"Counselors, warriors, women and children—I shall now rest. I thank you all for you kind and patient attention. I thank the Great Spirit that He has spared the lives of so many of us to witness this day. I request you all to come up again to-morrow at early day. Let us all hope that until we meet again the Creator and Ruler of us all may be kind to us and preserve our lives, na-ho."
The council on the following day was opened with a few short speeches by some of the chiefs or keepers of the faith, returning thanks for the privileges of the occasion, as usual at councils; after which Johnson, resuming his discourse, spoke as follows:
"Friends and relatives, uncover now you heads. Continue to listen to my rehearsal of the saying communicated to Handsomelake by the four messengers of the Great Spirit. We have met again around the council fire. We have followed the ancient custom and greeted each other. This is right and highly pleasing to our Maker. He now looks down upon this assemblage; He sees us all; He is informed of the cause of our gathering, and it is pleasing to Him. Life is uncertain; while we live let us love each other; let us sympathize always with the suffering and needy; let us also always rejoice with those who are glad. This is now the third day, and my time for speaking to you is drawing to a close. It will be a long time before we meet again; many moons and seasons will have passed before the sacred council-brand be again uncovered; be watchful, therefore, and remember faithfully what you may now hear.
"In discoursing yesterday upon the duties of the keepers of the faith, I omitted some important things. The Great Spirit created this office; He designed that its duties should never end. There are some who are selected and set apart by our Maker to perform the duties of this office; it is therefore their duty to be faithful, and to be always watching. These duties they must ever perform during their lives. The faithful when they leave this earth will have a pleasant path to travel. The same office exists in heaven, the home of our Creator. They will take the same place when they arrive there. There are dreadful penalties awiting those keepers of the faith who resign their office without a cause. Thus they said.
"It was the original intention of our Maker that all our feasts of thanksgiving should be seasoned with the flesh of wild animals, but we are surrounded by the pale faces, and in a short time the woods will all be removed: then there will be no game for the Indians to use in their feasts. The four messengers said in consequence of this that we might use the flesh of domestic animals. This will not be wrong. The pale faces are pressing upon every side. You must therefore live as they do. How far you can do so without sin I will now tell you. You may grow cattle and for yourselves a comfortable dwelling house. This is not sin, and it is all you can safely adopt of the customs of the pale faces. You cannot live as they do. Thus they said.
"Continue to listen. It has pleased our Creator to set apart as our life the three Sisters. For this special favor let us ever be thankful. When we have gathered in our harvest let the people assemble and hold a general thanksgiving for so great a good. In this way you will show your obedience to the will and pleasure of your Creator. Thus they said.
"Many of you are ignorant of the spirit of medicine. It watches over us constantly, and assists the needy whenever necessity requires. The Great Spirit designed that some man should possess the gift and skill in medicine, but He is pained to see a medicine man making exorbitant charges for attending the sick. Our Creator made for us tobacco. This plant must always be used in administering medicine. When a sick person recovers his health he must return his thanks to the Great Spirit by means of tobacco, for it is by His goodness that he is made well. He blesses the medicine, and the medicine man must receive as a reward whatever the gratitude of the restored may tender. This is right and proper. There are many that are unfortunate and cannot pay for attendance. It is sufficient for such to return thanks to the medicine man upon recovery. The remembrance that he has saved the life of a relative will be a sufficient reward.
"Listen further to what the Great Spirit has been pleased to communicate to us. He has made us, as a race, separate and distinct from the pale faces. It is a great sin to intermarry and intermingle the blood of the two races. Let none be guilty of this transgression.
"At one time the four messengers said to Handsomelake, 'Lest the people should disbelieve you and not repent and forsake their evil ways, we will now disclose to you the house of torment, the dwelling place of the evil-minded.' Handsomelake was particular in describing to us all that he witnessed, and the course which departed spirits were accustomed to take on leaving the earth. There was a road which led upward; at a certain point it branched; one branch led straight forward to the house of the Great Spirit, and the other turned aside to the house of torment; at the place where the roads separated were stationed two keepers, one representing the good and the other the evil spirit; when a person reached the fork, if wicked, by a motion of the evil keeper, he turned instinctively upon the road which led to the abode of the evil-minded; but if virtuous and good, the other keeper directed him upon the straight road; the latter was not much traveled, while the former was so frequently trodden that no grass could grow in the pathway. It sometimes happens that the keepers have great difficulty in deciding which path the person should take, when the good and bad actions of the individual were nearly balanced. Those sent to the house of torment sometimes remain one day, (which is one year with us); some for a longer period. After they have atoned for their sins they pass to heaven; but when they have committed either of the great sins, (witchcraft, murder, or infantcide), they never pass to heaven, but are tormented forever. Having conducted Handsomelake to this place, he saw a large dark-colored mansion, covered with soot, and beside it stood a lesser one. One of the four then held out his rod, and the top of the house moved up until they could look down upon all that was within. He saw many rooms. The first object which met his eyes was a haggard-looking man, his sunken eyes cast upon the ground, and his form half consumed by the torments he had undergone. This man was a drunkard. The evil-minded then appeared and called him by name. As the man obeyed his call, he dipped from a caldron a quantity of red- hot liquid and commanded him to drink it, as it was an article he loved. The man did as he was commanded, and immediately from his mouth issued a stream of blaze. He cried in vain for help. The tormentor then requested him to sing and make himself merry as he had done while on earth, after drinking the firewater. Let drunkards take warning from this. Others were then summoned. There came before him two persons who appeared to be husband and wife. He told them to exercise the privilege they were so fond of while on earth. They immediately commenced a quarrel of words. They raged at each other with such violence that their tongues and eyes ran out so far they could neither see nor speak. This, said they, is the punishment of quarrelsome and disputing husbands and wives. Let such also take warning, and lie together in peace and harmony. Next he called up a woman who had been a witch. First he plunged her into a caldron of boiling liquid. In her cries of distress she begged the evil-minded to give her some cooler place. He then immersed her into one containing liquid at the point of freezing. Her cries were then that she was too cold. This woman, said the four messengers, shall always be tormented in this manner. He proceeded to mention the punishment which awaits all those who cruelly ill-treat their wives. The evil-minded next called up a man who had been accustomed to beat his wife. Having led him up to a red- hot statue of a woman, he directed him to do that which he was fond of while upon earth. He obeyed, and struck the figure. The sparks flew in every direction, and by the contact his arm was consumed. Such is the punishment, they said, awaiting those who ill-treat their wives. From this take seasonable warning. He looked again and saw a woman, whose arms and hands were nothing but bones. She had sold firewater to the Indians, and the flesh was eaten from her hands and arms. This, they said, would be the fate of rum-sellers. Again he looked, and in one apartment saw and recognized Ho-ne-ya-wus (farmer's brother), his former friend. He was engaged in removing a heap of sand, grain by grain, and although he labored continually, yet the heap was not diminished. This, they said, was the punishment of those who sold land. Adjacent to the house of torment was a field of corn filled with weeds. He saw a woman in the act of cutting them down, but as fast as this was done they grew up again. This, they said, was the punishment of lazy women. It would be proper and right, had we time, to tell more of this place of punishment, but my time is limited and must pass to other things.
"The Creator made men dependent upon each other. He made them sociable beings: therefore, when your neighbors visit you set food before them. If it be your next door neighbor, you must give him to eat. He will partake and thank you."