayer, and sprinkling it with a white powder. One of the worshipers
said it was God and the brother of God; and the people bring it out in
dry seasons, and, with dancing and other rites, invoke it for rain.
Christianity has now effaced the memory of most of the rites of the
Pueblo religion, but Dr Ten Broeck noticed that many of the worshipers
at the Christian church in Laguna carried little baskets in their
hands containing images of domestic animals, or of beasts of the
chase, molded in mud or dough; it being the custom, as it had been
there from time immemorial, for those that had been successful in the
chase, or in accumulating cattle, to bring such simulachres of their
prosperity before the altar of God--probably, a modification produced
by the poverty of the people of a rite as old as the altar of Abel, to
wit, the offering of the firstlings and first-fruits to that Deity
whose blessing had given the increase.
It has been affirmed, without much foundation or probability of truth,
that the Pueblos worshiped fire and water.[V-36]
The Moquis know nothing of Montezuma; they believe in a Great Father,
living where the sun rises, and in a great Mother, whose home is where
the sun goes down. This Father is the father of evil, war, pestilence,
and famine; but from the mother are all their joy, peace, plenty, and
health.[V-37]
[Sidenote: MOJAVE DEITIES.]
The Mojaves tell of a certain Matevil, creator of heaven and earth,
who was wont in time past to remain among them in a certain grand
_casa_. This habitation was, however, by some untoward event broken
down; the nations were destroyed; and Matevil departed eastward.
Whence, in the latter days, he will again return to consolidate,
prosper, and live with his people forever. This Matevil, or
Mathowelia, has a son called Mastamho, who made the water and planted
trees. There is also an Evil Spirit Newathie.[V-38]
* * * * *
From a letter just received from Judge Roseborough, I am enabled to
close this chapter with some new and valuable facts regarding the
religious ideas of certain tribes--not accurately specified--of the
north-west portion of Upper California. The learned judge has given
unusual attention to the subject of which he writes, and his
opportunities for procuring information must have been frequent during
ten years of travel and residence in the districts of the northern
counties of California:--
Among the tribes in the neighborhood of Trinity river is found a
legend relating to a certain Wappeckquemow, who was a giant, and
apparently the father and leader of a pre-human race like himself. He
was expelled from the country that he inhabited--near the mouth of the
Klamath--for disobeying or offending some great god, and a curse was
pronounced against him, so that not even his descendants should ever
return to that land. On the expulsion of these Anakim, the ancestors
of the people to whom this legend belongs came down from the
north-west, a direction of migration, according to Judge Roseborough,
uniformly adhered to in the legends of all the tribes of north-west
California. These new settlers, however, like their predecessors of
the giant race, quarreled with the great god and were abandoned by him
to their own devices, being given over into the hands of certain evil
powers or devils. Of these the first is Omahá, who, possessing the
shape of a grizzly bear, is invisible and goes about everywhere
bringing sickness and misfortune on mankind. Next there is Makalay, a
fiend with a horn like a unicorn; he is swift as the wind and moves by
great leaps like a kangaroo. The sight of him is usually death to
mortals. There is, thirdly, a dreadful being called Kalicknateck, who
seems a faithful reproduction of the great thunder-bird of the north:
thus Kalicknateck "is a huge bird that sits on the mountain-peak, and
broods in silence over his thoughts until hungry; when he will sweep
down over the ocean, snatch up a large whale, and carry it to his
mountain-throne, for a single meal."
Besides the before-mentioned powers of evil, these Trinity people have
legends connected with other personages of the same nature, among whom
are Wanuswegock, Surgelp, Napousney, and Nequiteh.
When white miners first came to work on the Trinity River, their
advent caused, as may be imagined, much unsatisfactory speculation
among the aborigines; some saying one thing of the whites and some
another. At last an old seer of the Hoopah Valley settled the question
by declaring that the new-comers were descendants of that banished
Wappeckquemow, from whose heads the already-mentioned curse,
forbidding their return, had been by some means lifted.
[Sidenote: THE KITCHEN-MIDDEN OF THE HOHGATES.]
The coast people in northern California have a story about a
mysterious people called Hohgates, to whom is ascribed an immense bed
of mussel-shells and bones of animals still existing on the table-land
of Point St George, near Crescent City. These Hohgates, seven in
number, are said to have come to the place in a boat, to have built
themselves "houses above-ground, after the style of white men"--all
this about the time that the first natives came down the coast from
the north. These Hohgates, living at the point mentioned, killed many
elk on land, and many seals and sea-lions in fishing excursions from
their boats; using for the latter purpose a kind of harpoon made of a
knife attached to a stick, and the whole fastened to the boat with a
long line. They also sailed frequently to certain rocks, and loaded
their little vessels with mussels. By all this they secured plenty of
food, and the refuse of it, the bones and shells and so on, rapidly
accumulated into the great _kjökken mödding_ still to be seen. One
day, however, all the Hohgates being out at sea in their boat, they
struck a huge sea-lion with their rude harpoon, and, unable or
unwilling to cut or throw off their line, were dragged with fearful
speed toward a great whirlpool, called Chareckquin, that lay far
toward the north-west. It is the place where souls go, where in
darkness and cold the spirits shiver for ever; living men suffer even
from its winds--from the north-west wind, the bleak and bitter
Charreck-rawek. And just as the boat reached the edge of this fearful
place, behold, a marvelous thing: the rope broke and the sea-monster
was swept down alone into the whirl of wind and water, while the
Hohgates were caught up into the air; swinging round and round, their
boat floated steadily up into the vast of heaven. Nevermore on earth
were the Hohgates seen; but there are seven stars in heaven that all
men know of, and these stars are the seven Hohgates that once lived
where the great shell-bed near Crescent City now is.
FOOTNOTES:
[V-1] _Armstrong's Nar._, pp. 102, 193; _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, pp.
319-20, 325; _Richardson's Jour._, vol. i., pp. 358, 385; _Dall's
Alaska_, pp. 144-5.
[V-2] _Hardisty_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, pp. 318-19; _Jarvis'
Religion, Ind. N. Am._, p. 91; _Kennicott_, in _Whymper's Alaska_, p.
345; _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxxviii.; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v.,
p. 178; _Ross_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, pp. 306-7; _Franklin's
Nar._, vol. i., pp. 246-7; _Harmon's Jour._, p. 300; _Hooper's Tuski_,
p. 317; _Richardson's Jour._, vol. i., pp. 385-6; _Dall's Alaska_, pp.
83-90; _Whymper's Alaska_, pp. 231-2.
[V-3] _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, pp. 140-1; _Sauer_, _Billings' Ex._,
p. 174.
[V-4] _D'Orbigny_, _Voy._, pp. 579-80; _Coxe's Russ. Dis._, p. 217;
_Dall's Alaska_, pp. 335, 389; See _Bancroft's Nat. Races_, vol. i.,
p. 93.
[V-5] In Holmberg's account of these Thlinkeet supernatural powers,
nothing is said of the sun or moon as indicating the possession of
life by them or of any qualities not material. But Dunn, _The Oregon
Territory_, p. 284, and Dixon, _Voyage Round the World_, pp. 189-90,
describe at least some tribe or tribes of the Thlinkeets and many
tribes of the Haidahs, that consider the sun to be a great spirit
moving over the earth once every day, animating and keeping alive all
creatures, and, apparently, as being the origin of all; the moon is a
subordinate and night watcher.
[V-6] _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, pp. 52-73; _Dall's Alaska_, pp.
421-3; _Kotzebue's New Voyage_, vol. ii., p. 58; _Dunn's Oregon_, p.
280; _Bendel's Alex. Arch._, pp. 31-3. This last traveler gives us a
variation of the history of Yehl and Khanukh, which is best presented
in his own words:--'The Klinkits do not believe in one Supreme Being,
but in a host of good and evil spirits, above whom are towering two
lofty beings of godlike magnitude, who are the principal objects of
Indian reverence. These are Yethl and Kanugh--two brothers; the former
the benefactor and well-wisher of mankind, but of a very whimsical and
unreliable nature; the latter the stern God of War, terrible in his
wrath, but a true patron of every fearless brave. It is he who sends
epidemics, bloodshed and war to those who have displeased him, while
it seems to be the principal function of Yethl to cross the sinister
purposes of his dark-minded brother. Yethl and Kanugh lived formerly
on earth, and were born of a woman of a supernatural race now passed
away, about the origin and nature of which many conflicting legends
are told, hard to comprehend. When Yethl walked on earth and was quite
young he acquired great skill in the use of the bow and arrow. He used
to kill large birds, assume their shape and fly about. His favorite
bird was the raven; hence its name, "Yethl," which signifies "raven"
in the Klinkit language. He had also the fogs and clouds at his
command, and he would often draw them around him to escape his
enemies. His brother's name, Kanugh, signifies "wolf," consequently
"raven" and "wolf" are the names of the two gods of the Klinkits, who
are supposed to be the founders of the Indian race.'
[V-7] _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 253-9; _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc.,
Jour._, vol. xi., p. 223; _Bancroft's Nat. Races_, vol. i., pp.
170-71.
[V-8] _Jewitt's Nar._, p. 83; _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._,
vol. xi., pp. 223-4; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. i., p. 345; _Sutil y
Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. 136; _Meares' Voy._, p. 270; _Hutchings' Cal.
Mag._, vol. v., pp. 222-4; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 433-441, 455;
_Barrett-Lennard's Trav._, pp. 51-3; _Sproat's Scenes_, pp. 40, 156-8,
167-75, 205-11; _Cook's Voy. to Pac._, vol. ii., p. 317. As
illustrating strongly the Nootka ideas with regard to the sanctity of
the moon and sun, as well as the connection of the sun with the fire,
it may be well to call attention to the two following customs:--'El
Tays [chief] no puede hacer uso de sus mugeres sin ver enteramente
iluminado el disco de la luna.' _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. 145.
'Girls at puberty ... are kept particularly from the sun or fire.'
_Bancroft's Nat. Races_, vol. i., p. 197. In this connection it may be
mentioned that Mr Lord, _Naturalist_, vol. ii., p. 257, saw among the
Nootkas while at Fort Rupert, a very peculiar Indian "medicine," a
solid piece of native copper, hammered flat, oval it would appear from
the description, and painted with curious devices, eyes of all sizes
being especially conspicuous. The Hudson-Bay traders call it an
"Indian copper," and said it was only exhibited on extraordinary
occasions, and that its value to the tribe was estimated at fifteen
slaves or two hundred blankets. This "medicine" was preserved in an
elaborately ornamented wooden case, and belonging to the tribe, not to
the chief, was guarded by the medicine-men. Similar sheets of copper
are described by Schoolcraft as in use among certain of the Vesperic
aborigines: May they all be intended for symbols of the sun, such as
that reverenced by the Peruvians?
[V-9] _Ross' Adven._, pp. 287-9.
[V-10] 'The bravest woman of the tribe, one used to carrying ammunition
to the warrior when engaged in fight, bared her breast to the person
who for courage and conduct was deemed fit successor to the departed.
From the breast he cut a small portion, which he threw into the fire.
She then cut a small piece from the shoulder of the warrior, which was
also thrown into the fire. A piece of bitter root, with a piece of
meat, were next thrown into the fire, all these being intended as
offerings to the Sun, the deity of the Flatheads.' _Tolmie_, in
_Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 237-8. For references to the remaining
matter of the paragraph see _Id._, vol. ii., pp. 237-43, 260.
[V-11] _Kane's Wand._, pp. 218-9; _Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab._, p.
15.
[V-12] This vol., pp. 95-6.
[V-13] _Wilkes' Nar._ in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. v., pp. 124-5; _Cox's
Adven._, vol. i., p. 317; _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 125-6; _Franchère's
Nar._, p. 258; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 354; _Ross' Adven._,
p. 96; _Parker's Explor. Tour_, pp. 139, 246, 254; _Tolmie_, in
_Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 248; _Gibbs' Chinook Vocab._, pp. 11, 13;
_Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab._, pp. 15, 29; _Irving's Astoria_, pp.
339-40; _Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 253.
[V-14] _Parker's Explor. Tour_, p. 254: 'The chiefs say, that they and
their sons are too great to die of themselves, and although they may
be sick, and decline, and die, as others do, yet some person, or some
evil spirit instigated by some one, is the invisible cause of their
death; and therefore when a chief, or chief's son dies, the supposed
author of the deed must be killed.'
[V-15] _Alvord_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 652.
[V-16] _Stuart's Montana_, pp. 64-6.
[V-17] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.
[V-18] _Joaquin Miller's Life amongst the Modocs_, pp. 21, 116, 259-60,
360.
[V-19] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.
[V-20] _Beechey's Voy._, vol. ii., p. 78.
[V-21] _Fages_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, vol. ci., pp. 316,
335.
[V-22] Father Boscana, one of the earliest missionaries to Upper
California, left behind him the short manuscript history from which
the tradition following in the text has been taken--through the
medium of a now rare translation by Mr Robinson. Filled with the
prejudices of its age and of the profession of its author, it is yet
marvelously truthlike; though a painstaking care has evidently been
used with regard to its most apparently insignificant details, there
are none of those too visible wrenchings after consistency, and
fillings up of lacunae which so surely betray the hand of the
sophisticator in so many monkish manuscripts on like and kindred
subjects. There are found on the other hand frank confessions of
ignorance on doubtful points, and many naïve and puzzled comments on
the whole. It is apparently the longest and the most valuable notice
in existence on the religion of a nation of the native Californians,
as existing at the time of the Spanish conquest, and more worthy of
confidence than the general run of such documents of any date
whatever. The father procured his information as follows. He says:
'God assigned to me three aged Indians, the youngest of whom was over
seventy years of age. They knew all the secrets, for two of them were
_capitanes_, and the other a _pul_, who were well instructed in the
mysteries. By gifts, endearments, and kindness, I elicited from them
their secrets, with their explanations; and by witnessing the
ceremonies which they performed, I learned by degrees, their
mysteries. Thus, by devoting a portion of the nights to profound
meditation, and comparing their actions with their disclosures, I was
enabled after a long time, to acquire a knowledge of their religion.'
_Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, p. 236.
[V-23] See p. 113, of this volume, for a custom among the Mexicans not
without analogies to this.
[V-24] See p. 134, of this volume.
[V-25] _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, pp. 242-301.
[V-26] The Christian leaven, whose workings are evident through this
narrative, ferments here too violently to need pointing out.
[V-27] See pp. 83-4, this volume.
[V-28] _Venegas_, _Noticia de la Cal._, tom. i., pp. 102-124;
_Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom. i., pp. 135-141; _Humboldt_,
_Essai Pol._, tom. i., p. 314.
[V-29] _Virginia City Chronicle_, quoted in _S. F. Daily Ev'g Post_, of
Oct. 12th, 1872; _Browne's Lower Cal._, p. 188.
[V-30] _De Smet's Letters_, p. 41.
[V-31] _Parker_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 684; _Whipple,
Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, pp. 35-6, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol.
iii.; _Barreiro_, _Ojeada sobre N. Mex._, ap. p. 8; _Filley's Life and
Adven._, p. 82; _Marcy's Army Life_, pp. 58, 64; _Domenech_, _Jour.
d'un Miss._, pp. 13, 131, 469.
[V-32] _Barreiro_, _Ojeada sobre N. Mex._, ap. pp. 2-3; _Henry_, in
_Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 212.
[V-33] _Crofutt's Western World_, Aug. 1872, p. 27; _Whipple, Ewbank,
and Turner's Rept._, p. 42, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii.; _Ten
Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 91; _Bristol_, in
_Ind. Aff. Rept., Special Com._, 1867, p. 358; _Brinton's Myths_, p.
158; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., p. 402.
[V-34] See pp. 77-8, note 36, this volume.
[V-35] _Joaquin Miller's Californian._
[V-36] _Gregg's Com. Prairies_, vol. i., pp. 271-3; _Davis' El Gringo_,
pp. 142, 396; _Simpson's Overland Journ._, pp. 21-3; _Domenech's
Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 164-5, 418, vol. ii., pp. 62-3, 401;
_Möllhausen_, _Tagebuch_, pp. 170, 219, 284; _Meline's Two Thousand
Miles on Horseback_, pp. 202, 226; _Ruxton's Adven. in Mex._, p. 193;
_Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 73; _Ward_, in
_Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1864, pp. 192-3; _Emory's Reconnoissance_, p. 30;
_Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 384; _Brinton's Myths_, p. 190;
_Coronado_, in _Hakluyt's Voy._, vol. iii., p. 379. Fremont gives an
account of the birth of Montezuma. His mother was, it is said, a woman
of exquisite beauty, admired and sought after by all men, they making
her presents of corn and skins and all that they had; but the
fastidious beauty would accept nothing of them but their gifts. In
process of time a season of drought brought on a famine and much
distress; then it was that the rich lady showed her charity to be as
great in one direction as it had been wanting in another. She opened
her granaries and the gifts of the lovers she had not loved went to
relieve the hungry she pitied. At last with rain, fertility returned
to the earth; and on the chaste Artemis of the Pueblos its touch fell
too. She bore a son to the thick summer shower and that son was
Montezuma.
[V-37] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 85-6.
[V-38] _Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, pp. 42-3, in _Pac. R. R.
Rept._, vol. iii.; _Dodt_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1870, p. 129.