PRACTICE OF SORCERY.
The early history of the races of mankind, now civilized, is marked in
all its course known to us by a belief in mysterious powers and
influences. Sorcerers, men believed to be skilled in occult arts, have
been known among them all. An examination into the actual practice of
sorcery or magical arts among savage and barbaric tribes is therefore of
peculiar interest.
In none of the myths of the Iroquois which I have reason to believe
antedate the appearance of Europeans do I find anything indicating a
belief in Heaven or a separate spiritual world, although some of their
customs indicate that they may have had such a notion. The only word for
Heaven in the different dialects is evidently a literal translation of
the Christian idea, and signifies "in the sky." It would seem that after
the possession of that idea came the desire for intermediaries between
living men and a spiritual world, indicating the first step toward a
higher philosophy.
Among the highly civilized Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Greeks, the success
of magic depended upon the ignorance of the masses and the comparative
learning of the few who practiced it. Among the Indians the knowledge of
the medicine man and the more expert sorceress is little above that of
the body of the tribe. Their success depends entirely upon their own
belief in being supernaturally gifted, and upon the faith and fear of
their followers. I do not believe that the Iroquois lives to-day who is
not a believer in sorcery or who would not in the night time quail at
seeing a bright light the nature of which he did not understand. The
most intelligent, the wisest, and the best Christian whom I ever met
among them told me of the wonderful marvels he himself had wrought. He
had stayed the flames of a burning church by holding forth his right
hand. He had lamed for life a man who was stealing cherries by pointing
his finger at him. Few bad Indians came into his presence without
begging him not to "bewitch" them. This good Tuscarora ranks as one of
the leading Christians of his tribe and lives up to all the moral
precepts of the Bible, from which he can quote a text considered by
himself to be appropriate for each of the superstitions in which he so
firmly believes.
A few Tuscarora names with their definitions will serve to illustrate
some of the practices and beliefs of the Iroquois.
_Yă-ku-wi-săt_: A person possessing within himself a live crystal which
he could call from his mouth or nose. The crystal placed in a gourd of
water, rendered visible the apparition of a person who had bewitched
another. By applying this crystal to one bewitched, hairs, straws,
leaves, pebbles, &c., could be drawn forth.
_Rhuⁿñ-ta-yä_: A medicine man who by the use of a small kettle boiled
roots or herbs, and by covering the head with a blanket and holding it
over the kettle could see the image of an enemy who had bewitched either
some one else or himself.
_Yä-tyuⁿñ-yûⁿñ_: One who performed miraculous feats by drawing out with
alder tubes, hairs, pieces of skin, leaves, &c., from people who had
been bewitched with these things.
_Ră-nûⁿ-kwă-terha-yuⁿ-nä-rhi_: Superior medicine man.
_Us-kuⁿ-rhă-rhih_: A carnivorous ghost bodied forth in a skeleton.
_U-h-nä´´-wăk_: A departing ghost who will revisit its dead body.
_U-t-kuⁿ-terhă´´-ksⁿñ_: An evil spirit, from whom all witches received
their power.
_U-ht-kûⁿ-sü-rhûⁿ_: One who could assume a partly animal shape.
_Yä-skûⁿ-nûⁿ-nä_: The ghost of a living person.
_Yä tcuⁿñ-hu-h-kwă-kwä_: An apparition which could emit flames of light.
_U-h-t-kûⁿ_: A natural-born witch or ghost.
_Nä-yûⁿ-h-nă-nyä-rhûⁿñ-nyäⁿ-a_: A witch under the influence or power of
a superior witch.
Stories abound in which these personages or spirits are introduced.
The belief in _Yä-skûⁿ-nûⁿ-nä_, or that the spirit of a person could be
in one locality and its body exist at the same time in another, explains
much of the phenomena of witchcraft, and accounts for the strange
confessions oftentimes made by those who were known to have been
unjustly accused.
Many customs still existing show that spirits are supposed to continue
to experience the wants of humanity after leaving the body. For some
time after the death of an adult his accustomed portion of food is often
dealt out for the supposed hungry spirit, and on the death of a nursing
child two pieces of cloth are saturated with the mother's milk and
placed in the hands of the dead child so that its spirit may not return
to haunt the bereaved mother.
When a living nursing child is taken out at night the mother takes a
pinch of white ashes and rubs it on the face of the child so that the
spirits will not trouble it, because they say that a child still
continues to hold intercourse with the spirit world whence it so
recently came.
THE ORIGIN OF WITCHES AND WITCH CHARMS.
A great many years ago boys were instructed to go out and hunt birds and
other game for the support of their respective families and to learn
from practice how to hunt. A certain boy while out hunting came across
a beautiful snake. Taking a great fancy to it, he caught it and cared
for it, feeding it on birds, &c., and made a bark bowl in which he kept
it. He put fibers, down, and small feathers into the water with the
snake, and soon found that these things had become living beings. From
this fact he naturally conjectured that the snake was endowed with
supernatural powers. He then continued his experiments, and discovered
that whatever he put into this water became alive; so he went to another
swamp and got other snakes, which he put into the bowl. While
experimenting he saw other Indians putting things on their eyes to see
sharp, so he rubbed some of this snake-water on his eyes, and climbing a
tree he found that he could see things even if they were hidden.
Finding that this snake liquid was powerful enough to improve his sight,
he concluded that the more snakes he put into the waters the more
powerful would be the liquid. He therefore hung a large number of snakes
so that their oil dropped into the water, increasing its power and
making more lively its strange inhabitants.
He then learned that by simply putting one of his fingers into the
liquid and pointing it at any person that person would immediately
become bewitched.
After placing some roots (which were not poisonous) into the snake
liquid, he put some of the mixture into his mouth and found that it
produced a peculiar sensation. By blowing it from his mouth it would
give a great light; by placing some in his eyes he could see in the dark
and could go through all kinds of impassable places; he could become
like a snake; he could even become invisible, and could travel faster
than any other mortal. An arrow dipped into this liquid and shot at any
living being, even if it did not hit its object, would nevertheless kill
it. A feather dipped into this snake water and then pointed at any
wished-for game, would immediately start for the desired thing and would
always kill it, and when the game was dissected the feather was always
found in it. Having discovered the great power of this snake extract, he
took into consideration the finding of counteracting agents. To
accomplish this end, he diligently searched for roots and herbs having
the required qualities, and finally he was rewarded by obtaining
antidotes which would work upon objects which he had bewitched or
wounded.
ORIGIN OF THE SENECA MEDICINE
Nearly two hundred years ago a man went into the woods on a hunting
expedition. He was quite alone. He camped out in a field and was wakened
in the night by the sound of singing and a noise like the beating of a
drum. He could not sleep any more, so he rose and went in the direction
of the sound. To his surprise the place had all the appearance of being
inhabited. On the one hand was a hill of corn, on the other a large
squash vine with three squashes on it, and three ears of corn grew apart
from all the others. He was unable to guess what it meant, but started
off on his hunting once more, determined to return some evening, being
both curious and uneasy. In the night, as he slept near by, he again
heard a noise, and awakening, saw a man looking at him, who said,
"Beware! I am after you; what you saw was sacred; you deserve to die."
But the people who now gathered around said they would pardon it, and
would tell him the secret they possessed: "The great medicine for
wounds," said the man who had awakened him, "is squash and corn; come
with me and I will teach you."
He led him to the spot where the people were assembled, and there he saw
a fire and a laurel bush which looked like iron. The crowds danced
around it singing, and rattling gourd-shells, and he begged them to tell
him what they did it for.
Then one of them heated a stick and thrust it right through his cheek,
and then applied some of the medicine to prove to him how quickly it
could heal the wound. Then they did the same to his leg. All the time
they sang a tune; they called it the "medicine song," and taught it to
him.
Then he turned to go home, and all at once he perceived that they were
not human beings, as he had thought, but animals, bears, beavers, and
foxes, which all flew off as he looked. They had given him directions to
take one stalk of corn and dry the cob and pound it very fine, and to
take one squash, cut it up and pound that, and they then showed him how
much for a dose. He was to take water from a running spring, and always
from up the stream, never down.
He made up the prescription and used it with very great success, and
made enough before he died to last over one hundred years.
This was the origin of the great medicine of the Senecas. The people
sing over its preparation every time the deer changes his coat, and when
it is administered to a patient they sing the medicine song, while they
rattle a gourd-shell as accompaniment, and burn tobacco. Burning tobacco
is the same as praying. In times of trouble or fear, after a bad dream,
or any event which frightens them, they say, "My mother went out and
burned tobacco."
The medicine is prepared now with the addition of meat.
A "TRUE" WITCH STORY.
Among the Senecas dwelt an old woman who was very stingy. All at once
she began to suffer great pain in her eye. She consulted a conjurer, who
went out to a bush and covered it with a tent and then began to sing,
keeping time with his hand. After a while he returned to her and said:
"You are bewitched. You refused to give milk to a poor woman who came to
beg of you, and she has bewitched you. I have had her house revealed to
me, and I saw her, but she was combing her hair over her face, so I
could not see her features. I would not recognize her again."
Next day he tried again; then he said: "Now I know who she is." So they
sent for a chief and told him all about it, and he brought the woman
before them. She was a Chippewa and a witch. The chief had her brought
to the old woman's cabin. She owned that she had bewitched her, and
said, "Fetch me the thigh-bone of a beaver from a man who is the child
of Molly Brant, the child of Governor W. Johnson." The bone was brought,
and by the time it arrived she had scoured a brass kettle, and had clean
water poured into it. As soon as she received the bone, which was
hollow, she placed it against the eye that was not painful and spat
through it. After a while she ceased spitting, and looked in the water.
A spider was running around in the kettle. She covered it over with her
handkerchief, then removed it, and a feather lay there instead of the
spider. The pain left the old woman but the sight was not restored.
A CASE OF WITCHCRAFT.
The victim in this case was a Mary Jemison, who, having severe pains in
her chest, concluded that she was bewitched, and consulted the
witch-doctors, who applied their extractive bandages, which greatly
relieved her. She saw a dog as an apparition coming toward her, and
directed her friends to shoot it, but they did not succeed in killing
it. In like manner a cat, which was invisible to other people, was seen
by her. She finally recovered, but Andrew John, who was pronounced her
bewitcher, and who was outwitched, is now dying from consumption.
AN INCANTATION TO BRING RAIN.
In a dry season, the horizon being filled with distant thunder-heads, it
was customary to burn what is called by the Indians real tobacco as an
offering to bring rain.
On occasions of this nature the people were notified by swift-footed
heralds that the children, or sons, of Thunder were in the horizon, and
that tobacco must be burned in order to get some rain. Every family was
supposed to have a private altar upon which its offerings were secretly
made; after which said family must repair, bearing its tithe, to the
council-house, where the gathered tithes of tobacco were burned in the
council-fire. While the tobacco was burning, the agile and athletic
danced the rain-dance.
When this was done, Hi-nuⁿ, pleased with the incense of the burning
tobacco, called forth huge dark banks of rain clouds and took personal
charge of the gathering storm to guide it to wet the dry and parched
earth. Hi-nuⁿ was considered a great lover of tobacco, but always in
want of it.
A CURE FOR ALL BODILY INJURIES.
This was made from the dried and pulverized flesh of every known bird,
beast, and fish. Equal portions of this flesh were mixed into a
compound, which was divided among all true medicine-men.
A WITCH IN THE SHAPE OF A DOG.
Witches could and did assume animal shapes.
On the Buffalo Reservation a man saw a "witch-woman" coming, with fire
streaming from her mouth. Crossing a creek and obtaining his gun the man
returned and saw a dog at no great distance resting its forefeet upon a
log, and it had fire streaming from its mouth and nostrils.
The man fired at it and saw it fall, but as it was very dark he dared
not go near it; but on the following morning he went to the spot and saw
where it had fallen, by the marks of blood from its wound. Tracking it
by this means he followed its path until it had reached a bridge, where
the woman's tracks took the place of the dog's tracks in the path. He
followed the bloody trail to the Tonawanda Reservation, where he found
the woman. She had died from the effect of the shot.
A MAN WHO ASSUMED THE SHAPE OF A HOG.
On the Tonawanda Reservation three boys were coming down a hill, when
they saw a large hog, which they concluded to follow to find its home.
As they pursued the hog they continually kicked it, and it retaliated by
biting at them at times. It retreated toward the bank of a small creek,
reaching which it suddenly disappeared. They saw no reason to suppose
that it had drowned itself in the stream; but while searching for it
they found on one of the banks an old man, who laughed and said, "What
do you seek?" They answered, "A hog."
After some moments the old man said that it was he, himself, whom they
had been chasing, and by this the boys knew that he was a witch.
WITCH TRANSFORMATION.
A Canadian Indian says he saw, one evening, on the road, a white bull
with fire streaming from its nostrils, which, after it had passed him,
he pursued. He had never seen so large a bull, or in fact any white
bull, upon the reservation. As it passed in front of a house it was
transformed into a man with a large white blanket, who was ever
afterward known as a witch.
A SUPERSTITION ABOUT FLIES.
There was once a species of fly so poisonous that sometimes merely the
smell of them would eat the nose from a man's face. A certain species of
woodpecker was the only thing that could destroy them. Their homes were
in trees, on which their poisonous tracks could be traced. They often
entered the horns of a deer; hence, the Indian hunter's first move after
shooting a deer was to examine its horns, and if they were infected, the
hunter would run away, since he knew that the moment the animal died the
fatal insect would emerge from the horn.
Around the trees in which they lived deer ever congregated, seemingly
bewitched by these fierce and noxious little flies.
Buckskin and deerskin were used to catch them. The bird that killed them
for food was colored black and yellow. In the evening it came forth from
its home in a hollow tree and scoured the forests for them.
These birds were caught with buckskin traps and their feathers were used
as charms, being fastened to the arrows of the hunter. An arrow thus
made potent would surely bring down the deer.