Aba_, and a great multitude of inferior good spirits; yet they are
firmly persuaded that the divine omnipresent Spirit of fire and light
resides on earth, in their annual sacred fire while it is unpolluted;
and that he kindly accepts their lawful offerings, if their own conduct
is agreeable to the old divine law, which was delivered to their
forefathers. The former notion of the Deity, is agreeable to those
natural images, with which the divine penmen, through all the prophetic
writings, have drawn YOHEWAH ELOHIM. When God was pleased with Aaron’s
priesthood and offerings, the holy fire descended and consumed the
burnt-offering on the altar, &c.
By the divine records of the Hebrews, this was the emblematical token of
the divine presence; and the smoke of the victim ascending toward
heaven, is represented as a sweet savour to God. The people who have
lived so long apart from the rest of mankind, are not to be wondered at,
if they have forgotten the end and meaning of the sacrifice; and are
rather to be pitied for seeming to believe, like the ignorant part of
the Israelites, that the virtue is either in the form of offering the
sacrifice, or in the divinity they imagine to reside on earth in the
sacred annual fire; likewise, for seeming to have forgotten that the
virtue was in the thing typified.
In the year 1748, when I was at the Koosàh on my way to the Chikkasah
country, I had a conversation on this subject, with several of the more
intelligent of the Muskohge traders. One of them told me, that just
before, while he and several others were drinking spirituous liquors
with the Indians, one of the warriors having drank to excess, reeled
into the fire, and burned himself very much. He roared, foamed, and
spoke the worst things against God, that their language could express.
He upbraided him with {116} ingratitude, for having treated him so
barbarously in return for his religious offerings, affirming he had
always sacrificed to him the first young buck he killed in the new year;
as in a constant manner he offered him when at home, some of the fattest
of the meat, even when he was at short allowance, on purpose that he
might shine upon him as a kind God.—And he added, “now you have proved
as an evil spirit, by biting me so severely who was your constant
devotee, and are a kind God to those accursed nothings, who are laughing
at you as a rogue, and at me as a fool, I assure you, I shall renounce
you from this time forward, and instead of making you look merry with
fat meat, you shall appear sad with water, for spoiling the old beloved
speech. I am a beloved warrior, and consequently I scorn to lie; you
shall therefore immediately fly up above the clouds, for I shall piss
upon you.” From that time, his brethen said, God forsook that
terrestrial residence, and the warrior became godless. This information
exactly agrees with many such instances of Indian impiety, that happened
within my own observation—and shews the bad consequences of that evil
habit of using spirituous liquors intemperately, which they have been
taught by the Europeans.
The Indians have among them the resemblance of the Jewish SIN-OFFERING,
and TRESPASS-OFFERING, for they commonly pull their new-killed venison
(before they dress it) several times through the smoke and flame of the
fire, both by the way of a sacrifice, and to consume the blood, life, or
animal spirits of the beast, which with them would be a most horrid
abomination to eat.[41] And they sacrifice in the woods, the milt, or a
large fat piece of the first buck they kill, both in their summer and
winter hunt; and frequently the whole carcass. This they offer up,
either as a thanksgiving for the recovery of health, and for their
former success in hunting; or that the divine care and goodness may be
still continued to them.
When the Hebrews doubted whether they had sinned against any of the
divine precepts, they were obliged by the law to bring to the priest a
ram of their flock, to be sacrificed, which they called _Ascham_. When
the priest offered this, the person was forgiven. Their sacrifices and
offerings were called _Shilomim_, as they typified _Shilo-Berith_, “the
purifying root,” who was to procure them peace, rest, and plenty. The
Indian imitates the Israelite {117} in his religious offerings,
according to the circumstances of things; the Hebrew laid his hands on
the head of the clean and tame victim, to load it with his sins, when it
was to be killed. The Indian religiously chuses that animal which in
America comes nearest to the divine law of sacrifice, according to what
God has enabled him; he shoots down a buck, and sacrifices either the
whole carcass, or some choice part of it, upon a fire of green wood to
burn away, and ascend to _Yohewah_. Then he purifies himself in water,
and believes himself secure from temporal evils. Formerly, every hunter
observed the very same religious œconomy; but now it is practiced only
by those who are the most retentive of their old religious mysteries.
The Muskohge Indians sacrifice a piece of every deer they kill at their
hunting camps, or near home; if the latter, they dip their middle finger
in the broth, and sprinkle it over the domestic tombs of their dead, to
keep them out of the power of evil spirits, according to their
mythology; which seems to proceed from a traditional knowledge, though
corruption of the Hebrew law of sprinkling and of blood.
The Indians observe another religious custom of the Hebrews, in making a
PEACE-OFFERING, or sacrifice of gratitude, if the Deity in the supposed
holy ark is propitious to their campaign against the enemy, and brings
them all safe home. If they have lost any in war, they always decline
it, because they imagine by some neglect of duty, they are impure: then
they only mourn their vicious conduct which defiled the ark, and thereby
occasioned the loss. Like the Israelites, they believe their sins are
the true cause of all their evils, and that the divinity in their ark,
will always bless the more religious party with the best success. This
is their invariable sentiment, and is the sole reason of their
mortifying themselves in so severe a manner while they are out at war,
living very scantily, even in a buffalo-range, under a strict rule, lest
by luxury their hearts should grow evil, and give them occasion to
mourn.
The common sort of Indians, in these corrupt times, only sacrifice a
small piece of unsalted fat meat, when they are rejoicing in the divine
presence, singing _Yo Yo_, &c. for their success and safety: but,
according to the religious custom of the Hebrews, who offered sacrifices
of thanksgiving {118} for every notable favour that Elohim had conferred
either on individuals, or the body,—both the war-leader and his
religious assistant go into the woods as soon as they are purified, and
there sacrifice the first deer they kill; yet, as hath been observed,
they always celebrate the annual expiation of sins in their religious
temples.
The red Hebrews imagine their temples to have such a typical holiness,
more than any other place, that if they offered up the annual sacrifice
elsewhere, it would not atone for the people, but rather bring down the
anger of _Ishtohoollo Aba_, and utterly spoil the power of their holy
places and holy things. They who sacrifice in the woods, do it only on
the particular occasions now mentioned; unless incited by a dream, which
they esteem a monitory lesson of the Deity, according to a similar
opinion of the Hebrews. To conclude this argument, it is well known,
that the heathens offered the most abominable and impure sacrifices to a
multiplicity of idol gods; some on favourite high places, others in
thick groves, yea, offerings of their own children were made! and they
likewise prostituted their young women in honour of their deities. The
former is so atrocious in the eyes of the American Hebrews, that they
reckon there needs no human law to prevent so unnatural a crime; the
vilest reptiles being endued with an intense love to their young ones:
and as to the latter, if even a great war-leader is known to cohabit
with his own wife, while sanctifying himself according to their mode on
any religious occasion, he is deemed unclean for the space of three days
and nights; or should he during the annual atonement of sins, it is
deemed so dangerous a pollution, as to demand a strict exclusion from
the rest of the sanctified head-men and warriors, till the general
atonement has been made at the temple, to appease the offended Deity:
besides, as a shameful badge of his impiety, his clothes are stripped
off. Thus different are the various modes and subjects of the heathenish
worship and offerings, from those of the savage Americans. The
surprizing purity the latter still observe in their religious
ceremonies, under the circumstances of time and place, points strongly
at their origin. {119}
ARGUMENT X.
The Hebrews had various ABLUTIONS and ANOINTINGS, according to the
Mosaic ritual—and all the Indian nations constantly observe similar
customs from religious motives. Their frequent bathing, or dipping
themselves and their children in rivers, even in the severest weather,
seems to be as truly Jewish, as the other rites and ceremonies which
have been mentioned. Frequent washing of the body was highly necessary
to the health of the Hebrews in their warm climate, and populous
state—but it is useless in this point of view to the red Americans, as
their towns are widely distant from each other, thin peopled, and
situated in cold regions. However, they practise it as a religious duty,
unless in very hot weather, which they find by experience to be
prejudicial to their health, when they observe the law of mercy, rather
than that of sacrifice. In the coldest weather, and when the ground is
covered with snow, against their bodily ease and pleasure, men and
children turn out of their warm houses or stoves, reeking with sweat,
singing their usual sacred notes, _Yo Yo_, &c. at the dawn of day,
adoring YO HE WAH, at the gladsome sight of the morn; and thus they skip
along, echoing praises, till they get to the river, when they
instantaneously plunge into it.[42] If the water is frozen, they break
the ice with a religious impatience: After bathing, they return home,
rejoicing as they run for having so well performed their religious duty,
and thus purged away the impurities of the preceding day by ablution.
The neglect of this hath been deemed so heinous a crime, that they have
raked the legs and arms of the delinquent with snake’s teeth, not
allowing warm water to relax the stiffened skin. This is called
dry-scratching;[43] for their method of bleeding consists in scratching
the legs and arms with goir-fish teeth, when the skin has been first
well loosened by warm water. The criminals, through a false imitation of
true martial virtue, scorn to move themselves in the least out of their
erect posture, be the pain ever so intolerable; if they did, they would
be laughed at, even by their own relations—first, for being vicious; and
next, for being timorous. This will help to lessen our surprize at the
uncommon patience and constancy with which they are endued, beyond the
rest of mankind, in suffering long-continued torture; especially as it
is one {120} of the first, and strongest impressions they take; and they
have constant lessons and examples of fortitude, exhibited before their
eyes.
The Hebrews had convenient separate places for their women to bathe in,
and purify themselves as occasion required: and at the temple (and the
synagogues, after the captivity) they worshipped apart from the men,
lest they should attract one another’s attention from the divine
worship: and it was customary for the women to go veiled, for fear of
being seen, when they walked the streets. No doubt but jealousy had as
great a share in introducing this custom as modesty, especially while
poligamy was suffered in the rich. But the scantiness of the Jewish
American’s circumstances, has obliged them to purify themselves in the
open rivers, where modesty forbad them to expose their women; who by
this means, are now less religious than the men in that duty, for they
only purify themselves as their discretion directs them. In imitation of
the Hebrew women being kept apart from the men at their worship, the
Indians intirely exclude their females from their temples by ancient
custom, except six old beloved women, who are admitted to sing, dance,
and rejoice, in the time of their annual expiation of sins, and then
retire. In their town-houses also they separate them from the warriors,
placing them on the ground at each side of the entrance of the door
within, as if they were only casual spectators.
It may be objected, that the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans
worshipped their Gods, at the dawn of day: and the Persian Magi, with
all the other worshippers of fire, paid their religious devoirs to the
rising sun, but, as the Indians are plainly not idolaters, or
poly-theists; as they sing to, and invoke YAH, and YO HE WAH, the divine
essence, as they run along at the dawn of day to purify themselves by
ablution; it seems sufficiently clear, they are not descended from
either of the last mentioned states, but that their origin is from the
Israelites. This law of purity, bathing in water, was essential to the
Jews—and the Indians to this day would exclude the men from religious
communion who neglected to observe it. f It was customary with the Jews
also after bathing to anoint themselves with oil. All the orientalists
had a kind of sacred respect to OIL; particularly the Jews. With them,
the same word which signified “noon-day” or splendor, צהר, denoted also
“lucid oil.”—And the olive-tree is derived {121} from the verb, to
shine—Because, the fruit thereof tended to give their faces a favourite
glistering colour. ’Tis well known that oil was applied by the Jews to
the most sacred, as well as common uses. Their kings, prophets and
priests, at their inauguration and consecration were anointed with
oil—and the promised Saviour was himself described, by the epithet
“anointed,” and is said Psal. xlv. 7. to be “anointed with the oil of
gladness above his fellows.” We shall on this point, discover no small
resemblance and conformity in the American Indians.
The Indian priests and prophets are initiated by unction. The Chikkasah
some time ago set apart some of their old men of the religious order.
They first obliged them to sweat themselves for the space of three days
and nights, in a small green hut, made on purpose, at a considerable
distance from any dwelling; through a scrupulous fear of contracting
pollution by contact, or from the effluvia of polluted people—and a
strong desire of secreting their religious mysteries. During that
interval, they were allowed to eat nothing but green tobacco, nor to
drink any thing except warm water, highly imbittered with the
button-snake-root, to cleanse their bodies, and prepare them to serve in
their holy, or beloved office, before the divine essence, whom during
this preparation they constantly invoke by his essential name, as before
described. After which, their priestly garments and ornaments, mentioned
under a former argument, page 84, are put on, and, then bear’s oil is
poured upon their head.—If they could procure olive, or palm oil,
instead of bear’s oil, doubtless they would prefer and use it in their
sacred ceremonies; especially, as they are often destitute of their
favourite bear’s oil for domestic uses.
The Jewish women were so exceedingly addicted to anoint their faces and
bodies, that they often preferred oil to the necessaries of life; the
widow who addressed herself to Elisha, though she was in the most
pinching straits, and wanted every thing else, yet had a pot of oil to
anoint herself. This custom of anointing became universal, among the
eastern nations. They were not satisfied with perfuming themselves with
sweet oils and fine essences; but anointed birds—as in the ninth ode of
Anacreon;
Tot unde nunc odores?
Huc advolans per auras,
Spirasque, depulisque; {122}
The poet introduces two doves conversing together; one of which carried
a letter to Bathyllus, the anointed beau; and the other wishes her much
joy, for her perfumed wings that diffused such an agreeable smell
around. And the same poet orders the painter to draw this Samian beau,
with his hair wet with essence, to give him a fine appearance. Nitidas
comas ejus facilto. Ode 29. Virgil describes Turnus, just after the same
manner,
Vibratos calido ferro, myrrhaque madentes.
ÆNEID, 1. 12.
Homer tells us, that Telemachus and Philistratus anointed their whole
bodies with essences, after they had visited the palace of Menelaus, and
before they sat down at table. Odyss. 1. 4.
The Jews reckoned it a singular piece of disrespect to their guest, if
they offered him no oil. When any of them paid a friendly visit, they
had essences presented to anoint their heads; to which custom of
civility the Saviour alludes in his reproof of the parsimonious
Pharisee, at whose house he dined. Luke vii. 46.
All the Indian Americans, especially the female sex, reckon their bear’s
oil or grease,[44] very valuable, and use it after the same manner as
the Asiatics did their fine essences and sweet perfumes; the young
warriors and women are uneasy, unless their hair is always shining with
it; which is probably the reason that none of their heads are bald. But
enough is said on this head, to shew that they seem to have derived this
custom from the east.
ARGUMENT XI.
The Indians have customs consonant to the Mosaic LAWS OF UNCLEANNESS.
They oblige their women in their _lunar retreats_,[45] to build small
huts, at as considerable a distance from their dwelling-houses, as they
imagine may be out of the enemies reach; where, during the space of that
period, they are obliged to stay at the risque of their lives. Should
they be known to violate that ancient law, they must answer for every
misfortune that befalls {123} any of the people, as a certain effect of
the divine fire; though the lurking enemy sometimes kills them in their
religious retirement. Notwithstanding they reckon it conveys a most
horrid and dangerous pollution to those who touch, or go near them, or
walk any where within the circle of their retreats; and are in fear of
thereby spoiling the supposed purity and power of their holy ark, which
they always carry to war; yet the enemy believe they can so cleanse
themselves with the consecrated herbs, roots, &c. which the chieftain
carries in the beloved war-ark, as to secure them in this point from
bodily danger, because it was done against their enemies.
The non-observance of this separation, a breach of the marriage-law, and
murder, they esteem the most capital crimes. When the time of the
women’s separation is ended, they always purify themselves in deep
running water, return home, dress, and anoint themselves. They ascribe
these monthly periods, to the female structure, not to the anger of
_Ishtohoollo Aba_.
Correspondent to the Mosaic law of women’s purification after
_travel_,[46] the Indian women absent themselves from their husbands and
all public company, for a considerable time.—The _Muskōhge_ women are
separate for three moons, exclusive of that moon in which they are
delivered. By the Jewish law, women after a male-birth were forbidden to
enter the temple; and even, the very touch of sacred things, forty
days.—And after a female, the time of separation was doubled.
Should any of the Indian women violate this law of purity, they would be
censured, and suffer for any sudden sickness, or death that might happen
among the people, as the necessary effect of the divine anger for their
polluting sin, contrary to their old traditional law of female purity.
Like the greater part of the Israelites, it is the fear of temporal
evils, and the prospect of temporal good, that makes them so tenacious
and observant of their laws. At the stated period, the Indian women’s
impurity is finished by ablution, and they are again admitted to social
and holy privileges.
By the Levitical law, the people who had _running issues_, or _sores_,
were deemed unclean, and strictly ordered apart from the rest, for fear
of polluting them; for every thing they touched became unclean. The
Indians, in as strict a manner, observe the very same law; they follow
the ancient {124} Israelitish copy so close, as to build a small hut at
a considerable distance from the houses of the village, for every one of
their warriors wounded in war, and confine them there, (as the Jewish
lepers formerly were, without the walls of the city) for the space of
four moons, including that moon in which they were wounded, as in the
case of their women after travel: and they keep them strictly separate,
lest the impurity of the one should prevent the cure of the other. The
reputed prophet, or divine physician, daily pays them a due attendance,
always invoking YO HE WAH to bless the means they apply on the sad
occasion; which is chiefly mountain allum, and medicinal herbs, always
injoyning a very abstemious life, prohibiting them women and salt in
particular, during the time of the cure, or sanctifying the reputed
sinners. Like the Israelites, they firmly believe that safety, or
wounds, &c. immediately proceed from the pleased, or angry deity, for
their virtuous, or vicious conduct, in observing, or violating the
divine law.
In this long space of purification, each patient is allowed only a
superannuated woman to attend him, who is past the temptations of
sinning with men, lest the introduction of a young one should either
seduce him to folly; or she having committed it with others—or by not
observing her appointed time of living apart from the rest, might
thereby defile the place, and totally prevent the cure. But what is yet
more surprising in their physical, or rather theological regimen, is,
that the physician is so religiously cautious of not admitting polluted
persons to visit any of his patients, lest the defilement should retard
the cure, or spoil the warriors, that before he introduces any man, even
any of their priests, who are married according to the law, he obliges
him to assert either by a double affirmative, or by two negatives, that
he has not known even his own wife, in the space of the last natural
day. This law of purity was peculiar to the Hebrews, to deem those
unclean who cohabited with their wives, till they purified themselves in
clean water. Now as the heathen world observed no such law, it seems
that the primitive Americans derived this religious custom also from
divine precept; and that these ceremonial rites were originally copied
from the Mosaic institution.
The Israelites became unclean only by _touching their dead_, for the
space of seven days; and the high-priest was prohibited to come near the
dead. ’Tis much the same with the Indians to this day. To prevent
pollution, when the sick person is past hope of recovery, they {125} dig
a grave, prepare the tomb, anoint his hair, and paint his face; and when
his breath ceases, they hasten the remaining funeral preparations, and
soon bury the corpse.[47] One of a different family will never, or very
rarely pollute himself for a stranger; though when living, he would
cheerfully hazard his life for his safety: the relations, who become
unclean by performing the funeral duties, must live apart from the clean
for several days, and be cleansed by some of their religious order, who
chiefly apply the button-snake-root for their purification, as formerly
described: then they purify themselves by ablution. After three days,
the funeral assistants may convene at the town-house, and follow their
usual diversions. But the relations live recluse a long time, mourning
the dead.[XXVIII][48]
Footnote XXVIII: