The Myths of the New World

Buschmann, Athapask. Sprachstamm, pp. 182, 188.

401

Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. vi. cap. 41.

402

Le Livre Sacré des Quichés, pp. 175-177.

403

Müller, Amer. Urrelig., p. 290, after Spix.

404

D’Orbigny, Annuaire des Voyages, 1845, p. 77.

405

Long’s Expedition, i. p. 278.

406

Hist. des Incas, lib. iii. chap. 7.

407

Hist. of the New World, bk. v. chap. 7.

408

Travels in North America, p. 280.

409

Egede, Nachrichten von Grönland, p. 156.

410

Haeser, Geschichte der Medicin, pp. 4, 7: Jena, 1845.

411

Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, v. p. 440.

412

Carver, Travels in North America, p. 73: Boston, 1802; Narrative of John Tanner, p. 135.

413

Sahagun, Hist. de la Nueva España, lib. x. cap. 20; Le Livre Sacré des Quichés, p. 177; Lett. sur les Superstit. du Pérou, pp. 89, 91.

414

Life of Black Hawk, p. 13.

415

Travs. in North America, p. 74.

416

Journal Historique, p. 362.

417

Sometimes facts like this can be explained by the quickness of perception acquired by constant exposure to danger. The mind takes cognizance unconsciously of trifling incidents, the sum of which leads it to a conviction which the individual regards almost as an inspiration. This is the explanation of presentiments. But this does not apply to cases like that of Swedenborg, who described a conflagration going on at Stockholm, when he was at Gottenberg, three hundred miles away. Psychologists who scorn any method of studying the mind but through physiology, are at a loss in such cases, and take refuge in refusing them credence. Theologians call them inspirations either of devils or angels, as they happen to agree or disagree in religious views with the person experiencing them. True science reserves its opinion until further observation enlightens it.

418

Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, iii. p. 287; v. p. 652.

419

“The progress from deepest ignorance to highest enlightenment,” remarks Herbert Spencer in his Social Statics, “is a progress from entire unconsciousness of law, to the conviction that law is universal and inevitable.”

420

The Creeks had, according to Hawkins, not less than seven sacred plants; chief of them were the cassine yupon, called by botanists Ilex vomitoria, or Ilex cassina, of the natural order Aquifoliaceæ; and the blue flag, Iris versicolor, natural order Iridaceæ. The former is a powerful diuretic and mild emetic, and grows only near the sea. The latter is an active emeto-cathartic, and is abundant on swampy grounds throughout the Southern States. From it was formed the celebrated “black drink,” with which they opened their councils, and which served them in place of spirits.

421

Martius, Von dem Rechtzustande unter den Ureinwohnern Brasiliens, p. 32.

422

Mr. Anderson, in the Am. Hist. Mag., vii. p. 79.

423

Such spectacles were nothing uncommon. They are frequently mentioned in the Jesuit Relations, and they were the chief obstacles to missionary labor. In the debauches and excesses that excited these temporary manias, in the recklessness of life and property they fostered, and in their disastrous effects on mind and body, are depicted more than in any other one trait the thorough depravity of the race and its tendency to ruin. In the quaint words of one of the Catholic fathers, “If the old proverb is true that every man has a grain of madness in his composition, it must be confessed that this is a people where each has at least half an ounce” (De Quen, Rel. de la Nouv. France, 1656, p. 27). For the instance in the text see Rel. de la Nouv. France, An 1639, pp. 88-94.

424

Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, v. p. 423.

425