[253] A Huron woman under the instruction of a missionary, who detailed to her the perfections of God, exclaimed, in a species of ecstasy, "I understand, I understand; and I always felt convinced that our Areskoui was exactly such a one as the God you have described to me."—Lafitau, tom. i., p. 127. The Great Spirit was named Areskoui among the Huron, Agriskoné among the Iroquois, Manitou among the Algonquins.
[254] See Appendix, No. LII. (vol. II.)
[255] Every spring the Arkansas go in a body to some retired place, and there turn up a large space of land, which they do with the drums beating all the while. After this they call it the Desart, or the Field of the Spirit, and thither they go when they are in their enthusiastic fits, and there wait for inspiration from their pretended deity. In the mean while, as they do this every year, it proves of no small advantage to them, for by this means they turn up all their land by degrees, and it becomes abundantly more fruitful.—Tonti.
[256] Lafitau asserts that the first beast killed by a young hunter was always offered in sacrifice.—Vol. i., p. 515. See Catlin's description of the sacrifices and ceremonies practiced when the first fruits of corn are ripe.—Catlin, vol. i., p. 189.
[257] Peter Martyr speaks of the general opinion among the early discoverers that the Indians believed in a species of immortality. "They confess the soul to be immortal; having put off the bodily clothing, they imagine it goeth forth to the woods and the mountains, and that it liveth there perpetually in caves; nor do they exempt it from eating or drinking, but that it should be fed there. The answering voices heard from caves and hollows, which the Latines call echoes, they suppose to be the souls of the departed wandering through those places."—Peter Martyr, Decad. VIII., cap. ix., M. Lock's translation, 1612.
[258] "Une jeune sauvagesse voyant sa sœur mourante, par la quantité de ciguë qui elle avoit pris dans un dépit, et déterminé à ne faire aucun remède pour se garantir de la mort, pleuroit à chaudes larmes, et s'efforçoit de la toucher par les liens du sang, et de l'amitié qui les unissoit ensemble. Elle lui disoit sans cesse, 'C'en est donc fait; in veux que nous ne nous retrouvions jamais plus, et que nous ne nous revoyions jamais?' Le missionnaire, frappé de ces paroles, lui en demanda la raison. 'Il me semble,' dit-il, 'que vous avez un pays des âmes, où vous devez tous vous reünir à vos ancêtres; pourquoi donc est ce que tu parles ainsi à la sœur?' 'Il est vrai,' reprit-elle, 'que nous allons tous au pays des âmes; mais les mechants, et ceux en particulier, qui se sont dêtruits eux-mêmes par un mort violente, y portent la peine de leur crime; ils y sont séparés des autres, et n'ont point de communication avec eux: c'est là le sujet de mes peines.'"—Lafitau, tom. i., p. 404. See Appendix, LII. (vol. II.)
[259] Hunter gives the following view of the Indian mythology, while describing his own and his companions' first sight of the Pacific Ocean: "Here the surprise and astonishment of our whole party was indescribably great. The unbounded view of waters, the incessant and tremendous dashing of the waves along the shore, accompanied with a noise resembling the roar of loud and distant thunder, filled our minds with the most sublime and awful sensation, and fixed on them as immutable truths the tradition we had received from our old men, that the great waters divide the residence of the Great Spirit from the temporary abodes of his red children. We have contemplated in silent dread the immense difficulties over which we should be obliged to triumph after death before we could arrive at those delightful hunting-grounds, which are unalterably destined for such only as do good, and love the Great Spirit. We looked in vain for the stranded and shattered canoes of those who had done wickedly; we could see none, and were led to hope they were few in number. We offered up our devotions, or, I might say, our minds were serious, and our devotions continued all the time we were in this country, for we had ever been taught to believe that the Great Spirit resided on the western side of the Rocky Mountains; and this idea continued throughout the journey, notwithstanding the more specific boundary assigned to Him by our traditionary dogmas."—Memoirs of a Captivity among the North American Indians from Childhood to the Age of Nineteen. By John D. Hunter, p. 69. 1824.—See Appendix, No. LIII. (vol. II.)
[260] See Appendix, No. LIV. (vol. II.)
[261] See Appendix, No. LV. (vol. II.)
[262] See Appendix, No. LVI. (vol. II.)