University of Virginia Library

M. Mercier.

Missisippi, an Indian name, signifying the great father of rivers. It is subject to no tides, but from its source in the north of the American Continent flows with rapid force, till it empties itself into the Gulph of Mexico.

War-whoop, the cry of battle, with which they always make their onset.

The American Indians, after exhausting every species of cruelty and torture upon their most distinguished prisoners, burn them by a distant fire; who expire singing songs of glory and defiance.

See Hogarth's Line of Beauty.

The sandals are ornamented either with little glistening bells, or with a great variety of shining beads and feathers.

It is presumed that Azâkia had never before seen an European, or heard the report of a pistol, as she considers one a deity, and the other his thunder.

The Indian women of America are very chaste after marriage, and if any person makes love to them, they answer, “The Friend that is before my eyes, prevents my seeing you.”

At their councils and war-feasts they seat themselves in semicircles or half moons: the King or Sachem stands, or fixes himself in the middle, with his counsellors on each side, according to their age and rank.

The day before battle the sachems and warriors meet together, and with great solemnity join in the war feast.

Sable beverage, which they call the black drink, is made by a decoction of certain herbs, and is similar in appearance to coffee: It is of an exhilarating nature, is prepared by their warriors or head men, and served round at their councils and war feasts, with great solemnity and devotion. The commissioners from the United States were presented with this liquor upon their introduction.

The dance is rather an act of devotion, than of recreation, and constitutes a part of all their public ceremonies.

The calumet is a highly ornamented pipe, which the Indians smoke as a type of peace and harmony on all public occasions.

Their bows are stained with a great variety of glaring colours, and otherwise ornamented. For a specimen see the Museum of the University at Cambridge.

It is a point of religion with the American Indians never to suffer their fires to go out until the close of their year, when they are totally extinguished, and others are kindled by friction of certain wood. The policy of this act of devotion is evident, as it not only indicates to their youth the necessity of their being constantly ready for war, but serves as an annual school to instruct them (in all cases of emergency) in the method of raising this necessary element into action from the objects of nature, which surround them.

The prisoners of inferior rank, taken in battle, are retained as slaves by the rights of war; and this is the only kind of slavery known amongst them.

These people are perhaps the first botanists in the world; and from their knowledge of the properties of plants, according to William Penn, have a remedy for almost every disease, to which they are subject. They have certain antidotes to all venomous bites, and it is said an infallible cure for cancers.

The marriage contract of the North American Indians is not necessarily during life, but while the parties continue agreeable to each other. The ceremony is performed by their mutually breaking small shivers or sticks of wood in the presence of their friends, which are carefully deposited in some safe place, till they wish a separation; when with like ceremony the sticks are thrown into the sacred fires, and the marriage consequently dissolved. Mrs. Brooks observes, that the greatest obstruction to the conversion of the Canadian Indians to christianity, was their reluctance at forming marriages for life.

Revenge is a principle, in which they are very careful to educate their young warriors, considering it one of their first virtues; yet this revenge is rather a deliberate sentiment of the mind, than a rash ebullition of passion; for they suppose that a man who always feels a disposition to punish injuries, will not be readily inclined to commit them.

Azâkia is supposed to be still in extreme youth, as among the Indians the women contract marriage at the age of fourteen, and the men at seventeen.

The pure or white towns are places of refuge, in which no blood is ever permitted to be spilt; even criminals are there protected.

The tomahawk is a small hatchet, with a long handle, which is thrown at the enemy with success at a great distance; it is particularly fatal in a pursuit.

“Plumy honours,” alluding to their practice of scalping.

It is said to have been anciently a custom among the Indians, if in the space of forty days, a woman, who had lost her husband, saw and conversed with him twice in a dream, to infer from thence, that he required her presence in the land of spirits; and nothing could dispense with her putting herself to death.

The root of the North-American cytron tree, commonly called the candle wood, produces a juice of a most deadly poison.

The American Indians believe, that an eclipse of the sun is occasioned by a contention between the good and evil spirit; and as light finally prevails, they suppose the good spirit is always victorious.

The Indians stile themselves “The red people.”

These people make it a principle to spare neither the wives nor children of their enemies; but, like the patriarchs of old, endeavour to extirpate the whole race.

Ouâbi does not simply mean to compliment Azâkia in this expression, but alludes to a custom of his country, which in most cases admits the payment of a fine, as an expiation for murder. If the deceased be a woman, the fine is double; and the reason they give for this partiality for that sex, is, that they are capable of bringing warriors to the nation.

This law of expiating murder by pecuniary compensation has, I believe, been observed by every uncivilized nation upon earth.

Celario will not be considered as addressing the savage in too philosophical language, when it is remembered that people in a hunting state are necessarily acquainted with the different stars and planets, to aid their course in their excursions from, and returns to, their places of residence. As no images can with propriety be taken from culture or civil society in the dialogues, I am under the necessity of frequently repeating the most striking objects of nature.

Their mode of making peace is, previous to smoking the friendly calumet, for the sachem or head-warrior to advance with a white plume, in the form of a fan, towards the ambassadors of the rival nation, and to draw it lightly over their foreheads; meaning to indicate, that from that moment all former animosities are wiped away, and all passed injuries consigned to oblivion. The whiteness of the plume being emblematical of the purity of their intentions in the treaty they are forming.

The music of the Indians, tho' of a wild and inharmonius kind, is introduced at all their public festivals and solemnities.

The unmarried women wear a kind of cap, or veil, on their heads, which is taken off at the marriage ceremony. [William Penn's Letters.] To this, it is said, succeeds a circle of beads of various colours.

The principal Indian figure made use of to express the making peace, is “burying the hatchet.”

Their tombs, or rather cemetaries, are of great extent, and of curious construction, and to which the living pay the utmost veneration.

The posture in which they bury their dead is either sitting or standing upright, believing that when they rise, they must inhabit heaven in the same posture in which they are buried.

They not only believe in the immortality of the soul, but also of the bodies of men and animals, and even of their warlike arms, and other inanimate things; and for this reason it is a custom with them to bury with their chiefs, his hatchet at his feet, with the handle perpendicular, his bow unstrung over his head, and a coin (made, according to William Penn, of a fish's bone highly polished) in his hand.

They not only believe in the immortality of the soul, but also of the bodies of men and animals, and even of their warlike arms, and other inanimate things; and for this reason it is a custom with them to bury with their chiefs, his hatchet at his feet, with the handle perpendicular, his bow unstrung over his head, and a coin (made, according to William Penn, of a fish's bone highly polished) in his hand.

They not only believe in the immortality of the soul, but also of the bodies of men and animals, and even of their warlike arms, and other inanimate things; and for this reason it is a custom with them to bury with their chiefs, his hatchet at his feet, with the handle perpendicular, his bow unstrung over his head, and a coin (made, according to William Penn, of a fish's bone highly polished) in his hand.

At stated periods the Indians revisit the sepulchres or cemetaries of their chiefs, and perform certain rites and ceremonies not precisely known to the Anglo-Americans. Governor Jefferson, in his Notes, gives one instance of this custom.

These sepulchres or cemetaries are raised to a very great heighth above the surface of the earth, by immense piles of stones. [See Gov. Jefferson's Notes.] And to prevent their being levelled by time, it is a religious duty for every one of the same nation, who accidentally passes it, to add one stone in reverence to the pile. [See Mr. Noah Webster's Letters to the Rev. Ezra Stiles]—who says, “Rowland remarks that this custom exists among the vulgar Welsh to this day, the same kind of mounts being scattered over the west of England and Wales.”