When any of them die at a distance, if the company be not driven and pursued by the enemy, they place the corpse on a scaffold,^[79] covered with notched logs to secure it from being torn by wild beasts, or fowls of prey: when they imagine the flesh is consumed, and the bones are thoroughly dried, they return to the place, bring them home, and inter them in a very solemn manner. They will not associate with us, when we are burying any of our people, who die in their land: and they are unwilling we should join with them while they are performing this kindred duty to theirs. Upon which account, though I have lived among them in the raging time of the small pox, even of the confluent sort, I never saw but one buried, who was a great favourite of the English, and chieftain of Ooeasa, as formerly described.

The Indians use the same ceremonies to the bones of their dead, as if they were covered with their former skin, flesh, and ligaments. It is but a few days since I saw some return with the bones of nine of their people, who had been two months before killed by the enemy. They were tied in white deer-skins, separately; and when carried by the door of one of the houses of their family, they were laid down opposite to it, till the female {180} relations convened, with flowing hair, and wept over them about half an hour. Then they carried them home to their friendly magazines of mortality, wept over them again, and then buried them with the usual solemnities; putting their valuable effects, and as I am informed, other convenient things in along with them, to be of service to them in the next state. The chieftain carried twelve short sticks tied together, in the form of a quadrangle; so that each square consisted of three. The sticks were only peeled, without any paintings; but there were swans feathers tied to each corner, and as they called that frame, Tereekpe tobeh, “a white circle,” and placed it over the door, while the women were weeping over the bones, perhaps it was originally designed to represent the holy fire, light, and spirit, who formerly presided over the four principal standards of the twelve tribes of Israel.

When any of their people die at home, they wash and anoint the corpse, and soon bring it out of doors for fear of pollution; then they place it opposite to the door, on the skins of wild beasts, in a sitting posture, as looking into the door of the winter house, westward, sufficiently supported with all his moveable goods; after a short elogium, and space of mourning, they carry him three times around the house in which he is to be interred, stopping half a minute each time, at the place where they began the circle, while the religious man of the deceased person’s family, who goes before the hearse, says each time, Yàh, short with a bass voice, and then invokes on a tenor key, Yo, which at the same time is likewise sung by all the procession, as long as one breath allows. Again, he strikes up, on a sharp treble key, the fœminine note, He, which in like manner, is taken up and continued by the rest: then all of them suddenly strike off the solemn chorus, and sacred invocation, by saying, on a low key, Wàh; which constitute the divine essential name, Yohewah. This is the method in which they performed the funeral rites of the chieftain before referred to; during which time, a great many of the traders were present, as our company was agreeable at the interment of our declared patron and friend. It seems as if they buried him in the name of the divine essence, and directed their plaintive religious notes to the author of life and death, in hopes of a resurrection of the body; which hope engaged the Hebrews to stile their burying places, “the house of the living.” {181}

When they celebrated these funeral rites of the above chieftain, they laid the corpse in his tomb, in a sitting posture, with his face towards the east, his head anointed with bear’s oil, and his face painted red, but not streaked with black, because that is a constant emblem of war and death; he was drest in his finest apparel, having his gun and pouch, and trusty hiccory bow, with a young panther’s skin, full of arrows, along side of him, and every other useful thing he had been possessed of,—that when he rises again, they may serve him in that tract of land which pleased him best before he went to take his long sleep. His tomb was firm and clean in-side. They covered it with thick logs, so as to bear several tiers of cypress-bark, and such a quantity of clay as would confine the putrid smell, and be on a level with the rest of the floor. They often sleep over those tombs; which, with the loud wailing of the women at the dusk of the evening, and dawn of the day, on benches close by the tombs, must awake the memory of their relations very often: and if they were killed by an enemy, it helps to irritate and set on such revengeful tempers to retaliate blood for blood.

The Egyptians either embalmed, or buried, their dead: other heathen nations imagined that fire purified the body; they burned therefore the bodies of their dead, and put their ashes into small urns, which they religiously kept by them, as sacred relicks. The Tartars called Kyrgessi, near the frozen sea, formerly used to hang their dead relations and friends upon trees, to be eaten by ravenous birds to purify them. But the Americans seem evidently to have derived their copy from the Israelites, as to the place where they bury their dead, and the method of their funeral ceremonies, as well as the persons with whom they are buried, and the great expenses they are at in their burials. The Hebrews buried near the city of Jerusalem, by the brook Kedron; and they frequently hewed their tombs out of rocks, or buried their dead opposite to their doors, implying a silent lesson of friendship, and a pointing caution to live well. They buried all of one family together; to which custom David alludes, when he says, “gather me not with the wicked:” and Sophronius said with regard to the like form, “noli me tangere, hæretice, neque vivum nec mortuum.” But they buried strangers apart by themselves, and named the place, Kebhare Galeya, “the burying place of strangers.” And these rude Americans are so strongly partial to the same custom, that they imagine if any of us {182} were buried in the domestic tombs of their kindred, without being adopted, it would be very criminal in them to allow it; and that our spirits would haunt the eaves of their houses at night, and cause several misfortunes to their family.

In resemblance to the Hebrew custom of embalming their dead, the Choktah treat the corpse just as the religious Levite did his beloved concubine, who was abused by the Benjamites; for having placed the dead on a high scaffold stockaded round, at the distance of twelve yards from his house opposite to the door, the whole family convene there at the beginning of the fourth moon after the interment, to lament and feast together: after wailing a while on the mourning benches, which stand on the east side of the quadrangular tomb, they raise and bring out the corpse, and while the feast is getting ready, a person whose office it is, and properly called the bone-picker, dissects it, as if it was intended for the shambles in the time of a great famine, with his sharp-pointed, bloody knife. He continues busily employed in his reputed sacred office, till he has finished the task, and scraped all the flesh off the bones; which may justly be called the Choktah method of enbalming their dead. Then, they carefully place the bones in a kind of small chest, in their natural order, that they may with ease and certainty be some time afterward reunited, and proceed to strike up a song of lamentation, with various wailing tunes and notes: afterwards, they join as cheerfully in the funeral feast, as if their kinsman was only taking his usual sleep. Having regaled themselves with a plentiful variety, they go along with those beloved relicks of their dead, in solemn procession, lamenting with doleful notes, till they arrive at the bone-house, which stands in a solitary place, apart from the town: then they proceed around it, much after the manner of those who performed the obsequies of the Chikkasah chieftain, already described, and there deposit their kinsman’s bones to lie along side of his kindred-bones, till in due time they are revived by Ishtohoollo Aba, that he may repossess his favourite place.

Those bone-houses are scaffolds raised on durable pitch-pine forked posts, in the form of a house covered a-top, but open at both ends. I saw three of them in one of their towns, pretty near each other—the place seemed to be unfrequented; each house contained the bones of one tribe, {183} separately, with the hieoglyphical figures of the family on each of the old-shaped arks: they reckon it irreligious to mix the bones of a relation with those of a stranger, as bone of bone, and flesh of the same flesh, should be always joined together; and much less will they thrust the body of their beloved kinsman into the abominable tomb of a hateful enemy. I observed a ladder fixed in the ground, opposite to the middle of the broad side of each of those dormitories of the dead, which was made out of a broad board, and stood considerably bent over the sacred repository, with the steps on the inside. On the top was the carved image of a dove, with its wings stretched out, and its head inclining down, as if earnestly viewing or watching over the bones of the dead: and from the top of the ladder to almost the surface of the earth, there hung a chain of grape-vines twisted together, in circular links, and the same likewise at their domestic tombs. Now the dove after the deluge, became the emblem of Rowah, the holy spirit, and in process of time was deified by the heathen world, instead of the divine person it typified: the vine was likewise a symbol of fruitfulness, both in the animal and vegetable world.

To perpetuate the memory of any remarkable warriors killed in the woods, I must here observe, that every Indian traveller as he passes that way throws a stone on the place, according as he likes or dislikes the occasion, or manner of the death of the deceased.^[80]

In the woods we often see innumerable heaps of small stones in those places, where according to tradition some of their distinguished people were either killed, or buried, till the bones could be gathered: there they add Pelion to Ossa, still increasing each heap, as a lasting monument, and honour to them, and an incentive to great actions.

Mercury was a favourite god with the heathens, and had various employments; one of which was to be god of the roads, to direct travellers aright—from which the ancient Romans derived their Dii Compitales, or Dei Viales, which they likewise placed at the meeting of roads, and in the high ways, and esteemed them the patrons and protectors of travellers. The early heathens placed great heaps of stones at the dividing of {184} the roads, and consecrated those heaps to him by unction^[XLVII], and other religious ceremonies. And in honour to him, travellers threw a stone to them, and thus exceedingly increased their bulk: this might occasion Solomon to compare the giving honour to a fool, to throwing a stone into a heap, as each were alike insensible of the obligation; and to cause the Jewish writers to call this custom a piece of idolatrous worship. But the Indians place those heaps of stones where there are no dividings of the roads, nor the least trace of any road^[XLVIII]. And they then observe no kind of religious ceremony, but raise those heaps merely to do honour to their dead, and incite the living to the pursuit of virtue. Upon which account, it seems to be derived from the ancient Jewish custom of increasing Absalom’s tomb; for the last things are easiest retained, because people repeat them oftenest, and imitate them most.^[81] {185}

Though the Cheerake do not now collect the bones of their dead, yet they continue to raise and multiply heaps of stones, as monuments for their dead; this the English army remembers well, for in the year 1760, having marched about two miles along a wood-land path, beyond a hill where they had seen a couple of these reputed tombs, at the war-woman’s creek, they received so sharp a defeat by the Cheerake, that another such must have inevitably ruined the whole army.

Many of those heaps are to be seen, in all parts of the continent of North-America: where stones could not be had, they raised large hillocks or mounds of earth, wherein they carefully deposited the bones of their dead, which were placed either in earthen vessels, or in a simple kind of arks, or chests. Although the Mohawk Indians may be reasonably expected to have lost their primitive customs, by reason of their great intercourse with foreigners, yet I was told by a gentleman of distinguished character, that they observe the aforesaid sepulchral custom to this day, insomuch, that when they are performing that kindred-duty, they cry out, Mahoom Taguyn Kameneh, “Grandfather, I cover you.”

The Jewish records tell us, that their women Mourned for the loss of their deceased husbands, and were reckoned vile, by the civil law, if they married in the space, at least, of ten months after their death. In resemblance to that custom, all the Indian widows, by an established strict penal law, mourn for the loss of their deceased husbands; and among some tribes for the space of three or four years. But the East-India Pagans forced the widow, to sit on a pile of wood, and hold the body of her husband on her knees, to be consumed together in the flames.

The Muskohge widows are obliged to live a chaste single life, for the tedious space of four years; and the Chikkasah women, for the term of three, at the risque of the law of adultery being executed against the recusants. Every evening, and at the very dawn of day, for the first year of her widowhood, she is obliged through the fear of shame to lament her loss, in very intense audible strains. As Yah ah signifies weeping, lamenting, mourning, or Ah God; and as the widows, and others, in their grief bewail and cry Yo He (ta) Wah, Yohetaweh; Yohetaha Yohetahe, the origin is sufficiently clear. For the Hebrews reckoned it so great an evil to die unlamented, like Jehoiakim, Jer. xxii. 18. “who had none to say, Ah, my brother! Ah, my sister! Ah, my Lord! Ah, his glory!” that it is one of the four judgments they pray against, and it is called the burial of an ass. With them, burying signified lamenting, and so the Indian widows direct their mournful cries to the author of life and death, insert a plural note in the sacred name, and again transpose the latter, through an invariable religious principle, to prevent a prophanation.

Their law compels the widow, through the long term of her weeds, to refrain all public company and diversions, at the penalty of an adulteress; {186} and likewise to go with flowing hair, without the privilege of oil to anoint it. The nearest kinsmen of the deceased husband, keep a very watchful eye over her conduct, in this respect. The place of interment is also calculated to wake the widow’s grief, for he is intombed in the house under her bed. And if he was a war-leader, she is obliged for the first moon, to sit in the day-time under his mourning war-pole^[XLIX], which is decked with all his martial trophies, and must be heard to cry with bewailing notes. But none of them are fond of that month’s supposed religious duty, it chills, or sweats, and wastes them so exceedingly; for they are allowed no shade, or shelter. This sharp rigid custom excites the women to honour the marriage-state, and keeps them obliging to their husbands, by anticipating the visible sharp difficulties which they must undergo for so great a loss. The three or four years monastic life, which she lives after his death, makes it her interest to strive by every means, to keep in his lamp of life, be it ever so dull and worthless; if she is able to shed tears on such an occasion, they often proceed from self-love. We can generally distinguish between the widow’s natural mourning voice, and her tuneful laboured strain. She doth not so much bewail his death, as her own recluse life, and hateful state of celibacy; which to many of them, is an uneligible, as it was to the Hebrew ladies, who preferred death before the unmarried state, and reckoned their virginity a bewailable condition, like the state of the dead.

The Choktah Indians hire mourners to magnify the merit and loss of their dead, and if their tears cannot be seen to flow, their shrill voices will be heard to cry, which answers the solemn chorus a great deal better^[L]. However, they are no way churlish of their tears, for I have seen them, on the occasion, pour them out, like fountains of water: but after having {187} thus tired themselves, they might with equal propriety have asked by-standers in the manner of the native Irish, Ara ci fuar bass—“And who is dead?”

They formerly dressed their heads with black moss on those solemn occasions; and the ground adjacent to the place of interment, they now beat with laurel-brushes, the women having their hair disheveled: the first of which customs seems to be derived from the Hebrew custom of wearing sack-cloth at their funeral solemnities, and on other occasions, when they afflicted their souls before God—to which divine writ often alludes, in describing the blackness of the skies: and the laurel being an ever-green, is a lively emblem of the eternity of the human soul, and the pleasant state it enters into after death, according to antiquity. They beat it on the ground, to express their sharp pungent grief; and, perhaps, to imitate the Hebrew trumpeters for the dead, in order to make as striking a sound as they possibly can on so doleful an occasion.

Though the Hebrews had no positive precept that obliged the widow to mourn the death of her husband, or to continue her widowhood, for any time; yet the gravity of their tempers, and their scrupulous nicety of the law of purity, introduced the observance of those modest and religious customs, as firmly under the penalty of shame, as if they bore the sanction of law^[LI]. In imitation of them, the Indians have copied so exactly, as to compel the widow to act the part of the disconsolate dove, for the irreparable loss of her mate. Very different is the custom of other nations:—the Africans, when any of their head-men die, kill all their slaves, their friends that were dearest to them, and all their wives whom they loved best, that they may accompany and serve them, in the other world, which is a most diabolical Ammonitish sacrifice of human blood. The East-India widows may refuse to be burned on their husbands funeral piles, with impunity, if they become prostitutes, or public women to sing and dance at marriages, or on other occasions of rejoicing. How superior {188} is the virtuous custom of the savage Americans, concerning female chastity during the time of their widowhood?

The Indian women mourn three moons, for the death of any female of their own family or tribe. During that time, they are not to anoint, or tie up their hair; neither is the husband of the deceased allowed, when the offices of nature do not call him, to go out of the house, much less to join any company: and in that time of mourning he often lies among the ashes. The time being expired, the female mourners meet in the evening of the beginning of the fourth moon, at the house where their female relation is intombed, and stay there till morning, when the nearest surviving old kinswoman crops their fore-locks pretty short. This they call Ehó Intànáah, “the women have mourned the appointed time.” Ehó signifies “a woman,” Inta “finished by divine appointment,” Aà “moving” or walking, and Ah, “their note of grief, sorrow, or mourning:” the name expresses, and the custom is a visible certificate of, their having mourned the appointed time for their dead. When they have eaten and drank together, they return home by sun-rise, and thus finish their solemn Yah-ah.^[82]

Argument XXI.

The surviving brother, by the Mosaic law, was to Raise Seed to a deceased brother who left a widow childless, to perpetuate his name and family, and inherit his goods and estate, or be degraded: and, if the issue he begat was a male child, it assumed the name of the deceased. The Indian custom^[83] looks the very same way; yet it is in this as in their law of blood—the eldest brother can redeem.

Although a widow is bound, by a strict penal law, to mourn the death of her husband for the space of three or four years; yet, if she be known to lament her loss with a sincere heart, for the space of a year, and her circumstances of living are so strait as to need a change of her station—and the elder brother of her deceased husband lies with her, she is thereby exempted {189} from the law of mourning, has a liberty to tie up her hair, anoint and paint herself in the same manner as the Hebrew widow, who was refused by the surviving brother of her deceased husband, became free to marry whom she pleased.

The warm-constitutioned young widows keep their eye so intent on this mild beneficent law, that they frequently treat their elder brothers-in-law with spirituous liquors till they intoxicate them, and thereby decoy them to make free, and so put themselves out of the reach of that mortifying law. If they are disappointed, as it sometimes happens, they fall on the men, calling them Hoobuk Wakse, or Skoobále, Hassé kroopha, “Eunuchus præputio detecto, et pene brevi;” the most degrading of epithets. Similar to the Hebrew ladies, who on the brother’s refusal loosed his shoe from his foot, and spit in his face, (Deut. xxv. 9.); and as some of the Rabbies tell us they made water in the shoe, and threw it with despite in his face, and then readily went to bed to any of his kinsmen, or most distant relations of the same line that she liked best; as Ruth married Boaz. Josephus, to palliate the fact, says she only beat him with the shoe over his face. David probably alludes to this custom, Psal. lx. 8. “Over Edom I will cast out my shoe,” or detraction.

Either by corruption, or misunderstanding that family-kissing custom of the Hebrews, the corrupt Cheerake marry both mother and daughter at once; though, unless in this instance, they and all the other savage nations observe the degrees of consanguinity in a stricter manner than the Hebrews, or even the Christian world. The Cheerake do not marry their first or second cousins;^[84] and it is very observable, that the whole tribe reckon a friend in the same rank with a brother, both with regard to marriage, and any other affair in social life. This seems to evince that they copied from the stable and tender friendship between Jonathan and David; especially as the Hebrews had legal, or adopted, as well as natural brothers. {190}

Argument XXII.

When the Israelites gave names to their children or others, they chose such appellatives as suited best with their circumstances, and the times. This custom was as early as the Patriarchal age; for we find Abram was changed into Abraham; Sarai into Sarah, Jacob into Israel;—and afterwards Oshea, Joshua, Solomon, Jedidiah, &c. &c. This custom is a standing rule with the Indians, and I never observed the least deviation from it. They give their children names, expressive of their tempers, outward appearances, and other various circumstances; a male child, they will call Choola, “the fox;” and a female, Pakahle, “the blossom, or flower.” The father and mother of the former are called Choollingge, and Choollishke, “the father and mother of the fox;” in like manner, those of the latter, Pakahlingge, and Pakahlishke; for Ingge signifies the father, and Ishke the mother. In private life they are so termed till that child dies; but after that period they are called by the name of their next surviving child, or if they have none, by their own name: and it is not known they ever mention the name of the child that is extinct. They only faintly allude to it, saying, “the one that is dead,” to prevent new grief, as they had before mourned the appointed time. They who have no children of their own, adopt others, and assume their names, in the manner already mentioned. This was of divine appointment, to comfort the barren, and was analogous to the kindred method of counting with the Hebrews: instead of surnames, they used in their genealogies the name of the father, and prefixed Ben, “a son,” to the person’s name. And thus the Greeks, in early times. No nation used surnames, except the Romans after their league and union with the Sabines. And they did not introduce that custom, with the least view of distinguishing their families, but as a politic seal to their strong compact of friendship; for as the Romans prefixed Sabine names to their own, the Sabines took Roman names in like manner. A specimen of the Indian war-names, will illustrate this argument with more clearness. {191}

They crown a warrior, who has killed a distinguished enemy, with the name, Yanasabe, “the buffalo-killer;” Yanasa is a buffalo, compounded of Yah, the divine essence, and Asa, “there, or here is,” as formerly mentioned: and Abe is their constant war-period, signifying, by their rhetorical figure “one who kills another.” It signifies also to murder a person, or beat him severely. This proper name signifies, the prosperous killer, or destroyer of the buffalo, or strong man—it cannot possibly be derived from אבה, Abeh, which signifies good-will, brotherly love, or tender affection; but from אבל, Abele, grief, sorrow, or mourning, as an effect of that hostile act.

Anoah, with the Indians, is the name of a rambling person, or one of unsettled residence, and Anoah ookproo, is literally a bad rambling person, “a renagadoe:” likewise Anoah ookproo’shto makes it a superlative, on account of the abbreviation of Ishto, one of the divine names which they subjoin. In like manner, Noabe is the war-name of a person who kills a rambling enemy, or one detached as a scout, spy, or the like. It consists of the patriarchal name, Noah, and Abe, “to kill,” according to the Hebrew original, of which it is a contraction, to make it smoother, and to indulge a rapidity of expression. There is so strong an agreement between this compounded proper name, and two ancient Hebrew proper names, that it displays the greatest affinity between the warfaring red and white Hebrews; especially as it so clearly alludes to the divine history of the first homicide, and the words are adapted to their proper significations.

Because the Choktah did not till lately trim their hair, the other tribes through contempt of their custom, called them Pas’ Pharáàh,“long hair,”^[85] and they in return, gave them the contemptuous name, Skoobálè’shtó, “very naked, or bare heads,” compounded of Skooba, Ale, and Ishto: the same word, or Waksishto, with Hasseh prefixed, expresses the penem præputio detecto; which shews they lately retained a glimmering, though confused notion of the law of circumcision, and the prohibition of not polling their hair. They call a crow, Pharah; and Pas’pharáàbe is the proper name of a warrior, who killed an enemy wearing long hair. It is a triple compound from Pásèh, “the hair of one’s head,”head,” Pharaah “long,” and Abe, “killing,” which they croud together. They likewise say, their tongue is not {192} Pharakto, “forked,” thereby alluding probably to the formerly-hateful name of the Egyptian kings, Pharaoh.

When the Indians distinguish themselves in war, their names are always compounded,—drawn from certain roots suitable to their intention, and expressive of the characters of the persons, so that their names joined together, often convey a clear and distinct idea of several circumstances—as of the time and place, where the battle was fought, of the number and rank of their captives, and the slain.^[86] The following is a specimen: one initiating in war-titles, is called Tannip-Abe, “a killer of the enemy;”—he who kills a person carrying a kettle, is crowned Soonak-Abe-Tuska; the first word signifies a kettle, and the last a warrior. Minggáshtàbe signifies “one who killed a very great chieftain,” compounded of Mingo, Ash, and Abe. Pae-Máshtàbe, is, one in the way of war-gradation, or below the highest in rank, Pae signifying “far off.” Tisshu Mashtabe is the name of a warrior who kills the war-chieftain’s waiter carrying the beloved ark. Shulashum-mashtabe, the name of the late Choktah great war-leader, our firm friend Red-shoes, is compounded of Shulass’, “Maccaseenes,” or deer skin-shoes, Humma, “red,” Ash, “the divine fire;” T is inserted for the sake of a bold sound, or to express the multiplicity of the exploits he performed, in killing the enemy. In treating of their language, I observed, they end their proper names with a vowel, and contract their war-titles, to give more smoothness, and a rapidity of expression. Etehk is the general name they give to any female creature, but by adding their constant war-period to it, it signifies “weary;” as Chetehkabe, “you are weary:” to make it a superlative, they say Chetehkabe-O: or Chetehkabeshto.

The Cheerake call a dull stalking fellow, Sooreh, “the turkey-buzzard,” and one of an ill temper, Kana Cheesteche, “the wasp,” or a person resembling the dangerous Canaan rabbit, being compounded of the abbreviated name of Canaan, and Cheesto “a rabbit,” which the Israelites were not to meddle with. One of our chief traders, who was very loquacious, they called Sekakee, “the grass-hopper,” derived from Sekako, “to make haste.” To one of a hoarse voice, they gave the name, Kanoona, “the bull-frog.” {193}

The Katahba Indians call their chief old interpreter, on account of his obscene language, Emate-Atikke, “the smock-interpreter.” The “raven,” is one of the Cheerake favourite war-names. Carolina and Georgia remember Quorinnah, “the raven,” of Huwhase-town; he was one of the most daring warriors of the whole nation, and by far the most intelligent, and this name, or war-appellative, admirably suited his well-known character. Though with all the Indian nations, the raven is deemed an impure bird, yet they have a kind of sacred regard to it, whether from the traditional knowledge of Noah’s employing it while he was in the ark, or from that bird having fed Elijah in the wilderness (as some suppose) cannot be determined; however with our supposed red Hebrews the name points out an indefatigable, keen, successful warrior.

Argument XXIII.

Although other resemblances of the Indian rites and customs to those of the Hebrews, might be pointed out; not to seem tedious, I proceed to the last argument of the origin of the Indian Americans, which shall be from their own traditions,—from the accounts of our English writers—and from the testimonies which the Spanish writers have given, concerning the primitive inhabitants of Peru and Mexico.

The Indian tradition says, that their forefathers in very remote ages came from a far distant country, where all the people were of one colour; and that in process of time they moved eastward, to their present settlements. So that, what some of our writers have asserted is not just, who say the Indians affirm, that there were originally three different tribes in those countries, when the supreme chieftain to encourage swift running, proposed a proportionable reward of distinction to each, as they excelled in speed in passing a certain distant river; as, that the first should be polished white—the second red—and the third black; which took place accordingly after the race was over. This story sprung from the innovating superstitious {194} ignorance of the popish priests, to the south-west of us. Our own Indian tradition is literal, and not allegorical, and ought to be received; because people who have been long separated from the rest of mankind, must know their own traditions the best, and could not be deceived in so material, and frequently repeated an event.^[87] Though they have been disjoined through different interests, time immemorial; yet, (the rambling tribes of northern Indians excepted) they aver that they came over the Missisippi from the westward, before they arrived at their present settlements. This we see verified by the western old towns they have left behind them; and by the situation of their old beloved towns, or places of refuge, lying about a west course from each different nation. Such places in Judea were chiefly built in the most remote parts of the country; and the Indians deem those only as beloved towns, where they first settled.

This tradition is corroborated by a current report of the old Chikkasah Indians to our traders, “that about forty years since, there came from Mexico some of the old Chikkasah nation, (the Chichemicas, according to the Spanish accounts) in quest of their brethren, as far north as the Aquahpah nation, about 130 miles above the Nachee old towns, on the south side of the Missisippi; but through French policy, they were either killed, or sent back, so as to prevent their opening a brotherly intercourse, as they had proposed.” And it is worthy of notice, that the Muskohgeh cave, out of which one of their politicians persuaded them their ancestors formerly ascended to their present terrestrial abode, lies in the Nanne Hamgeh old town,^[88] inhabited by the Missisippi-Nachee Indians, which is one of the most western parts of their old-inhabited country.

I hope I shall be excused in reciting their ancient oral tradition, from father to son to the present time. They say, that one of their cunning old religious men finding that religion did not always thrive best, resolved with himself to impose on his friends credulity, and alter in some respects their old tradition; he accordingly pretended to have held for a long time a continual intercourse with their subterranean progenitors in a cave, above 600 miles to the westward of Charles-town in South-Carolina, adjoining to the old Chikkasah trading path; this people were then possest of every thing convenient for human life, and he promised them fully to supply their wants, {195} in a constant manner, without sweating in the field; the most troublesome of all things to manly brisk warriors. He insisted, that all who were desirous of so natural and beneficial a correspondence, should contribute large presents, to be delivered on the embassy, to their brethren—terræ filii,—to clear the old chain of friendship from the rust it had contracted, through the fault of cankering time. He accordingly received presents from most of the people, to deliver them to their beloved subterranean kindred: but it seems, they shut up the mouth of the cave, and detained him there in order to be purified.

The old waste towns of the Chikkasah lie to the west and south-west, from where they have lived since the time we first opened a trade with them; on which course they formerly went to war over the Missisippi, because they knew it best, and had disputes with the natives of those parts, when they first came from thence. Wisdom directed them then to connive at some injuries on account of their itinerant camp of women and children; for their tradition says, it consisted of ten thousand men, besides women and children, when they came from the west, and passed over the Missisippi. The fine breed of running wood horses they brought with them, were the present Mexican or Spanish barbs. They also aver, that their ancestors cut off, and despoiled the greatest part of a caravan, loaded with gold and silver; but the carriage of it proved so troublesome to them, that they threw it into a river where it could not benefit the enemy.

If we join together these circumstances, it utterly destroys the fine Peruvian and Mexican temples of the sun, &c.—which the Spaniards have lavishly painted from their own fruitful imaginations, to shew their own capacity of writing, though at the expence of truth; and to amuse the gazing distant world, and lessen our surprise at the sea of reputed heathenish blood, which their avaricious tempers, and flaming superstitious zeal, prompted them to spill.

If any English reader have patience to search the extraordinary volumes of the Spanish writers, or even those of his catholic majesty’s chief historiographer, he will not only find a wild portrait, but a striking resemblance and unity of the civil and martial customs, the religious rites, and traditions, of the {196} ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, and the North-Americans, according to the manner of their moresque paintings: likewise, the very national name of the primitive Chikkasah, which they stile Chichemicas, and whom they repute to have been the first inhabitants of Mexico. However, I lay little stress upon Spanish testimonies, for time and ocular proof have convinced us of the laboured falshood of almost all their historical narrations concerning every curious thing relative to South America. They, were so divested of those principles inherent to honest enquirers after truth, that they have recorded themselves to be a tribe of prejudiced bigots, striving to aggrandise the Mahometan valour of about nine hundred spurious catholic christians, under the patronage of their favourite saint, as persons by whom heaven designed to extirpate those two great nominal empires of pretended cannibals. They found it convenient to blacken the natives with ill names, and report them to their demi-god the mufti of Rome, as sacrificing every day, a prodigious multitude of human victims to numerous idol-gods.

The learned world is already fully acquainted with the falsehood of their histories; reason and later discoveries condemn them. Many years have elapsed, since I first entered into Indian life, besides a good acquaintance with several southern Indians, who were conversant with the Mexican Indian rites and customs; and it is incontrovertible, that the Spanish monks and jesuits in describing the language, religion, and customs, of the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, were both unwilling, and incapable to perform so arduous an undertaking, with justice and truth. They did not converse with the natives as friends, but despised, hated, and murdered them, for the sake of their gold and silver: and to excuse their own ignorance, and most shocking, cool, premeditated murders, they artfully described them as an abominable swarm of idolatrous cannibals offering human sacrifices to their various false deities, and eating of the unnatural victims. Nevertheless, from their own partial accounts, we can trace a near agreement between the civil and martial customs, the religious worship, traditions, dress, ornaments, and other particulars of the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, and those of the present North American Indians.^[89] {197}

Acosta tells us, that though the Mexicans have no proper name for God, yet they allow a supreme omnipotence and providence: his capacity was not sufficient to discover the former; however, the latter agrees with the present religious opinion of the English-American Indians, of an universal divine wisdom and government. The want of a friendly intercourse between our northern and southern Indians, has in length of time occasioned some of the former a little to corrupt, or alter the name of the self-existent creator and preserver of the universe, as they repeat it in their religious invocations, YO He a Ah.^[90] But with what show of truth, consistent with the above concession, can Acosta describe the Mexicans as offering human sacrifices also to devils, and greedily feasting on the victims!

We are told also that the Nauatalcas believe, they dwelt in another region before they settled in Mexico; that they wandered eighty years in search of it, through a strict obedience to their gods, who ordered them to go in quest of new lands, that had such particular signs;—that they punctually obeyed the divine mandate, and by that means found out, and settled the fertile country of Mexico. This account corresponds with the Chikkasah tradition of settling in their present supposed holy land, and seems to have been derived from a compound tradition of Aaron’s rod, and the light or divine presence with the Israelites in the wilderness, when they marched. And probably the Mexican number of years, was originally forty, instead of eighty.

Lopez de Gomara tells us, that the Mexicans were so devout, as to offer to the sun and earth, a small quantity of every kind of meat and drink, before any of themselves tasted it; and that they sacrificed part of their corn, fruits, &c. in like manner; otherwise, they were deemed haters of, and contemned by their gods. Is not this a confused Spanish picture of the Jewish daily sacrifice, and first-fruit-offering, as formerly observed? and which, as we have seen, are now offered up by the northern Indians, to the bountiful giver, the supreme holy spirit of fire, whom they invoke in that most sacred and awful song, YO He Wah, and loudly ascribe to him Hallelu-Yah, for his continued goodness to them.

The Spanish writers say, that when Cortes approached Mexico, Montezuma shut himself up, and continued for the space of eight days in {198} prayers and fasting: but to blacken him, and excuse their own diabolical butcheries, they assert he offered human sacrifices at the same time to abominable and frightful idols. But the sacrifices with more justice may be attributed to the Spaniards than to the Mexicans—as their narratives also are a sacrifice of truth itself. Montezuma and his people’s fastings, prayers, &c. were doubtless the same with those of the northern Indians, who on particular occasions, by separate fastings, ablutions, purgations, &c. seek to sanctify themselves, and so avert the ill effects of the divine anger, and regain the favour of the deity.

They write, that the Mexicans offered to one of their gods, a sacrifice compounded of some of all the seeds of their country, grinded fine, and mixed with the blood of children, and of sacrificed virgins; that they plucked out the hearts of those victims, and offered them as first-fruits to the idol; and that the warriors imagined, the least relic of the sacrifice would preserve them from danger. They soon afterwards tell us of a temple of a quadrangular form, called Teucalli, “God’s house,” and Chacalmua, “a minister of holy things,” who belonged to it. They likewise speak of “the hearth of God,—the continual fire of God,—the holy ark,” &c. If we cut off the jesuitical paintings of the unnatural sacrifice, the rest is consonant to what hath been observed, concerning the North American Indians. And it is very obvious, the North and South American Indians are alike of vindictive tempers, putting most of their invading enemies that fall into their power to the fiery torture. The Spaniards looking upon themselves as divine embassadors, under the imperial signature of the Holy Lord of Rome, were excessively enraged against the simple native South-Americans, because they tortured forty of their captivated people by reprisal, devoting them to the fire, and ate their hearts, according to the universal war-custom of our northern Indians, on the like occasion. The Spanish terror and hatred on this account, their pride, religious, bigotry, and an utter ignorance of the Indian dialects, rites, and customs, excited them thus to delineate the Mexicans;—and equally hard names, and unjust charges, the bloody members of their diabolical inquisition used to bestow on those pretended heretics, whom they gave over to be tortured and burnt by the secular power. But it is worthy of notice, the Spanish writers acknowledge that the Mexicans brought their human sacrifices from the opposite sea; and did not offer up any of their own people: so that this was but the same {199} as our North-American Indians still practice, when they devote their captives to death; which is ushered in with ablutions, and other methods of sanctifying themselves, as have been particularly described; and they perform the solemnity with singing the sacred triumphal song, with beating of the drum, dances, and various sorts of rejoicings, through gratitude to the beneficent and divine author of success against their common enemy. By the description of the Portuguese writers, the Indian-Brasilian method of war, and of torturing their devoted captives, very nearly resembles the customs of our Indians.

Acosta, according to his usual ignorance of the Indian customs, says, that some in Mexico understood one another by whistling, on which he attempts to be witty—but notwithstanding the great contempt and surprise of the Spaniards at those Indians who whistled as they went; this whistle was no other than the war-whoop, or a very loud and shrill shout, denoting death, or good or bad news, or bringing in captives from war. The same writer says they had three kinds of knighthood, with which they honoured the best soldiers; the chief of which was the red ribbon; the next the lion, or tyger-knight; and the meanest was the grey knight. He might with as much truth, have added the turky-buzzard knight, the sun-blind bat knight, and the night-owl knight. His account of the various gradations of the Indian war-titles, shews the unskilfulness of that voluminous writer, even in the first principles of his Indian subject, and how far we ought to rely on his marvellous works.

The accounts the Spaniards formerly gave us of Florida and its inhabitants, are written in the same romantic strain with those of Mexico. Ramusius tells us, that Alvaro Nunes and his company reported the Apalahchee Indians to be such a gigantic people, as to carry bows, thick as a man’s arm, and of eleven or twelve spans long, shooting with proportional force and direction. It seems they lived then a sober and temperate life, for Morgues says, one of their kings was three hundred years old; though Laudon reckons him only two hundred and fifty: and Morgues assures us, he saw this young Indian Methusalah’s father, who was fifty years older than his son, and that each of them was likely by the common course of nature to live thirty or forty years longer, although they had seen their fifth generation. Since that time they have so exceedingly degenerated, in height of body, largeness of {200} defensive arms, and ante-deluvian longevity, that I am afraid, these early and extraordinary writers would scarcely know the descendants of those Apalahche Anakim, if they now saw them. They are at present the same as their dwarfish red neighbours; sic transit gloria mundi.

Nicholaus Challusius paints Florida full of winged serpents; he affirms he saw one there, and that the old natives were very careful to get its head, on account of some supposed superstition. Ferdinando Soto tells us, that when he entered Florida, he found a Spaniard, (J. Ortez) whom the natives had captivated during the space of twelve years, consequently he must have gained in that time, sufficient skill in their dialect to give a true interpretation and account—and he assures us, that Ucita, the Lord of the place, made that fellow, “Temple-keeper,” to prevent the night-wolves from carrying away the dead corpse; that the natives worshipped the devil, and sacrificed to him the life and blood of most of their captives;—who spoke with them face to face, and ordered them to bring those offerings to quench his burning thirst. And we are told by Benzo,^[91] that when Soto died, the good-natured Cacique ordered two likely young Indians to be killed according to custom, to wait on him where he was gone.—But the Christian Spaniards denied his death, and assured them he was the son of God, and therefore could not die. If we except the last sentence, which bears a just analogy to the presumption and arrogance of the popish priests and historians, time and opportunity have fully convinced us, that all the rest is calumny and falshood. It must be confessed however, that none, even of the Spanish monks and friars, have gone so deep in the marvellous, as our own sagacious David Ingram—he assures us, “that he not only heard of very surprising animals in these parts of the world, but saw elephants, horses, and strange wild animals twice as big as our species of horses, formed like a grey-hound in their hinder parts; he saw likewise bulls with ears like hounds; and another surprising species of quadrupeds bigger than bears, without head or neck, but nature had fixed their eyes and mouths more securely in their breasts.” At the end of his monstrous ideal productions, he justly introduces the devil in the rear, sometimes assuming the likeness of a dog; at other times the shape of a calf, &c. Although this legendary writer has transcended the bounds of truth, yet where he is not emulous of outdoing the jesuitical romances, it would require a good knowledge of America to confute him in many particulars: {201} this shews how little the learned world can rely on American narrators; and that the origin of the Indian Americans, is yet to be traced in a quite different path to what any of those hyperbolical, or wild conjectural writers have prescribed.

The Spaniards have given us many fine polished Indian orations, but they were certainly fabricated at Madrid; the Indians have no such ideas, or methods of speech, as they pretend to have copied from a faithful interpretation on the spot: however, they have religiously supported those monkish dreams, and which are the chief basis of their Mexican and Peruvian treaties.

According to them, the Mexican arms was an eagle on a tunal or stone, with a bird in his talons,—which may look at the armorial ensign of Dan. And they say, the Mexicans worshipped Vitzliputzli, who promised them a land exceedingly plenty in riches, and all other good things; on which account they set off in quest of the divine promise, four of their priests carrying their idol in a coffer of reeds, to whom he communicated his oracles, giving them laws at the same time—teaching them the ceremonies and sacrifices they should observe; and directed them when to march, and when to stay in camp, &c. So much might have been collected from them by signs, and other expressive indications; for we are well assured, that the remote uncorrupted part of the Mexicans still retain the same notions as our northern Indians, with regard to their arriving at, and settling in their respective countries, living under a theocratic government, and having the divine war-ark, as a most sacred seal of success to the beloved people, against their treacherous enemies, if they strictly observe the law of purity, while they accompany it. This alone, without any reflection on the rest, is a good glass to shew us, that the South and North American Indians are twin-born brothers; though the Spanish clergy, by, their dark but fruitful inventions, have set them at a prodigious variance.

Acosta tells us, that the Peruvians held a very extraordinary feast called Ytu,—which they prepared themselves for, by fasting two days, not accompanying with their wives, nor eating salt-meat or garlic, nor drinking Chica during that period—that they assembled all together in one place, and did not allow any stranger or beast to approach them; that they had clothes and {202} ornaments which they wore, only at that great festival; that they went silently and sedately in procession, with their heads veil’d, and drums beating—and thus continued one day and night; but the next day they danced and feasted; and for two days successively, their prayers and praises were heard. This is another strong picture of the rites of the Indian North-Americans, during the time of their great festival, to atone for sin; and with a little amendment, would exhibit a surprising analogy of sundry essential rites and customs of the Northern and South American Indians, which equally glance at the Mosaic system.

Lerius tells us, that he was present at the triennial feast of the Caribbians, where a multitude of men, women, and children, were assembled; that they soon divided themselves into three orders, apart from each other, the women and children being strictly ordered to stay within, and to attend diligently to the singing: that the men sung in one house, He, He, He, while the others in their separate houses, answered by a repetition of the same notes: that having thus continued a quarter of an hour, they all danced in three different rings, each with rattles, &c. And the natives of Sir Francis Drake’s New Albion, were desirous of crowning him Hio, or Ohio, a name well known in North America, and hath an evident relation to the great beloved name. Had the former been endued with a proper capacity, and given a suitable attention to the Indian general law of purity, he would probably have described them singing Yo He Wah, Hallelu-Yah, &c. after the present manner of our North American red natives; and as giving proper names to persons and things from a religious principle, to express the relation they bore to the sacred four-lettered name.

These writers report also, that the Mexicans sacrificed to the idol Haloc, “their God of water,” to give them seasonable rains for their crops: and they tell us, that the high-priest was anointed with holy oil, and dressed with pontifical ornaments, peculiar to himself, when he officiated in his sacred function; that he was sworn to maintain their religion, rights, and liberties, according to their ancient law; and to cause the sun to shine, and all their vegetables to be properly refreshed with gentle showers. If we throw down the “monkish idol god of water,” we here find a strong parity of religious customs and ceremonies, between the pretended prophets, and high-priests of the present northern Indians, and the ancient Mexicans. {203}

Acosta tells us, that the Peruvians acknowledged a supreme God, and author of all things, whom they called Viracocha, and worshipped as the chief of all the gods, and honoured when they looked at the heavens or any of the celestial orbs; that for want of a proper name for that divine spirit of the universe, they, after the Mexican manner,^[92] described him by his attributes,—as Pachacamac, “the Creator of heaven and earth.” But, though he hath described them possessed of these strong ideas of God, and to have dedicated a sacred house to the great first cause, bearing his divine prolific name; yet the Spanish priesthood have at the same time, painted them as worshipping the devil in the very same temple. Here and there a truth may be found in their writings, but if we except the well-designed performance of Don Antonio de Ulloa, one duodecimo volume would have contained all the accounts of any curious importance, which the Spaniards have exhibited to the learned world, concerning the genuine rites and customs, of the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, ever since the seisure of those countries, and the horrid murders committed on the inhabitants.

But among all the Spanish friars, Hieronimo Roman was the greatest champion in hyperbolical writing. He has produced three volumes concerning the Indian American rites and ceremonies;—he stretches very far in his second part of the commonwealths of the world; but when he gets to Peru and Mexico, the distance of those remote regions enables him to exceed himself: beyond all dispute, the other writers of his black fraternity, are only younger brethren, when compared to him in the marvellous. His, is the chief of all the Spanish romances of Peru and Mexico.^[93]

He says, the Indian natives, from Florida to Panama, had little religion or policy; and yet he affirms a few pages after, that they believed in one true, immortal and invisible God, reigning in heaven, called Yocahuuagnamaorocoti; and is so kind as to allow them images, priests, and popes, their high-priest being called papa in that language. The origin of images among them, is accounted for in a dialogue he gives us, between a shaking tree and one of the Indian priests: after a great deal of discourse, the tree ordered the priest to cut it down, and taught him how to make images thereof, and erect a temple. The tree was obeyed, and every year their votaries solemnized the dedication. The good man has {204} laboured very hard for the images, and ought to have suitable applause for so useful an invention; as it shews the universal opinion of mankind, concerning idols and images. With regard to that long conjectural divine name, by which they expressed the one true God, there is not the least room to doubt, that the South-Americans had the divine name, Yohewah, in as great purity as those of the north, especially, as they were at the fountain head; adding to it occasionally some other strong compound words.

He says also, that the metropolis of Cholola had as many temples as there were days in the year; and that one of them was the most famous in the world, the basis of the spire being as broad as a man could shoot with a cross bow, and the spire itself three miles high. The temples which the holy man speaks of, seem to have been only the dwelling-houses of strangers, who incorporated with the natives, differing a little in their form of structure, according to the usual custom of our northern Indians: and his religious principles not allowing him to go near the reputed shambles of the devil, much less to enter the supposed territories of hell, he has done pretty well by them, in allowing them golden suns and moons—vestry keepers, &c. The badness of his optic instruments, if joined with the supposed dimness of his sight, may plead in excuse for the spiral altitude, which he fixes at 15,480 feet; for from what we know of the northern Indians, we ought to strike off the three first figures of its height, and the remaining 40 is very likely to have been the just height of the spire, alias the red-painted, great, war-pole.

The same writer tells us, that the Peruvian pontifical office belonged to the eldest son of the king, or some chief lord of the country: and that it devolved by succession. But he anoints him after a very solemn manner, with an ointment which he carefully mixes with the blood of circumcised infants. This priest of war dealing so much in blood himself, without doubt, suspected them of the like; though at the same time no Indian priest will either shed, or touch human blood: but that they formerly circumcised, may with great probability be allowed to the holy man.

The temples of Peru were built on high grounds, or tops of hills, he says, and were surrounded with four circular mounds of earth, the one rising {205} gradually above the other, from the outermost circle; and that the temple stood in the center of the inclosed ground, built in a quadrangular form, having altars, &c. He has officiously obtruded the sun into it; perhaps, because he thought it dark within. He describes another religious house, on the eastern part of that great inclosure, facing the rising sun, to which they ascended by six steps, where, in the hollow of a thick wall, lay the image of the sun, &c. This thick wall having an hollow part within it, was no other than their sanctum sanctorum, conformably to what I observed, concerning the pretended holiest place of the Muskohge Indians. Any one who is well acquainted with the language, rites, and customs of the North-American Indians, can see with a glance when these monkish writers stumble on a truth, or ramble at large.

Acosta says, that the Mexicans observed their chief feast in the month of May, and that the nuns two days before mixed a sufficient quantity of beets with honey, and made an image of it. He trims up the idol very genteelly, and places it on an azure-coloured chair, every way becoming the scarlet-coloured pope. He soon after introduces flutes, drums, cornets, and trumpets, to celebrate the feast of Eupania Vitzliputzli, as he thinks proper to term it: on account of the nuns, he gives them Pania, “feminine bread,” instead of the masculine Panis; which he makes his nuns to distribute at this love-feast, to the young men, in large pieces resembling great bones. When they receive them, they religiously lay them down at the feast of the idol, and call them the flesh and bones of the God Vitzliputzli.

Then he brings in the priests vailed, with garlands on their heads, and chains of flowers about their necks, each of them strictly observing their place: if the inquisitive reader should desire to know how he discovered those garlands and flowery chains; (especially as their heads were covered, and they are secret in their religious ceremonies) I must inform him, that Acosta wrought a kind of cotton, or woollen cloth for them, much finer than silk, through which he might have easily seen them—besides, such a religious dress gave him a better opportunity of hanging a cross, and a string of beads afterwards round their necks. {206}

Next to those religious men, he ushers in a fine company of gods and goddesses, in imagery, dressed like the others, the people paying them divine worship; this without doubt, is intended to support the popish saint-worship. Then he makes them sing, and dance round the paste, and use several other ceremonies. And when the eyes are tired with viewing those wild circlings, he solemnly blesses, and consecrates those morsels of paste, and thus makes them the real flesh and bones of the idol, which the people honour as gods. When he has ended his feast of transubstantiation, he sets his sacrificers to work, and orders them to kill and sacrifice more men than at any other festival,—as he thinks proper to make this a greater carnival than any of the rest.

When he comes to finish his bloody sacrifices, he orders the young men and women into two rows, directly facing each other, to dance and sing by the drum, in praise of the feast and the god; and he sets the oldest and the greatest men to answer the song, and dance around them, in a great circle. This with a little alteration, resembles the custom of the northern Indians. He says, that all the inhabitants of the city and country came to this great feast,—that it was deemed sacrilegious in any person to eat of the honeyed paste, on this great festival-day, or to drink water, till the afternoon; and that they earnestly advised those, who had the use of reason, to abstain from water till the afternoon, and carefully concealed it from the children during the time of this ceremony. But, at the end of the feast, he makes the priests and ancients of the temple to break the image of paste and consecrated rolls, into many pieces, and give them to the people by the way of sacrament, according to the strictest rules of order, from the greatest and eldest, to the youngest and least, men, women and children: and he says, they received it with bitter tears, great reverence, and a very awful fear, with other strong signs of devotion, saying at the same time,—“they did not^[94] eat the flesh and bones of their God.” He adds, that they who had sick people at home, demanded a piece of the said paste, and carried and gave it to them, with the most profound reverence and awful adoration; that all who partook of this propitiating sacrifice, were obliged to give a part of the feed of Maiz, of which the idol was made; and then at the end of the solemnity, a priest of high authority preached to {207} the people on their laws and ceremonies, with a commanding voice, and expressive gestures; and thus dismissed the assembly.

Well may Acosta blame the devil in the manner he does, for introducing among the Mexicans, so near a resemblance of the popish superstitions and idolatry. But whether shall we blame or pity this writer, for obscuring the truth with a confused heap of falshoods? The above is however a curious Spanish picture of the Mexican passover, or annual expiation of sins, and of their second passover in favour of their sick people,—and of paying their tythes,—according to similar customs of our North-American Indians. We are now sufficiently informed of the rites and customs of the remote, and uncorrupt South-Americans, by the Missisippi Indians, who have a communication with them, both in peace and war.

Ribault Laudon describing the yearly festival of the Floridans, says, that the day before it began, the women sweeped out a great circuit of ground, where it was observed with solemnity;—that when the main body of the people entered the holy ground, they all placed themselves in good order, stood up painted, and decked in their best apparel, when three Iawas, or priests, with different paintings and gestures followed them, playing on musical instruments, and singing with a solemn voice—the others answering them: that when they made three circles in this manner, the men ran off to the woods, and the women staid weeping behind, cutting their arms with muscle-shells, and throwing the blood towards the sun; and that when the men returned, the three days feast was finished. This is another confused Spanish draught of the Floridan passover, or feast of love; and of their universal method of bleeding themselves after much exercise, which according to the Spanish plan, they offered up to the sun. From these different writers, it is plain that where the Indians have not been corrupted by foreigners, their customs and religious worship are nearly alike; and also that every different tribe, or nation of Indians, uses such-like divine proper name, and awful sounds, as Yah-Wah, Hetovah, &c. being transpositions of the divine essential name, as our northern Indians often repeat in their religious dances. As the sound of Yah-wah jarred in Laudon’s ear, he called it Java, in resemblance to the Syriac and Greek method of expressing the tetra-grammaton, from which Galatinus imposed it upon us, calling it Jehowah, instead of Yohewah. {208}

The Spanish writers tell us, that the Mexicans had a feast, and month, which they called Hueitozolti, when the maiz was ripe; every man at that time bringing an handful to be offered at the temple, with a kind of drink, called Utuli, made out of the same grain.—But they soon deck up an idol with roses, garlands, and flowers, and describe them as offering to it sweet gums, &c. Then they speedily dress a woman with the apparel of either the god, or goddess, of salt, which must be to season the human sacrifices, as they depicture them according to their own dispositions. But they soon change the scene, and bring in the god of gain, in a rich temple dedicated to him, where the merchants apart sacrifice vast numbers of purchased captives. It often chagrines an inquisitive and impartial reader to trace the contradictions, and chimerical inventions, of those aspiring bigoted writers; who speak of what they did not understand, only by signs, and a few chance words. The discerning reader can easily perceive them from what hath been already said, and must know that this Spanish mountain in labour, is only the Indian first fruit-offering, according to the usage of our North-American Indians.

It is to be lamented that writers will not keep to matters of fact: Some of our own historians have described the Mohawks as cannibals, and continually hunting after man’s flesh; with equal truth Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and others report, that in Britain there were formerly Anthropophagi, “man-eaters.”

Garcillasso de La Vega, another Spanish romancer, says, that the Peruvian shepherds worshipped the star called Lyra, as they imagined it preserved their flocks: but he ought first to have supplied them with flocks, for they had none except a kind of wild sheep,^[95] that kept in the mountains, and which are of so fætid a smell, that no creature is fond to approach them.