Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-06-13
Curious Customs of the Indians.

Curious Customs of the Indians.
Every nation or tribe, however low
it is sunk in ignorance, has some kind
of worship, some form by which it ex-
presses its faith in the supernatural.
But all, when closely analysed, bear a
curious similarity to each other tribes
living on the opposite parts of the globe,
and who have never heard of the exis-
tence of the other, have forms of reli-
gion which differ but slightly, all the
Important points being essentially the
same.
But among savage and civilized ma
tons, from time immemorial, the idea
of God has always been linked with the
heavens. Many languages bear evil
dence of this the Latin Deus, the
Greek Zeus, the Sanscrip Dyans, the
Chinese Tien, all referred to the sky,
and among us the word Heaven is often
employed anonymously with God. So
among the Indians the Algokin mani
tou and aki, the Iroquois 0ki and atkon,
the Hidatsa hopa, the Dakota wakan,
and the Quichua hDaca, all express q
kindred meaning; yet, unlike the 9TH
theirs, they do not refer especially to
the good spirit, but may mean either
God or devil, in many cases being
translated medicine" They convey
in the most general form the idea of
something supernatural.
When there is drought among. the
Indians, it is customary for the rain
maker, or medicine man, to mount
upon the roof Of his hut, vigorously
rafting dry gourd containing pebbles,
to represent the thunder, and scattering
water through reed ON the ground be-
meath, as he imagines the spirits of the
storms do up in the clouds.
The Indians, like the ancients, invest
the objects around them with super
natural powers the sun, moon, and
stars the storms, thunder, lightning,
day and night, are gods. more or less
powerful according to their ability of
doing good and evil. Beside these,
they have spirits in the forests and the
rivers, and in many of the wild beasts.
The Lower Greeks, like Egyptians, ven
Grated the alligator, and never de-
stroyed one. The jaguar was wor.
shipped by the Moxas, and those who
escaped from its claws they appointed
as priests. The Clutches of Guatemala,
Christians though they are, yet believe
that each of them has beast as pa
tron and protector.
But above all others there are two
sub divisions of the animal kingdom
that, by their unusual powers, have
been universally given the pre- emf
nence. They are the bird and the SER
pent. The former has the incompre-
hensible power of flight; it rides on the
winds and scars toward the heavens
where dwell the gods its song was the
first hint of music to man, and it flies
proudly over the mountains without
the sense of WEAKNESS. It has always
been a pleasant fancy of man to imag-
inc that he, too, some day will shake off
his coil Of clay and rise on pinions to
the mansions of heaven.
"There is one bird, especially" the
travellers remark, (which the natives
of Brazil regard as of good augury. It's
mournful chant is heard in the night,
and the savages think it brings news to
them of their deceased friends. The
Powhatan hold that small wood bird
receives the souls of all their princes at
death, while the Aztecs thought that all
good people were metamorphosed at
the close of life into feathered songsters
OF the grove, and in this form passed a
certain term in the bowers Of Para
disc"
OF all the animals, the serpent is,
perhaps, the most mysterious. King
solomon said that the most wonderful
things to him were ct the way of an
eagle in the air. the way of serpent
upon rock"
The Algokins and Iroquois had a
myth that in the great lakes dwelt an
immense serpent, of irascible temper,
who, unless appeased by offerings,
raised tempest or broke the ice be-
meath the feet of those venturing on his
domain, and it swallowed them down.
The rattlesnake was the species most
honored by the red race. The Count
OF Zinzendorf owed his life to one of
this species on one occasion. The ven.
cradle man was seated before his fire.
reading the Scriptures, when several
hostile Shawnees crept upon him, and.
cautiously lifting the corner of the
lodge, peered in. While they gazed, a
huge rattlesnake, unnoticed BY him,
trailed across his feet and rolled itself
into coil in the warmth of the fire.
Immediately the would-be murderers
noiselessly retired, convinced that this
indeed was man of God.
A curious trait of the rattlesnake ia