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
This individual appeared to form a tangible point in the intellectual
chain between Paganism and Christianity, which it is felt important to
examine. We felt desirous of drawing from him such particulars
respecting his former practice in necromancy and the prophetic art, as
might lead to correct philosophical conclusions. He had been the great
juggler of his tribe. He was now accepted as a Christian. What were his
own conceptions of the power and arts he had practised? How did these
things appear to his mind, after a lapse of several years, during which
his opinions and feelings had undergone changes, in many respects so
striking? We found not the slightest avoiding of this topic on his part.
He attributed all his ability in deceptive arts to the agency of the
Evil Spirit; and he spoke of it with the same settled tone that he had
manifested in reciting other points in his personal experience. He
believed that he had followed a spirit whose object it was to deceive
the Indians and make them miserable. He believed that this spirit had
left him and that he was now following, in the affections of his heart,
the spirit of Truth.
Numerous symbols of the classes of the animate creation are relied on by
the Indian _metays_ and _wabenos_, to exhibit their affected power of
working miracles and to scrutinize the scenes of futurity. The objects
which this man had appealed to as personal spirits in the arcanum of his
lodge, were the tortoise, the swan, the woodpecker and the crow. He had
dreamed of these at his initial fast in his youth, during the period set
apart for this purpose, and he believed that a satanic influence was
exerted, by presenting to his mind one or more of these solemnly
appropriated objects at the moment of his invoking them. This is the
theory drawn from his replies. We solicited him to detail the _modus
operandi_, after entering the juggler's lodge. This lodge resembles an
acute pyramid with the apex open. It is formed of poles, covered with
tight-drawn skins. His replies were perfectly ingenuous, evincing
nothing of the natural taciturnity and shyness of the Indian mind. The
great object with the operator is to agitate this lodge, and cause it to
move and shake without uprooting it from its basis, in such a manner as
to induce the spectators to believe that the _power of action is
superhuman_. After this manifestation of spiritual _presence_, the
priest within is prepared to give oracular responses. The only articles
within were a drum and rattle. In reply to our inquiry as to the mode of
procedure, he stated that his first essay, after entering the lodge, was
to strike the drum and commence his incantations. At this time his
personal manitos assumed their agency, and received, it is to be
inferred, _a satanic energy_. Not that he affects that there was any
visible form assumed. But he felt their spirit-like presence. He
represents the agitation of the lodge to be due to currents of air,
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