comes the symbol or figure under which the Okki reveals himself. With this figure, in the conceptions of his votary, the spirit becomes identified; the image is preserved with the greatest care-is the constant companion on all great and important occasions, and the constant object of consultation and worship.

The practice of blackening the face and fasting, together with the use of emetics, as a system of religious purification, for the purpose of obtaining a guardian spirit, appears to have existed formerly among the natives of Virginia and New-England; though the first settlers were not always able to ascertain the real object of the ceremonies which they beheld.

As soon as a child is informed what is the nature or form of his protecting deity, he is carefully instructed in the obligations he is under to do him homage-to follow his advice communicated in dreams-to deserve his favours—to confide implicitly in his care-and to dread the consequences of bis displeasure. For this reason, when the Huron or the Iroquois goes to the battle or to the chase, the image of his okki is as carefully carried with him as his arms. At night, each one places his guardian idol on the palisades surrounding the camp, with the face turned from the quarter to which the warriors, or hunters, are about to march. He then prays to it for an hour, as he does also in the morning before he continues his course. The homage performed, he lies down to rest, and sleeps in tranquillity, fully persuaded that his spirit will assume the whole duty of keeping guard, and that he has nothing to fear.

The following account is given by the Missionaries.—“ It happened at one time, when they were engaged in a war with a distant and powerful nation, that a body of their warriors was in the camp, fast asleep, no kind of danger at that moment being apprehended. Suddenly, the great Sentinel over mankind,' the owl, sounded the alarm; all the birds of the species were alert at their posts, all at once calling out, as if saying: Up! up! Danger! Danger!' Obedient to their call, every man jumped up in an instant; when, to their surprise, they found that their enemy was in the very act of surrounding them, and they would all have been killed in their sleep, if the owl had not given them this timely warning."

"It is impossible not to remark, that there is a smaller departure from the original religion among the Indians of America than among the more civilized nations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The idea of the Divine Unity is much more perfectly preserved; the subordinate divinities are kept at

a much more immeasurable distance from the Great Spirit ; and, above all, there has been no attempt among them to degrade to the likeness of men, the invisible and incomprehensible Creator of the universe. In fact, theirs is exactly that milder form of idolatry which prevailed every where from the days of Abraham, his single family excepted,' and which, after the death of that patriarch and of his son Isaac, infected, from time to time, even the chosen family itself.

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2. The belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, has been kept alive among all heathen nations, by its connexion with the sensible enjoyments and sufferings, and the consequent hopes and terrors of men. Its origin must have been in Divine Revelation; for it is impossible to conceive that the mind could attain to it by its own unaltered powers. The thought, when once communicated, would, in the shipwreck of dissolving nature, be clung to with the grasp of expiring hope Hence no nations have yet been found, however rude and barbarous, who have not agreed in the great and general principle of retributive immortality; but, when we descend to detail, and inquire into their peculiar notions, we find that their traditions are coloured by the nature of their earthly occupations, and by the opinions which they thence entertain on the subject of good and evil. This remark is fully verified by the history of the American Indians, among whom the belief of the immortality of the soul is most firmly established.

They suppose, that when separated from the body, it preserves the same inclinations which it had when both were united. For this reason they bury with the dead all that they had in use when alive. Some imagine that all men have two souls, one of which never leaves the body unless it be to inhabit another. This transmigration, however, is peculiar to the souls of those who die in infancy, and who therefore have the privilege of commencing a second life, because they enjoyed so little of the first. Hence children are buried along the highways, that the women as they pass, may receive their souls. From this idea of their remaining with the body, arises the duty of placing food upon their graves; and mothers have been seen to draw from their bosoms that nourishment which these little creatures loved when alive, and shed it upon the earth which covered their remains.

When the time has arrived for the departure of those spir its which leave the body, they pass into a region which is destined to be their eternal abode, and which is therefore called the Country of Souls. This country is at a great distance toward the west, and to go thither costs them a journey of many

many

months. They have many difficulties to surmount, and perils to encounter. They speak of a stream in which many suffer shipwreck ;—of a dog from which they with difficulty defend themselves;-of a place of suffering where they expiate their faults.

To be put to death as a captive, is therefore, an exclusion from the Indian Paradise: while, on the contrary, to have been a good hunter, brave in war, fortunate in enterprize, and victorious over many enemies, are the only titles to enter their abodes of bliss, the happiness of which depends on the situation and circumstances of their respective tribes or nations. Thus, eternal spring, a never-failing supply of game and fish, and an abundance of every thing that can delight the senses without the labour of procuring it, constitute the paradise of those, who often return weary and hungry from the chase, who are frequently exposed to the inclemencies of a wintry sky, and who look upon all labour as unmanly and degrading employment. On the other hand, the Arrowauks, or natives of Cuba, Hispaniola, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and Trinidad, place their enjoyments in every thing that is opposite to the violence of a tropical climate; while their fierce enemies, the Charaibes, look forward to a paradise, in which the brave will be attended by their wives and captives.

3. All who have been conversant with the worship of the American tribes, unite in the assertion that they offer sacrifices and oblations both to the Great Spirit, and also to the subordinate or inferior divinities, to propitiate their protection, or to avert calamity, and also eucharistic sacrifices for success in war. In like manner, sacrifices were offered by all the inhabitants of the West Indies; and, among these, the Charaibes were accustomed to immolate some of the captives who had been taken in battle. The Mexicans, it is also known, offered human sacrifices: but of this practice there are no traces among the present Indian tribes, unless the tormenting of their captives may be considered as a sacrifice to the god of war.

In some parts of Mexico, not yet brought immediately under the Spanish yoke, it is said, remains of the primitive forms and objects of worship are still preserved. The worship of the Sun, and of figures representing that glorious object, is still here and there to be met with. Picari mentions the Mercury and the Mars of the Mexican as in existence, when his great work was published. The annexed cuts may serve to convey some idea of these objects and forms of wor

ship; but modern travellers have not furnished us with much information respecting them at this time.

The Indians consider the earth as their universal mother. They believe that they were created within its bosom, where for a long time they had their abode, before they came to live on its surface. They say, the great, good, and all powerful Spirit, when he created them, undoubtedly meant at a proper time, to put them in the enjoyment of all the good things which he had prepared for them upon the earth, but he wisely ordained that their first stage of existence should be within it, as the infant is formed and takes its growth in the womb of its natural nother. This fabulous account of the creation of man needs only to be ascribed to the ancient Egyptians, or to the Brahmins of India, to be admired and extolled for the curious analogy which it observes between the general and individual crea

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tion.

The Indian Mythologists are not agreed as to the form under which they existed while in the bowels of the earth. Some assert that they lived there in the human shape, while others, with greater consistency, contend that their existence was in the form of certain terrestrial animals, such as the ground-hog, the rabbit, and the tortoise. This was their state of preparation, until they were permitted to come out and take their station on this island,* as the lords of the rest of the creation.

Among the Delawares, those of the Minsi, or Wolf tribe, say that in the beginning, they dwelt in the earth under a lake, and were fortunately extricated from this unpleasant abode by the discovery which one of their men made of a hole, through which he ascended to the surface; on which, as he was walking, he found a deer, which he carried back with him into his subterraneous habitation; that there the deer was killed, and he and his companions found the meat so good, that they unanimously determined to leave their dark abode, and remove to a place where they could enjoy the light of heaven, and have such excellent game in abundance.

*The Indians call the American continent an island; believing if to be (as in fact, probably, it is) entirely surrounded with water."

* Mr. Pyrlæus lived long among the Iroquois, and was well ac quainted with their language. He was instructed in the Mohawk dialect by the celebrated interpreter Conrad Weiser. He has left behind him some manuscript grammatical works on that idiom, one of them is entitled: Affixa nominum et verborum Linguae Macquaicae, and the other, Adjectiva, nomina et pronomina Linguae Macquaicae. These MSS. are in the library of the Society of the United Breth

ren.

The other two tribes, the Unamis, or Tortoise, and the Unalachtagos or Turkey, have much similar notions, but reject the story of the lake, which seems peculiar to the Minsi tribe.

These notions must be very far extended among the Indians of North America generally, since we find that they prevail also among the Iroquois, a nation so opposed to the Delawares, and whose language is so different from theirs, that not two words, perhaps, similar or even analogous of signification, may be found alike in both.

The following account of the traditions of that people concerning their original existence, was taken down by the late Rev. C. Pyrlæus, in Junuary, 1743, from the mouth of a respectable Mohawk chief, named Sganarady, who resided on the Mohawk river.

"Tradition. That they had dwelt in the earth where it was dark, and where no sun did shine. That though they followed hunting, they ate mice, which they caught with their hands. That Ganawagahha (one of them) having accidentally found a hole to get out of the earth at, he went out, and that in walking about on the earth he found a deer, which he took back with him, and that both on account of the meat tasting so very good, and the favourable description he had given them of the country above, and on the earth, their mother concluded it best for them all to come out; that accordingly they did so, and immediately set about planting corn, &c. That, however, the Nocharauorsul, that is, the ground-hog, would not come out, but had remained in the ground as before."

Few persons have taken more pains to learn the character and manners of the American Indians, than the late venerable Dr. Boudinot of New Jersey. In his valuable and very interesting work, entitled A STAR IN THE WEST, he has given to the world the results of his researches on this subject. He is fully persuaded that a part, at least, of the American Indians, are the descendants of the long lost ten tribes of Israel. A great number of facts are introduced, from the manners of the Indians, from their language, and especially from their religious rites and opinions, which, if they do not prove the correctness of his opinion, give it, at least, a high degree of probability.

There is much reason to believe, from the promises and predictions of the scriptures, that in the events of divine providence, the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel, who were carried captive from Palestine to the countries beyond the Euphrates, about 700 years before the Christian era, will yet be found, be remembered in the covenant mercy of the God of Abraham, and