The Myths of the New World Part 19

[250-2] Long's _Expedition_, i. p. 280; Waitz, _Anthropologie_, iii. p.

531.

[250-3] Muller, _Amer. Urreligionen_, p. 287.

[251-1] Compare Garcila.s.so de la Vega, _Hist. des Incas._, liv. ii. chap.

ii., with _Lett. sur les Superst.i.tions du Perou_, p. 104. cupay is undoubtedly a personal form from _cupan_, a shadow. (See Holguin, _Vocab.

de la Lengua Quichua_, p. 80: Cuzco, 1608.)

[251-2] "El que desparece o desvanece," _Hist. de Yucathan_, lib. iv.

cap. 7.

[251-3] Ximenes, _Vocab. Quiche_, p. 224. The attempt of the Abbe Bra.s.seur to make of Xibalba an ancient kingdom of renown with Palenque as its capital, is so utterly unsupported and wildly hypothetical, as to justify the humorous flings which have so often been cast at antiquaries.

[252-1] Scheol is from a Hebrew word, signifying to dig, to hide in the earth. Hades signifies the _unseen_ world. h.e.l.l Jacob Grimm derives from _hilan_, to conceal in the earth, and it is cognate with _hole_ and _hollow_.

[252-2] Pennock, _Religion of the Northmen_, p. 148.

[253-1] La Hontan, _Voy. dans l'Am. Sept._, i. p. 232; _Narrative of Oceola Nikkanoche_, p. 75.

[253-2] Morse, _Rep. on the Ind. Tribes_, App. p. 345.

[253-3] Garcia, _Or. de los Indios_, lib. iv. cap. 26, p. 310.

[254-1] _Voiages aux Indes Oc._, ii. p. 132.

[254-2] _Lettres Edif. et Cur._, v. p. 203.

[254-3] Alger, _Hist. of the Doctrine of a Future Life_, p. 72.

[255-1] Loskiel, _Ges. der Miss. der evang. Bruder_, p. 49.

[256-1] Richardson, _Arctic Expedition_, p. 260.

[256-2] Gumilla, _Hist. del Orinoco_, i. pp. 199, 202, 204.

[257-1] Ruis, _Conquista Espiritual del Paraguay_, p. 48, in Lafitau.

[257-2] _Notes on the Floridian Peninsula_, pp. 191 sqq.

[257-3] Bruyas, _Rad. Verborum Iroquaeorum_.

[257-4] Buschmann, _Athapask. Sprachstamm_, pp. 182, 188.

[258-1] Torquemada, _Monarquia Indiana_, lib. vi. cap. 41.

[258-2] _Le Livre Sacre des Quiches_, pp. 175-177.

[259-1] Muller, _Amer. Urrelig._, p. 290, after Spix.

[259-2] D'Orbigny, _Annuaire des Voyages_, 1845, p. 77.

[259-3] Long's _Expedition_, i. p. 278.

[260-1] _Hist. des Incas_, lib. iii. chap. 7.

[260-2] _Hist. of the New World_, bk. v. chap. 7.

[261-1] _Travels in North America_, p. 280.

[261-2] Egede, _Nachrichten von Gronland_, p. 156.

CHAPTER X.

THE NATIVE PRIESTHOOD.

Their t.i.tles.--Pract.i.tioners of the healing art by supernatural means.--Their power derived from natural magic and the exercise of the clairvoyant and mesmeric faculties.--Examples.--Epidemic hysteria.--Their social position.--Their duties as religious functionaries.--Terms of admission to the Priesthood.--Inner organization in various nations.--Their esoteric languages and secret societies.

Thus picking painfully amid the ruins of a race gone to wreck centuries ago, thus rejecting much foreign rubbish and scrutinizing each stone that lies around, if we still are unable to rebuild the edifice in its pristine symmetry and beauty, yet we can at least discern and trace the ground plan and outlines of the fane it raised to G.o.d. Before leaving the field to the richer returns of more fortunate workmen, it will not be inappropriate to add a sketch of the ministers of these religions, the servants in this temple.

Shamans, conjurers, sorcerers, medicine men, wizards, and many another hard name have been given them, but I shall call them _priests_, for in their poor way, as well as any other priesthood, they set up to be the agents of the G.o.ds, and the interpreters of divinity. No tribe was so devoid of religious sentiment as to be without them. Their power was terrible, and their use of it unscrupulous. Neither men nor G.o.ds, death nor life, the winds nor the waves, were beyond their control. Like Old Men of the Sea, they have clung to the neck of their nations, throttling all attempts at progress, binding them to the thraldom of superst.i.tion and profligacy, dragging them down to wretchedness and death.

Christianity and civilization meet in them their most determined, most implacable foes. But what is this but the story of priestcraft and intolerance everywhere, which Old Spain can repeat as well as New Spain, the white race as well as the red? Blind leaders of the blind, dupers and duped fall into the ditch.

In their own languages they are variously called; by the Algonkins and Dakotas, "those knowing divine things" and "dreamers of the G.o.ds"

(_manitousiou_, _wakanwacipi_); in Mexico, "masters or guardians of the divine things" (_teopixqui_, _teotecuhtli_); in Cherokee, their t.i.tle means, "possessed of the divine fire" (_atsilung kelawhi_); in Iroquois, "keepers of the faith" (_honundeunt_); in Quichua, "the learned"

(_amauta_); in Maya, "the listeners" (_cocome_). The popular term in French and English of "medicine men" is not such a misnomer as might be supposed. The n.o.ble science of medicine is connected with divinity not only by the rudest savage but the profoundest philosopher, as has been already adverted to. When sickness is looked upon as the effect of the anger of a G.o.d, or as the malicious infliction of a sorcerer, it is natural to seek help from those who a.s.sume to control the unseen world, and influence the fiats of the Almighty. The recovery from disease is the kindliest exhibition of divine power. Therefore the earliest canons of medicine in India and Egypt are attributed to no less distinguished authors than the G.o.ds Brahma and Thoth;[265-1] therefore the earliest pract.i.tioners of the healing art are universally the ministers of religion.

But, however creditable this origin is to medicine, its partnership with theology was no particular advantage to it. These mystical doctors shared the contempt still so prevalent among ourselves for a treatment based on experiment and reason, and regarded the administration of emetics and purgatives, baths and diuretics, with a contempt quite equal to that of the disciples of Hahnemann. The pract.i.tioners of the rational school formed a separate cla.s.s among the Indians, and had nothing to do with amulets, powwows, or spirits.[265-2] They were of different name and standing, and though held in less estimation, such valuable additions to the pharmacopia as guaiac.u.m, cinchona, and ipecacuanha, were learned from them. The priesthood scorned such ign.o.ble means. Were they summoned to a patient, they drowned his groans in a barbarous clangor of instruments in order to fright away the demon that possessed him; they sucked and blew upon the diseased organ, they sprinkled him with water, and catching it again threw it on the ground, thus drowning out the disease; they rubbed the part with their hands, and exhibiting a bone or splinter a.s.serted that they drew it from the body, and that it had been the cause of the malady, they manufactured a little image to represent the spirit of sickness, and spitefully knocked it to pieces, thus vicariously destroying its prototype; they sang doleful and monotonous chants at the top of their voices, screwed their countenances into hideous grimaces, twisted their bodies into unheard of contortions, and by all accounts did their utmost to merit the honorarium they demanded for their services. A double motive spurred them to spare no pains. For if they failed, not only was their reputation gone, but the next expert called in was likely enough to hint, with that urbanity so traditional in the profession, that the illness was in fact caused or much increased by the antagonistic nature of the remedies previously employed, whereupon the chances were that the doctor's life fell into greater jeopardy than that of his quondam patient.

Considering the probable result of this treatment, we may be allowed to doubt whether it redounded on the whole very much to the honor of the fraternity. Their strong points are rather to be looked for in the real knowledge gained by a solitary and reflective life, by an earnest study of the appearances of nature, and of those hints and forest signs which are wholly lost on the white man and beyond the ordinary insight of a native. Travellers often tell of changes of the weather predicted by them with astonishing foresight, and of information of singular accuracy and extent gleaned from most meagre materials. There is nothing in this to shock our sense of probability--much to elevate our opinion of the native sagacity. They were also adepts in tricks of sleight of hand, and had no mean acquaintance with what is called natural magic. They would allow themselves to be tied hand and foot with knots innumerable, and at a sign would shake them loose as so many wisps of straw; they would spit fire and swallow hot coals, pick glowing stones from the flames, walk naked through a fire, and plunge their arms to the shoulder in kettles of boiling water with apparent impunity.[267-1] Nor was this all. With a skill not inferior to that of the jugglers of India, they could plunge knives into vital parts, vomit blood, or kill one another out and out to all appearances, and yet in a few minutes be as well as ever; they could set fire to articles of clothing and even houses, and by a touch of their magic restore them instantly as perfect as before.[267-2] If it were not within our power to see most of these miracles performed any night in one of our great cities by a well dressed professional, we would at once deny their possibility. As it is, they astonish us only too little.

One of the most peculiar and characteristic exhibitions of their power, was to summon a spirit to answer inquiries concerning the future and the absent. A great similarity marked this proceeding in all northern tribes from the Eskimos to the Mexicans. A circular or conical lodge of stout poles four or eight in number planted firmly in the ground, was covered with skins or mats, a small aperture only being left for the seer to enter. Once in, he carefully closed the hole and commenced his incantations. Soon the lodge trembles, the strong poles shake and bend as with the united strength of a dozen men, and strange, unearthly sounds, now far aloft in the air, now deep in the ground, anon approaching near and nearer, reach the ears of the spectators. At length the priest announces that the spirit is present, and is prepared to answer questions. An indispensable preliminary to any inquiry is to insert a handful of tobacco, or a string of beads, or some such douceur under the skins, ostensibly for the behoof of the celestial visitor, who would seem not to be above earthly wants and vanities. The replies received, though occasionally singularly clear and correct, are usually of that profoundly ambiguous purport which leaves the anxious inquirer little wiser than he was before. For all this, ventriloquism, trickery, and shrewd knavery are sufficient explanations. Nor does it materially interfere with this view, that converted Indians, on whose veracity we can implicitly rely, have repeatedly averred that in performing this rite they themselves did not move the medicine lodge; for nothing is easier than in the state of nervous excitement they were then in to be self-deceived, as the now familiar phenomenon of table-turning ill.u.s.trates.

But there is something more than these vulgar arts now and then to be perceived. There are statements supported by unquestionable testimony, which ought not to be pa.s.sed over in silence, and yet I cannot but approach them with hesitation. They are so revolting to the laws of exact science, so alien, I had almost said, to the experience of our lives. Yet is this true, or are such experiences only ignored and put aside without serious consideration? Are there not in the history of each of us pa.s.sages which strike our retrospective thought with awe, almost with terror? Are there not in nearly every community individuals who possess a mysterious power, concerning whose origin, mode of action, and limits, we and they are alike in the dark? I refer to such organic forces as are popularly summed up under the words clairvoyance, mesmerism, rhabdomancy, animal magnetism, physical spiritualism.

Civilized thousands stake their faith and hope here and hereafter, on the truths of these manifestations; rational medicine recognizes their existence, and while it attributes them to morbid and exceptional influences, confesses its want of more exact knowledge, and refrains from barren theorizing. Let us follow her example, and hold it enough to show that such powers, whatever they are, were known to the native priesthood as well as the modern spiritualists, and the miracle mongers of the Middle Ages.

Their highest development is what our ancestors called "second sight."

That under certain conditions knowledge can pa.s.s from one mind to another otherwise than through the ordinary channels of the senses, is familiarly shown by the examples of persons _en rapport_. The limit to this we do not know, but it is not unlikely that clairvoyance or second sight is based upon it. In his autobiography, the celebrated Sac chief Black Hawk, relates that his great grandfather "was inspired by a belief that at the end of four years, he should see a white man, who would be to him a father." Under the direction of this vision he travelled eastward to a certain spot, and there, as he was forewarned, met a Frenchman, through whom the nation was brought into alliance with France.[269-1] No one at all versed in the Indian character will doubt the implicit faith with which this legend was told and heard. But we may be pardoned our scepticism, seeing there are so many chances of error.

It is not so with an anecdote related by Captain Jonathan Carver, a cool-headed English trader, whose little book of travels is an unquestioned authority. In 1767, he was among the Killistenoes at a time when they were in great straits for food, and depending upon the arrival of the traders to rescue them from starvation. They persuaded the chief priest to consult the divinities as to when the relief would arrive.

After the usual preliminaries, this magnate announced that next day, precisely when the sun reached the zenith, a canoe would arrive with further tidings. At the appointed hour the whole village, together with the incredulous Englishman, was on the beach, and sure enough, at the minute specified, a canoe swung round a distant point of land, and rapidly approaching the sh.o.r.e brought the expected news.[270-1]

Charlevoix is nearly as trustworthy a writer as Carver. Yet he deliberately relates an equally singular instance.[270-2]

But these examples are surpa.s.sed by one described in the _Atlantic Monthly_ of July, 1866, the author of which, John Mason Brown, Esq., has a.s.sured me of its accuracy in every particular. Some years since, at the head of a party of voyageurs, he set forth in search of a band of Indians somewhere on the vast plains along the tributaries of the Copper-mine and Mackenzie rivers. Danger, disappointment, and the fatigues of the road, induced one after another to turn back, until of the original ten only three remained. They also were on the point of giving up the apparently hopeless quest, when they were met by some warriors of the very band they were seeking. These had been sent out by one of their medicine men to find three whites, whose horses, arms, attire, and personal appearance he minutely described, which description was repeated to Mr. Brown by the warriors before they saw his two companions. When afterwards, the priest, a frank and simple-minded man, was asked to explain this extraordinary occurrence, he could offer no other explanation than that "he saw them coming, and heard them talk on their journey."[271-1]

Many tales such as these have been recorded by travellers, and however much they may shock our sense of probability, as well-authenticated exhibitions of a power which sways the Indian mind, and which has ever prejudiced it so unchangeably against Christianity and civilization, they cannot be disregarded. Whether they too are but specimens of refined knavery, whether they are instigations of the Devil, or whether they must be cla.s.sed with other facts as ill.u.s.trating certain obscure and curious mental faculties, each may decide as the bent of his mind inclines him, for science makes no decision.