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
generic phrase for the entire race, who are identified by the ties of a
common original Language in the United States and British America.
One of the most curious opinions of this people is their belief in the
mysterious and sacred character of fire. They obtain sacred fire, for
all national and ecclesiastical purposes, from the flint. Their national
pipes are lighted with this fire. It is symbolical of purity. Their
notions of the boundary between life and death, which is also
symbolically the limit of the material verge between this and a future
state, are revealed in connection with the exhibition of flames of
fire. They also make sacrifices by fire of some part of the first fruits
of the chase. These traits are to be viewed, perhaps, in relation to
their ancient worship of the sun, above noticed, of which the traditions
and belief, are still generally preserved. The existence among them of
the numerous classes of jossakeeds, or mutterers--(the word is from the
utterance of sounds low on the earth,) is a trait that will remind the
reader of a similar class of men, in early ages, in the eastern
hemisphere. These persons constitute, indeed, the Magii of our western
forests. In the exhibition of their art, and of the peculiar notions
they promulgate on the subject of a sacred fire, and the doctrine of
transmigration, they would seem to have their affiliation of descent
rather with the disciples of Zoroaster and the fruitful Persian stock,
than with the less mentally refined Mongolian hordes.
MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION OF THE ALGONQUINS.
THEIR SYSTEM OF MANITO WORSHIP, AS RECENTLY DISCLOSED BY THE
CONFESSIONS OF ONE OF THEIR PROPHETS; THEIR LANGUAGES, AND
CHARACTER OF THE TRANSLATIONS OF THE GOSPEL MADE INTO THESE
DIALECTS; AND THE LEADING MOTIVES OF CHRISTIANS AND PHILANTHROPISTS
TO PERSEVERE IN THEIR CIVILISATION AND CONVERSION.[19]
[19] New York Lit. & Theo. Review.
It is known that the Indian tribes of this continent live in a state of
mental bondage to a class of men, who officiate as their priests and
soothsayers. These men found their claims to supernatural power on early
fastings, dreams, ascetic manners and habits, and often on some real or
feigned fit of insanity. Most of them affect a knowledge of charms and
incantations. They are provided with a sack of mystic implements, the
contents of which are exhibited in the course of their ceremonies, such
as the hollow bones of some of the larger anseres, small carved
representations of animals, cowrie and other sea-shells, &c. Some of
these men acquire a character for much sanctity, and turn their
influence to political purposes, either personally or through some
popular warrior, as was instanced in the success of the sachems
Buchanjahela, Little Turtle and Tecumthe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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