(1) _String of Wampum_.--p. 293.
A party of Indians, intending to go to war, first observe a rigorous and
protracted fast. When the fast is ended, he who is to command it
assembles his friends, and, holding in his hand a string of wampum,
makes a speech, in which the causes of war, and the injuries and insults
which justify it, are fully and artfully set forth. When he has
finished, he lays the collar on the ground, and he who takes it up, by
so doing, declares himself embarked in the same expedition.
(2) _Eat up the Nation_.--p. 294.
This is a frequent figure of the Indian orator, when endeavouring to
inflame the passions of his hearers. It signifies that a war is to be
waged against the nation respecting whom the "talk" is held, in the most
outrageous and destructive manner. When they wish to engage in their
quarrel an ally who is not present, they send a belt of wampum, with an
invitation to him to drink the "blood" or "the broth of the flesh of
their enemies." It is not to be inferred from this, that the North
American Indians are _Anthropophagi_. It is undoubtedly an allegorical
manner of speaking, with frequent examples of which the Scriptures
furnish us, _e.g._ Psalms xxvii. 2.
(3) _The stormy Lake of Michabou._--p. 294.
The Indians believe that Michabou, the God of the Waters, formed Lake
Superior to serve as a nursery for beavers. The rocks at the _Sault de
Saint Marie_, or Falls of St. Mary, according to the tradition of the
Indians, are the remains of a causeway made by the God in order to dam
up the waters of the rivers, which supply this great lake. At the time
he did this, he lived, they add, at Michillimackinac, _i.e._ a great
place for turtles, pronounced Mak-i-naw. He it was who taught the
ancestors of the Indians to fish, and invented nets, of which he took
the idea from the spider's web. Very many of the northern tribes
recognise this same divinity, but the Hurons alone assign Lake Superior
as the place of his residence.
(4) _House of Death._--p. 302.
The funeral customs of the Indians are very various, and all are
sufficiently curious to merit a place in this note. I have only space
for a few. The first extract relates rather to the place of deposit for
the dead, than to the dead themselves. It describes the common cemetery
of the tribes living west of the Rocky Mountains.
"Among the Pishquitpaws, who live beyond the Rocky Mountains, the place
in which the dead are deposited is a building about sixty feet long, and
twelve feet wide, and is formed by placing in the ground poles or forks
six feet high, across which a long pole is extended the whole length of
the structure. Against this ridge-pole are placed broad boards and
pieces of canoes in a slanting direction, so as to form a shed. It
stands east and west, and neither of the extremities are closed. On
entering the western end we observed a number of bodies, wrapped
carefully in leather robes, and arranged in rows on boards, which were
then covered with mats. This was the part destined for those who had
recently died: a little further on, bones half decayed were scattered
about, and in the centre of the building was a large pile of them heaped
promiscuously on each other. At the western extremity was a mat on which
twenty-one sculls were placed in a circular form, the mode of interment
being first to wrap the body in robes, and as it decays the bones are
thrown into the heap, and the sculls placed together. From the different
boards and pieces of canoes which form the vault were suspended on the
inside fishing-nets, baskets, wooden bowls, robes, skins, trenchers, and
trinkets of various kinds, obviously intended as offerings of affection
to deceased relatives. On the outside of the vault were the skeletons of
several horses, and great quantities of bones were in the neighbourhood,
which induced us to believe that these animals were most probably
sacrificed at the funeral rites of their masters."--_Lewis and Clarke_,
ii, 24.
It was not worth while for these travellers to imply a doubt that those
animals were sacrificed. The custom obtains among all the tribes of the
Western continent, from Labrador to Cape Horn, of sacrificing the most
valuable animals, on the death of their master. In this they are
actuated by a common belief that the deceased will need their assistance
in the land of spirits. See the various traditions.
The Choctaws, a tribe living near the gulf of Mexico, till very late
years had a practice similar to that of the Pishquitpaws, of exposing
their dead upon scaffolds, till such time as the flesh was decayed; it
was then separated from the bones by a set of old men, who devoted
themselves to this custom, and were called "bone-pickers;" after which,
the bones were interred in some place set apart for the purpose.
With the tribes living far towards the northern lakes, the ceremonies
and superstitions which formerly preceded inhumation, were
these:--Charlevoix, the best writer that ever treated of the Indians, is
my authority. "As soon as the sick person expires, the place is filled
with mournful cries. The dead body, dressed in the finest robe, with the
face painted, the arms, and all that belonged to the deceased, by his
side, is exposed at the door of the cabin, in the posture it is to be
laid in the tomb; and this posture is the same in many places as that of
a child in the mother's womb. The custom of some nations is for the
relations to fast to the end of the funeral; and all this interval is
passed in tears and cries, in treating their visiters, in praising the
dead, and in mutual compliments. In other places, they hire women to
weep, who perform their part punctually: they sing, they dance, they
weep, without ceasing, always keeping time: but these demonstrations of
a borrowed sorrow do not prevent what nature requires from the relations
of the deceased.
"It appears that they carry the body without ceremony to the place of
interment, at least I find no mention made about it in any relation:
but, when it is in the grave, they take care to cover it in such a
manner that the earth does not touch it. It lies as in a little cave
lined with skin, much richer and better adorned than their cabins. Then
they set up a post on the grave, and fix on it every thing that may shew
the esteem they had for the deceased. They sometimes put on it his
portrait, and every thing that may serve to shew to passengers who he
was, and the finest actions of his life. They carry fresh provisions to
the tomb every morning; and, as the dogs and other beasts do not fail to
reap the benefit of it, they are willing to persuade themselves that
these things have been eaten by the souls of the dead.
"When any one dies in the time of hunting, they expose his body on a
very high scaffold, and it remains there till the departure of the
troop, who carry it with them to the village. There are some nations who
practice the same with regard to all their dead. The bodies of those who
die in war are burnt, and their ashes brought back to be laid in the
burying-place of their fathers. Others bury their dead in the woods, at
the foot of a tree; or dry them, and keep them in chests, till the
festival of the dead. In some places they observe an odd ceremony for
those that are drowned or frozen to death. The savages believe, when
these accidents happen, that the spirits are incensed, and that their
anger is not appeased till the body is found. Then the preliminaries of
tears, dances, songs, and feasts, being ended, they carry the body to
the usual burying-place; or, if they are too far off, to the place where
it is to remain till the festival of the dead. They dig a very large
pit, and make a fire in it; then some young persons approach the corpse,
cut out the flesh in the parts which had been marked by the master of
the ceremonies, and throw them into the fire with the bowels. Then they
place the corpse, thus mangled, in the place destined for it. During the
whole operation, the women, especially the relations of the deceased, go
continually around those that are at it, exhorting them to acquit
themselves well of their employment, and put beads in their months, as
we would give sugar-plums to children, to entice them to do what we
desire."
The customs among some of the tribes, especially those who have had
little intercourse with the white people, are substantially the same at
this day. But, it has been the effect of their acquaintance with their
conquerors to make them forget every thing laudable and praiseworthy,
among which was their singular veneration for the dust of their
ancestors. These now bury their dead with as few ceremonies as we
observe in burying a dog.
Mackenzie's description of the funeral solemnities of the Knistenaux,
who live further north than Charlevoix went, is something different from
the above:--The funeral rites begin, like all other solemn solemnities,
with smoking, and are concluded by a feast. The body is dressed in the
best habiliments possessed by the deceased or his relations, and is then
deposited in a grave lined with branches. Some domestic utensils are
placed on it, and a kind of canopy erected over it. During this ceremony
great lamentations are made, and the departed person is very much
regretted; the near relations cut off their hair, pierce the fleshy part
of their thighs with arms, knives, &c. and blacken their faces with
charcoal. If they have distinguished themselves in war, they are
sometimes laid on a kind of scaffolding; and I have been informed that
women, as in the East, have been known to sacrifice themselves to the
manes of their husbands. The whole of the property belonging to the
deceased person is destroyed, and the relations take in exchange for
their wearing apparel any rags that will cover their
nakedness.--_Mackenzie_, p. xcix. _Journal_, 148.
The Delawares, and other Indians on the Atlantic coast, buried their
dead after the following manner. Immediately after death, the corpse
was dressed in a new suit, with the face and shirt painted red, and laid
upon a mat or skin in the middle of the hut or cottage. The arms and
effects of the deceased were then piled up near the body. In the
evening, soon after sunset, and in the morning before day-break, the
female relations and friends assembled round the corpse and mourned over
it. Their lamentations were loud in proportion to the love and esteem
they bore the deceased, or to his rank, or to the _pains he suffered in
dying_. And they were repeated daily till his interment.
The burying-places of the Delawares were at some distance from the
dwellings. The graves were generally dug by the old women, as the young
people abhorred this kind of work. If they had a coffin, it was placed
in the grave empty. Then the corpse was carried out, lying upon a linen
cloth, full in view, that the finery and ornaments, with all the effects
left by the deceased, might appear to advantage. The funeral was
accompanied by as great a number of friends as could be collected. It
was then let down into the coffin covered with the cloth. During the
letting down of the corpse, the women set up a dreadful howl, but it was
deemed a shame to weep. Yet, in silence and unobserved, they could not
refrain from tears. It may be seen that they had partially conformed to
the customs of the white people. The "coffin" and "linen cloth" were not
Indian.
The funeral ceremonies of the tribes inhabiting New England were similar
to the authentic part of those practised by the Delawares. Graves were
dug and the body deposited therein, together with such utensils of
cookery, and weapons of war, as it was deemed would be wanted by the
spirits of the deceased in the world they were about to visit. They had
one custom, however, which I did not observe among the southern
tribes--that of placing weights on the grave to prevent the body from
getting out again, and haunting its friends.
It will be seen from these various customs, that one belief is common to
all the tribes scattered over the western continent--that of the
existence in man of the spiritual essence which we call _soul_; of its
flight after death to another and better world, variously located
however; and of its being there actuated by the same wants and wishes,
engaged in the same occupation and pursuits, and requiring the same
means for the attainment of the same ends, as in this.