Diary in America, Series Two

by Frederick Marryat

“Now one of the waiters proclaims with a loud voice, for all the warriors and beloved men whom the purity of their law admits, to come and enter the beloved square and observe the fast. He also exhorts the women and children, with those who have not been initiated in war, to keep apart according to the law.

“Four sentinels are now placed one at each corner of the holy square, to keep out every living creature as impure, except the religious order, and the warriors who are not known to have violated the law of the first fruit-offering, and that of marriage, since the last year’s expiation. They observe the fast till the rising of the second sun; and be they ever so hungry in the sacred interval, the healthy warriors deem the duty so awful, and disobedience so inexpressibly vicious, that no temptation would induce them to violate it. They at the same time drink plentifully of a decoction of the button snake root, in order to vomit and dense their sinful bodies.”

“In the general fast, the children and men of weak constitutions, are allowed to eat, as soon as they are certain that the sun has begun to decline from his meridian altitude.

“Now every thing is hushed. Nothing but silence all around. The great beloved man, and his beloved waiter, rising up with a reverend carriage, steady countenance and composed behaviour, go into the beloved place, or holiest, to bring them out the beloved fire. The former takes a piece of dry poplar, willow, or white oak, and having cut a hole, but not so deep as to reach through it; he then sharpens another piece, and placing that in the hole, and both between his knees, he drills it briskly for several minutes, till it begins to smoke—or by rubbing two pieces together for a quarter of an hour, he collects by friction the hidden fire, which they all consider as proceeding from the holy spirit of fire.

“The great beloved man, or high priest, addresses the warriors and women; giving all the particular, positive injunctions and negative precepts they yet retain of the ancient law. He uses very sharp language to the women. He then addresses the whole multitude. He enumerates the crimes they have committed, great and small, and bids them look at the holy fire which has forgiven them. He presses on his audience, by the great motives of temporal good and the fear of temporal evil, the necessity of a careful observance of the ancient law, assuring them that the holy fire will enable their prophets, the rain makers, to procure them plentiful harvests, and give their war leaders victory over their enemies. He then orders some of the fire to be laid down outside of the holy ground, for all the houses of the various associated towns, which sometimes lay several miles apart.”

Mr Bartram, who visited the southern Indians in 1778, gives an account of the same feast, but in another nation. He says, “that the feast of first-fruits is the principal festival. This seems to end the old and begin the new ecclesiastical year. It commences when their new crops are arrived to maturity. This is their most solemn celebration.”

With respect to the sacrifices, we have had none since the destruction of the temple, but it was customary among the Jews, in the olden time, to sacrifice daily a part of a lamb. This ceremony is strictly observed by the Indians. The hunter, when leaving his wigwam for the chase, puts up a prayer that the great spirit will aid his endeavours to procure food for his wife and children, and when he returns with the red deer, whatever may be the cravings of hunger, he allows none to taste until he has cut part of the flesh, which he throws in the fire as a sacrifice, accompanied with prayer. All travellers speak of this practice among the Indians, so clearly Hebrew in its origin.

The bathings, anointings, ablutions, in the coldest weather, are never neglected by the Indians, and, like the Jews of old, they anoint themselves with bear’s oil.

The Mosaic prohibition of eating unclean animals, and their enumeration, are known to you all. It would be supposed that, amidst the uncertainty of an Indian life, all kinds of food would be equally acceptable. Not so: for, in strict conformity with the Mosaic law, they abstain from eating the blood of any animal, they abominate swine flesh, they do not eat fish without scales, the eel, the turtle or sea-cow: and they deem many animals and birds to be impure. These facts are noticed by all writers, and particularly by Edwards in his History of the West-Indies. The latter able historian, in noticing the close analogy between the religious rites of the Jews and Indians, says, “that the striking conformity of the prejudices and customs of the Caribbee Indians, to the practices of the Jews, has not escaped the notice of such historians as Gamella, Da Tertre, and others;” and Edwards also states, that the Indians on the Oroonoke, punished their women caught in adultery, by stoning them to death before the assembly of the people.

Among the Mosaical laws is the obligation of one brother to marry his brother’s widow, if he die without issue. Major Long says, “if the deceased has left a brother, he takes the widow to his lodge after a proper interval and considers her as his wife.”