To discover clearly the origin of the Indian religious system, I must occasionally quote as much from the Mosaic institution, as the savages seem to copy after, or imitate, in their ceremonies; and only the faint image of the Hebrew can now be expected to be discerned, as in an old, imperfect glass. The priesthood originally centered with the first male born of every family: with the ancient heathens, the royalty was annexed to it, in a direct line; and it descended in that manner, as low as the Spartans and Romans. But, to secure Israel from falling into heathenish customs and worship; God in the time of Moses, set apart the Levites for religious services in the room of the first-born; and one high-priest, was elected from the family of Aaron, and anointed with oil, who presided over the rest. This holy office descended by right of inheritance. However, they were to be free of bodily defects, and were by degrees initiated to their holy office, before they were allowed to serve in it. They were consecrated, by having the water of purifying sprinkled upon them, washing all their body, and their clothes clean, anointing them with oil, and offering a sacrifice.
It is not surprizing that the dress of the old savage Archi-magus, and that of the Levitical high-priest, is somewhat different. It may well be supposed, they wandered from captivity to this far-distant wilderness, in a distrest condition, where they could scarcely cover themselves from the inclemency of heat and cold. Besides, if they had always been possessed of the greatest affluence, the long want of written records would sufficiently excuse the difference; because oral traditions are liable to variation. However, there are some traces of agreement in their pontifical dress. Before the Indian Archi-magus officiates in making the supposed holy fire, for the yearly atonement {82} of sin, the Sagan clothes him with a white ephod, which is a waistcoat without sleeves. When he enters on that solemn duty, a beloved attendant spreads a white-drest buck-skin on the white seat, which stands close to the supposed holiest, and then puts some white beads on it, that are given him by the people. Then the Archi-magus wraps around his shoulders a consecrated skin of the same sort, which reaching across under his arms, he ties behind his back, with two knots on the legs, in the form of a figure of eight. Another custom he observes on this solemn occasion, is, instead of going barefoot, he wears a new pair of buck-skin white maccasenes made by himself, and stitched with the sinews of the same animal[[XXI]]. The upper leather across the toes, he paints, for the space of three inches, with a few streaks of red—not with vermilion, for that is their continual war-emblem, but with a certain red root, its leaves and stalk resembling the ipecacuanha, which is their fixed red symbol of holy things. These shoes he never wears, but in the time of the supposed passover; for at the end of it, they are laid up in the beloved place, or holiest, where much of the like sort, quietly accompanies an heap of old, broken earthen ware, conch-shells, and other consecrated things.
Observant ubi sesta mero pede sabbata reges,
Et vetus indulget senibus clementa porcis.
Juvenal, Sat. vi.
When the high-priest entered into the holiest, on the day of expiation, he clothed himself in white; and, when he finished that day’s service, he laid aside those clothes and left them in the tabernacle. Lev. xvi. 23.
When the Egyptian priests went to worship in their temples, they wore shoes of white parchment. Herodotus, Lib. ii. Cap. v.
The Mosaic ceremonial institutions, are acknowledged by our best writers, to represent the Messiah, under various types and shadows; in like manner, the religious customs of the American Indians, seem to typify the same; according to the early divine promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent; and that it should bruise his heel.—The Levitical high-priest wore a breast-plate, which they called Hosechim, and on it the Urim and Thummim, signifying lights and perfections; for they are the plurals of אור, Awóra, (which inverted makes Erowa) and תורה, Thòràh, {83} the law, as it directed them under dark shadows, to Messiah, the lamp of light and perfection. In resemblance of this sacred pectoral, or breast-plate, the American Archi-magus wears a breast-plate, made of a white conch-shell,[[34]] with two holes bored in the middle of it, through which he puts the ends of an otter-skin strap, and fastens a buck-horn white button to the outside of each, as if in imitation of the precious stones of Urim, which miraculously blazoned from the high-priest’s breast, the unerring words of the divine oracle. Instead of the plate of gold, which the Levite wore on his forehead, bearing these words,קדש לי יהוה Kadesh li Yohewah, “holy, or separate to God,” the Indian wears around his temples, either a wreath of swan-feathers, or a long piece of swan-skin doubled, so as only the fine snowy feathers appear on each side. And, in likeness to the Tiara of the former, the latter wears on the crown of his head, a tuft of white feathers, which they call Yatèra. He likewise fastens a tuft of blunted wild Turkey cock-spurs, toward the toes of the upper part of his maccasenes, as if in resemblance to the seventy-two bells, which the Levitical high-priest wore on his coat of blue. Those are as strong religious pontifical emblems, as any old Hebrews could have well chosen, or retained under the like circumstances of time and place. Thus appears the Indian Archimagus—not as Merubha Begadim, “the man with many clothes,” as they called the high-priest of the second temple, but with clothes proper to himself, when he is to officiate in his pontifical function, at the annual expiation of sins[[XXII]]. As religion is the touchstone of every nation of people, and as these Indians cannot be supposed to have been deluded out of theirs, separated from the rest of the world, for many long-forgotten ages—the traces which may be discerned among them, will help to corroborate the other arguments concerning their origin.
[XXII]. The only ornaments that distinguished the high-priest from the rest, were a coat with seventy-two bells, an ephod, or jacket without sleeves, a breast-plate set with twelve stones, a linen mitre, and a plate of gold upon his forehead.