“The manner of their devotion was, to kindle large fires in their wigwams,
or in the open fields, and to sing and dance round them in a wild
and violent manner. Sometimes they would all shout aloud, with the
most antic and hideous notes. They made rattles of shells, which they
shook in a wild and violent manner, to fill up the confused noise. Their
priests, or powahs, led in these exercises. They were dressed in the most
odd and surprising manner, with skins of odious and frightful creatures
about their heads, faces, arms, and bodies. They painted themselves in the
most ugly forms which could be devised. They sometimes sang, and then
broke forth into strong invocations, with starts, and strange motions and
passions. When these ceased, the other Indians groaned, making wild and
doleful sounds. At these times they sacrificed their skins, Indian money,
and the best of their treasures. These were taken by their Powahs, and all
cast into the fires and consumed together. The English were also persuaded
that they sometimes sacrificed their children as well as their most valuable
commodities. Milford people observing an Indian child, nearly at one of
these times of their devotion, dressed in an extraordinary manner, with all
kinds of Indian finery, had the curiosity to inquire what could be the reason.
The Indians answered that it was to be sacrificed, and the people supposed
that it was given to the devil. The Evil Spirit which the New-England
Indians called Hobbam-ocko [or Hobam-oqui], the Virginia Indians called
Okee. So deluded were these unhappy people, that they believed these
barbarous sacrifices to be absolutely necessary. They imagined that unless
they appeased and conciliated their gods in this manner, they would neither
suffer them to have peace nor harvests.”—Trumbull, I. p. 49. The Historian
of Connecticut, on the authority of Mather and Purchas, thus assents to
the popular belief with regard to the custom of human sacrifices among the
Indians. In page 51 he has this passage,—“The stoutest and most promising
boys were chosen, and trained up with peculiar care in the observation
of certain Indian rites and customs. They were kept from all delicious
meats, trained to coarse fare, and made to drink the juice of bitter herbs
until it occasioned violent vomitings. They were beaten over their legs and
shins with sticks, and made to run through brambles and thickets to make
them hardy, and, as the Indians said, to render them more acceptable to
Hobbam-ocko.” This is undoubtedly the same custom mentioned in the
previous extract; and is precisely that which prevailed among the Indians
of Virginia, as seen by Captain John Smith, and which he thought was a
sacrifice to the devil. His account is preserved in Purchas, and in the History
of Virginia; and is explained in the latter book by the ceremony of
Huskanawing. See a Note to Canto First. Heckewelder calls it the Initiation
of Boys; and Charlevoix, “getting a tutelary Genius,” iii. p. 346.
See the notes to the Rev. Dr. Jarvis' Discourse; where most of the authorities
on this subject are quoted. It is fully manifest that there was no such
thing as the sacrifice of children among our Indians. The plot of the poem
was hastily formed, when we had scarcely read any thing on the manners of
the Indians, or even the history of the times. This ignorance led us, not
only to introduce a rite which never had any existence, but to ascribe to
Philip a useless piece of treachery and cruelty, with scarcely any necessity
for it, even in supporting the fiction. I have endeavoured to make the
incantations consistent with themselves, and with the error we fell into.
As originally written, by myself, they did not possess even that merit. It
is unnecessary to quote more from the old writers on the New-England
Indians, to show their belief on this subject. They all agree, pretty much
in the same point. “'Tis an unusual thing for them,” says Mather, “to
have their Assemblies, wherein, after the usage of some Diabolical Rites, a
Devil appears unto them, to inform them and advise them about their circumstances;
and sometimes there are odd Events of their making these
applications to the Devil. For instance, 'tis particularly affirmed, That the
Indians in their wars with us, finding a sore inconvenience by our Dogs,
sacrificed a Dog to the Devil; after which no English Dog would bark at an
Indian for divers months ensuing.”—Magnalia, iii. 192. What interpreter
the Devil had on these occasions does not appear. That he did not understand
the Indian tongue is manifest from what our author says himself
immediately after. “Once finding that the Dæmons in a possessed young
Woman understood the Latin, and Greek, and Hebrew Languages, my
Curiosity led me to make Trial of this Indian Language, and the Dæmons
did seem as if they did not understand it.” Daniel Gookin gives this
account of the matter. “Their religion is as other gentiles are. Some, for
their God, adore the Sun; others the moon; some the earth; others the
fire; and like vanities. [This is confounding the Spirits, or ministerial
agencies, with the One Supreme Being, whom the Indians undoubtedly
worshipped, as the writer goes on to say.] Yet generally they acknowledge
One great supreme doer of good; and him they call Wonand, or Mannitt:
another that is the great doer of evil or mischief; and him they call
Mattand, which is the devil; and him they dread and fear more than they
love and honour the former chief good, which is God. There are among
them certain men and women whom they call powows. These are partly
wizards and witches, holding familiarity with Satan, that evil one; and
partly are physicians, and make use, at least in show, of herbs and roots, for
curing the sick and diseased, &c. The powows are reputed, and I conceive
justly, to hold familiarity with the devil; and therefore are, by the English
laws, prohibited the exercise of their diabolical practices within the English
jurisdiction, under the penalty of five pounds,—and the procurer, five pounds,
—and every person present twenty pence. Satan doth strongly endeavour
to keep up this practice among the Indians, and these powows are lactors
for the devil,” &c.—Gookin, p. 14.
Even Charlevoix believed in this absurd superstition. “Il est encore
vrai que le Jongleurs roncontrent trop souvent juste dans leur Prédictions,
pour croire qu'ils devinent toujours par hazard, et qu'il se passe dans ces
occasions des choses, qu'il n'est presque pas possible d'attribuer à aucun
secret naturel. On a vû les pieux dont ces Etuves étoient fermées, se
courber jusqu'à terre tandis que le Jongleur se tenoit tranquille, sans
remuer, sans y toucher, qu'il chantoit, et qu'il prédisoit l'avenir. Les Lettres
des anciens Missionaires sont remplies de faits, qui ne laissent aucun
doute que ces Seducteurs n'ayent un veritable commerce avec le Pere de la
seduction et du mensonge.”—III. 362.
Some writers, on the contrary, have gone too far, in asserting that the
Indians had no knowledge of the Evil Spirit. The prophet, mentioned by
Brainerd, who pretended to restore the ancient religion of the Indians, told
him “that there was no such creature as the devil known among the Indians
of old times.” Baron La Hontan very dryly remarks, “that, in speaking of
the devil, they do not mean that Evil Spirit that in Europe is represented
under the figure of a Man, with a long Tail, and great Horns and Claws.”
His conclusion on the subject appears to be correct—“that these Ecclesiasticks
[Jugglers] did not understand the true import of that great word
Matchi Manitou. For by the Devil they understand such things as are
offensive to 'em, which, in our language, comes near to the signification of
Misfortune, Fate, Unfavourable Destiny,” &c. It was to deprecate the wrath
of these baleful agencies, and not to conciliate their friendship and court
their alliance, that sacrifices were offered to them.—History of Virginia,
170. The Indian worship extended to all the objects of nature. The Spirits
of groves, torrents, mountains, rivers, and caves, had all their adorers and
oblations. The minutest and most contemptible particle of matter, by the
craft of the Juggler, or sickly fancy of the patient, became a genius, and was
connected with a magic spell. How far their philosophy went, in the adoration
of moral influences, seems more questionable; and though they are
said to be believers in destiny, their worship of Fate, which La Hontan
seems to imply, is highly improbable. As to their Witchcraft, no doubt its
professors may have pretended a familiarity with the powers of evil. Their
tricks were as simple and ridiculous, and often as fatal, as those of the practisers
of the Obeah art among the negroes.
then,
