The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1854-09-06
Tflislffllanfuas.
The Indian Heaven.


Bancroft gives the following sketch Of
the Indian faith:
The same motive prompted them to bury
with the warrior his pipe, and his manitou;
his tomshawk, culver an bow, ready bent
for action, and bis most splendid apparel; to
place by his side the bowl, his maize, and
his venIson, for the long journey to the cOun.
try of his ancestors, Festivals in honor Of
the dead were also frequent, when part of
the food was given to the flames, that so it
might serve to nourish the departed. The
traveller would find in the forest dead body
placed on a scaffold erected on piles, carel
fully wrapped in bark for its shroud, and
attired in warmest furs. If mother lost
her babe she would cover It with bark, and
envelop it anxiously in the softest beaver
skins; at his burial place she would put by
its side its cradle, its beads and its rattles,
and as last service of maternal love, u ould
draw milk from her bosom in cup of bark,
and burn it in the fire, that her infant might
still find nourishment on it's solitary journey
to the land of shades. Yet the newborn
babe would be buried, not, as usual, on a
scaffold, but by the wayside, that so its spir-
1t might secretly steal into the bosom oil
some passing matron, and be born again un-
der happier auspices. On burying her
daughter. the Chippewa mother adds, not
snow-shoes and beads and moccasins only,
but (sad emblem of woman's lot in the will
dernessD the carrying belt and the paddle.
l know my daughter will be restored to me,
she once said, as she clipped lock of hail
as memorial; by this lock of hair l shall
take it with me; alluding to the day wher
she toe, with her carrying belt and paddle
and the little relic of her child, should pass
through the grave to the dwelling place oi
her ancestors.
The faith, as well as the sympathies o
the savage, descended also to inferior things
Of each kind of animal, they say there ex
lists one, the source and origin of all, of q
vast size, the type and original of the whole
class. From the immense invisible beaver
come all the beavers, by whatever run OF
water they are found; the same is true of the
elk and buffalo, of the eagle and robbin, o.
the meanest quadruped of the forest, of the
smallest insect that buzzes in the air
There lives for each class of animals, thi
invisible vast tyne, or elder brother Thu
the savage established his right to be classet
by philosophers in the rank of realists, an,
his chief effort at generalization was rev
erent exercise of the religious sentiment
Where these elder brothers dwell; they d.
not exactly know; yet it may be that til,
giant mantus, which are brothers to beasts
are hid beneath the waters, and that those
of the birds make their homes in the blue
sky. But the Indian believes also, of eact
individual animal, that it possesses the mys
terious, the indestructible principle of life
there is not breathing thing but has it,
shade which can never perish. Regarding
himself in comparison with other animals
but as the first among coordinate existen
ces, he respects the brute creation, and as
signs to it, as to himself, perpetuity o
being. The ancients of these lands be-
lieved that the warrior, when released ffon
life. renews the passions and activity of thi
world; is seated once more among hi
friends; shares again the joyous feast; walk'
through the shadowy forests, that are alive
with the spirits of birds; and there, in hi
paradise: .g .ts F-
BY midnight moons, DER moistening dews,
Investment Of the chase arrayed,
The hunter still the deer pursues--
Tho hunter and tha deer n shade