Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3)

J >> James Athearn Jones >> Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 (of 3)

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When he had finished these words, he began to swell until he had reached
his former bulk and stature. Then at each of his shoulders came out a
wing of the colour of the gold-headed pigeon. Gently shaking these, he
took flight from the land of the Shawanos, and was never seen in those
beautiful regions again.

The Shawanos did as he bade them. They put the beautiful woman into the
house of the great council, and then went and raked up the coals of the
fire and the unquenched brands, and covered them with ashes. When the
morning came, they laid the body of the head warrior on the ashes, and
built a great fire over it. They kept this fire burning two whole moons.
But they were careful to burn no pine, nor the tree which bears
poisonous flowers, nor the vine which yields no grapes, nor the shrub
whose dew blisters the flesh. On the first day of the third moon, they
let the fire go out, and with the next sun all the Shawanos, men, women,
and children, even the aged whose knees trembled so much that they could
not walk, came or were brought together beside the embers. Then the
priest and the head chief brought the beautiful woman from the cabin,
and placed her beside the ashes. The Mequachake tribe, who were the
priests of the nation, stood nearest, then the Kiskapocoke tribe, who
were the greatest warriors. By and by, there was a terrible puffing and
blowing in the ashes, which flew towards the sun, and the great star,
and the River of Rivers, and the land of the Walkullas. At last, the
priests and warriors who could see began to clap their hands, and dance,
crying out "Piqua!" which in the Shawanos tongue means "a man coming out
of the ashes," or a "man made of ashes." They told no lie. There he
stood, a man tall and strait as a young pine, looking like a Shawanos,
but he was handsomer than any man of our nation. The first thing he did
was to utter the war-whoop, and cry for paint, a club, a bow and arrow,
and a hatchet, which were given him. But looking around he saw the white
maiden, and straight dropping all his weapons of war, he walked up to
her and gazed in her eyes. Then he came to the head chief, and said, "I
must have that woman for my wife."

"What are you?" asked the head chief.

"A man made of ashes," he answered.

"Who made you?"

"The Great Spirit. And now let me go, that I may take my bow and arrows,
and kill my deer, and come back, and take the beautiful maiden to be my
wife."

The chief said to Chenos, "Shall he have her? Does the Great Spirit give
her to him?"

Chenos said, "Yes, for they love each other. The Great Spirit has willed
that he shall have her, and from them shall arise a tribe to be called
'Piqua.'"

Brothers, I am a Piqua, descended from the "man made of ashes." If I
have told you a lie, blame not me, for I have but told the story as I
heard it. Brothers, I have done!

* * * * *

Though it could not be doubted that the Indians were delighted with the
tale which had just been related to them, for they relish story-telling
with as much zest as the Wild Arabs, they did not express their
pleasure by any of those boisterous emotions of joy and satisfaction
which, in civilized countries, and among men of a less taciturn
disposition, are accorded to a good story well told. They neither
shouted, nor clapped their hands, nor gave any other indication of
pleasure. It is a strong as well as universal trait of the Indian that
he is perfectly master of his feelings, never suffering them under any
circumstances to escape from his controul and management. At the stake
and the feast, in the field and the council, he alike subdues his mind,
and utters but a gruff "Hah!" at scenes and tales which would make an
Englishman very noisy and boisterous. That they liked the stories which
had been told them, could be gathered from nothing that they said or
did. It would have been accounted highly disgraceful to testify their
approbation by exclamations. But their perfect silence and deep
stillness spoke their satisfaction as plainly as the noisiest joy could
have done. The attention of an Indian is more all-absorbing than that of
a white man. It is never distracted or divided, he is never listless or
absent. With dilated nostrils, and in a posture slightly inclined
forward, he listens with his whole soul. Not a word escapes him. While
an educated white man would be continually snapping the thread of the
narrative by a reference in his mind to parallel passages in his former
reading, the savage sees nothing but the present speaker, hears nothing
but a tale fraught with incidents to which his own recollections are not
permitted to offer a parallel. The next portion of the manuscript
carries us to the Tale of Pomatare, or the Flying Beaver.

NOTES.

* * * * *

(1) _Mad Buffalo._--p. 1.

The name assumed by the warrior is generally expressive of something
seen in the dream which follows the feast of initiation into manhood.
Whatever object was then seen becomes the "medicine," and the name
assumed has some relation to the guardian spirit. Thus Little Bear,
Black Bear, Bender of the Pine Tree, Snapping Turtle, Guard of the Red
Arrows, &c.

(2) _War-spears, and bows and arrows._--p. 5.

It may interest some of our readers, especially the military, to know
the manner in which the Indians arm themselves for combat. They
generally go well armed, that is, they are well provided with offensive
weapons. Such as have intercourse with the Europeans make use of
tomahawks, knives, and fire-arms; but those whose dwellings are situated
to the eastward of the Mississippi, and who have not an opportunity of
purchasing these kinds of weapons, use bows and arrows and also the
Casse-Tete or War-Club.

The Indians who inhabit the country which extends from the Rocky
Mountains to the South Sea, use in fight a warlike instrument that is
very uncommon. Having great plenty of horses, they always attack their
enemies on horse-back, and encumber themselves with no other weapon than
a stone of middling size, curiously wrought, which they fasten, by a
string about a yard and a half long, to their right arms, a little above
the elbow. These stones they conveniently carry in their hands till they
reach their enemies, and then, swinging them with great dexterity as
they ride full speed, never fail of doing execution. Some of these
western tribes make use of a javelin, pointed with bone, worked into
different forms; but their general weapons are bows and arrows, and
clubs. The club is made of a very hard wood, and the head of it
fashioned round like a ball, about three inches and a half in diameter.
In this rotund part is fixed an edge resembling that of a tomahawk,
either of steel or flint. The dagger is peculiar to the Naudowessie
nation. It was originally made of flint or bone, but since they have had
communication with the European traders they have formed it of steel.
The length of it is about ten inches, and that part close to the handle
nearly three inches broad. Its edges are keen, and it gradually tapers
towards a point. They wear it in a sheath made of deer leather, neatly
ornamented with porcupine quills; and it is usually hung by a string
decorated in the same manner, which reaches as low as the breast.

Among the Delawares the offensive weapons formerly in use were bows,
arrows, and clubs. The latter were made of the hardest wood, not quite
the length of a man's arm, and very heavy, with a large round knob at
one end. For other descriptions of Indian weapons of war, see Long,
Loskiel, and Mackenzie--especially the latter.

(3)_Since he chewed the bitter root, and put on the new mocassins._--p.
6.

The ceremony of initiation into manhood is one of the most important
that occurs among the Indians, and displays in a remarkable degree the
power which superstition has acquired over their minds. It varies
essentially among the different tribes, but the following description
will briefly exhibit the custom which has obtained in the tribes named
in the tradition, and will give a tolerable idea of that in use among
the more remote bands.

"At the age of from fifteen to seventeen years, this ceremony (that of
initiating youth into manhood) is usually performed. They take two
handfuls of a very bitter root, and eat it during a whole day; then they
steep the leaves and drink the water. In the dusk of the evening, they
eat two or three spoonfuls of boiled corn. This is repeated for four
days, and during this time they remain in a house. On the fifth day they
go out, but must put on a pair of new mocassins. During twelve moons,
they abstain from eating bucks, except old ones, and from turkey-cocks,
fowls, bears, and salt: During this period they must not pick their
ears, or scratch their heads with their fingers, but use a small stick.
For four moons they must have a fire to themselves to cook their food
with; the fifth moon, any person may cook for them, but they must serve
themselves first, and use one spoon and pan. Every new moon they drink
for four days a decoction of the bitter snake-root, an emetic, and
abstain from all food, except in the evening, when they are permitted to
eat a little boiled corn. The twelfth moon they perform for four days
what they commenced with on the first four days; the fifth day they come
out of their house, gather corn cobs, burn them to ashes, and with
these rub their bodies all over. At the end of the moon they undergo a
profuse perspiration in the Sweating-house, then go into the water, and
thus ends the ceremony. This ceremony is sometimes extended to only
four, six, or eight, months, but the course is the same."

After this they are at liberty to assume the arms of a man, and take
upon themselves the quest of glory. And they have adopted one at least
of the maxims of civilized life--"none but the brave deserve the fair."
They are not deemed worthy to attempt the siege of the forest maiden's
heart till they have been received into the fraternity of warriors.
There can be no doubt whatever that this is essentially an Order of
Knighthood; and as such the custom is entitled to receive a more
lengthened notice than I am permitted to give it in this place.

(4) _Beaver-Moon._--p. 6.

With the Indians every month has a name expressive of its season. The
appellations will vary of course as the circumstance which gives the
month its name is more or less hastened or deferred. The "_corn-moon_"
of the Iroquois, on the northern lakes, would hardly be the _corn-moon_
of the Creeks in Georgia. The Northern Indians call March, (the month in
which their year begins,) the _worm-month_, because in this month the
worms quit their retreats in the bark of the trees, where they have
sheltered themselves during the winter.

April is the _moon of plants_.

May the _moon of flowers_.

June _the hot moon_.

July the _buck-moon_.

August is called the _sturgeon-moon,_ because that fish becomes abundant
in this month.

September, the _corn-moon_, because the corn is gathered in that month.

October, the _travelling-moon_; as at this time they leave their
villages, and travel towards the place where they intend to spend the winter.

November, the _beaver-moon_; the month of commencing their hunts for the
beaver.

December, the _hunting-moon_, because they employ this month in pursuit
of game.

January, the _cold moon_, as this month has the most intense cold of any
month.

February, the _snow-moon_, because most snow falls in this month.

The Delawares, while they lived on the Atlantic coast, called March the
_shad-moon_; after they removed to the interior they called it the
_sap-moon_; October was their _corn-moon_, &c.

It may be remarked, that the designations given to the months are
derived from some remarkable trait of character, peculiarity of season,
or extraordinary event. Were they in England, they would suit those
names to the prominent circumstance occurring in the month. The March of
the present year would probably have been the "Month of the Silver
Cross," i.e. "The Catholic Month;" and, were they living at the West
End, and frequenters of the Park, at the season when it is crowded with
beautiful faces, that season would undoubtedly receive the name of the
"Season of Starflowers," or the "Month of the Rainbow birds."

(5) _Master of Life_.--p. 7.

The belief entertained by savage nations respecting the Supreme Being,
and a future state, is always entitled to a most respectful
consideration, because, when it admits the existence of a supreme,
over-ruling, almighty intelligence, it furnishes the believer with an
unanswerable argument for his creed. I have, therefore, devoted a few
pages to the subject, which I presume no one will think misapplied.
Hearne says, "Religion has not as yet begun to dawn among the Northern
Indians--I never found any of them that had the least idea of
futurity."--(_Hearne's Journey to the Northern Ocean.)_ And Colden, in
his History of the Five Nations, says, "It is certain they have no kind
of public worship, and I am told they have no radical word to express
God, but use a compound word signifying the Preserver, Sustainer, or
Master of the Universe; neither could I ever learn what sentiments 'they
have of future existence."--(_Colden's History of the Five Nations,_ p.
15.) I have found no other writer who has advanced a like opinion to the
two quoted above, and little importance has been attached to their
opinions with respect to Indians. Charlevoix, the most accurate observer
of Indian manners who has yet committed his thoughts to paper, says,
"Nothing is more certain, than that the savages of this continent have
an idea of a First Being, but, at the same time, nothing is more
obscure." They agree in general in making Him the First Spirit, the Lord
and Creator of the world. "Every thing," says be, "appears to be the
object of a religious worship."--(_A Voyage to North America, by Father
Charlevoix_, vol. ii. 107.) Heckewelder affirms, that "Habitual devotion
to the Great First Cause, and a strong, feeling of gratitude for the
benefits which He confers, is one of the prominent traits which
characterise the mind of the untutored Indian."--(_Heck. Hist. Ace._ p.
84.) Loskiel says, (_History of the Mission of the United Brethren_, p.
33) "The prevailing opinion of all these nations is, 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."
Mackenzie affirms that they believe in a future state of rewards and
punishments. I have observed that they had not any particular form of
religious worship, but, as they believe in a good and evil spirit, and a
state of future rewards and punishments, they cannot be devoid of
religious impressions.--(_Mackenzie's General History of the Fur Trade_,
vol. i p. 145, 156.) The religion of the Mandans, say Lewis and Clarke,
(vol. i. p. 138,) consists in the belief of one Great Spirit. As their
belief in a Supreme Being is firm and sincere, so their gratitude to Him
is fervent and unvarying. They are tormented by no false philosophy, led
astray by no recondite opinions of controversialists, whether _He is all
in all_, or shares a "divided throne." Simple and unenlightened sons of
nature, they hold the belief which has never failed to present itself to
such, _that there is a God_, and to be grateful and worship that God is
the second innate principle of our nature. There are no people more
frequent and fervent in their acknowledgments of gratitude to God. Their
belief in Him is universal, and their confidence in his goodness and
mercy almost exceeds belief. Their Almighty Creator is always before
their eyes on all important occasions. They feel and acknowledge, his
supreme power. They also endeavour to propitiate Him by outward worship
or sacrifices. These are religious solemnities, intended to make
themselves acceptable to the Great Spirit, to find favour in His sight,
and to obtain His forgiveness for past errors and offences.

In Winslow's "Good News from England, or a relation of remarkable things
in that plantation," anno. 1622, occur the following remarks on the
subject of the belief of the Indians of that country in a Supreme Being.

"A few things I thought meete to add heereunto, which I have observed
amongst the Indians, both touching their religion, and sundry other
customes among them. And first, _whereas myselfe and others, in former
letters_, (which came to the presse against my wille and knowledge,)
_wrote_ that the Indians about us, are a _people without any religion,
or knowledge of any God, therein I erred, though wee could then gather
no better, for as they conceive of many divine powers, so of one whom
they call Kietan to be the principall maker of all the rest, and to be
made by none. Hee (they say) created the heavens, earth, sea, and all
creatures contained therein."_

Long says, the tribes in the shade of the rocky mountains believe the
Wahconda to be "the greatest and best of beings, the creator," &c.

In conclusion it may be affirmed, that a constant, abiding, and
unwavering belief in the existence of a Supreme Being, and in his
goodness, is that entertained by the Western Indians.

(6)_Take care of the old men_.--p. 8.

The American Indians pay great respect to old age. They will tremble
before a grandfather, and submit to his injunctions with the utmost
alacrity. With them, especially with the young, the words of the ancient
part of the community are esteemed as oracles, and their sayings
regarded with the veneration paid of yore to the leaves of the Sybil. If
they take during their hunting parties any game that is reckoned by them
uncommonly delicious, it is immediately presented to the eldest of their
relations.

From their infancy they are taught to be kind and attentive to aged
persons, and never let them suffer for want of necessaries and comforts.
The parents spare no pains to impress upon the minds of their children
the conviction that they would draw down upon themselves the anger of
the Great Spirit, were they to neglect those whom in his goodness he had
permitted to attain such an advanced age. It is a sacred principle among
the Indians, that the Great Spirit made it the duty of parents to
maintain and take care of their children until they should be able to
provide for themselves, and that, having while weak and helpless
received the benefits of maintenance, education, and protection, they
are bound to repay them by a similar care of those who are labouring
under the infirmities of old age. They do not confine themselves to acts
of absolute necessity; it is not enough that the old are not suffered to
starve with hunger or perish with cold, but they must be made as much as
possible to share in the pleasures and comforts of life.(_Heck. 152,
153_.) He goes on to remark that they are frequently carried to the
chase on a horse, or in a canoe, that their spirits may be revived by
the sight of a sport in which they can no longer participate. 153. "At
home the old are as well treated, and taken care of, as if they were
favourite children. They are cherished, and even caressed, indulged in
health, and nursed in sickness, and all their wishes and wants attended
to. Their company is sought by the young, to whom their conversation is
considered an honour. Their advice is asked on all occasions, their
words are listened to as oracles, and their occasional garrulity, nay
even the second childhood often attendant on extreme old age, is never
with the Indians a subject of ridicule or laughter."

Age is every where much respected, for, according to their ideas, long
life and wisdom are always connected together.

Young Indians endeavour by presents to gain instruction from the aged,
and to learn from them how to attain to old age. _Loskiel_, part I, p.
15

Age seemed to be an object of great veneration among these people, for
they carried an old woman by turns on their backs, who was quite blind
and infirm, from the very advanced period of her life. _Mackenzie_, 293.

(7) _God of War_.--p. 8.

The terms, Great Spirit and God of War, are synonimous with many of the
Indian tribes, but not with all. The Hurons call him Areskoui; the
Iroquois, by a slight deviation, Agreskoui. Other nations have adopted
other names.

(8) _He went to the woman, laid his hand on her, and wept_.--p. 14.

Being then out of all hopes of surprising their enemies, three or four
of the eldest of them laid their hands on my head, and began to weep
bitterly, accompanying their tears with such mournful accents as can
hardly be expressed; while I, with a very sorry handkerchief I had left,
made shift to dry up their tears; to very little purpose however, for,
refusing to smoke in our calumet, they thereby gave us to understand
that their design was still to murder us. (_Hennepin's Voyage_, printed
in Transactions of American Ant. Soc. Vol. I. page 83, and see page 85
of the same vol.)

This "imposition of hands," accompanied with tears, was for the purpose
of exciting compassion for the recent loss of their relations in
conflict, and thus procuring revenge.

I am by no means certain that the above is a correct explanation of the
practice, though, in the tale or tradition in which I have introduced
it, I have considered it so. Tonti, in his relation of De La Salle's
Expedition, supposes it to arise from a more subdued feeling. The
passage, as the reader will see, is replete with poetical beauty. His
words are--"We arrived in the midst of a very extraordinary nation,
called the _Biscatonges_, to whom we gave the name of weepers, in regard
that upon the first approach of strangers, all these people, as well men
as women, usually fall a-weeping bitterly: the reason of this practice
is very particular; for these poor people imagining that their relations
or friends deceased are gone a journey, and continually expecting their
return, the remembrance of 'em is renewed upon the arrival of new
passengers; but forasmuch as they do not find in their persons those
whose loss they lament, it only serves to increase their grief. That
which is yet more remarkable, and perhaps even very reasonable, is that
they weep much more at the birth of their children than at their death,
because the latter is esteemed only by 'em, as it were a journey or
voyage, from whence they may return after the expiration of a certain
time, but they look upon their nativity as an inlet into an ocean of
dangers and misfortunes."

(9) _A great man whose head nearly reached the sky._--p. 26.

The God of the Indians has always a corporeal form, and is generally of
immense stature. He is chiefly represented as a man possessed of great
dimensions and mighty corporeal strength. Sometimes however he takes the
shape of a beast. Charlevoix says: "Almost all the Algonquin nations
have siren the name of the _Great Hare_ to the first spirit. Some call
him _Michabou_, _i.e._ God of the Waters; others _Atoacan_, the meaning of
which I do not know. The greatest part say that, being supported on the
waters with all his court, all composed of _four-footed creatures like
himself_, he formed the earth out of a grain of sand taken from the
bottom of the ocean, &c. Some speak of a God of the Waters, who opposed
the design of the _Great Hare_, or at least refused to favour it. _This
God is, according to some, the Great Tiger_." _Charlevoix_, ii, 107, 108.
And see tradition _supra_. The Hurons believe him to be the sun. _Ibid_.
The same author remarks (_page_ 109) that "the Gods of the savages have,
according to their notions, bodies and live much in the same manner as
we do," &c.

Carver says "the Indians appear to fashion to themselves corporeal
representations of their Gods, and believe them to be of a human form."
Wennebea, one of the Indian chiefs seen by Long in his expedition to the
source of St. Peter's River, thought the Great Spirit had a human form,
and wore a _white hat_. It surely cannot after this be held that the
"ideas of an Indian have _always_ a degree of sublimity."

I have never seen an Indian who believed the Supreme Being to have other
than a human form, or to be of less than Almighty power and dimensions.
An Indian, who was in the service of the Author during the entire period
between childhood and manhood, and used to delight and astonish him with
his sublime though most natural conceptions of Infinity and the Godhead,
always called him the Great Good Man. The "Prince of the power of the
air," he very appositely called the "Little Bad Man."

POMATARE, THE FLYING BEAVER.

Pomatare rose and said:--"Brothers, a very great while ago, the
ancestors of the Shawanos nation lived on the other side of the Great
Lake, halfway between the rising sun and the evening star. It was a land
of deep snows and much frost; of winds which whistled in the clear cold
nights, and storms which travelled from seas no eye could reach.
Sometimes the sun ceased to shine for moons together, and then he was
continually before our eyes for as many more. In the season of cold, the
waters were all locked up, and the snows overtopped the ridge of our
cabins; then he shone out so fiercely that men fell down stricken by his
fierce beams, and were numbered with the snow which had melted, and run
to the embrace of the rivers. It was not like the beautiful lands, the
lands blessed with soft suns and ever-green vales, where we now dwell.
Yet it was well stocked with deer, and the waters with fat seals and
great fish, which were caught just when the people pleased to go after
them. Still our nation were discontented, and wished to leave their
barren and inhospitable shores. The priests had told them of a beautiful
world beyond the Great Salt Lake, from which the glorious sun never
disappeared for a longer time than the duration of a child's sleep,
where snow-shoes were never wanted--a land clothed with eternal verdure,
and bright with never-failing gladness. The Shawanos listened to these
tales till their minds came to loathe their own simple comforts; they
even forgot the spot which contained the ashes of their ancestors; all
they talked of, all they appeared to think of, was the _land of the
happy hunting-grounds._[A]

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