Of the Religion of the North American Indians.

S. F. Jarvis, D. D., A. A. S., of New York, in his discourse on the religion of the North American Indians, details many facts illustrating the notions which they entertain respecting Deity and a future state. His statements on this head exhibit both research and accuracy; though in the first part of his discourse he has digressed from the subject for the purpose of discharging a clerical arrow at the memory of Volney and Voltaire. This however, is pardonable in an individual holding the title of Doctor of Divinity. After indulging in many speculations respecting the true religion, and the modes in which it became corrupted, he observes:—

“Having thus seen that all false religions are, in a greater or less degree, departures from the true; that there is a tendency in the human mind to form low and limited views of the Supreme Being; and that, in fact, all nations have fallen into the corruptions of polytheism and idolatry, we should conclude, even in reasoning à priori, that the religion of the Indians would be found to partake of the general character. Accordingly, the fact is amply attested, that while they acknowledge one Supreme Being, whom they denominate the Great Spirit, or the Master of Life, they also believe in subordinate divinities, who have the chief regulation of the affairs of men.

“Charlevoix, who had all the opportunities of obtaining information which personal observation, and the united testimony of the French missionaries could give, is an unexceptionable witness with regard to the Hurons, the Iroquois, and the Algonquins. Nothing, says he, is more certain, though at the same time obscure, than the conception which the American savages have of a Supreme Being. All agree that he is the Great Spirit, and that he is the master, creator, and governor of the world.[34] The Hurons call him Areskoui; the Iroquois, by slight variation, Agreskooue. He is with them the god of war. His name they invoke as they march. It is the signal to engage, and it is the war-cry in the hottest of the battle.[35]

“But, beside the Supreme Being, they believe in an infinite number of subaltern spirits, who are the objects of worship. These they divide into good and bad. The good spirits are called by the Hurons, Okkis, by the Algonquins, Mannitous. They suppose them to be the guardians of men, and that each has his own tutelary deity. In fact, every thing in nature has its spirit, though all have not the same rank nor the same influence. The animals they hunt have their spirits. If they do not understand any thing, they immediately say it is a spirit. If any man performs a remarkable exploit, or exhibits extraordinary talents, he is said to be a spirit, or in other words, his tutelary deity is supposed to be of more than ordinary power.[36]

“It is remarkable, however, that these tutelary deities are not supposed to take men under their protection till something has been done to merit the favour. A parent who wishes to obtain a guardian spirit for his child, first blackens his face, and then causes him to fast for several days. During this time it is expected that the spirit will reveal himself in a dream; and on this account, the child is anxiously examined every morning with regard to the[27] visions of the preceding night. Whatever the child happens to dream of the most frequently, even if it happen to be the head of a bird, the foot of an animal, or any thing of the most worthless nature, becomes the symbol or figure under which the Okki reveals himself. With this figure, in the conceptions of his votary, the spirit becomes identified; the image is preserved with the greatest care—is the constant companion on all great and important occasions, and the constant object of consultation and worship.[37]

“As soon as a child is informed what is the nature or form of his protecting deity, he is carefully instructed in the obligations he is under to do him homage, to follow his advice communicated in dreams, to deserve his favours, to confide implicitly in his care, and to dread the consequences of his displeasure. For this reason, when the Huron or the Iroquois goes to battle or to the chase, the image of his Okki is as carefully carried with him as his arms. At night, each one places his guardian idol on the palisades surrounding the camp, with the face turned from the quarter to which the warriors, or hunters, are about to march. He then prays to it for an hour, as he does also in the morning before he continues his course. This homage performed, he lies down to rest, and sleeps in tranquility, fully persuaded that his spirit will assume the whole duty of keeping guard, and that he has nothing to fear.

“With this account of Charlevoix, the relations which the Moravian missionaries give, not only of the Iroquois, but also of the Lenapés, or Delawares, and numerous tribes derived from them, perfectly accord. ‘The prevailing opinion of all these nations is,’ says Loskiel, ‘that there is one God, or as they call him, one great and good spirit, who has created the heavens and the earth, and made man and every other creature. But beside the Supreme Being, they believe in good and evil spirits, considering them as subordinate deities. Our missionaries have not found rank polytheism, or gross idolatry, to exist among the Indians. They have, however, something which may be called an idol. This is the manitto, representing in wood, the head of a man in miniature, which they always carry about them, either on a string round their neck, or in a bag. They hang it also about their children, to preserve them from illness, and ensure to them success. When they perform a solemn sacrifice, a manitto, or a head as large as life, is put upon a pole in the middle of the house. But they understand by the word manitto, every being to which an offering is made, especially all good spirits. They also look upon the elements, almost all animals, and even some plants, as spirits; one exceeding the other in dignity and power. The manittoes are also considered as tutelar spirits. Every Indian has one or more, which he conceives to be peculiarly given to him to assist him and make him prosper. One has, in a dream, received the sun as his tutelar spirit, another the moon; a third, an owl; a fourth, a buffalo. An Indian is dispirited, and considers himself as forsaken by God, till he has received a tutelar spirit in a dream; but those who have been thus favoured, are full of courage and proud of their powerful ally.”[38]

This account is corroborated by Heckewelder, in his late interesting history of the Indian nations.

“It is a part of their religious belief” says he, “that there are inferior manittoes to whom the great and good being has given the rule and command over the elements; that being so great, he, like their chiefs, must have his[28] attendants to execute his supreme behests: these subordinate spirits, (something in their nature between God and man) see and report to him what is doing upon earth; they look down particularly upon the Indians, to see whether they are in need of assistance, and are ready at their call to assist and protect them against danger. Thus I have frequently witnessed Indians, on the approach of a storm or thunder-gust, address the manitto of the air to avert all danger from them; I have also seen the Chippeways, on the lakes of Canada, pray to the manitto of the waters, that he might prevent the swells from rising too high, while they were passing over them. In both these instances they expressed their willingness to be grateful, by throwing tobacco in the air or strewing it on the waters. ‘But amidst all these superstitious notions, the supreme manitto, the creator and preserver of heaven and earth, is the great object of their adoration. On him they rest their hopes; to him they address their prayers, and make their solemn sacrifices.’[39]

“The Knistineaux Indians who inhabit the country extending from Labrador, across the continent, to the Highlands which divide the waters on Lake Superior, from those of Hudson’s Bay, appear, from Mackenzie’s account, to have the same system, of one great Supreme, and innumerable subordinate deities. ‘The great master of life,’ to use their own expression, is the sacred object of their devotion. But each man carries in his medicine bag a kind of household god, which is a small carved image, about eight inches long. Its first covering is of down, over which a piece of beech bark is closely tied, and the whole is enveloped in several folds of blue and red cloth. This little figure is an object of the most pious regard.

“It is remarkable, that the description given by Peter Martyr, who was the companion of Columbus, of the worship of the inhabitants of Cuba, perfectly agrees with this account of the Northern Indians, by Mackenzie. They believed in the existence of one supreme, invisible, immortal and omnipotent Creator, whom they named Jocahuna, but at the same time acknowledged a plurality of subordinate deities. They had little images called Zemes, whom they looked upon as only a kind of messengers between them and the eternal omnipotent and invisible God. These images they consider as bodies inhabited by spirits, and oracular responses were therefore received from them as uttered by the divine command.”[40]

“The religion of Porto Rico, Jamaica, and Hispaniola, was the same as that of Cuba; for the inhabitants were of the same race, and spoke the same language. The Caribbean Islands, on the other hand, were inhabited by a very fierce and savage people who were continually at war with the milder natives of Cuba and Hispaniola, and were regarded by them with the utmost terror and abhorence. Yet ‘the Charaibeans,’ to use the language of the elegant historian of the West Indies, ‘while they entertained an awful sense of the one great Universal Cause, of a superior, wise, and invisible Being of absolute and irresistible power, admitted also the agency of subordinate divinities. They supposed that each individual person had his peculiar protector, or tutelar deity; and they had their laws and penalties, gods of their own creating.’ Hughes, in his history of Barbadoes, mentions many fragments of Indian idols, dug up in that island, which were composed of the[29] same materials as their earthen vessels. ‘I saw the head of one,’ says he, ‘which alone weighed above sixty pounds. This, before it was broken off, stood upon an oval pedestal, about three feet in height. The heads of all the others were very small. These lesser idols were, in all probability, made small for the ease and conveniency of being carried with them in their several journeys, as the larger sort were perhaps designed for the stated places of worship.’”[41]

“Thus, in this vast extent of country, from Hudson’s Bay, to the West Indies, including nations whose languages are radically different, nations unconnected with, and unknown to, each other, the greatest uniformity of belief prevails, with regard to the supreme Being, and the greatest harmony in their system of polytheism. After this view, it is impossible not to remark, that there is a similar departure from the original religion among the Indians of America, as among the more civilized nations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The idea of the Divine Unity is much more perfectly preserved; the subordinate divinities are kept at a much more immeasurable distance from the Great Spirit; and, above all, there has been no attempt among them to degrade to the likeness of men the invisible and incomprehensible Creator of the universe. In fact, theirs is exactly that milder form of idolatry which ‘prevailed everywhere from the days of Abraham, his single family excepted,’ and which, after the death of that patriarch and of his son Isaac, infected, from time to time, even the chosen family itself.”[42]

“The belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, has been kept alive among all heathen nations, by its connection with the sensible enjoyments and sufferings, and the consequent hopes and terror of men.

“Its origin must have been in divine revelation;[43] for it is impossible to conceive that the mind can have attained to it by its own unassisted powers. But the thought, when once communicated, would in the shipwreck of dissolving nature, be clung to with the grasp of expiring hope. Hence no nation have yet been found, however rude and barbarous, who have not agreed in the great and general principle of retributive immortality. When, however, we descend to detail, and inquire into their peculiar notions with regard to this expected state, we find that their traditions are coloured by the nature of their earthly occupations, and the opinions they thence entertained on the subject of good and evil.

“This remark is fully verified by the history of the American Indians. ‘The belief most firmly established among the American Savages,’ says Charlevoix, ‘is that of the immortality of the soul. They suppose that when separated from the body, it preserves the same inclinations which it had when both were united. For this reason, they bury with the dead all that they had in use when alive. Some imagine that all men have two souls, one of which never leaves the body, unless it be to inhabit another. This transmigration, however, is peculiar to the souls of those who die in infancy, and who therefore have the privilege of commencing a second life, because they enjoyed so little of the first. Hence children are buried along the highways, that the women as they pass may receive their souls. From this idea of their remaining with the body, arises the duty of placing food upon their graves;[44] and mothers have been seen to draw from their bosoms that nourishment[30] which these little creatures loved when alive, and shed it upon the earth which covered their remains.’”[45]

“When the time has arrived for the departure of those spirits which leave the body, they pass into a region which is destined to be their eternal abode, and which is therefore called the country of souls. This country is at a great distance towards the West, and to go thither costs them a journey of many months. They have many difficulties to surmount, and many perils to encounter. They speak of a stream in which many suffer shipwreck; of a dog from which they with difficulty defend themselves; of a place of suffering where they expiate their faults; of another in which the souls of those prisoners who have been tortured are again tormented, and who therefore linger on their course, to delay as long as possible the moment of their arrival. From this idea it proceeds that after the death of these unhappy victims, for fear their souls may remain around the huts of their tormentors from the thirst of vengeance, the latter are careful to strike every place around them with a staff, and to utter such terrible cries as may oblige them to depart.”[46]

“To be put to death as a captive, is, therefore, an exclusion from the Indian paradise; and, indeed, the souls of all who have died a violent death, even in war, and in the service of their country, are supposed to have no intercourse in the future world with other souls. They, therefore, burn the bodies of such persons, or bury them, sometimes before they have expired. They are never put into the common place of interment, and they have no part in that solemn ceremony which the Hurons and the Iroquois observe every ten years, and other nations every eight, of depositing all who have died during that period in a common place of sepulture.

“To have been a good hunter, brave in war, fortunate in every enterprise, and victorious over many enemies, are the only titles to enter their abode of bliss. The happiness of it consists in the never-failing supply of game and fish, an eternal spring, and an abundance of every thing which can delight the senses without the labour of procuring it. Such are the pleasures which they anticipate, who often return weary and hungry from the chase, who are often exposed to the inclemencies of a winter sky, and who look upon all labour as an unmanly and degrading employment.

“The Chippewayans live between the parallels of lat. 60 and 65 north, a region of almost perpetual snows; where the ground never thaws, and is so barren as to produce nothing but moss.[47]

“To them, therefore, perpetual verdure and fertility, and waters unincumbered with ice, are voluptuous images. Hence they imagine that, after death, they shall inhabit a most beautiful island in the centre of a most extensive lake. On the surface of this lake they will embark in a stone canoe, and if their actions have been generally good, will be borne by a gentle current to their delightful and eternal abode. But if, on the contrary, their bad actions predominate, the stone canoe sinks, and leaves them up to their chins in the water to behold and regret the reward enjoyed by the good, and eternally struggling, but with unavailing endeavours, to reach the blissful island from which they are excluded for ever.[48]

“On the other hand the Arrowauks, or natives of Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and Trinidad, would naturally place their enjoyments[31] in every thing that was opposite to the violence of a tropical climate. They suppose, therefore, that the spirits of good men were conveyed to the pleasant valley of Coyaba; a place of indolent tranquillity, abounding with Guavas and other delicious fruits, cool shades, and murmuring rivulets; in a country where drought never rages, and the hurricane is never felt.[49]

“While these voluptuous people made the happiness of the future state to consist in these tranquil enjoyments, their fierce enemies, the Charaibes, looked forward to a paradise, in which the brave would be attended by their wives and captives. The degenerate and the cowardly they doomed to everlasting banishment beyond the mountains; to unremitting labour in employments that disgrace manhood—disgrace heightened by the greatest of all afflictions, captivity and servitude among the Arrowauks.”[50]

“To all the inferior deities, whether good or malevolent, the Hurons, the Iroquois, and the Algonquins, make various kinds of offerings. To propitiate the God of the waters, says Charlevoix, ‘they cast into the streams and............