The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and ManuscriptsSchoolcraft, Henry Rowe
History
The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and Manuscripts
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
Indians of North America
The company in these ordinary feasts is as general, with respect to the
rank, age or standing of the guests, as the most unlimited equality of
rights can make it. All the aged and many of the young are invited.
There is, however, another feast instituted, at certain times during
the season, to which young persons only are invited, or admitted, except
the entertainer and his wife, and generally two other aged persons, who
preside over the feast and administer its rites. The object of this
feast seems to be instruction, to which the young and thoughtless are
induced to listen for the anticipated pleasure of the feast. Before this
feast commences, the entertainer, or some person fluent in speech, whom
he has selected for the purpose, gets up and addresses the youth of both
sexes on the subject of their course through life. He admonishes them to
be attentive and respectful to the aged and to adhere to their counsels:
never to scoff at the decrepit, deformed, or blind: to obey their
parents: to be modest in their conduct: to be charitable and hospitable:
to fear and love the great Spirit, who is the giver of life and every
good gift. These precepts are dwelt upon at great length, and generally
enforced by examples of a good man and woman and a bad man and woman,
and after drawing the latter, it is ever the custom to say, "you will be
like one of these." At the end of every sentence, the listeners make a
general cry of haa. When the advice is finished, an address, or kind of
prayer to the great Spirit is made, in which he is thanked for the food
before them, and for the continuance of life. The speaker then says,
"Thus the great Spirit supplies us with food; act justly, and conduct
well, and you will ever be thus bountifully supplied." The feast then
commences, and the elders relax their manner and mix with the rest, but
are still careful to preserve order, and a decent, respectful behavior
among the guests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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