_Of their_ RELIGION.
IT is very difficult to attain a perfect knowledge of the religious
principles of the Indians. Their ceremonies and doctrines have been so
often ridiculed by the Europeans, that they endeavour to conceal them;
and if, after the greatest intimacy, you desire any of them to explain
to you their system of religion, to prevent your ridicule they intermix
with it many of the tenets they have received from the French
missionaries, so that it is at last rendered an unintelligible jargon,
and not to be depended upon.
Such as I could discover among the Naudowessies, for they also were very
reserved in this point, I shall give my readers, without paying any
attention to the accounts of others. As the religion of that people from
their situation appears to be totally unadulterated with the
superstitions of the church of Rome, we shall be able to gain from their
religious customs a more perfect idea of the original tenets and
ceremonies of the Indians in general, than from those of any nations
that approach nearer to the settlements.
It is certain they acknowledge one Supreme Being or Giver of Life, who
presides over all things. The Chipéways call this being Manitou or
Kitchi-Manitou; the Naudowessies, Wakon or Tongo-Wakon, that is, the
Great Spirit; and they look up to him as the source of good, from whom
no evil can proceed. They also believe in a bad spirit, to whom they
ascribe great power, and suppose that through his means all the evils
which befall mankind are inflicted. To him therefore do they pray in
their distresses, begging that he would either avert their troubles, or
moderate them when they are no longer avoidable.
They say that the Great Spirit, who is infinitely good, neither wishes
or is able to do any mischief to mankind; but on the contrary, that he
showers down on them all the blessings they deserve; whereas the evil
spirit is continually employed in contriving how he may punish the human
race; and to do which he is not only possessed of the will, but of the
power.
They hold also that there are good spirits of a lesser degree, who have
their particular departments, in which they are constantly contributing
to the happiness of mortals. These they suppose to preside over all the
extraordinary productions of nature, such as those lakes, rivers, or
mountains that are of an uncommon magnitude; and likewise the beasts,
birds, fishes, and even vegetables or stones that exceed the rest of
their species in size or singularity. To all of these they pay some kind
of adoration. Thus when they arrive on the borders of Lake Superior, on
the banks of the Mississippi, or any other great body of water, they
present to the Spirit who resides there some kind of offering, as the
prince of the Winnebagoes did when he attended me to the Falls of St.
Anthony.
But at the same time I fancy that the ideas they annex to the word
spirit, are very different from the conceptions more enlightened nations
entertain of it. They appear to fashion to themselves corporeal
representations of their gods, and believe them to be of a human form,
though of a nature more excellent than man.
Of the same kind are their sentiments relative to a futurity. They doubt
not but they shall exist in some future state; they however fancy that
their employments there will be similar to those they are engaged in
here, without the labour and difficulty annexed to them in this period
of their existence.
They consequently expect to be translated to a delightful country, where
they shall always have a clear unclouded sky, and enjoy a perpetual
spring; where the forests will abound with game, and the lakes with
fish, which might be taken without requiring a painful exertion of
skill, or a laborious pursuit; in short, that they shall live for ever
in regions of plenty, and enjoy every gratification they delight in
here, in a greater degree.
To intellectual pleasures they are strangers; nor are these included in
their scheme of happiness. But they expect that even these animal
pleasures will be proportioned and distributed according to their merit;
the skilful hunter, the bold and successful warrior, will be entitled to
a greater share than those who through indolence or want of skill cannot
boast of any superiority over the common herd.
The priests of the Indians are at the same time their physicians, and
their conjurors; whilst they heal their wounds or cure their diseases,
they interpret their dreams, give them protective charms, and satisfy
that desire which is so prevalent among them of searching into futurity.
How well they execute the latter part of their professional engagements,
and the methods they make use of on some of these occasions, I have
already shewn in the exertions of the priest of the Killistinoes, who
was fortunate enough to succeed in his extraordinary attempt near Lake
Superior. They frequently are successful likewise in administering the
salubrious herbs they have acquired a knowledge of; but that the
ceremonies they make use of during the administration of them
contributes to their success, I shall not take upon me to assert.
When any of the people are ill, the person who is invested with this
triple character of doctor, priest, and magician, sits by the patient
day and night, rattling in his ears a goad-shell filled with dry beans,
called a Chichicoué, and making a disagreeable noise that cannot be well
described.
This uncouth harmony one would imagine should disturb the sick person,
and prevent the good effects of the doctor’s prescription; but on the
contrary they believe that the method made use of contributes to his
recovery, by diverting from his malignant purposes the evil spirit who
has inflicted the disorder; or at least that it will take off his
attention, so that he shall not increase the malady. This they are
credulous enough to imagine he is constantly on the watch to do, and
would carry his inveteracy to a fatal length if they did not thus charm
him.
I could not discover that they make use of any other religious
ceremonies than those I have described; indeed, on the appearance of the
new moon they dance and sing; but it is not evident that they pay that
planet any adoration; they only seem to rejoice at the return of a
luminary that makes the night cheerful, and which serves to light them
on their way when they travel during the absence of the sun.
Notwithstanding Mr. Adair has asserted that the nations among whom he
resided, observe with very little variation all the rites appointed by
the Mosaic Law, I own I could never discover among those tribes that lie
but a few degrees to the north-west, the least traces of the Jewish
religion, except it be admitted that one particular female custom and
their division into tribes, carry with them proofs sufficient to
establish this assertion.
The Jesuits and French missionaries have also pretended that the Indians
had, when they first travelled into America, some notions, though these
were dark and confused, of the christian institution; that they have
been greatly agitated at the sight of a cross, and given proofs, by the
impressions made on them, that they were not entirely unacquainted with
the sacred mysteries of Christianity. I need not say that these are too
glaring absurdities to be credited, and could only receive their
existence from the zeal of those fathers, who endeavoured at once to
give the public a better opinion of the success of their missions, and
to add support to the cause they were engaged in.
The Indians appear to be in their religious principles rude and
uninstructed. The doctrines they hold are few and simple, and such as
have been generally impressed on the human mind, by some means or other,
in the most ignorant ages. They however have not deviated, as many other
uncivilized nations, and too many civilized ones have done, into
idolatrous modes of worship; they venerate indeed and make offerings to
the wonderful parts of the creation, as I have before observed; but
whether these rites are performed on account of the impression such
extraordinary appearances make on them, or whether they consider them as
the peculiar charge, or the usual places of residence of the invisible
spirits they acknowledge, I cannot positively determine.
The human mind in its uncultivated state is apt to ascribe the
extraordinary occurrences of nature, such as earthquakes, thunder, or
hurricanes, to the interposition of unseen beings; the troubles and
disasters also that are annexed to a savage life, the apprehensions
attendant on a precarious subsistence, and those numberless
inconveniencies which man in his improved state has found means to
remedy, are supposed to proceed from the interposition of evil spirits;
the savage consequently lives in continual apprehensions of their unkind
attacks, and to avert them has recourse to charms, to the fantastic
ceremonies of his priest, or the powerful influence of his Manitous.
Fear has of course a greater share in his devotions than gratitude, and
he pays more attention to deprecating the wrath of the evil than to
securing the favour of the good beings.
The Indians, however, entertain these absurdities in common with those
of every part of the globe who have not been illumined by that religion
which only can disperse the clouds of superstition and ignorance, and
they are as free from error as a people can be that has not been
favoured with its instructive doctrines.