Most of the houses were mere sheds or log huts thatched with the leaf of the palmetto, a plant subservient to almost as many purposes as the bread-fruit tree of the South Sea Islands. Occasionally, however, the whole of a village was comprised in a single enormous habitation, circular in form, from fifty to one hundred feet in diameter. Into its central area, which was sometimes only partially roofed, opened numerous cabins, from eight to twelve feet square, arranged around the circumference, each the abode of a separate family. Such was the edifice seen by Cabeza de Vaca “that could contain more than three hundred persons” (que cabrian mas de trecientas personas);[220] such that found by De Soto in the town of Ochile on the frontiers of the province of Vitachuco; such those on the north-eastern coast of the peninsula described by Jonathan Dickinson.[221]
The agreeable temperature that prevails in those latitudes throughout the year did away with much of the need of clothing, and consequently their simple wardrobe seems to have included nothing beyond deerskins dressed and colored with vegetable dyes, and a light garment made of the long Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), the gloomy drapery of the cypress swamps, or of the leaves of the palmetto. A century and a half later Captain Nairn describes them with little or no clothing, “all painted,” and with no arms but spears, “harpoos,” pointed with fish bones.
§ 3.—Religion.
It is usual to consider the religion and mythology of a nation of weighty import in determining its origin; but to him, who regards these as the spontaneous growth of the human mind, brought into existence by the powers of nature, nourished by the mental constitution of man, and shaped by external circumstances, all of which are “everywhere different yet everywhere the same,” general similarities of creed and of rite appear but deceptive bases for ethnological theories. The same great natural forces are eternally at work, above, around and beneath us, producing similar results in matter, educing like conceptions in mind. He who attentively compares any two mythologies whatever, will find so many points of identity and resemblance that he will readily appreciate the capital error of those who deduce original unity of race from natural conformity of rite. Such is the fallacy of those who would derive the ancient population of the American continent from a fragment of an insignificant Semitic tribe in Syria; and of the Catholic missionaries, who imputed variously to St. Thomas and to Satan the many religious ceremonies and legends, closely allied to those of their own faith, found among the Aztecs and Guatemalans.
In investigations of this nature, therefore, we must critically distinguish between the local and the universal elements of religions. Do we aim by analysis to arrive at the primal theistic notions of the human mind and their earliest outward expression? The latter alone can lead us. Or is it our object to use mythology only as a handmaid to history, an index of migrations, and a record of external influence? The impressions of local circumstances are our only guides.
The tribes of the New World, like other early and uncivilized nations, chose the sun as the object of their adoration; either holding it to be itself the Deity, as did most of the indwellers of the warm zones, or, as the natives of colder climes, only the most august object of His creation, a noble emblem of Himself. Intimately connected with both, ever recurring in some one of its Protean forms, is the worship of the reciprocal principle.
The Floridian Indians belonged to the first of these classes. They worshipped the sun and moon, and in their honor held such simple festivals as are common in the earlier stages of religious development. Among these the following are worthy of specification.
After a successful foray they elevated the scalps of their enemies on poles decked with garlands, and for three days and three nights danced and sang around them.[222] The wreaths here probably had the same symbolical significance as those which adorned the Athenian Hermes,[223] or which the Maypures of the Orinoco used at their weddings, or those with which the northern tribes ornamented rough blocks of stone.
Their principal festival was at the first corn-planting, about the beginning of March. At this ceremony a deer was sacrificed to the sun, and its body, or according to others its skin stuffed with fruits and grain, was elevated on a tall pole or tree stripped of its branches, an object of religious veneration, and around which were danced and sung the sacred choruses;[224] a custom also found by Loskiel among the Delawares,[225] and which, recognizing the deer or stag as a solar emblem, surmounting the phallic symbol, the upright stake, has its parallel in Peruvian heliolatry and classical mythology.
The feast of Toya, though seen by the French north of the peninsula and perhaps peculiar to the tribes there situate, presents some remarkable peculiarities. It occurred about the end of May, probably when the green corn became eatable. Those who desired to take part in it, having apparelled themselves in various attire, assembled on the appointed day in the council house. Here three priests took charge of them, and led them to the great square, which they danced around thrice, yelling and beating drums. Suddenly at a given signal from the priests they broke away “like unbridled horses” (comme chevaux débridez), plunging into the thickest forests. Here they remained three days without touching food or drink, engaged in the performance of mysterious duties. Meanwhile the women of the tribe, weeping and groaning, bewailed them as if dead, tearing their hair and cutting themselves and their daughters with sharp stones; as the blood flowed from these frightful gashes, they caught it on their fingers, and, crying out loudly three times he Toya, threw it into the air. At the expiration of the third day the men returned; all was joy again; they embraced their friends as though back from a long journey; a dance was held on the public square; and all did famous justice to a bounteous repast spread in readiness.[226] The analogy that these rites bear to the Διονυσια and similar observances of the ancients is very striking, and doubtless they had a like significance. The singular predominance of the number three, which we shall also find repeated in other connections, cannot escape the most cursory reader. Nor is this a rare or exceptional instance where it occurs in American religions; it is bound up in the most sacred myths and holiest observances all over the continent.[227] Obscure though the reason may be, certain it is that the numbers three, four, and seven, are hallowed by their intimate connection with the most occult rites and profoundest mysteries of every religion of the globe, and not less so in America than in the older continent.