Chapter XX: Appendix: No. I (6)

"I saw no person among the Chaymas who had any natural deformity. I might say the same of thousands of Caribs, Muyseas, and Mexican and Peruvian Indians, whom we observed during the course of five years. Bodily deformities--deviations from nature--are infinitely rare among certain races of men, especially those nations who have the dermoid system highly colored. I can not believe that they depend solely on the progress of civilization, a luxurious life, or the corruption of morals. We might be tempted to think that savages all appear well made and vigorous, because feeble children die young for want of care, and that the strongest alone survive; but these causes can not act on the Indians of the missions, who have the manners of our peasants, and the Mexicans of Cholula and Tlascala, who enjoy wealth that has been transmitted to them by ancestors more civilized than themselves. If, in every state of cultivation, the copper-colored race manifest the same inflexibility, the same resistance to deviation from a primitive type, are we not forced to admit that this property belongs in great measure to hereditary organization--to that which constitutes the race? I use intentionally the phrase _in great measure_, not entirely to exclude the influence of civilization. Besides, with copper-colored men, as with the whites, luxury and effeminacy, by weakening the physical constitution, had heretofore rendered deformities more common at Corezco and Tenochtitlan."--Humboldt's _Personal Narrative_, vol. iii., p. 235.

No. L.

To those well read in the sad records of Indian history, the names of Powhatan, Opechancanough, Massasoit, Alexander, Philip, Canonchet, Logan, Pontiac, and the never-to-be-forgotten Tecumthe, will suggest memories fully justifying the above assertion. The name of Tecumthe signifies "a tiger crouching for his prey." He was equally great in council and in war, noble and generous in spirit as commanding in intellect. He bore the commission of Chief of the Indian Forces in the British army during the late war. He did not, however, join the ranks of the white men until the failure of several admirably contrived projects convinced his sound and enlightened judgment that opposition to the white race was vain. Pontiac was an Ottawa chieftain, who in 1763 succeeded in the next-to-impossible scheme of uniting all the scattered and often hostile Indian tribes distributed throughout the colonized districts of North America in one grand confederacy against their European invaders. Their first step was the projected extinction of all the white man's posts along a thousand miles of frontier; and he actually succeeded so far as to cut off, almost simultaneously, nine out of twelve of these military establishments. The surprise of Michillimackinac, one of these stations, is thus narrated in a public document. (It was a period of profound peace between the Europeans and Indians):

"The fort was then upon the main land, near the northern point of the peninsula. The Ottawas, to whom the assault was committed, prepared for a great game of ball, to which the officers of the garrison were invited. While engaged in play, one of the parties gradually inclined toward the fort, and the other pressed after them. The ball was once or twice thrown over the pickets, and the Indians were suffered to enter and procure it. Nearly all the garrison were present as spectators, and those on duty were alike unprepared as unsuspicious. Suddenly the ball was again thrown into the fort, and all the Indians rushed after it. The rest of the tale is soon told: the troops were butchered, and the fort destroyed." This extensive and well-laid scheme failed, from Pontiac himself being betrayed at the fort of Detroit. He has been accused of great cruelty; but, in contests waged between the red and white races, this is a word of doubtful import. His generosity and heroism are undeniable.

As a compliment, Major Rogers had sent Pontiac a bottle of brandy. His counselors advised him not to take it: "It must be poisoned," said they, "and sent with a design to kill him;" but Pontiac laughed at their suspicions. "He can not," he replied, "he can not take my life; I have saved his!"

No. LI.

But a far truer insight into the religious state of the American Indian will be obtained by observing how peculiarly and emphatically he is, in the words of the apostle, "a law unto himself." I mean, how distinctly he evinces, in the whole moral conduct of his life, that he lives under a strong and awful sense of positive obligation. It is of little matter with what doctrines that sense of obligation connects itself. It often appears to connect itself with none. The Indian can not tell why a burden is laid upon him to act in this or that manner. He obeys a law undefined, unwritten, but mysteriously binding upon his spirit. All the compulsive force which what we call the law of honor had upon the conscience of a man of the world--I had almost said which religious sanctions have upon the man of principle--is scarcely to be paralleled with that kind of moral necessity which seems in some cases to actuate his proceedings. If religion be what its name implies, _id quod relligat_, that which binds the will, and enforces self-denial and self-devotion (be the object or motive held out what it may), then no people taken in the mass is to be compared, in this respect, to the savages of America. "After all," says Mr. Flint, "that which has struck us, in contemplating the Indians, with the most astonishment and admiration, is the invisible but universal energy of the operation and influence of an inexplicable law, which has, where it operates, a more certain and controlling power than all the municipal and written laws of the whites united. There is despotic rule without any hereditary or elected chief. There are chiefs with great power, who can not tell when, where, or how they became such. There is perfect unanimity on a question involving the existence of a tribe, when every member belonged to the wild and fierce democracy of nature, and could dissent without giving a reason. A case occurs where it is prescribed by custom that an individual should be punished with death. Escaped from the control of his tribe, and as free as the winds, this invisible tie is about him, and he returns and surrenders himself to justice. His accounts are not settled, and he is in debt. He requests delay till he shall have finished his summer's hunt. He finishes it, pays his debt, and dies with a constancy which has always been, in all views of the Indian character, the theme of admiration."--Flint's _Geography of the Mississippi Valley_, p. 125.

In the expressive words of Penn, "What good might not a good people graft, where there is so distinct a knowledge both of good and evil?"--_Report on Aborigines_, 1837, p. 116.

Mr. Merivale adds, "I would not insert the following high-colored expression in a work edited by Washington Irving, were it not for the remarkable agreement between all capable observers of the uncontaminated races of Indians upon this subject. 'Simply to call these people religious (some tribes of the Rocky Mountains) would convey but a faint idea of the deep hue of piety and devotion which pervades the whole of their conduct. They are more like a nation of saints than a horde of savages.'"--_Adventures of Captain Bonneville._

No. LII.

Catlin gives the same account of the appropriation of the Manitou or guardian angel as Lafitau and Charlevoix. He applies to it the term of Mystery, or Medicine-bag, and thus explains the derivation of the modern term:

"The term Medicine, in its common acceptation among the Indians, means mystery, and nothing else. The origin of the term is, that in the French language a doctor is called '_Medecin_;' the Indian country is full of doctors, and as they are all magicians, and profess to be skilled in many mysteries, the word '_medecin_' has become habitually applied to every thing mysterious or unaccountable, and the English and American have easily and familiarly adopted the same word, with a slight alteration conveying the same meaning; and, to be a little more explicit, they have denominated these personages 'Medicine-men,' which means something more than merely a doctor or physician. The Indians do not use the word 'medicine,' however, but in each tribe they have a word of their own construction synonymous with mystery or mystery-man. Their medicine-bag then is a mystery-bag, and its meaning and importance necessary to be understood, as it may be said to be the key to Indian life and character.

"Feasts are often made, and dogs and horses sacrificed, to a man's 'medicine;' and days, and even weeks of fasting and penance of various kinds are often suffered to appease his medicine, which he fancies he has in some way offended. This curious custom has generally been done away with along the frontier, where white men laugh at the Indian for the observance of so ridiculous and useless a form; but in this country (beyond the Rocky Mountains) it is still in full force, and every male in the tribe carries this his supernatural charm or guardian, to which he looks for the preservation of his life in battle or in other danger.... During my travels thus far I have been unable to buy a medicine-bag of an Indian, though I have offered extravagant prices for them; and even on the frontier, where they have been induced to abandon the practice, though a white may induce an Indian to relinquish his medicine, yet he can not buy it of him: the Indian in such case will bury it to please a white, and save it from his sacrilegious touch, and he will linger around the spot, and at regular times visit and pay it his devotions as long as he lives."--Catlin's _North American Indians_, vol. i., p. 36.

No. LIII.

Catlin says, "The tribes, so far as I have visited them, all distinctly believe in the existence of a Great (or Good) Spirit, an Evil (or Bad) Spirit, and also in a future existence and future accountability, according to their virtues and vices in this world. So far the North American Indians would seem to be one family, and such, an unbroken theory among them; yet, with regard to the manner and form, and time and place of that accountability--to the constructions of virtues and vices, and the modes of appeasing and propitiating the Good and Evil Spirits, they are found in all the change and variety which fortuitous circumstances, and fictions and fables have wrought upon them.... These people, living in a climate where they suffer from cold in the severity of their winters, have very naturally reversed our ideas of heaven and hell. The latter they describe to be a country very far to the north, of barren and hideous aspect, and covered with eternal snow and ice. The torments of this freezing place they describe as most excruciating, while heaven they suppose to be in a warmer and delightful latitude, where nothing is felt but the keenest enjoyment, and where the country abounds in buffaloes and other luxuries of life. The Great or Good Spirit they believe dwells in the former place, for the purpose of there meeting those who have offended him, increasing the agony of their sufferings by being himself present, administering the penalties. The Bad or Evil Spirit they suppose to be at the same time in Paradise, still tempting the happy; and those who have gone to the regions of punishment they believe to be tortured for a time proportioned to the amount of their transgression, and that they are then to be transferred to the land of the happy, where they are again liable to the temptation of the Evil Spirit, and answerable again at a future period for their new offenses."--Catlin, vol. i., p. 159.

Dr. Richardson says, "While at Carlton I took an opportunity of asking a communicative old Indian of the Blackfoot nation his opinion of a future state. He replied that they had heard from their fathers that the souls of the departed have to scramble with great labor up the sides of a steep mountain, upon attaining the summit of which they are rewarded with the prospect of an extensive plain, interspersed here and there with new tents, pitched in agreeable situations, and abounding in all sorts of game. While they are absorbed in the contemplation of this delightful scene, they are descried by the inhabitants of the happy land, who, clothed in new skins, approach and welcome, with every demonstration of kindness, those Indians who have led good lives; but the bad Indians, who have imbrued their hands in the blood of their countrymen, are told to return from whence they came, and, without more ceremony, precipitated down the steep sides of the mountain."--Franklin's _Journey_, p. 77.

"C'est du cote de l'ouest, d'ou les sauvages pretendent etre venus, qu'il placent le pays des ancetres, ou des ames. C'est, disent-ils, un pays tres eloigne, et ou chacun est contraint de se rendre, apres son trepas, par un chemin fort long et fort penible, dans lequel il y a beaucoup a souffrir, a cause des rivieres qu'il faut passer sur des ponts tremblants, et si etroits qu'il faut etre une ame pour pouvoir s'y soutenir; encore trouve-t-il au bout du pont un chien, qui comme un antre cerbere leur dispute le passage, et en fait tomber plusieurs dans les eaux, dont la rapidite les roule de precipice en precipice. Celles qui sont assez heureuses pour franchir ce pas, trouvent en arrivant, un grand et beau pays, au milieu duquel est une grande Cabane, dont _Tharonhiaouagon_, leur Dieu, occupe une partie, et Ataensic, son ayeule, occupe l'autre. L'appartement de cette vielle est tapisse d'une quantite infini de colliers de porcelaine, de bracelets, et d'autres meubles, dont les morts, qui sont sous sa dependance, lui ont fait present a leur arrivee. _Ataensic_ est maitresse de la Cabane, selon le style des sauvages, elle et son petit fils dominent sur les manes, et font consister leur plaisir a les faire danser devant eux. Il y a une infinite de versions sur le pays des ames, mais ce qui je viens d'en rapporter en est comme le fonds, ou tout le reste se reduit."--Lafitau, tom. i., p. 402.

No. LIV.

"Un officier Francais, qui parle la langue Huronne comme les Hurons meme, et qui connoit fort bien le genie des sauvages, m'a raconte un fait, dont il a ete le temoin ... Quelques sauvages intrigues, au sujet d'un parti de sept guerriers de leur village, et dont tout le monde commencoit a etre en peine, prierent une vielle sauvagesse de _jongler_ pour eux. Cette femme etoit en grande reputation, et on avoit verifie plusieurs de ses predictions, mais on avoit beaucoup de peine a la determiner a faire ces sortes d'operations, quoiqu'on la payat bien, parce-qu'elle souffroit beaucoup. Comme elle avoit de l'amitie pour moi, dit cet officier, je me mis de la partie avec les sauvages, ajoutant neanmoins tres peu de foy a ces sortes de choses, je la priai tres fortement, et je fis tant, qu'elle s'y resolut. Elle commenca d'abord par preparer un espace de terrain qu'elle nettoya bien, et qu'elle couvrit de farine. Elle disposa sur cette poudre comme sur une carte geographique, quelques paquets de buchettes, qui representaient divers villages de differentes nations, observant particulierement leur position, et les rhumbs de vent. Elle entra ensuite dans de grandes convulsions, pendant lesquelles nous vimes sensiblement sept bluettes de feu sortir des buchettes qui representoient notre village; tracer un chemin sur cette farine et aller d'un village a l'autre. Apres d'etre eclipsees pendant un assez long tems, dans l'un de ces villages, ces bluettes reparurent au nombre de neuf, tracerent un nouveau chemin pour le retour, jusqu'a ce qu'enfin elles s'arreterent assez pres du village, ou paquet de buchettes, d'ou les sept premiers etoient d'abord sorties. Alors la sauvagesse, toujours en fureur, troubla tout l'ordre des buchettes, foula aux pieds tout le terrain qu'elle avoit prepare, et ou cette scene venoit de passer. Elle s'assit ensuite et apres s'etre donne le tems de se tranquilliser, et de reprendre ses esprits, elle raconta tout ce qui etoit arrive aux guerriers, la route qu'ils avoient tenue, les villages par ou ils avoient passe, le nombre des prisonniers qu'ils avoient fait; elle nomma l'endroit ou ils etoient dans ce moment, et assura qu'ils arriveroient trois jours apres au village, ce qui fut verifie par l'arrivee des guerriers, qui confirmerent de point en point ce qu'elle avoit dit."--Lafitau, tom. i., p. 387.

"Quoiqu' aujourd'hui les Abenaquis fassent tous profession du Christianisme, ils ne laissent pas encore d'avoir quelquefois recours a cet art qu'ils ont recu de leurs peres (la Pyromantie, ou Divination par le feu). Ils s'en confessent neanmoins, a cause de l'horreur qu'on leur en a inspire, mais il s'en trouve quelques uns qui cherchent a le justifier. Une sauvagesse disoit a un missionnaire, qui tachoit de lui faire concevoir sa faute: 'Je n'ai jamais compris qu'il n'y eut a elle aucun mal, et j'ai peine a y en voir encore: ecoute, Dieu a partage differemment les hommes; a vous autres Francois, il a donne l'ecriture, par laquelle vous apprennez lea choses qui se passent loin de vous, comme si elles vous etoient presentes; pour ce qui est de nous, il nous a donne l'art de connoitre par le feu les choses absentes et eloignees; suppose donc que le feu c'est notre livre, notre ecriture; tu ne verras pas qu'il y ait de difference, et plus de mal dans l'un que dans l'autre. Ma mere m'a appris ce secret pendant mon enfance, comme tes parents t'ont appris a lire et a ecrire; je m'en suis servi plusieurs fois avec succes, avant d'etre Chretienne, je l'ai fait quelquefois avec le meme succes depuis que je la suis; j'ai ete tente, et j'ai succombe a la tentation, mais sans croire commettre aucune peche.'"--Lafitau, tom, i., p. 388.

Some of the Indians seem to have been acquainted with the mysteries of _clairvoyance_. "Ils croyent qu'il y a des personnes que les esprits favorisent d'avantage, qui sont plus eclairees que le commun, dont l'ame scut, non seulement ce qui les concerne personnellement, mais qui voient jusques dans le fonds de l'ame des autres, qui percent a travers le voile qui les couvre, et y appercoit les desirs naturels et innes, qu'elle a, quoique cette ame elle meme ne les ait pas apercus; c'est ce qui leur a fait donner le nom de Iaiotkatta par les Hurons, c'est a dire _voyans_, parce qu'ils voyent les hommes dans leur interieur."--Lafitau, tom. i., p. 371.

Charlevoix also relates instances of the successful exercise of magical arts.--Vol. vi., p. 92.

No. LV.

"In the neighborhood of Caughnawaga are the large tracts of land once belonging to the Johnson family, whose possessions were all confiscated at the period of the Revolution, in consequence of their adherence to the British, who gave them compensation by grants of land in Canada. The founder of this family is said to have acquired this fine tract of country by a dexterous piece of management. He traded extensively with the tribe of Mohawk Indians. Their chiefs were in the habit of applying to him frequently for tobacco and rum, which they had, they told him, dreamed that he was to give them. Johnson never failed to encourage their strong faith in dreams, humoring their foible by acceding to every request founded on them. Thus visits and dreams became frequent on the part of the Indians. Johnson never sent them away empty handed. To every request he replied, 'I will prove that you are right,' and presented them with whatever they applied for, on the footing that they had dreamed of it. At length the king had the conscience to dream that, if he were invested with Johnson's military dress of scarlet and gold, he should be as great a man as King George; and King George he soon in so far became, for no long time elapsed before Johnson had him appareled as he wished. But Johnson's turn to dream had now arrived, for he had all the while attached the same weight to dreams. He dreamed that the nation had, in consequence of his kindness to them, and in return for the hospitality he had shown them, bestowed on him part of their territory, which he had described, and which he of course took care should be sufficiently extensive and valuable--in fact, one of the finest tracts of land that it is possible to conceive. 'Have you really had such a dream?' they exclaimed, with terror and alarm depicted on their countenances. Being satisfied on this point, the chief or king convoked his tribe, who deliberated, and then announced to the dreamer that they had confirmed the dream. 'Brother Johnson,' they said, 'we give thee that tract of land, but never dream any more.' The head of this family was subsequently created a baronet, for his gallantry in the war, when the French made an incursion from Canada in 1755."--Stuart's _America_, vol. i., p. 71. See, also, Mrs. Grant's _Letters of an American Lady_, for an account of Sir William Johnson's intercourse with the Indians.

Lafitau and Charlevoix write at great length upon the Indian faith in dreams; Lafitau gives the following curious illustration of the extent to which this superstition is carried: "Un ancien missionnaire m'a raconte qu'un sauvage ayant reve que le bonheur de sa vie dependoit de son mariage avec une femme qui etoit deja mariee a l'un des plus considerables du village ou il demeuroit. Le mari et la femme vivoient dans une grande union et s'entre-aimoient beaucoup. La separation fut rude a l'un et a l'autre, cependant ils n'osoient refuser. Ils se separerent donc. La femme prit un nouvel engagement, et le mari abandonne, par complaisance et pour oter tout soupcon qu'il pensat encore a sa premiere epouse, se marie avec une autre. Il reprit la premiere cependant, apres la mort de celui qui les avait desunis, laquelle arriva peu de temps apres."--Lafitau, vol. i., p. 364.

No. LVI.

"C'etoit une loi generale chez certains peuples barbares de l'antiquite (AElian, _de Cois_, lib. iii.; Sext. Emp., _de Tybaren_.; Procop., _de Etulis_., lib. ii.; _de Bello Gotico_; Stobaeus, _de Massag._, Serm. 122) de faire mourir leurs viellards avant l'age de soixante ou soixante et dix ans, soit qu'ils ne voulassent point parmis eux conserver des morte payes, qui consumassent le peu qui restoit aux autres pour vivre: soit qu'ils se persuadassent rendre service a ceux qu'ils faisoient ainsi perir, en leur epargnant par une morte prompte et courte, la tristesse et les ennuis d'un age avance, dont les infirmites peuvent etre regardees comme une mort continuelle. Cela a ete, dit-on, une loi generale parmi quelques peuples de l'Amerique, et une de nos dernieres relations porte, qu'il y a une nation ou il n'est pas meme permis de laisser passer aux femmes l'age de trente ans; ce qui paroitra sans doute bien rigoureux a celles qui veulent encore etre jeune dans un age plus avance.

"Les Algonquins et les autres nations errantes sont plus sujets a cette inhumanite envers les viellards que les autres, parcequ' etant presque toujours en voyage, et plus souvent reduits a la faim, l'incommodite des viellards qu'il faut porter et nourrir, devient alors plus sensible. Ces pauvres malheureux sont souvent les premiers a dire a celui qui les porte, 'Mon petit fils, je le donne bien de la peine, je ne suis plus bon a rien, casse-moi la tete.' On ne les ecoute pas toujours; mais quelquefois aussi il arrive que le jeune homme epuise de lassitude et de faim, repond froidement, 'Tu as raison, mon grand pere.' Il decharge en meme tems son paquet, prend sa hache, et casse la tete au bon homme, qui sans doute est fache interieurement d'etre pris au mot."--Lafitau, tom. ii., p. 490.

In 1819, James writes thus of the same inhuman custom: "The worst trait in the Indian character is the neglect shown toward the aged and helpless, which is carried to such a degree that, when on a march or a hunting excursion, it is a common practice to leave behind their nearest relations when reduced to that state, with a little food and water, abandoning them without ceremony to their fate. When thus abandoned by all that is dear to them, their fortitude does not forsake them, and the inflexible passive courage of the Indian sustains them against despondency. They regard themselves as entirely useless; and as the custom of the nation has long led them to anticipate this mode of death, they attempt not to remonstrate against the measure, which is, in fact, frequently the result of their earnest solicitation."--James's _Expedition to the Rocky Mountains_, vol. i., p. 237.

"This cruelty to living relations strongly contrasts with the extravagance and self-sacrifice of their mourning for the dead. The same people who expose a living parent because they can not carry him, are often found to convey the corpses of their departed friends to 'the festivals of the dead,' during many days of wearisome journeying."--P. de Breboeuf, _Relation de la Nouvelle France_; Charlevoix: Lafitau.

Catlin, one of the most partial observers, and the most zealous defender of the Indian character, relates the following scene, of which he was an eye-witness (in 1840): "We found that the Puncahs were packing up all their goods, and preparing to start for the prairies in pursuit of buffaloes, to dry meat for their winter's supplies. They took down their wigwams of skins to carry with them, and all were flat to the ground, and every thing packing up ready for the start. My attention was directed by Major Sanford, the Indian agent, to one of the most miserable and helpless-looking objects I ever had seen in my life--a very aged and emaciated man of the tribe, who, he told me, was going to be _exposed_. The tribe were going where hunger and dire necessity obliged them to go, and this pitiable object, who had once been a chief, and a man of distinction in his tribe, who was now too old to travel, being reduced to mere skin and bone, was to be left to starve, or meet with such death as might fall to his lot, and his bones to be picked by the wolves! I lingered around this poor old forsaken patriarch for hours before we started, to indulge the tears of sympathy which were flowing for the sake of this poor benighted and decrepit old man, whose worn-out limbs were no longer able to support him, and his body and his mind doomed to linger into the withering agony of decay, and gradual solitary death. I wept; and it was a pleasure to weep; for the painful looks and the dreary prospects of this old veteran, whose eyes were dimmed, whose venerable locks were whitened by a hundred years, whose limbs were almost naked, and trembling as he sat by a small fire which his friends had left him, with a few sticks of wood within his reach, and a buffalo's skin stretched upon some crotches over his head. Such was to be his only dwelling, and such the chances for his life, with only a few half-picked bones that were laid within his reach, and a dish of water, without means of any kind to replenish them, or move his body from that fatal locality. His friends and his children had all left him, and were preparing in a little time to be on the march. He had told them to leave him; 'he was old,' he said, 'and too feeble to march.' 'My children,' said he, 'our nation is poor, and it is necessary you should all go to the country where you can get meat. My eyes are dimmed, and my strength is no more; my days are nearly all numbered, and I am a burden to my children; I can not go, and I wish to die. Keep your hearts stout, and think not of me; I am no longer good for any thing.' In this way they had finished the ceremony of _exposing_ him, and taken their final leave of him. I advanced to the old man, and was undoubtedly the last human being who held converse with him. I sat by the side of him, and though he could not distinctly see me, he shook me heartily by the hand, and smiled, evidently aware that I was a white man, and that I sympathized with his inevitable misfortune. When passing by the site of the Puncah village a few months after this in my canoe, I went ashore with my men, and found the poles and the buffalo skin standing as they were left over the old man's head. The fire-brands were lying nearly as I had left them; and I found at a few yards' distance the skull and others of his bones, which had been picked and cleaned by the wolves, which is probably all that any human being can ever know of his final and melancholy fate. This cruel custom of exposing their aged people belongs, I think, to all the tribes who roam about the prairies, making severe marches, when such decrepit persons are totally unable to go, unable to ride or to walk, when they have no means of carrying them."--Catlin's _American Indians_, vol. i., p. 217.

No. LVII.

"The child, in its earliest infancy, has its back lashed to a straight board, being fastened to it by bandages, which pass around it in front, and on the back of the board they are tightened to the necessary degree by lacing-strings, which hold it in a straight and healthy position, with its feet resting on a broad hoop, which passes around the foot of the cradle, and the child's position (as it rides about on its mother's back, supported by a broad strap that passes across her forehead), that of standing erect, no doubt has a tendency to produce straight limbs, sound lungs, and long life. The bandages that pass around the cradle, holding the child in, are often covered with a beautiful embroidery of porcupine quills, with ingenious figures of horses, men, &c. A broad hoop of elastic wood passes around in front of the child's face to protect it in case of a fall, from the front of which is suspended a toy of exquisite embroidery for the child to handle, and amuse itself with. The papoose (the Indian name for the cradle) seems a cruel mode of confining the child; but I am inclined to believe it is a very good one for those who use it, and well adapted to the circumstances under which they live; in support of which opinion, I offer the universality of the custom, which has been practiced for centuries among all the tribes of North America, as a legitimate and a very strong reason. Along the frontiers, where the Indians have been ridiculed for the custom, they have in many instances departed from it; but even there they will generally be seen lugging their child about in this way, when they have abandoned almost every other native custom, and are too poor to cover it with more than rags and strings, which fasten it to its cradle. The infant is carried in this manner until it is five, six, or seven months old.... If the infant dies during the time allotted for it to be carried in this cradle, it is buried, and the disconsolate mother fills the cradle with black quills and feathers, in the parts which the child's body had occupied, and in this way carries it about with her wherever she goes for a year or more; and she often lays or stands it against the side of the wigwam, where she is all day engaged in her needle-work, and chatting and talking to it as familiarly and affectionately as if it were her loved infant instead of its shell that she was talking to."--Catlin, vol. ii., p. 133.

No. LVIII.

The following is Lafitau's description of this barbarous operation: "Ils cernent pour cet effet la peau qui couvre la crane, coupant au-dessus du front et des oreilles jusqu'au derriere de la tete. Apres l'avoir arrachee, ils la preparent, et la ramollissent comme ils ont coutume de faire a celles des betes qu'ils ont prises a la chasse. Ils etendent ensuite cette peau sur un cercle au ils l'attachent, ils la peignent des deux cotes de diverses couleurs, quelquefois ils tracent du cote oppose aux cheveux, le portrait de celui a qui ils l'ont enlevee at la suspendent au bout d'une perche et la portent ainsi en triomphe. Ce qu'il y a de surprenant, c'est que tous ceux a qui l'on fait cette cruelle operation de leur enlever la chevelure, n'en meurent point, non plus que du coup de casse-tete, dont on a cru les avoir assommes a n'en plus revenir. Plusieurs en sont rechappes et j'ai vu une femme dans notre mission, a qui apres un semblable accident, les Francois avoient donnee le nom de la Tete-pelee, et qui se portoit fort bien. Elle etoit mariee a un Francois Iroquoise, dont elle avoit des enfans." Lafitau does not omit to notice the striking similarity between Indian and Scythian barbarity; he cites the following passage from Herodotus as a support and illustration of his own peculiar theory: "Un Scythe boit du sang du premier prisonnier qu'il fait, et il presente au roi les tetes de tous ceux qu'il a tues dans le combat; car en portant une tete il a part au butier, auquel il n'a nul droit sans cette condition. Il coupe la tete de cette maniere. Il la cerne autour les oreilles et ayant separe le test d'avec le reste, il en arrache la peau, qu'il a soin de ramollir avec ses mains, et d'appreter comme un apprete une peau de boeuf. Il en fait ensuite un ornement, et l'attache au harnois de son cheval en guise de trophee. Plus un particulier a de ces sortes de depouilles, plus il est considere et estime."--Lafitau, tom. ii., 258; Herodotus, lib. iv., n. 64.

"The scalping is an operation not calculated of itself to take life, as it only removes the skin, without injuring the bone of the head, and necessarily, to be a genuine scalp, must contain and show the crown and center of the head--that part of the skin which lies directly over what the phrenologists call 'self-esteem,' where the hair divides and radiates from the center, of which they all profess to be strict judges, and able to decide whether an effort has been made to produce two or more scalps from one head. Besides taking the scalp, the victor generally, if he has time to do it without endangering his own scalp, cuts off and brings home the rest of the hair, which his knife will divide into a great many small locks, and with them fringe the seams of his shirt and leggins, which also are worn as trophies and ornaments to the dress, and these are familiarly called 'scalp-locks.' ... As the scalp is taken in evidence of a death, it will easily be seen that an Indian has no business or inclination to take it from the head of the living, which I venture to say is never done in North America, unless it be, as has sometimes happened, when a man falls in the heat of battle, and the Indian, rushing over his body, snatches off his scalp, supposing him dead, who afterward rises from the field of battle, and easily recovers from this superficial wound of the knife, wearing a bald spot on his head during the remainder of his life."--Catlin, vol. i., p. 238.

No. LIX.

Charlevoix gives the following account of some of the games of chance in use among the red Indians:

"_Le Jeu de Pailles._--Ces pailles sont de petits joncs de la grosseur des tuyaux de froment et de la longueur de deux doigts. On en prend un paquet, qui est ordinairement de deux cent un, et toujours en nombre impair. Apres qu'on les a bien remues, en faisant mille contortions, et en invoquant les genies, on les separe avec une espece d'aliene, ou un os pointee, en paquets de dix; chacun prend le sien a l'aventure, et celui, a qui echoit le paquet de onze, gagne un certain nombre de points, dont on est convenu: les parties sont en soixante ou en quatre vingt.... On m'a dit qu'il y avoit autant d'addresse que de hazarde dans ce jeu, et que les sauvages y sont extremement fripons, comme dans tous les autres; qu'ils s'y acharnent souvent jusqu'a y passer les jours et les nuits.

"_Le Jeu de la Crosse._--On y joue avec une bale et des batons, recourbes et termines par une espece de raquette. On dresse deux poteaux qui servent des bornes, et qui sont eloignes l'un de l'autre, a proportion du nombre des joueurs. Par exemple s'ils sont quatre vingt, il y a entre les poteaux une demie lieue de distance. Les joueurs sont partages en deux bandes, qui ont chacune leur poteau, et il s'agit de faire aller la bale jusqu'a celui de la partie adverse, sans qu'elle tombe a terre, et sans qu'elle soit touchee avec la main; car si l'un ou l'autre arrive on perd la partie, a moins que celui qui a fait la faute ne la repare, en faisant aller la bale d'un seul trait au but, ce qui est souvent impossible. Ces sauvages sont si adroits a prendre la bale avec leurs crosses, que quelquefois ces parties durent plusieurs jours de suite.

"_Le Jeu du Plat, appelle aussi le Jeu des Osselets._--Il ne se joue qu'entre deux personnes. Chacun a six ou huit osselets, que je pris d'abord pour des noyaux d'abricots; els en ont la figure et sont de meme grandeur, mais en les regardant de pres je m'apercus qu'ils etoient a six faces inegales, dont les deux principales sont peintes, l'une en noir, l'autre en blanc tirant sur le jaune. On les fait sauter en l'air, en frappant la terre, ou la table, avec un plat rond et creux, ou ils sont, et qu'ils font pirouetter auparavant. Si tous en tombant presentent la meme couleur, celui qui a joue gagne cinq points, la partie est en quarante, et on defalque les points gagnes, a mesure que l'adversaire en gagne de son cote. Cinq osselets d'une meme couleur ne donnent qu'un point pour la premiere fois, mais a la seconde on fait rafle de tout. En moindre nombre on ne gagne rien. Celui, qui gagne la partie, continue de jouer; le perdant cede sa place a un autre, qui est nomme par les marqueurs de sa partie. Car on se partage d'abord, et souvent tout le village s'interesse au jeu: quelquefois meme un village joue contre un autre. Chaque partie choisit son marqueur, mais il se retire quand il veut, ce qui n'arrive que lorsque la chose tourne mal pour les siens. A chaque coup que l'on joue, surtout si c'est un coup decisif, il s'eleve de grands cris: les joueurs paroissent comme des fascines, et les spectateurs ne sont pas plus tranquils."--Charlevoix, vol. v., p. 386; vol. vi., p. 26.

No. LX.

"The action in which Sir Richard met with his death is so extraordinary that it well merits recital: its object was to surprise the Spanish fleet when it rendezvoused at the Azores, on its return from America. For this purpose, Lord Thomas Howard sailed from England with six of the queen's ships, six victualers, and some pinnaces, Sir Richard Grenville being vice admiral in the Revenge. Having set out in the spring, 1591, they waited six months at Flores in expectation of their prize. Philip, however, obtaining intelligence of their design, dispatched Don Alphonso Barcau with fifty-three ships of war to act as convoy. So secure had the English become by protracted delay, that this armament was bearing down upon them before they had the least suspicion of its approach. Most of the crews were on shore, providing water, ballast, and other necessaries, and many were disabled by sickness. To hurry on board, weigh anchor, and leave the place with the utmost speed, was their only safety; and Grenville, upon whom the charge of the details at this pressing crisis was imposed, was the last upon the spot, superintending the embarkation, and receiving his men on board, of whom ninety were on the sick-list, and only one hundred able for duty. Thus detained, he found it impossible to recover the wind, and there was no alternative but either to cut his mainsail, tack about, and fly with all speed, or remain and fight it out single handed. It was to this desperate resolution that he adhered. 'From the greatness of his spirit,' says Raleigh, 'he utterly refused to turn from the enemy, protesting he would rather die than be guilty of such dishonor to himself, his country, and her majesty's ship.' His design was to force the squadron of Seville, which was on his weather bow, to give way; and such was the impetuosity of his attack, that it was on the point of being successful. Divers of the Spaniards, springing their loof, as the sailors of those times termed it, fell under his lee; when the San Philip, a galleon of 1500 tons, gained the wind, and coming down on the Revenge, becalmed her sails so completely that she could neither make way nor obey the helm. The enemy carried three tier of guns on each side, and discharged eight foreright from her chase, besides those of her stern ports. At the moment Sir Richard was thus entangled, four other galleons loofed up and boarded him, two on his larboard and two on his starboard. The close fight began at three in the afternoon, and continued, with some slight intermission, for fifteen hours, during which time, Grenville, unsupported, sustained the reiterated attacks of fifteen Spanish ships, the rest not being able to engage in close fire. The unwieldy San Philip, having received a broadside from the lower tier of the Revenge, shifted with all speed, and avoided the repetition of such a salute; but still, as one was beaten off, another supplied the vacant space. Two galleons were sunk, and two others so handled as to lie complete wrecks upon the water; yet it was evident no human power could save Sir Richard's vessel. Although wounded in the beginning of the action, its brave commander refused, for eight hours, to leave the upper deck. He was then shot through the body, and as his wound was dressing he received another musket ball, and saw the surgeon slain at his side. Such was the state of things during the night; but the darkness concealed the full extent of the calamity. As the day broke, a melancholy spectacle presented itself. 'Now,' says Raleigh, 'was to be seen nothing but the naked hull of a ship, and that almost a skeleton, having received eight hundred shot of great artillery, and some under water; her deck covered with the limbs and carcasses of forty valiant men, the rest all wounded, and painted with their own blood; her masts beat overboard; all her tackle cut asunder; her upper works raised and level with the water, and she herself incapable of receiving any direction or motion except that given her by the heaving billows.' At this moment Grenville proposed to sink the vessel, and trust to the mercy of God rather than fall into the hands of the Spaniards--a resolution in which he was joined by the master gunner and a part of the crew; but the rest refused to consent, and compelled their captain to surrender. Faint with the loss of blood, and, like his ship, shattered with repeated wounds, this brave man soon after expired, with these remarkable words: 'Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for his country, queen, religion, and honor.'"--_Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Isles of the Azores_, 4to, 1501, quoted in Tytler's "Life of Raleigh."

No. LXI.

"Pocahontas, before her marriage, was instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, which she cordially embraced, and was baptized by the name of Rebecca. Soon after, she set sail to visit England. As soon as Smith heard of her arrival, he sent a letter to the queen, recounting all her services to himself and to the nation, assuring her majesty that she had a great spirit, though a low stature, and earnestly soliciting her majesty's kindness and courtesy. Mrs. Rolfe was accordingly introduced, and well received at court. At first James fancied that Rolfe, in marrying her, might be advancing a claim to the crown of Virginia; however, by great pains, this idea was at last driven out of his brains. Mrs. Rolfe was for some time, as a novelty, the favorite object in the circles of fashion and nobility. On her introduction into these, she deported herself with a grace and propriety which, it is said, many ladies, bred with every advantage of education and society, could not equal. Purchas mentions meeting her at the table of his patron, Dr. King, bishop of London, where she was entertained 'with festival state and pomp,' beyond what, at his hospitable board, was shown to other ladies. She carried herself as the daughter of a king, and was respected as such. She was accompanied by Vitamokomakkin, an Indian chief and priest, who had married one of her sisters, and had been sent to attend her. Purchas saw him repeatedly 'sing and dance his diabolical measures.' He endeavored to persuade this chief to follow the example of his sister-in-law, and embrace Christianity, but found him 'a blasphemer of what he knew not, preferring his God to ours.' He insisted that their _Okee_, having taught them to plant, sow, and wear a cork twisted round their left ear, was entitled to their undivided homage. Powhatan had instructed him to bring back every information respecting England, and particularly to count the number of people, furnishing him for that purpose with a bundle of sticks, that he might make a notch for every man. Vitamokomakkin, the moment he landed at Plymouth, was appalled at the magnitude of the task before him; however, he continued notching most indefatigably all the way to London; but the instant that he entered Piccadilly, he threw away the sticks, and on returning, desired Powhatan to count the leaves on the trees, and the sand on the sea-shore. He also told Smith that he had special instructions to see the English god, their king, their queen, and their prince. Smith could do nothing for him as to the first particular; but he was taken to the levee, and saw the other three, when he complained bitterly that none of them had made him any present. As soon as Smith learned that Pocahontas was settled in a house at Brentford, which she had chosen in order to be out of the smoke of London, he hastened to wait upon her. His reception was very painful. The princess turned from him, hid her face, and for two hours could by no effort be induced to utter a word. A certain degree of mystery appears to hang on the origin of this deadly offense. Her actual reproaches, when she found her speech, rested on having heard nothing of him since he left Virginia, and on having been assured there that he was dead. Prevost has taken upon him to say that the breach of plighted love was the ground of this resentment, and that it was only on believing that death had dissolved the connection between them that she had been induced to marry another. I can not in any of the original writers meet with the least trace of this alleged vow, and should be sorry to find in Smith the false lover of the fair Pocahontas. It would not also have been much in unison with her applauded discretion to have resented a wrong of this nature in such a time and manner. I am persuaded that this love was a creation of the romantic brain of Prevost, and that the real ground of her displeasure was, that during the two years when she was so shamefully kept in durance, she had heard nothing of any intercession made in her favor by one whom she had laid under such deep obligation, and really the thing seems to require some explanation. It appears that when Smith at last was able to draw speech from the indignant fair one, he succeeded in satisfying her that there had been no such neglect as she apprehended, and she insisted on calling him by the name of father.

"It is said that Pocahontas departed from London with the most favorable impressions, and with every honor, her husband being appointed Secretary and Recorder General of Virginia. But Providence had not destined that she should ever revisit her native shore. As she went down to embark at Gravesend she was seized with illness, and died in a few days. Her end is described to have edified extremely all the spectators, and to have been full of Christian resignation and hope."--Murray's _America_. See Smith, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 120-123; Beverley; Prevost, _Hist. Gen. des Voyages_, vol. xiv., p. 471; Purchas, vol. iv., 1774.

No. LXII.

"The historians of Virginia have left some records respecting this unfortunate race, who have not even left behind a relic of their name or nation. A rude agriculture, devolved solely on the women; hunting, pursued with activity and skill, but rather as a pastime than a toil; strong attachment of the members of the little communities to each other, but deadly enmity against all their neighbors, and this manifesting itself in furious wars--these features belong to the Virginians, in common with almost every form of savage life. There are others which are more distinctive. Although a rude independence has been supposed to be, and in many cases is, the peculiar boast of the savage, yet, when a yoke of opinion and authority has once been established over his mind, he yields a submission more entire and more blind than is rendered to the most absolute of Eastern despots. Such a sway had the King of Virginia. 'When he listeth,' says Smith, 'his will is a law, and must be obeyed; not only as a king, but as half a god they esteem him. What he commandeth they dare not disobey in the least thing. It is strange to see with what great fear and adoration all this people do adore this Powhatan; at the least frown of his brow their greatest spirits will tremble with fear.' Powhatan (father of the celebrated Pocahontas; see Appendix, No. LXI.) had under him a number of chiefs, who ruled as supreme within their own circle; and they were so numerous, and covered so large an extent of territory, that Powhatan is often dignified by Europeans with the title of emperor.

"The priests and conjurers formed a separate order, and enjoyed that high influence which marks a certain advance in the social state. They possessed some knowledge of nature, and of the history and traditions of their country, superior, at least, to that of their ruder countrymen. Their temples were numerous, formed on a similar plan to those of Florida, and each served by one or more priests.

"Beverley was the man who made the most close inquiry into the Virginian mythology. He did not meet with all the success he wished, finding them excessively mysterious on the subject. Having got hold, however, of an intelligent Indian, and plied him heartily with strong cider, he at last got him to open his heart in some degree. As he declared his belief in a wise, perfect, and supremely beneficent being, who dwelt in the heavens, Beverley asked him how then he could confine his worship to the devil, a wicked, ugly, earthly being. The Indian said that they were secure as to the good being, who would shower down his blessings without asking any return; but that the evil spirit was perpetually busy and meddling, and would spoil all if court were not paid to him. Beverley, however, pressed upon him how he could think that an insensible log, 'a helpless thing, equipped with a burden of clouts,' could ever be a proper object of worship. The visage of the Indian now assumed a very marked and embarrassed expression. After a long pause, he began to utter, in broken sentences, 'It is the priests;' then, after another pause, 'It is the priests;' but 'a qualm crossed his conscience,' and he would say no more.