Argument XII.
Like the Jews, the greatest part of the southern Indians abstain from most things that are either in themselves, or in the general apprehension of mankind, loathsome, or unclean: where we find a deviation from that general rule among any of them, it is a corruption—either owing to their intercourse with Europeans, or having contracted an ill habit from necessity. They generally affix very vicious ideas to the eating of impure things; and all their prophets, priests, old warriors and war-chieftains, before they enter on their religious duties, and while they are engaged in them, observe the strictest abstinence in this point. Formerly, if any of them did eat in white people’s houses, or even of what had been dressed there, while they were sanctifying themselves, it was deemed a dangerous sin of pollution. When some of them first corrupted their primitive virtue, by drinking of our spirituous liquors, the religious spectators called it ooka hoome, “bitter waters;” alluding, I conjecture, to the bitter waters of jealousy, that produced swelling and death to those who committed adultery, but had no power over the innocent. That this name is not accidental, but designedly pointed, and expressive of the bitter waters of God, seems obvious, not only from the image they still retain of them, but likewise when any of them refuse our invitation of drinking spirituous liquors in company with us, they say Ahiskola Awa, Ooka Hoomeh[Hoomeh] Ishto, “I will not drink, they are the bitter waters of the great One.” Though Ishto, one of the names of God, subjoined to nouns, denotes a superlative degree, in this case they deviate from that general rule—and for this reason they never affix the idea of bitter to the spirituous liquors we drink among them. Hoomeh is the only word they have to convey the meaning of bitter; as Aneh Hoomeh, “bitter ears,” or pepper.
They reckon all birds of prey, and birds of night, to be unclean, and unlawful to be eaten. Not long ago, when the Indians were making their winter’s hunt, and the old women were without flesh-meat at home, I shot a small fat hawk, and desired one of them to take and dress it; but though I strongly importuned her by way of trial, she, as earnestly refused it for {130} fear of contracting pollution, which she called the “accursed sickness,” supposing disease would be the necessary effect of such an impurity. Eagles of every kind they esteem unclean food; likewise ravens (though the name of a tribe with them) crows, buzzards, swallows, bats, and every species of owls: and they believe that swallowing flies, musketoes, or gnats, always breeds sickness, or worms, according to the quantity that goes into them; which though it may not imply extraordinary skill in physic, shews their retention of the ancient law, which prohibited the swallowing of flies: for to this that divine sarcasm alludes, “swallowing a camel, and straining at a gnat.” Such insects were deemed unclean, as well as vexatious and hurtful. The God of Ekron was Beelzebub, or the God and ruler of flies.
None of them will eat of any animal whatsoever, if they either know, or suspect that it died of itself. I lately asked one of the women the reason of throwing a dung-hill-fowl out of doors, on the corn-house; she said, that she was afraid, Oophe Abeeka Hakset Illeh, “it died with the distemper of the mad dogs,” and that if she had eaten it, it would have affected her in the very same manner. I said, if so, she did well to save herself from danger, but at the same time, it seemed she had forgotten the cats. She replied, “that such impure animals would not contract the accursed sickness, on account of any evil thing they eat; but that the people who ate of the flesh of the swine that fed on such polluting food, would certainly become mad.”
In the year 1766, a madness seized the wild beasts in the remote woods of West-Florida, and about the same time the domestic dogs were attacked with the like distemper; the deer were equally infected. The Indians in their winter’s hunt, found several lying dead, some in a helpless condition, and others fierce and mad. But though they are all fond of increasing their number of deer-skins, both from emulation and for profit, yet none of them durst venture to slay them, lest they should pollute themselves, and thereby incur bodily evils. The head-man of the camp told me, he cautioned one of the Hottuk Hakse, who had resided a long time at Savannah, from touching such deer, saying to him Chehaksinna, “Do not become vicious and mad,” for Isse Hakset Illehtàhah, “the deer were mad, and are dead;” adding, that if he acted the part of Hakse, he would cause both himself,{131} and the rest of the hunting camp to be spoiled; nevertheless he shut his ears against his honest speech, and brought those dangerous deer-skins to camp. But the people would not afterward associate with him; and he soon paid dear for being Hakse, by a sharp splintered root of a cane running almost through his foot, near the very place where he first polluted himself; and he was afraid some worse ill was still in wait for him.
In 1767, the Indians were struck with a disease, which they were unacquainted with before. It began with sharp pains in the head, at the lower part of each of the ears, and swelled the face and throat in a very extraordinary manner, and also the testicles. It continued about a fortnight, and in the like space of time went off gradually, without any dangerous consequence, or use of outward or inward remedies: they called it Wahka Abeeka, “the cattle’s distemper,” or sickness. Some of their young men had by stealth killed and eaten a few of the cattle which the traders had brought up, and they imagined they had thus polluted themselves, and were smitten in that strange manner, by having their heads, necks, &c. magnified like the same parts of a sick bull. They first concluded, either to kill all the cattle, or send them immediately off their land, to prevent the like mischief, or greater ills from befalling the beloved people—for their cunning old physicians or prophets would not undertake to cure them, in order to inflame the people to execute the former resolution; being jealous of encroachments, and afraid the cattle would spoil their open corn-fields; upon which account, the traders arguments had no weight with these red Hebrew philosophers. But fortunately, one of their head warriors had a few cattle soon presented to him, to keep off the wolf; and his reasoning proved so weighty, as to alter their resolution, and produce in them a contrary belief.
They reckon all those animals to be unclean, that are either carnivorous, or live on nasty food; as hogs,[[49]] wolves, panthers, foxes, cats, mice, rats. And if we except the bear, they deem all beasts of prey unhallowed, and polluted food; all amphibious quadrupeds they rank in the same class. Our old traders remember when they first began the custom of eating beavers: and to this day none eat of them, except those who kill {132} them; though the flesh is very wholesome, on account of the bark of trees they live upon. It must be acknowledged, they are all degenerating apace, insomuch, that the Choktah Indians, on account of their scantiness of ammunition while they traded with the French, took to eat horse-flesh, and even snakes of every kind; though each of these species, and every sort of reptiles, are accounted by the other neighbouring nations, impure food in the highest degree. And they ridicule the Choktah for their cannibal apostacy, and term them in common speech, “the evil, ugly, Choktah.”
They abhor moles so exceedingly, that they will not allow their children even to touch them, for fear of hurting their eyesight; reckoning it contagious. They believe that nature is possest of such a property, as to transfuse into men and animals the qualities, either of the food they use, or of those objects that are presented to their senses;[[50]] he who feeds on venison, is according to their physical system, swifter and more sagacious than the man who lives on the flesh of the clumsy bear, or helpless dunghill fowls, the slow-footed tame cattle, or the heavy wallowing swine. This is the reason that several of their old men recommend, and say, that formerly their greatest chieftains observed a constant rule in their diet, and seldom ate of any animal of a gross quality, or heavy motion of body, fancying it conveyed a dullness through the whole system, and disabled them from exerting themselves with proper vigour in their martial, civil, and religious duties.
I have already shewn their aversion to eating of unsanctified fruits; and in this argument, that they abstain from several other things, contrary to the usage of all the old heathen world. It may be objected, that now they seldom refuse to eat hogs flesh, when the traders invite them to it; but this proceeds entirely from vicious imitation, and which is common with the most civilized nations. When swine were first brought among them, they deemed it such a horrid abomination in any of their people to eat that filthy and impure food, that they excluded the criminal from all religious communion in their circular town-house, or in their quadrangular holy ground at the annual expiation of sins, equally as if he had eaten unsanctified fruits. After the yearly atonement was made at the temple, he was indeed readmitted to his usual privileges. Formerly, none of their beloved {133} men, or warriors, would eat or drink with us on the most pressing invitation, through fear of polluting themselves, they deemed us such impure animals. Our eating the flesh of swine, and venison, with the gravy in it, helped to rivet their dislike, for this they reckon as blood.
I once asked the Archimagus, to sit down and partake of my dinner; but he excused himself, saying, he had in a few days some holy duty to perform, and that if he eat evil or accursed food, it would spoil him,—alluding to swine’s flesh. Though most of their virtue hath lately been corrupted, in this particular they still affix vicious and contemptible ideas to the eating of swine’s flesh; insomuch, that Shúkàpa, “swine eater,” is the most opprobious epithet they can use to brand us with: they commonly subjoin Akanggàpa, “eater of dunghill fowls.” Both together, signifying “filthy, helpless animals.” By our surprising mismanagement in allowing them a long time to insult, abuse, rob, and murder the innocent British subjects at pleasure, without the least satisfaction, all the Indian nations formerly despised the English, as a swarm of tame fowls, and termed them so, in their set speeches.
The Indians through a strong principle of religion, abstain in the strictest manner, from eating the Blood of any animal; as it contains the life, and spirit of the beast, and was the very essence of the sacrifices that were to be offered up for sinners. And this was the Jewish opinion and law of sacrifice, Lev. xvii. 11. “for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood, which maketh an atonement for the soul.” When the English traders have been making sausages mixt with hog’s blood, I have observed the Indians to cast their eyes upon them, with the horror of their reputed fore-fathers, when they viewed the predicted abomination of desolation, fulfilled by Antiochus, in defiling the temple.
An instance lately happened, which sufficiently shews their utter aversion to blood. A Chikkesah woman, a domestic of one of the traders, being very ill with a complication of disorders, the Indian physician seemed to use his best endeavours to cure her, but without the least visible effect. {134} To preserve his medical credit with the people, he at last ascribed her ailment to the eating of swine’s flesh, blood, and other polluting food: and said, that such an ugly, or accursed sickness, overcame the power of all his beloved songs, and physic; and in anger, he left his supposed criminal patient to be punished by Loak Ishtohoollo. I asked her some time afterwards, what her ailments were, and what she imagined might have occasioned them? She said, she was full of pain, that she had Abeeka Ookproo, “the accursed sickness,” because she had eaten a great many fowls after the manner of the white people, with the Issish Ookproo, “accursed blood,” in them. In time she recovered, and now strictly abstains from tame fowls, unless they are bled to death, for fear of incurring future evil, by the like pollution.
There is not the least trace among their ancient traditions, of their deserving the hateful name of cannibals, as our credulous writers have carefully copied from each other. Their taste is so opposite to that of the Anthrophagi, that they always over-dress their meat whether roasted or boiled.[[51]]
The Muskoghe who have been at war, time out of mind, against the Indians of Cape-Florida, and at length reduced them to thirty men, who removed to the Havannah along with the Spaniards; affirm, they could never be informed by their captives, of the least inclination they ever had of eating human flesh, only the heart of the enemy—which they all do, sympathetically (blood for blood) in order to inspire them with courage; and yet the constant losses they suffered, might have highly provoked them to exceed their natural barbarity. To eat the heart of an enemy will in their opinion, like eating other things, before mentioned, communicate and give greater heart against the enemy. They also think that the vigorous faculties of the mind are derived from the brain, on which account, I have seen some of their heroes drink out of a human skull; they imagine, they only imbibe the good qualities it formerly contained.
When speaking to the Archimagus concerning the Hottentots, those heterogeneous animals according to the Portuguese and Dutch accounts, he asked me, whether they builded and planted—and what sort of food they {135} chiefly lived upon. I told him, I was informed that they dwelt in small nasty huts, and lived chiefly on sheep’s guts and crickets. He laughed, and said there was no credit to be given to the far-distant writers of those old books, because they might not have understood the language and customs of the people; but that those, whom our books reported to live on such nasty food, (if they did not deceive us) might have been forced to it for the want of better, to keep them from dying; or by the like occasion, they might have learned that ugly custom, and could not quit it when they were free from want, as the Choktah eat horse-flesh, though they have plenty of venison: however, it was very easy, he said, to know whether they were possessed of human reason, for if they were endued with shame to have a desire of covering their nakedness, he concluded them to be human. He then asked me, whether I had been informed of their having any sort of language, or method of counting as high as the number of their fingers, either by words or expressive motion; or of bearing a nearer resemblance to Yáwe, the human creature, in laughter, than Shawe the ape bore; or of being more social and gregarious than those animals of the country where they lived. If they were endued with those properties, he affirmed them to be human creatures; and that such old lying books should not be credited.
The more religious, or the least corrupted, of the various remote Indian nations, will not eat of any young beast when it is newly yeaned; and their old men think they would suffer damage, even by the bare contact: which seems to be derived from the Mosaic law, that prohibited such animals to be offered up, or eaten, till they were eight days old; because, till then, they were in an imperfect and polluted state! They appear, however, to be utterly ignorant of the design and meaning of this appointment and practice, as well as of some other customs and institutions. But as the time of circumcising the Israelitish children was founded on this law of purity, it seems probable, that the American Aborigines observed the law of circumcision,[[52]] for some time after they arrived here, and desisted from it, when it became incompatible with the hard daily toils and sharp exercises, which necessity must have forced them to pursue, to support life: especially when we consider, that the sharpest and most lasting affront, the most opprobious, indelible epithet, with which one Indian can possibly brand another, is to call him in public company, Hoobuk Waske, Eunuchus, præputio detecto. They resent it so highly, that in the year {136} 1750, when the Cheerakee were on the point of commencing a war against us, several companies of the northern Indians, in concert with them, compelled me in the lower Cheerakee town to write to the government of South-Carolina, that they made it their earnest request to the English not to mediate in their war with the Katáhba Indians, as they were fully resolved to prosecute it, with the greatest eagerness, while there was one of that hateful name alive; because in the time of battle, they had given them the ugly name of short-tailed eunuchs. Now as an eunuch was a contemptible name with the Israelites, and none of them could serve in any religious office; it should seem that the Indians derived this opprobious and singular epithet from Jewish tradition, as castration was never in use among the ancient or present Americans.
The Israelites were but forty years in the wilderness, and would not have renewed the painful act of circumcision, only that Joshua inforced it: and by the necessary fatigues and difficulties, to which as already hinted, the primitive Americans must be exposed at their first arrival in this waste and extensive wilderness, it is likely they forbore circumcision, upon the divine principle extended to their supposed predecessors in the wilderness, of not accepting sacrifice at the expence of mercy. This might soothe them afterwards wholly to reject it as a needless duty, especially if any of the eastern heathens accompanied them in their travels in quest of freedom. And as it is probable, that by the time they reached America, they had worn out their knives and every other sharp instrument fit for the occasion; so had they performed the operation with flint-stones, or sharp splinters, there is no doubt that each of the mothers would have likewise said, “This day, thou art to me a bloody husband[[XXIX]].” However, from the contemptible idea the Americans fix to castration, &c. it seems very probable the more religious among them used circumcision in former ages.
[XXIX]. Exod. iv. 25, 26.
Under this argument, I must observe that Ai-ú-be signifies “the thigh” of any animal; and E-ee-pattáh Tekále, “the lower part of the thigh,” or literally, “the hanging of the foot.” And when in the woods, the Indians cut a small piece out of the lower part of the thighs of the deer they kill, length-ways and pretty deep. Among the great number of venison-hams they bring to our trading houses, I do not remember to {137} have observed one without it; from which I conjecture, that as every ancient custom was designed to convey, either a typical, or literal instructive lesson of some useful thing; and as no usage of the old heathen world resembled this custom; it seems strongly to point at Jacob’s wrestling with an angel, and obtaining for himself and his posterity, the name, ישר-אל, (perhaps, Yosher-ale) “divine guide,” or “one who prevails with the omnipotent,” and to the children of Israel not eating the sinew of the thigh of any animal, to perpetuate the memory of their ancestor’s sinew being shrunk, which was to obtain the blessing.
The Indians always sew their maccasenes with deer’s sinews, though of a sharp cutting quality, for they reckon them more fortunate than the wild hemp: but to eat such, they imagine would breed worms, and other ailments, in proportion to the number they eat. And I have been assured by a gentleman of character, who is now an inhabitant of South-Carolina, and well acquainted with the customs of the northern Indians, that they also cut a piece out of the thigh of every deer they kill, and throw it away; and reckon it such a dangerous pollution to eat it, as to occasion sickness and other misfortunes of sundry kinds, especially by spoiling their guns from shooting with proper force and direction. Now as none of the old heathens had such a custom, must it not be considered as of Israelitish extraction.[[53]]