Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-04-21
RIEL,s RERELs.
The Northwest Indians, Their Customs
and Their Religion.
C0rresDondence Toronto MAI.

letter | endeaVored to show the readers of
the Mai that the language of the Indians
proved beyond question their Mongolia
origin. Philologists place the Mongolia
tongues in the Turanian family of Ian.
cuages, the name Turanian being applied
TO the nomadic races of Asia as opposed
to the agricultural or Aryan races. The
Turanian family or class consists of two
divisions-the Northern and the South
ern-the Northern embracing the Mongo-
Ian, Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish ana
other tongues of dialects. Max Muller in
his "Suryey of Languages" says the orig
inal seats of the people who speak Mon
golic dialects lie near the Lake BinkaI
and in the eastern parts of Siberia Thew
were divided into three classes-the Mon
cols proper, the Buriats and Kalmuks. In
A. d. 1927 they were united into a nation
which subsequently conquered China and
Russia, after absorbing most of the no.
made tribes of Asia, but recoied before
the united armies of Germany, SIesia
and Poland. This is popularity known as
the great Tartar invasion. How these
8Iongos reached America, whether they
crossed Behring's Strait with the delib-
crate intention OF settling on this conti-
nent, or were driven across by storms or
BIZ Asiatlc foes, are questions far beyond
the ken of philOlOgy, which treats simply
of the origin of language, leaving eth
nolOgy to explain the history of migra.
tons. 1t is quite possible that when thew
lett Asia that continent was Joined to the
continent of America at Behring's by a
neck OF land which the icebergs of the
north have since ground up and DESTROYED.
Or 10 may be that the ancestors Of the In
dams were the Yakuts, n Turkic tribe in
habiting the Behring's country, who have
a tradition that once upon time their
people. being hard driven in war by neigh
boring tribes, built RATS and flOated down
Che river Lena and into the open sea to
some unknown land.
nave shown, also, as we'll as l could
within the limits of a newspaper letter,
that this people of a Mongolia stock had a
hongohc religion, or rather a religion
common to the Mongols and to all the
other divisions of the Turanian and Aryan
families, VIZ, the cultus OF the sun, of
GltSe- HGRlt0n, the spirit Of the day, Of the
brightness. 1t may now be of interest to
trace their minor rites. They saluted the
sun, the GitSe, with sacrifices; and to
propitiate the lesser deities, whom they
saw in every form of nature, they mad re-
course to prayers and incantatiOns, which
CONSTITUTES butlA iltulCiUGs IL DluEJ NOT
Ike supposed, however, that this has any
connection with physic or the healing art.
The Indian name for these rites is mide-
wiwin, in which the first travellers thought
they discerned a form of the word Inedi-
cine. Hence it comes that the English
word medicine is used to signify pagan
ceremonies which have no relation near
Or remote to Esculapius. The Indian for
medicine, physic, is mashkiki. This is
derived from mashkig, the swamp. the
marsh, the muskeg, in which grow the
mashkissiw, the herbs used by the Indians
for treating the sick. Coming back to
midewiwin, the great rites, think l can
trace the word through a variety of form
TO midjIm, food sacrifices, eatables, prOvi-
SONS, the gods being appeased by pres
ents Of the first fruits of the earth and by
gifts of fish, buffalo meats, etc. The
midewigamig, in fun the midiim-wigwam
the lodge or house of the eating, is the
tabernacle in which the priest (the medi-
cine man as we enormously call HIM
offers the sacrifices and lamentations to
his good and bad gods, invoking the aid of
the good ones and aYerting the wrath OF
those that are evil.
In this pagan worship there are various
degrees or rites. The priest and the Ordi-
nary WOrshiper begin by fasting. Then
they enter the lodge, chanting scraps of
songs and beating JOm-tOms, and by con-
unued fasting and prayer bring them-
selves into highly nervous or ecstatic
condition, during which, at the perform
ance of the supremest mysteries, they
profess to hold direct communication with |
the spirits, which make their presence
manifest by a sound as of rushing wind. /
The Indians are not willing to reveal the
secrets of the midewigamig. No white |
nan, so far as / know, has ever witnessed /
their highest rites, but this is certain, that /
the priests claim to be able by some pre-
ternatural means to acquire information |
Of events occurring at tar distant points |
on earth and also in the other world. |
They say that after the long fast and the |
nominations they fall into a trance, and |
are enabled in spirit to hold communion |
with the spirit or intelligence of other /
persons; in short, they profess TO exercise |
the power Of clairyOyance. In the minor .
rites, however, they merely prOpitiate the /
manitOOs, spirits of the air, the plain, the I
forest and the river, which, as they be- /
lieYe, influence men for good or evil, with I
ont pretending to hold converse with |
them. Traces Of these rites are found to /
this day among the Yakuts and other |
Siberian peoples. They are, in fact, COM |
mon TO all the Aryan and Turanian reli- I
eous; the sun. the brightness, being I
everywhere the supreme deity, the power 7
which the miuOr gods and all the forces of /
nature obey as the giyer OF heat and light, /
winch are the life.
Digging a little deeper we find i'm the /
language of the Iudiau q am dealing /
throughout with great Chppewayan /
tongue, the mother of nearly all the Yari- /
1l5 Indian dialects) sull further proof I
aat be came a stranger to these plains .
nom some distant land. Take, for exam /
IL xwnrN q, naf - horcaa
zee, so that he knew OF the wild rice that /
rows so abundantly in marshy places .
before he ever saw oats. His word for |
barley is "rIce with a TAIL" hence barley /
was also unknown 10 him. But we can ,
E) behind rice. His word for it, waban0- /
min, Is au alb ,eviation Of wabanomanda- /
Lln, the little white maize or corn, 80 /
,Aa- when he first beheld the white rice OF /
lht plains he had 70 find a name for it by I
la1ug 10 with the ndil0d1alH, the corn I
~ I'd. Asiatio countries I'm which he I
''ti before a cruel fate passed upon him
.N hca of Punishment from "his kindred I
aaA lIs iather's house" Or take bH6di0. I
~ chippewa buffalo Is mHSk0te-pgikL /
-.'ialI} tine x Of the great prairie, /
1hoir being our old friend mds6id IN an
a.ai-ud form. 10 wound be ensy 10 null
IiF proofs Of his nlicnism, but the wild
..e ana the bunalo, upon which he has
a"'Isi'd ever since his arrival In this re-
9Ii are, think, conclusive tests. We
.''Hu not have been native ntd 10 the
manner born, or he would not have been