(1) _Okkis._--p. 175.
The particular object of the devotion of an Indian is termed his
"Okkis," or "Medicine," or "Manitou," all meaning the same thing, which
is neither more nor less than a "household God." The latter, however,
may mean a spirit of the air; the former is tied to one predicament. It
is selected by himself, sometimes at a very early age, but generally at
the period when he enters the duties of life, and is some invisible
being, or, more commonly, some animal, which thenceforward becomes his
protector or intercessor with the Great Spirit. The Indians place
unbounded confidence in these Okkis, and always carry them wherever they
go, being persuaded that they take upon them the office of sentinels.
Hence, they sleep in perfect security, convinced of the entire good
faith of the guardian. There is no possible form which they have not
permitted these "medicines" to take. Birds, beasts, and especially of
the carnivorous species, are most frequently the adopted sentinels; but
sticks, trees, stones, &c., have been known to be selected for that
responsible office. If they prove treacherous, and permit any disaster
to happen to their charge, they are frequently soundly whipped, and
sometimes committed to the flames.
Not only are inanimate objects elected to take the guardianship of
individuals--they sometimes become protectors of the national interests.
There is a large, fiat rock, about ten miles from Plymouth,
Massachusetts, which continues to receive tribute from the Indians,
probably from having, at a former period, been their tutelary genius. It
is called, if I mistake not, by the white people resident in the
neighbourhood, "The Sacrifice Rock," and is still deeply venerated by
the few Indians spared by the cupidity of the Pilgrims and their
descendants.
Lewis and Clarke, in the account of their Travels across the Rocky
Mountains, (vol. i. p. 163) speaking of the national great Memahopa, or
"Medicine Stone," of the Mandans, remarks: "This Medicine Stone is the
great oracle of the Mandans, and, whatever it announces, is received
with the most implicit confidence. Every spring, and on some occasions
during the summer, a deputation visits the sacred spot, where there is a
thick porous stone, twenty feet in circumference, with a smooth surface.
Having reached the place, the ceremony of smoking to it is performed by
the deputies, who alternately take a, whiff themselves, and then present
the pipe to the stone; after this, they retire to the adjoining wood for
the night, during which it may be safely presumed, that all the embassy
do not sleep. In the morning, they read the destinies of the nation in
the white marks on the stone."
(2) _The mulberry bark._--p. 187.
The Dress of the Indian women.--The dress of the Indian females is
regulated, of course, by the nature of the climate. The Southern
Indians, by which I mean those occupying the tract of country which is
now parcelled out into the States of Louisiana, Florida, Missouri,
Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, at the period of its first settlement
by the whites, wore cloaks of the bark of the mulberry tree, or of the
feathers of swans, turkeys, &c. The bark they procured from the young
mulberry shoots that came up from the roots of the trees which had been
cut down. After it was dried in the sun, they beat it to make all the
woody part fall off; and then gave the threads that remained a handsome
beating; after which, they bleached them by exposing them to the dew.
When they were well whitened, they spun them about the coarseness of
pack-thread, and wove them in the following manner: two stakes were set
in the ground about a yard and a half asunder; having stretched a cord
from one to the other, they fastened their threads of bark, double, to
this cord, and then interlaced them in a curious manner into a cloak of
about a yard square, with a wrought border round the edges. Such is
nearly the description given by Du Pratz in his history of Louisiana.
(3) _Willow cage_.--p. 189.
Indian children, instead of being placed in cradles, are suspended from
the boughs of trees beyond the reach of wild animals, in baskets woven
of twigs of the willow, when they can be easily procured: the motion,
which is a kind of circular swing, is far more pleasant than that of the
cradle in use among civilized nations.
(4) _Moon alive_.--p. 189.
The astronomical knowledge of the Indians is very small, and they
entertain singular ideas respecting the heavenly, bodies. When the sun
sets they imagine it goes under water. When the moon does not shine,
they suppose she it dead; and some call the three last days before the
new moon, the _naked days_. Her first appearance after her last quarter
is hailed with great joy. If either sun or moon is eclipsed, they say
the sun or moon is in a swoon. I have mentioned before their opinion of
the cause of shooting-stars. Adair, who was acquainted only with the
Florida Indians, says that when it thundered and blew sharp for a
considerable time, they believed that the beloved or holy people were at
war above the clouds; and they believed that the war was hot or
moderate, in proportion to the noise or violence of the storm. Of all
the writers who have ever written on the Indians, Adair, with the usual
exception of La Hontan, is the worst. He wrote with a preconceived
determination to make them a portion, or "the remnant," of the ten
tribes of Israel, to whom they bear about the same resemblance that an
Englishman bears to an Otaheitean.
(5) _Mortals go in clay._--p. 192.
The Indian mode of worship is wild and singular in the extreme. Nutall,
a judicious and scientific traveller, thus describes the solemnity:
"This morning, about day-break, the Indians, who had encamped around us,
broke out into their usual lamentations and complaints to the Great
Spirit. Their mourning was truly pathetic, and uttered in a peculiar
tone. The commencing tone was exceeding loud, and gradually fell off
into a low, long continued, and almost monotonous bass; to this tone of
lamentation was modulated the subject of their distress or petition.
Those who had experienced any recent distress, or misfortune previously
blackened their faces with coal, or besmeared them with
ashes."--_Nutall_, p. 190.
I will quote one more extract from a favourite author for the benefit
of those who may wish to view the Indian as a worshipper of the Eternal
Being whom they are early taught to worship. "From the age of about five
years," says Long, "to that of ten or twelve, custom obliges the boy to
ascend to a hill-top, or other elevated position, fasting, that he may
cry aloud to the Wahconda. At the proper season his mother reminds him
that 'the ice is breaking up in the river, the ducks and geese are
migrating, and it is time for you to prepare to go in clay.' He then
rubs his person over with a whitish clay, and is sent off to the
hill-top at sunrise, previously instructed by a warrior what to say, and
how to demean himself in the presence of the Master of Life. From this
elevation he cries out to the great Wahconda, humming a melancholy tune,
and calling on him to have pity on him, and make him a great hunter,
horse-stealer, and warrior. This is repeated once or twice a week,
during the months of March and April."--_Long's First Expedition, vol._.
i. p. 240.