tidings—and to order his dark winter house to be swept out very clean,
for fear of pollution. By ancient custom, when the out-standing party
set off for war, the women are so afraid of the power of their holy
things, and of prophaning them, that they sweep the house and earth
quite clean, place the sweepings in a heap behind the door, leaving it
there undisturbed, till _Opáe_, who carries the ark, orders them by a
faithful messenger to remove it. He likewise orders them to carry out
every utensil which the women had used during his absence, for fear of
incurring evil by pollution. The party appeared next day painted red and
black, their heads covered all over with swan-down, and a tuft of long
white feathers fixt to the crown of their heads. Thus they approached,
carrying each of the scalps on a branch of the ever-green pine[XXXIX],
singing the awful death song, with a solemn striking air, and sometimes
YO HE WAH; now and then sounding the shrill death _Whóo Whoop Whoop_.
When they arrived, the leader went a-head of his company, round his
winter hot house, contrary to the course of the sun, singing the
monosyllable YO, for about the space of five seconds on a tenor key;
again, HE HE short, on a bass key; then WAH WAH, gutturally on the
treble, very shrill, but not so short as the bass note. In this manner
they repeated those sacred notes, YO, HE HE, WAH WAH, three times, while
they were finishing the circle, a strong emblem of the eternity of Him,
“who is, was, and is to come,” to whom they sung their triumphal song,
ascribing the victory over their enemies to his strong arm, instead of
their own, according to the usage of the Israelites by divine
appointment. The duplication of the middle and last syllables of the
four-lettered essential name of the deity, and the change of the key
from their established method of invoking YO HE WAH, when they are
drinking their bitter drink, (the _Cusseena_) in their temples, where
they always spend a long breath on each of the two first {165} syllables
of that awful divine song, seems designed to prevent a prophanation.
Footnote XXXIX:
As the Indians carry their enemies scalps on small branches of
evergreen pine, and wave the martial trophies on a pine-branch before
YO HE WAH; I cannot help thinking that the pine was the emblematical
tree so often mentioned in divine writ, by the plural name, _Shittim_;
especially as the mountain Cedar, comparatively speaking, is low and
does not seem to answer the description of the inspired writers;
besides that כפר _Chepher_ is figuratively applied to the mercy-seat,
signifying, literally, a screen, or cover against storms; which was
pitched over with the gum of the pine-tree.
The leader’s _Hetissu_, “or waiter,” placed a couple of new blocks of
wood near the war pole, opposite to the door of the circular hot-house,
in the middle of which the fire-place stood; and on these blocks he
rested the supposed sacred ark, so that it and the holy fire faced each
other. The party were silent a considerable time. At length, the
chieftain bade them sit down, and then enquired whether his house was
prepared for the solemn occasion, according to his order the day before:
being answered in the affirmative, they soon rose up, sounded the death
whoop, and walked round the war pole; during which they invoked and sung
three times, YO, HE HE, WAH WAH, in the manner already described. Then
they went with their holy things in regular order into the hot-house,
where they continued, exclusive of the first broken day, three days and
nights apart from the rest of the people, purifying themselves with warm
lotions, and aspersions of the emblematical button-snake-root, without
any other subsistence between the rising and the setting of the sun.
During the other part of the time, the female relations of each of the
company, after having bathed, anointed, and drest themselves in their
finest, stood in two rows, one on each side of the door, facing each
other, from the evening till the morning, singing HA HA, HA HE, with a
soft shrill voice and a solemn moving air for more than a minute, and
then paused about ten minutes, before they renewed their triumphal song.
While they sung, they gave their legs a small motion, by the strong
working of their muscles, without seeming to bend their joints. When
they had no occasion to retire, they have stood erect in the same place,
a long frosty night; and except when singing, observed a most profound
silence the whole time. During that period, they have no intercourse
with their husbands; and they avoided several other supposed pollutions,
as not to eat or touch salt, and the like.
The leader, once in two or three hours came out at the head of his
company, and raising the death whoop, made one circle round the red
painted war pole, holding up in their right hands the small boughs of
pine with the scalps fixt to them, singing as above, waving them to and
fro, and then returned again. This religious order they strictly
observed the whole time {166} they were purifying themselves, and
singing the song of safety, and victory, to the goodness and power of
the divine essence. When the time of their purification and thanksgiving
expired, the men and women went and bathed themselves separately,
returned in the same manner, and anointed again, according to their
usual custom.
They joined soon after in a solemn procession, to fix the scalps on the
tops of the houses of their relations who had been killed without
revenge of blood. The war chieftain went first—his religious attendant
followed him; the warriors next, according to their rising merit; and
the songstresses brought up the rear. In this order they went round the
leader’s winter-house from the east to the north, the men striking up
the death whoop, and singing the death song; and then YO, HE HE, WAH
WAH, as described; the women also warbling HA HA, HA HE, so that one
might have said according to the sacred text, “great was the company of
the women who sung the song of triumph.”[XL] Then they fixed on the top
of the house, a twig of the pine they had brought with them, with a
small piece of one of the scalps fastened to it: and this order they
observed from house to house, till in their opinion they had appeased
the ghosts of their dead. They went and bathed again; and thus ended
their purification, and triumphal solemnity—only the leader and his
religious waiter kept apart three days longer, purifying themselves. I
afterward asked the reason of this—they replied they were _Ishtohoolo_.
This seems to be so plain a copy of the old Jewish customs, I am
satisfied the reader will easily discern the analogy, without any
farther observations.
Footnote XL:
Last year I heard the Choktah women, in those towns which lie next to
New Orleans, sing a regular anthem and dirge, in the dusk of the
evening, while their kinsmen were gone to war against the Muskohge.
I cannot however conclude this argument, without a few remarks
concerning the Indian methods of _making peace_, and of renewing their
old friendship. They first smoke out of the friend-pipe, and eat
together; then they drink of the _Cusseena_, using such invocations as
have been mentioned, and proceed to wave their large fans of
eagles-tails,—concluding with a dance. The persons visited, appoint half
a dozen of their most active and expert young warriors to perform this
religious duty, who have had their own temples adorned with the
swan-feather-cap. They paint their bodies with white clay, and cover
their heads with swan-down; then approaching the chief {167}
representative of the strangers, who by way of honour, and strong
assurance of friendship, is seated on the central white or holy seat,
“the beloved cabbin” (which is about nine feet long and seven feet
broad), they wave the eagles tails backward and forward over his
head[XLI]. Immediately they begin the solemn song with an awful air; and
presently they dance in a bowing posture; then they raise themselves so
erect, that their faces look partly upwards, waving the eagles tails
with their right hand toward heaven, sometimes with a slow, at others
with a quick motion; at the same time they touch their breast with their
small callabash and pebbles fastened to a stick of about a foot long,
which they hold in their left hand, keeping time with the motion of the
eagles tails: during the dance, they repeat the usual divine notes, YO,
&c. and wave the eagles tails now and then over the stranger’s head, not
moving above two yards backward or forward before him. They are so
surprisingly expert in their supposed religious office, and observe time
so exactly, with their particular gestures and notes, that there is not
the least discernible discord. If the Hebrews danced this way, (as there
is strong presumptive proof) they had very sweating work, for every
joint, artery, and nerve, is stretched to the highest pitch of exertion;
and this may account for Saul’s daughter Michal, chiding David for
falling in with the common dancers.
Footnote XLI:
When they are disaffected, or intend to declare war, they will not
allow any of the party against whom they have hostile views, to
approach the white seat; as their holy men, and holy places, are
considered firmly bound to keep good faith, and give sure refuge.
Indeed in the year 1750, after having narrowly escaped with my life
from the Cheerake lower towns, I met two worthy gentlemen at the
settlement of Ninety-six, who were going to them. I earnestly
dissuaded them against pursuing their journey, but without effect:
when they arrived at the middle Cheerake towns, the old beloved men
and war chieftains invited them and twenty of the traders to go in the
evening to their town-house, to sit on their white beloved seat,
partake of their feast, and smoke together with kindly hearts,
according to their old friendly custom. The gentlemen happily rejected
the invitation, and boldly told them they were apprised of their
treacherous intentions: they braved a little, to surprise and
intimidate the Indians, and then mounted, directed their course toward
the place where a treacherous ambuscade had been laid for them—but
they soon silently took another course, and passing through an
unsuspected difficult marsh, and almost pathless woods, by the dawn of
the morning they reached the Georgia side of Savannah river, which was
about 80 miles, where a body of the Muskohge chanced to be preparing
for war against the treacherous Cheerake. These protected them from
their pursuers, and the gentlemen arrived safe at Augusta, the upper
barrier and Indian mart of Georgia.
The Indians cannot shew greater honour to the greatest potentate on
earth, than to place him in the white seat—invoke YO HE WAH, while {168}
he is drinking the Cusseena, and dance before him with the eagles
tails.[71] When two chieftains are renewing, or perpetuating friendship
with each other, they are treated with the same ceremonies. And in their
circular friendly dances, when they honour their guests, and pledge
themselves to keep good faith with them, they sometimes sing their
divine notes with a very awful air, pointing their right hand towards
the sky. Some years ago, I saw the Kooasahte Indians (two hundred miles
up Mobile river) perform this rite with much solemnity; as if invoking
the deity by their notes and gestures, to enable them to shew good-will
to their fellow-creatures, and to bear witness of their faithful vows
and conduct. This custom is plainly not derived from the old Scythians,
or any other part of the heathen world. Their forms and usages when they
made peace, or pledged faith, and contracted friendship with each other,
were widely different: but to those of the Jews it hath the nearest
resemblance.
ARGUMENT XVII.
The Indian origin and descent may also be in some measure discerned by
their taste for, and kind of ORNAMENTS.[72]
The Israelites were fond of wearing beads and other ornaments, even as
early as the patriarchal age, and the taste increased to such a degree
that it became criminal, and was sharply reprehended by the prophets,
particularly Isaiah. The Israelitish women wore rich garters about their
legs, and against the rules of modesty, they shortened their under
garments, in order to shew how their legs and feet were decorated;
Isaiah, chap. iii. 18. “The Lord will take away the bravery of their
tinkling ornaments about their feet,” which loaded them so heavy that
they could scarcely walk; and ver. 19, 20, 21. “The chains and the
bracelets—The ornaments of the legs—and the ear-rings—The rings and nose
jewels.” In resemblance to these customs, the Indian females continually
wear a beaded string round their legs, made of buffalo-hair, which is a
species of coarse wool; and they reckon it a great ornament, as well as
a preservative against miscarriages, hard labour, and other evils. They
wear also a heap of land {169} tortoise-shells with pebbles or beads in
them, fastened to pieces of deer-skins, which they tie to the outside of
their legs, when they mix with the men in their religious dances.
The Indian nations are agreed in the custom of thus adorning themselves
with beads of various sizes and colours; sometimes wrought in garters,
sashes, necklaces, and in strings round their wrists; and so from the
crown of their heads sometimes to the cartilage of the nose. And they
doat on them so much as to make them their current money in all payments
to this day.
Before we supplied them with our European beads, they had great
quantities of wampum; (the Buccinum of the ancients) made out of
conch-shell, by rubbing them on hard stones, and so they form them
according to their liking. With these they bought and sold at a stated
current rate, without the least variation for circumstances either of
time or place; and now they will hear nothing patiently of loss or gain,
or allow us to heighten the price of our goods, be our reasons ever so
strong, or though the exigencies and changes of time may require it.
Formerly, four deer-skins was the price of a large conch-shell bead,
about the length and thickness of a man’s fore-finger; which they fixed
to the crown of their head, as an high ornament—so greatly they valued
them. Their beads bear a very near resemblance to ivory, which was
highly esteemed by the Hebrews.
The new-England writers assure us, that the Naragansat Indians paid to
the colony of Massachusetts, two hundred fathoms of wampum, only in part
of a debt; and at another payment one-hundred fathoms: which shews the
Indian custom of wearing beads has prevailed far north on this
continent, and before the first settling of our colonies.
According to the oriental custom, they wear ear-rings and finger-rings
in abundance. Tradition says, they followed the like custom before they
became acquainted with the English.
The men and women in old times used such coarse diamonds, as their own
hilly country produced, when each had a bit of stone fastened with a
{170} deer’s sinew to the tying of their hair, their nose, ears, and
maccaseenes: but from the time we supplied them with our European
ornaments, they have used brass and silver ear-rings, and
finger-rings;[73] the young warriors now frequently fasten bell-buttons,
or pieces of tinkling brass to their maccaseenes, and to the outside of
their boots, instead of the old turky-cock-spurs which they formerly
used. Both sexes esteem the above things, as very great ornaments of
dress, and commonly load the parts with each sort, in proportion to
their ability of purchasing them: it is a common trading rule with us,
to judge of the value of an Indian’s effects, by the weight of his
fingers, wrists, ears, crown of his head, boots, and maccaseenes—by the
quantity of red paint daubed on his face, and by the shirt about the
collar, shoulders, and back, should he have one.
Although the same things are commonly alike used or disused, by males
and females; yet they distinguish their sexes in as exact a manner as
any civilized nation. The women bore small holes in the lobe of their
ears for their rings, but the young heroes cut a hole round almost the
extremity of both their ears, which till healed, they stretch out with a
large tuft of buffalo’s wool mixt with bear’s oil: then they twist as
much small wire round as will keep them extended in that hideous form.
This custom however is wearing off apace. They formerly wore
_nose-rings_, or jewels, both in the northern and southern regions of
America, according to a similar custom of the Jews and easterns; and in
some places they still observe it. At present, they hang a piece of
battered silver or pewter, or a large bead to the nostril, like the
European method of treating swine, to prevent them from rooting the
earth; this, as well as the rest of their customs, is a true picture and
good copy of their supposed early progenitors.
I have been among the Indians at a drinking match, when several of their
beaus have been humbled as low as death, for the great loss of their big
ears. Being so widely extended, it is as easy for a person to take hold
of, and pull them off, as to remove a couple of small hoops were they
hung within reach; but if the ear after the pull, stick to their head by
one end, when they get sober, they pare and sew it together with a
needle and deer’s sinews, after sweating him in a stove. Thus the
disconsolate warrior recovers his former cheerfulness, and hath a
lasting caution of not putting his ears a second time in danger with bad
company: {171} however, it is not deemed a scandal to lose their ears by
any accident, because they became slender and brittle, by their virtuous
compliance with that favourite custom of their ancestors.
ARGUMENT XVIII.
The Indian manner of CURING THEIR SICK, is very similar to that of the
Jews. They always invoke YO HE WAH, a considerable space of time before
they apply any medicines, let the case require ever so speedy an
application. The more desperately ill their patients are, the more
earnestly they invoke the deity on the sad occasion. Like the Hebrews,
they firmly believe that diseases and wounds are occasioned by the holy
fire, or divine anger, in proportion to some violation of the old
beloved speech. The Jews had but small skill in physic.—They called a
physician “a binder of wounds,” for he chiefly poured oil into the
wounds and bound them up. They were no great friends to this kind of
learning and science; and their Talmud has this proverb, “the best
physicians go to hell.” King Asa was reproved for having applied to
physicians, for his disease in his feet. The little use they made of the
art of medicine, especially for internal maladies; and their persuasion
that distempers were either the immediate effects of God’s anger, or
caused by evil spirits, led them to apply themselves to the prophets, or
to diviners, magicians and enchanters. Hezekiah’s boil was cured by
Isaiah—Benhadad king of Syria, and Naaman the Syrian applied to the
prophet Elisha, and Ahaziah king of Israel sent to consult Baal-zebub.
The Indians deem the curing their sick or wounded a very religious duty;
and it is chiefly performed by their supposed prophets, and magi,
because they believe they are inspired with a great portion of the
divine fire. On these occasion they sing YO YO, on a low bass key for
two or three minutes very rapidly; in like manner, HE HE, and WA WA.
Then they transpose and accent those sacred notes with great vehemence,
and supplicating fervor, rattling all the while a calabash with small
pebble-stones, in imitation of the old Jewish rattles, to make a greater
sound, and {172} as it were move the deity to co-operate with their
simple means and finish the cure[XLII].
Footnote XLII:
Formerly, an old Nachee warrior who was blind of one eye, and very
dim-sighted in the other, having heard of the surprising skill of the
European oculists, fancied I could cure him. He frequently importuned
me to perform that friendly office, which I as often declined. But he
imagining all my excuses were the effect of modesty and caution, was
the more importunate, and would take no denial. I was at last obliged
to commence Indian oculist. I had just drank a glass of rum when he
came to undergo the operation at the time appointed; he observing my
glass, said, it was best to defer it till the next day.—I told him, I
drank so on purpose, for as the white people’s physic and beloved
songs were quite different from what the red people applied and sung,
it was usual with our best physicians to drink a little, to heighten
their spirits, and enable them to sing with a strong voice, and
likewise to give their patients a little, to make their hearts weigh
even within them; he consented, and lay down as if he was dead,
according to their usual custom. After a good many wild ceremonies, I
sung up _Sheela na Guira_, “will you drink wine?” Then I drank to my
patient, which on my raising him up, he accepted: I gave him several
drinks of grogg, both to divert myself, and purify the obtruding
supposed sinner. At last, I applied my materia medica, blowing a quill
full of fine burnt allum and roman vitriol into his eye. Just as I was
ready to repeat it, he bounded up out of his seemingly dead state,
jumped about, and said, my songs and physic were not good. When I
could be heard, I told him the English beloved songs and physic were
much stronger than those of the red people, and that when they did not
immediately produce such an effect as he found, it was a sure sign
they were good for nothing, but as they were taking place, he would
soon be well. He acquiesced because of the soporific dose I gave him.
But ever after, he reckoned he had a very narrow chance of having his
eye burnt out by _Loak Ishtohoolo_, for drinking _Ooka Hoome_, “the
bitter waters,” and presuming to get cured by an impure accursed
nothing, who lied, drank, ate hog’s flesh, and sung _Tarooa
Ookproo’sto_, “the devil’s tune,” or the song of the evil ones.
When the Indian physicians visit their supposed irreligious patients,
they approach them in a bending posture, with their rattling
calabash,[74] preferring that sort to the North-American gourds: and in
that bent posture of body, they run two or three times round the sick
person, contrary to the course of the sun, invoking God as already
exprest. Then they invoke the raven, and mimic his croaking voice: Now
this bird was an ill omen to the ancient heathens, as we may see by the
prophet Isaiah; so that common wisdom, or self-love, would not have
directed them to such a choice, if their traditions had represented it
as a bad symbol. But they chose it as an emblem of recovery, probably
from its indefatigableness in flying to and fro when sent out of the
ark, till he {173} found dry ground to rest on[XLIII]. They also place a
bason of cold water with some pebbles in it on the ground, near the
patient, then they invoke the fish, because of its cold element, to cool
the heat of the fever. Again, they invoke the eagle[75] (_Ooóle_) they
solicit him as he soars in the heavens, to bring down refreshing things
for their sick, and not to delay them, as he can dart down upon the
wing, quick as a flash of lightning. They are so tedious on this
subject, that it would be a task to repeat it: however, it may be
needful to observe, that they chuse the eagle because of its supposed
communicative virtues; and that it is according to its Indian name, a
cherubimical emblem, and the king of birds, of prodigious strength,
swiftness of wing, majestic stature, and loving its young ones so
tenderly, as to carry them on its back, and teach them to fly.
Footnote XLIII:
The ancients drew bad presages from the situation, and croaking of
ravens and crows. They looked on that place as unhappy, where either
of them had croaked in the morning. Hesiod forbids to leave a house
unfinished, lest a crow should chance to come and croak when sitting
on it. And most of the illiterate peasants in Europe are tinctured
with the like superstition, pretending to draw ill omens from its
voice.
Josephus tells us, that Solomon had a divine power conferred upon him,
of driving evil spirits out of possessed persons—that he invented
several incantations by which diseases were cured—and left behind him
such a sure method of exorcising, as the dæmons never returned again:
and he assures us, the Jews followed the like custom as late as his own
time; and that he saw such a cure performed by one Eleazar. They
likewise imagined, that the liver of a fish would keep away evil
spirits, as one of the apocryphal writers acquaints us[XLIV]. {174}
Footnote XLIV: