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N O T E S
ON
THE SECOND VOLUME.
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Thus let their blood be shed. -- V. p. 5.
This ceremony of declaring war with firse and water is represented, by De Bry, in the eleventh print of the description of Florida, by Le Mouyne de Morgues.
The Feast of the Departed. -- VI. p. 6.
Lafitau. Charlevoix.
The Council Hall. -- VI. p. 6.
"The town house, in which are transacted all public business and diversions, is raised with wood and covered over with earth, and has all the appearance of a small mountain at a little distance. It is built in the form of a sugar loaf, and large enough to contain 500 persons, but extremely dark, having (besides the door, which is so narrow that bit one at a time can pass, and after much winding and turning) but one small aperture to let smoke out, which is so ill contrived that most of it settles in the roog of the house. Within
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it has the appearance of an ancient amphitheater, the seats being raised one above another, leaving an area in the middle, in the centre of which stands the fire: the seats of the head warriors are nearest it." -- Memoirs of Lieut. Henry Timberlake, who accompanied the Cherokee Indians to England in 1762.
The Sarbacan. - VI. p. 7.
The children, at eight or ten years old, are very expert at killing birds and smaller game with a sarbacan, or hollow cane, through which they blow a small dart, whose weakness obliges them to shoot at the eye of the larger sort of prey, which they seldom miss." -- Timberlake.
The pendent string of shells. -- VI. p. 7.
"The doors of their houses and chambers were full of diverse kindes of shells, hanging loose by small cordes, that being shaken by the wind they make a certaine ratteling, and also a whisteling noise, by gathering their wind in their hollowe places; for herein they have great delight, and impute this for a goodly ornament." -- Pietro Martire.
Still do your Shadows roam dissatisfied,
And to the cries of wailing woe return
A voice of lamentation? -- VI. p. 7.
"They firmly believe that the spirits of those who are killed by the enemy, without equal revenge of blood, find no rest, and at night haunt the houses of the tribe to which they belonged; but, when that kindred duty of retaliation is justly
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executed, they immediately get ease and power to fly away." -- Adair. "
"The answering voices heard from caves and hollow holes, which the Latines call Echo, they suppose to be the Soules wandering through those places." -- Pietro Martire. This superstition prevailed in Cumuna -- they believed the Echo to be the voice of the Soul, thus answering when it was called. -- Herrera, 3. 4. 11.
The word by which they express the funeral wailing in one of the Indian languages is very characteristic, -- Mauo; which bewailing, says Roger Williams, is very solemn amongst them; morning and evening, and sometimes in the night, they bewail their lost-husbands, wives, children, &c.; sometimes a quarter, half, yea, a whole year and longer, if it be for a great Prince.
The skull of some old Seer. -- VI. p. 8.
On the coast of Paria, oracles were thus delivered. -- Torquemada, L. 6, c. 26.
Their happy souls
Pursue in fields of bliss the shadowy deer. -- VI. p. 10.
This opinion of the American Indians may be illustrated by a very beautiful story from Carver's Travels:
"Whilst I remained among them, a couple, whose tent was adjacent to mine, lost a son of about four years of age. The parents were so much affected at the death of their favorite child, that they pursued the usual testimonies of grief with such uncommon rigour, as through the weight of sorrow and loss of blood to occasion the death of the father. The woman,
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who had hitherto been inconsolable, no sooner saw her husband expire than she dried up her tears, and appeared cheerful and resigned. As I knew not how to account for so extraordinary a transition, I took an opportunity to ask her the reason of it; telling her, at the same time, that I should have imagined the loss of her husband would rather have occasioned an increase of grief than such a sudden diminution of it.
"She informed me, that, as the child was so young when it died, and unable to support itself in the country of spirits, both she and her husband had been apprehensive that its situation would be far from being happy; but no sooner did she behold its father depart for the same place, who not only loved the child with the tenderest affection, but was a good hunter, and would be able to provide plentifully for its support, than she ceased to mourn. She added, that she now saw no reason to continue her tears, as the child, on whom she doted, was under the care and protection of a fond father; and she had only one wish that remained ungratified, which was that of being herself with them.
"Expression so replete with unaffected tenderness, and sentiments that would have done honor to a Roman matron, made an impression on my mind greatly in favour of the people to whom she belonged, and tended not a little to counteract the prejudices I had hitherto entertained, in common with every other traveller, of Indian insensibility and want of parental tenderness. Her subsequent conduct confirmed the favorable opinion I had just imbibed, and convinced me, that, notwithstanding the apparent suspension of her grief, some particles of that reluctance to be separated from a
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beloved relation, which is implanted by nature or custom in every human heart, still lurked in hers. I observed that she went almost every evening to the foot of the tree, on a branch of which the bodies of her husband and child were laid, and, after cutting off a lock -of her hair and throwing it on the ground, in a plaintive melancholy song bemoaned its fate. A recapitulation of the actions he might have performed, had his life been spared, appeared to be her favorite theme; and, whilst she foretold the fame that would have attended an imitation of his father's virtues, her grief seemed to be suspended. 'If thou hadst continued with us, my dear son,' would she cry, 'how well would the bow have become thy hand, and how fatal would thy arrows have proved to the enemies of our bands! Thou wouldst often have drunk their blood, and eaten their flesh; and numerous slaves would have rewarded thy toils. With a nervous arm wouldst thou have seized the wounded buffalo, or have combated the fury of the enraged bear; thou wouldst have overtaken the flying elk, and have kept pace on the mountain's brow with the fleetest deer. What feats mightst thou not have performed, hadst thou staid among us till age had given thee strength, and thy father had instructed thee in every Indian accomplishment!' In terms like these did this untutored savage bewail the loss of her son; and frequently would she pass the greatest part of the night in the affectionate employ."
The spirit of that noble blood which ran
From their death-wounds is in the ruddy clouds,
Which go before the Sun when he comes forth
In glory. -- VI. p. 11.
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Among the last comers, one Avila, a cacique, had great authority, who, understanding that Valdivia affirmed the God of the Christians was the only Creator of all things, in a great rage cried out, lie would never allow Pillan, the God of the Chilenians, to be denied the power of creating. Valdivia inquired of him concerning this imaginary deity. Avila told him that his God did, after death, translate the chief men of the nation and soldiers of known bravery to places where there was dancing and drinking, there to live happy for ever; that the blood of noble men slain in battle was placed about the sun, and changed into red clouds, which sometimes adorn his rising." -- Hist. of Paraguay, &c., by F. A. del Techo.
O my people!
I, too, could tell ye of the former days. -- VI. p. 13.
The mode of sowing is from the twenty-first plate of De Bry to J. Le Moyne de Morgues. The common storehouses are mentioned by the same author; and the ceremony of the widows strewing their hair upon their husbands' graves is represented in the 19th plate.
The Snake-Idol. -- VI. p. 15.
Snake-worship was common in America. -- Bernal Diaz, pp. 3, 7, 125. The idol described VII. p. 25, somewhat resembles what the Spaniards found at Campeche, which is thus described by the oldest historian of the Discoveries: "Our men were conducted to a broade crosse-way standing on the side of the towne. Here they shew them a square stage or pulpit foure steppes high, partly of clammy bitumen. and
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partly of small stones, whereto the image of a man cut in marble was joyned, two foure-footed unknown beastes fastening upon him, which, like madde dogges, seemed they would tear the marble man's guts out of his belly. And by the image stood a serpent, besmeared all with goare bloud, devouring a marble lion; which Serpent, compacted of bitumen and small stones incorporated together, was seven and fortie feet in length, and as thicke as a great oxe. Next unto it were three rafters, or stakes, fastened to the grounde, which three others crossed, underpropped with stones; in which place they punish malefactors condemned; for proof whereof they saw innumerable broken arrows, all bloudie, scattered on the grounde, and the bones of the dead cast into an inclosed courte neere unto it." -- Pietro Martire.
It can scarcely be necessary to say, that I have attributed to the Hoamen such manners and superstitions as, really existing among the savage tribes of America, were best suited to the plan of the poem.
-- piously a portion take
Of that cold earth, to which for ever now
Consigned they leave their fathers, dust to dust. -- VI. p. 15.
Charlevoix assigns an unworthy motive for this remarkable custom, which may surely be more naturally explained: he says they fancy it procures luck at play.
-- from his head
Plucking the thin gray hairs, he dealt them round. -- VI. p. 17.
Some passages in Mr. Mackenzie's "Travels" suggested this to me.
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"Our guide called aloud to the fugitives, and entreated them to stay, but without effect: the old man, however, did not hesitate to approach us, and represented himself as too far advanced in life, and too indifferent about the short time he had to remain in the world, to be very anxious about escaping from any danger that threatened him. At the same time, he pulled the gray hairs from his head by handfuls to distribute among us, and implored our favor for himself and his relations.
"As we were ready to embark, our new recruit was desired to prepare himself for his departure, which he would have declined; but, as none of his friends would take his place, we may be said, after the delay of an hour, to have compelled him to embark. Previous to his departure, a ceremony took place, of which I could not learn the meaning. He cut off a lock of his hair; and, having divided it into three parts, he fastened one of them to the hair on the upper part of his wife's head, blowing on it three times with all the violence in his power, and uttering certain words. The other two he fastened with the same formalities on the heads of his two children." -- Mackenzie.
Forth from the dark recesses of the Cave
The Serpent came. -- VII. p. 23.
Of the wonderful docility of the snake, one instance may suffice.
"An Indian belonging to the Menomonie, having taken a rattlesnake, found means to tame it, and, when he had done this, treated it as a Deity; calling it his great Father, and carrying it with him in a box wherever he went. This he
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had done for several summers, when Mons. Pinnisance accidentally met with him at this carrying-place, just as he was setting off for a winter's hunt. The French gentleman was surprised one day to see the Indian place the box which contained his God on the ground, and, opening the door, give him his liberty; telling him, whilst he did it, to be sure and return by the time he himself should come back, which was to be in the month of May following. As this was but October, Monsieur told the Indian, whose simplicity astonished him, that he fancied he might wait long enough, when Maay arrived, for the arrival of his great Father. The Indian was so confident of his creature's obedience, that he offered to lay the Frenchman a wager of two gallons of rum, that, at the time appointed, he would come and crawl into his box. This was agreed on, and the second week in May following fixed for the determination of the wager. At that period they both met there again; when the Indian set down his box, and called for his great Father. The snake heard him not; and, the time being now expired, he acknowledged that he had lost. However, without seeming to be discouraged, he offered to double the bet if his Father came not within two days more. This was further agreed on; when, behold! on the second day, about one o'clock, the snake arrived, and of his own accord crawled into the box, which was placed ready for him. The French gentleman vouched for the truth of this story; and, from the accounts I have often received of the docility of those creatures, I see no reason to doubt its veracity." -- Carver's Travels.
We have not taken animals enough into alliance with us. In one of the most interesting families which it was ever my
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good fortune to visit, I saw a child suckled by a goat. The gull should be taught to catch fish for us in the sea, the otter in fresh water. The more spiders there were in the stable, the less would the horses suffer from the flies. The great American fire-fly should be imported into Spain to catch mosquitoes. Snakes would make good mousers; but one favorite mouse should be kept to rid the house of cockroaches. The toad is an excellent fly-catcher; and, in hot countries, a reward should be offered to the man who could discover what insect feeds upon fleas; for, say the Spaniards, no ay criatura tan libre, a quien falta su Alguacil.
-- that huge King
Of Basan, hugest of the Anakim. -- VII. p. 23.
Og, the King of Basan, was the largest man that ever lived: all Giants, Titans, and Ogres are but dwarfs to him; GaragantutL himself is no more compared to Og, than Tom Thumb is to Garagantua. For thus say the rabbis: Moses chose out twelve chiefs, and advanced with them till they approached the land of Canaan, where Jericho was, and there he sent those chiefs that they might spy out the land for him. One of the Giants met them: he was called Og, the son of Anak; and the height of his stature was twenty-three thousand and thirty-three cubits. Now, Og used to catch the clouds, and draw them towards him, and, drink their waters; and he used to take the fishes out of the depths of the sea, and toast them against the orb of the sun, and eat them. It is related of him by tradition, that in the time of the Deluge he went to Noah, and said to him,' Take me with thee in the ark;' but Noah made answer, 'Depart from me, O thou enemy of
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God!' And when the water covered the highest mountains of the earth, it did not reach to Og's knees. Og lived three thousand years, and then God destroyed him by the hand of Moses: for, when the army of Moses covered a space of nine miles, Og came and looked at it, and reached out his hand to a mountain, and cut from it a stone so wide that it could have covered the whole army; and he put it upon his head, that he might throw it upon them. But God sent a lapwing, who made a hole through the stone with his bill, so that it slipt over his head, and hung round his neck like a necklace, and he was borne down to the ground by its weight. Then Moses ran to him (Moses was himself ten cubits in stature); and he took a spear ten cubits long, and threw it up ten cubits high, and yet it only reached the heel of Og, who was lying prostrate; and thus he slew him., And then came a great multitude with scythes, and cut off his head; and, when lie was dead, his body lay for a whole year, reaching as far as the river Nile in Egypt. His mother's name was Enac, one of the daughters of Adam; and she was the first harlot. Her fingers were two cubits long; and upon every finger she had two sharp nails, like two sickles. But, because she was a harlot, God sent against her lions as big as elephants, and wolves as big as camels, and eagles as big as asses, and they killed her and eat her.
When Og met the spies who were sent by Moses, he took them all twelve in his hand, and put them in his wallet, and carried them to his wife, and said to her,' Look, I beseech you, at these men who want to fight with us!' And he emptied them out before her, and asked her if he should tread upon them; but she said,' Let them go and tell their people what they have
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seen.' When they were got out, they said to each other 'If we should tell these things to the children of Israel, they would forsake Moses; let us therefore relate what we have seen only to Moses and Aaron.' And they took with them one grape-stone from the grapes of that country, and it was as much as a camel could carry. And they began to advise the people that they should not go to war, saying what they had seen; but two of them -- namely, Caleb the son of Jepho, and Joshua the son of Nun - concealed it. -- Maracci.
Even if the grapes had not been proportioned to Og's capacious mouth, the rabbis would not have let him starve. There were behemoths for him to roast whole; and Bar-Chana saw a fish to which whales are but sprats, and Leviathan but a herring. "We saw a fish," says he, "into whose nostrils the worm called Tinna had got and killed it; and it was cast upon the shore with such force by the sea, that it overthrew sixty maritime cities: sixty other cities fed upon its flesh; and what they left was salted for the food of sixty cities more."
From one of the pupils of his eyes they filled thirty barrels of oil. A year or two afterwards, as we passed by the same place, we saw men cutting up his bones, with which the same cities were built up again." -- Maracci.
Arrows round whose heads dry tow was twined,
With pine-gum dipt. -- VII. p. 25.
This mode of offence has been adopted wherever bows and arrows were in use. De Bry represents it in the thirty-first plate to Le Moyne de Morgues.
The Medes poisoned their arrows with a bituminous liquor
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called naphtha, whereof there was great plenty in Media, Persia, and Assyria. The arrow, being steeped in it, and shot from a slack bow (for swift and violent motion took off from its virtue), burnt the flesh with such violence, that water rather increased than extinguished the malignant flame: dust alone could put a stop to it, and, in some degree, allay the unspeakable pain it occasioned." -- Universal History.
His hands transfixed
And lacerate with the body's pendent weight. -- VIII. p. 21.
Laceras toto membrorum pondere palmas.
Mambruni, Constantinus, sive Idololatria, Debellata.
Not for your lots on earth,
Menial or mighty, slave or highly-born,
For cunning in the chase, or strength in war,
Shall ye be judged hereafter. -- VIII. p. 32.
They are informed in some places that the kings and noblemen have immortal souls, and believe that the souls of the rest perish together with their bodies, except the familiar friends of the princes themselves, and those only who suffer themselves to be buried alive together with their masters' funerals; for their ancestors have left them so persuaded, that the souls of kings, deprived of their corporeal clothing, joyfully walk to perpetual delights through pleasant places always green, eating, drinking, and giving themselves to sports, and dancing with women after their old manner while they were living; and this they hold for a certain truth. Thereupon many, striving with a kind of emulation, east themselves headlong into the sepulchres of their lords; which if his familiar friends defer to do, they think their souls become temporary instead of eternal. -- Pietro Martire.
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When I was upon the Sierras of Guaturo, says. Oviedo, and had taken prisoner the Cacique of the Province who had rebelled, I asked him whose graves were those which were in a house of his; and he told me, of some Indians who had killed themselves when the Cacique his father died. But, because they often used to bury a quantity of wrought gold with them, I had two of the graves opened, and found in them a small quantity of maize, and a small instrument. When I inquired the reason of this, the cacique and his Indians replied, that they who were buried there were laborers, who had been well skilled in sowing corn and in gathering it in, and were his and his father's servants, who, that their souls might not die with their bodies, had slain themselves upon his father's death; and that maize with the tools was laid there with them that they might sow it in heaven. In reply to this, I bade
them see how the Tuyra had deceived them, and that all he had told them was a lie; for, though they had long been dead, they had never fetched the maize, which was now rotten, and good for nothing, so that they had sown nothing in heaven. But the cacique answered, that was because they. found plenty there, and did not want it. -- Relacion sumaria de la Historia Natural de las lndias, por el Capitian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo.
The Tlascallans believed that the souls of chiefs and princes became clouds, or beautiful birds, or precious stones; whereas those of the common people would pass into beetles, rats, mice, weasels, and all vile and stinking animals. Torquemada, L. 6, c. 47.
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Cadog, Deiniol,
Padarn, and Teilo. -- VIII. p. 35.
The two first of these saints, with Madog Morvyn, are called the Three Holy Bachelors of the Isle of Britain. Cadog the Wise was a Bard who flourished in the sixth century. He is one of the three protectors of innocence: his protection was through church law; Blas's, by the common law; and Pedrogyl's, by the law of arms. These three were also called the Just Knights of the Court of Arthur. Cadog was the first of whom there is any account, who collected the British Proverbs. There is a church dedicated to him in Caermarthenshire, and two in Monmouthshire. Deiniol has churches dedicated to him in Monmouth, Cardigan, and Pembroke shires. In the year 525, he founded a college at Bangor, where he was abbot; and, when it was raised to the dignity of bishopric, he was the first bishop. Padarn and Teilo rank with Dewi, or David, as the three blessed Visitors; for they went about preaching the faith to all degrees of people, not only without reward, but themselves alleviating the distresses of the poor as far as their means extended. Padarn found a congregation at a place called from him Llanbadarn Vaar, where he had the title of archbishop. Teilo established the college at Llandaff: the many places called Llancleilo were so named in honor of him. He and Cadog and David were the three canonical Saints of Britain. -- Cambrian Biography.
Teilo, or Teliau, as he is called by David Williams, took an active part against the heresy of Pelagius, the great Welshman. "Such was the lustre of his zeal, that, by something like a pun on his name, he was compared to the sun, and called Helios,
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and, when slain at the altar, devotees contended with so much virulence for the reputation of possessing his body, that the priests, to avoid scandalous divisions, found three miraculous bodies of the saint, as similar, according to the phrase used on the occasion, as one egg to another; and miracles were equally performed at the tombs of all the three." -- D. Williams's Hist. of Monmouthshire.
This Miracle is claimed by some Agiologists for St. Baldred, Confessour, "whose memory in ancient tymes hath byn very famous in the kingdome of Scotland. For that he having sometymes preached to the people of three villages neere adjoyning one to the other in Scotland, called Aldhalm, Tiningham: and Preston, was so holy a man of life, that, when he was dead, the people of each village contended one with another which of them should have his body; in so much, that,
at last, they, not agreeing thereabout, took armes, and each of them sought by force to enjoy the same. And, when the matter came to issue, the said sacred body was found all whole in three distinct places of the house where he died; so as the people of each village coming thither, and carrying the same away, placed it in their churches, and kept it with great honour and veneration for the miracles that at each place it pleased God to worke." -- English Martyrologe.
The story may be as true of the one Saint as of the other, a solution in which Catholicks and Protestants will agree. Godwin (in Catal. Ep. Landao) says that the Churches which contended for the Welsh Saint, were Pennalum, he burial place of his family, Llandeilo Vaur, where he died, and Llandaff, where he had been Bishop; and he adds, in honour of his own church, that by frequent miracles at his
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tomb it was certain Llandaff possessed the true body. -- Yet in such a case as this the fac-similie might have been not unreasonablt deemed more curious than the original.
The polypus's power of producing as many heads, legs, and arms as were wanted, has been possessed by all the great Saints. This miracle of triplification would have been more appropriate had it been worked upon some zealous Homoousian.
St. Teilo left his own country for a time because it was infested by an infectious disorder, called the Yellow Plague, which attacked both men and beasts. -- Capgrave, quoted in Cressy's Church History of Brittany
David. -- VIII. p. 35.
Mongst Hatterill's lofty hills, that with the clouds are crown'd,
The valley Ewias lies, immur'd so deep and round,
As they below who see the mountains rise so high,
Might think the straggling herds were grazing in the sky;
Which in it such a shape of solitude doth bear,
As Nature at the first appointed it for prayer.
Where in an aged cell, with moss and ivy grown,
In which not to this day the Sun hath ever shone,
That reverend British Saint, in zealous ages past,
To contemplation lived; and did so truly fast,
As he did only drink what crystal Hodney yields,
And fed upon the leeks he gathered in the fields;
In memory of whom, in each revolving year,
The Welshman on his day that sacred herb do wear.
* * * * * * * *
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Of all the holy men whose fame so fresh remains,
To whom the Britons built so many sumptuous fanes,
This Saint before the rest their patron still they hold,
Whose birth their ancient Bards to Cambria long foretold;
And seated here a see, his bishopric of yore,
Upon the farthest point of this unfruitful shore,
Selected by himself, that, far from all resort,
With contemplation seemed most fitly to comport;
That, void of all delight, cold, barren, bleak, and dry,
No pleasure might allure, nor steal the wandering eye.
Drayton.
"A.D. 462. It happened on a day, as Gildas was in a sermon (Reader, whether smiling or frowning, forgive the digression), a nunne big with child came into the congregation; whereat the preacher presently was struck dumb, (would not a maid's child amaze any man?) and could proceed no farther. Afterwards he gave this reason for his silence, because that virgin bare in her body an infant of such signal sanctity as far transcended him. Thus, as lesser loadstones are reported to lose their virtue in the presence of those that are bigger, so Gildas was silenced at the approach of the Welsh St. David (being then but Hanse in Kelder); though afterwards, like Zachary, he recovered his speech again." -- Fuller's Church History of Great Britain.
"David one day was preaching in an open field to the multitude, and could not be well seen because of the concourse (though they make him four cubits high, a man and a half in stature), when behold the earth whereon he stood, officiously heaving itself up, mounted him up to a competent
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visibility above all his audience. Whereas our Saviour himself, when he taught the people, was pleased to choose a mountain, making use of the advantage of nature without improving his miraculous power." -- Fuller.
David is indebted to the romancers for his fame as a champion of Christendom: how he came by his leek is a question which the antiquarians have not determined. I am bound to make grateful mention of St. David, having in my younger days been benefited by his merits at Westminster, where the 1st of March is an early play.
But I too here upon this barbarous land,
Like Elmur and like Aronan of old,
Must lift the ruddy spear. -- IX. p. 39.
Elmur, Cynhaval, and Avaon the son of Taliesin, all deserted the Bardic principles to bear arms, and were called the three Chiefs like Bulls in conflict. Avaon, Aronan, and Dygynnelw are the three Bards of the ruddy spear.
-- for this the day,
When to his favoured city he vouchsafes
His annual presence. -- IX. p. 41.
The Feast of the Arrival of the Gods is minutely described by Torquemada, L. 10, c. 24. Tezcalipoca was believed to arrive first, because he was the youngest of the gods, and never waxed old: Telpuctli, the Youth, was one of his titles. On the night of his arrival, a general carousal took place, in which it was the custom, particularly for old people, men and women alike, to drink immoderately; for they said the liquor which they drank would go to wash the feet of the
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God, after his journey. And I, says the Franciscan provincial, -- who, if he had been a philosopher, would perhaps have not written a book at all, or certainly not so interesting a one, -- I say that this is a great mistake; and the truth is, that they washed their own stripes, and filled them with liquor, which made them merry; and the fumes got up into their heads, and overset them with which fall it is not to be wondered at that they fell into such errors and foolishness.
It was thought that this God often visited the Mexicans; but, except on this occasion, he always came incognito. A stone seat was placed at every crossing, or division, of a street, called Momoztli or Ichialoca, where he is expected; and this was continually hung with fresh garlands and green boughs, that he might rest there. Torquemada, L. 6, c. 20.
Mexitli, woman-born. -- IX. p. 41.
The history of Mexitli's birth is related in the Poem, Part 2. Sect. XXI. Though the Mexicans took their name from him, he is more usually called Huitzilupuchtli; or, corruptly, Vitzliputzli. In consequence of the vengeance which he exercised as soon as born, he was styled Tetzahuitl, Terror, and Tetzauhteotl, the Terrible God. -- Clavigero. Torquemada, L. 6, c. 21.
Quetzalcoatl. -- IX. p. 42.
God of the Winds. His temple was circular; "for even as the ayre goeth rounde about the heavens, even for that consideration they made his temple round. The entrance of that temple had a dore made lyke unto the mouth of a serpent, and was paynted with foule and divilish gestures, with great
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teeth and gummes wrought; which was a thing to feare those that should enter thereat, and especially the Christians, unto whom it represented very hell with that ougly face and monsterous teeth." -- Gomara.
Some history is blended with fable in the legend of Quetzalcoatl; for such is the uglyography of his name. He was chief of a band of strangers who landed at Panuco, coming from the North. Their dress was black, long, and loose, like the Turkish dress, or the cassock, says Torquemada, open before, without hood or cape; the sleeves full, but not reaching quite to the elbow: such dresses were, even in his time, used by the natives, in some of their dances, in memory of this event. Their leader was a white man, florid, and having a large beard. At first he settled in Tullan, but left that province in consequence of the vices of its lords, Huemac and Tezcalipoca, and removed to Cholullan. He taught the natives to cut the green stones called chalchihuites, which were so. highly valued, and to work silver and gold. Every thing flourished in his reign: the head of maize was a man's load, and the cotton grew of all colors. He had one palace of emeralds, another of silver, another of shells, one of all kinds of wood, one of turkoises, and one of feathers. His commands were proclaimed by a crier from the Sierra of Tzatzitepec, near the city of Tulla. and were heard as far as the sea-coast, and for more than a hundred leagues round. Fr. Bernardino de Sahagun heard such a voice once in the dead of the night, far exceeding the: power of any human voice. He was told that it was to summon the laborer to the maizes-fields; but both he and Torquemada believed it was the Devil's doing. Notwithstanding his power, Quetzalcoatl was driven
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out by Tezcalipoca and Huemac. Before he departed, he burnt or buried all his treasures, converted the cocoa-trees into others of less worth, and sent off all the sweet singing-birds, who had before abounded, to go before him to Tlapallan, the Land of the Sun, whither he himself had been summoned. The Indians always thought he would return, and, when first they saw the Spanish ships, thought he was come in these moving temples. They worshipped him for the useful arts which he had taught, for the tranquillity they had enjoyed under his government, and because he never suffered blood to be shed in sacrifice, but ordered bread and flowers and incense to be offered up instead. -- Torquemada, L. 3, c. 7; L. 6, c. 24.
Some authors have supposed that these strangers came from Ireland, because they scarred their faces, and eat human flesh (this is no compliment to the Irish, and certainly does not accord with the legend); others, that they were Carthaginians, because New Spain was called Anahuace, and the Phoenicians were children of Anak. That the Carthaginians peopled America is the more likely, say they, because they bored their ears, and so did the Incas of Peru. One of these princes, in process of time," says Garcilasso, "being willing to enlarge the privileges of his people, gave them permission to bore their ears also, but not so wide as the Incas.
This much may legitimately be deduced from the legend, that New Spain, as well as Peru, was civilized by a foreign adventurer, who, it seems, attempted to destroy the sanguinary superstition of the country, but was himself driven out by the Priests.
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Tlaloc. -- IX. p. 42.
God of the Waters: he is mentioned more particularly in Section XII. Tlalocatecuhtli, the Lord of Paradise, as lie is also called, was the oldest of the country gods. His image was that of a man sitting on a square seat, with a vessel before him, in which a specimen of all the different grains and fruitseeds in the country was to be offered: it was a sort of pumicestone, and, according to tradition, had been found upon the mountains.' One of the kings of Tetzcuco ordered a better idol to be made, which was destroyed by lightning, and the original one, in consequence, replaced with fear and trembling. Ah one of the arms had been broken in removing, it was fastened with three large golden nails; but, in the time of the first Bishop Zumarraga, the golden nails were taken away, and the idol destroyed.
Tlaloc dwelt among the mountains, where he collected the vapours, and dispensed them in rain and dew. A number of inferior deities were under his command.
Tlalala. - IX. p. 42.
Some of my readers will stumble at this name; but, to those who would accuse me of designing to Hottentotify the language by introducing one of the barbarous clacks, I must reply, that the sound is Grecian. The writers who have supposed that America was peopled from Plato's Island, observe that the tl, a combination so remarkably frequent in the Mexican tongue, has probably a reference to Atlantis and the Atlantic, Atl being the Mexican word for water, and Tlaloc the God of the waters. An argument quite worthy of the hypothesis. -- Fr. Gregorio Garcia. Origen de los Indios, Lib. 4, c. 8, sec. 2.
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The quaintest opinion ever started upon this obscure subject is that of Fr. Pedro Simon, who argued that the Indians were of the tribe of Issachar, because he was "a strong ass in a pleasant land, who bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute." If the Hebrew word, which is rendered tribute, may mean taxes as well, I humbly submit it to consideration, whether Issachar doth not typify John Bull.
Tiger of the War. -- IX. p. 44.
This was one of the four most honourable titles among the Mexicans: the others were, Shedder of Blood, Destroyer of Men, and Lord of the Dark House. Great Slayer of Men was also a title among the Natchez; but, to obtain this, it was necessary that the warrior should have made ten prisoners, or brought home twenty scalps.
The Chinese have certain soldiers whom they call Tygers of war. On their large round shields of basket-work are painted monstrous faces of some imaginary animal, intended to frighten the enemy. Barrow's Travels in China.
Whose conquered Gods lie idle in their chains,
And with tame weakness brook captivity. -- IX. p. 47.
The Gods of the conquered nations were kept fastened and caged in the Mexican temples. They who argued for the Phoenician origin of the Indians might have compared this with the triumph of the Philistines. over the ark, when they placed it in the Temple of Dagon
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-- peace-offerings of repentance, fill
The temple courts. -- IX. p. 44.
Before the Mexican temples were large courts, kept well cleansed, and planted with the trees which they call Ahuchuetl, which are green throughout the year, and give a pleasant shade; wherefore they are much esteemed by the Indians: they are our savin (sabines de Espana). In the comfort of their shade the priests sit, and await those who come to make offerings or sacrifice to the Idol. -- Historia de la Fundacion y Discurso de la Provincia de Santiago de Mexico de la orden de Predicadores; por el Maestro Fray Augustin Davila Padilla. Brusseles, 1625.
Ten painful months,
Immured amid the forest had he dwelt,
In abstinence and solitary prayer
Passing his nights and days. -- X. p. 47.
Torquemada, L. 9, c. 25. Clavigero.
The most painful penance to which any of these priests were subjected was that which the Chololtecas performed, every four years, in honor of Quetzalcoatl. All the priests sat round the walls in the temple, holding a censer in their hands. From this posture they were not permitted to move, except when they went out for the necessary calls of nature: two hours they might sleep at the beginning of the night, and one after sunrise; at midnight, they bathed, smeared themselves with a black unction, and pricked their ears to offer the blood. The twenty-one remaining hours they sat in the same posture, incensing the idol, and in that same posture took the little sleep permitted them: this continued sixty days. If any one
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slept out of his time, his companions pricked him. The ceremony continued twenty days longer; but they were then permitted more rest. Torquemada, L. 10, c. 32.
Folly and madness have had as much to do as knavery in priestcraft. The knaves, in general, have made the fools their instruments; but they not unfrequently have suffered in their turn.
Coatlantona. -- X. p. 50.
The mother of Mexitli, who, being a mortal woman, was made immortal for her son's sake, and appointed goddess of all herbs, flowers, and trees. Clavigero.
Mammuth. -- X. p. 54.
Mr. Jefferson informs us, that a late governor of Virginia, having asked some delegates of the Delawares what they knew or had heard respecting this animal; the chief speaker immediately put himself into an oratorical attitude, and, with a pomp suited to the elevation of his subject, informed him, that it was a tradition handed down from their fathers, that in ancient times a herd of them came to the Big-bone-licks, and began an universal destruction of the bear, deer, elks, buffaloes, and other animals which had been created for the use of the Indians: that the Great Man above, looking down and seeing this, was so enraged, that he seized his lightning, descended to the earth, and seated himself upon a neighbouring mountain of rock, on which his seat and the print of his feet are still to be seen, and hurled his bolts among them till the whole were slaughtered, except the Big Bull, who, presenting his forehead to the shafts, shook them off as
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they fell; but at length, missing one, it wounded him on the side, whereon, springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois, and, finally, over the great lakes, where he is living at this day.
Colonel G. Morgan, in a note to Mr. Moore, says, "these bones are found only at the Salt Licks in Ohio; some few scattered grinders have, indeed, been found in other places; but it has bee supposed these have been brought from the above mentioned deposit, by Indian warriors and others who have passed it, as we know many have been spread in this manner. When I first visited the salt licks," says the Colonel, "in 1766, I met here a large party of the Iroquois and Wyandot Indians, who were then on a war expedition against the Chicasaw tribe. The head chief was a very old man to be engaged in war; he told me he was eighty-four years old; he was probably as much as eighty. I fixed on this venerable Chief, as a person from whom some knowledge might be obtained. After making some acceptable presents of tobacco, paint, ammunition, &c. and complimenting him on the wisdom of his nation, their prowess in war, and prudence in peace, I intimated my ignorance respecting the great bones before us, which nothing but his superior knowledge could remove, and accordingly requested him to inform me what he knew concerning them. Agreeably to the customs of his nation he informed me in substance as follows:
"Whilst I was yet a boy, I passed this road several times to war against the Catawbas; and the wise old chiefs, among whom was my grandfather, then gave me the tradition, handed down to us respecting these bones, the like to which are found in no other part of the country; it is as follows: After
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the Great Spirit first formed the world, he made the various birds and beasts which now inhabit it. He also made man; but having formed him white, and very imperfect and ill-tempered, he placed him on one side of it, where he now inhabits, and from whence he has lately found a passage across the great water, to be a plague to us. As the Great Spirit was not pleased with this his work, he took of black clay, and made what you call a negro, with a woolly head. This black man was much better than the white man; but still he did not answer the wish of the Great Spirit: that is, he was imperfect. At last the Great Spirit having procured a piece of pure, fine red clay, formed from it the red man, perfectly to his mind; and he was so well pleased with him, that he placed him on this great island, separate from the white and black man, and gave him rules for his conduct, promising happiness in proportion as they should observed. He increased exceedingly, and was perfectly happy for ages; but the foolish young people, at length forgetting his rules, became exceedingly ill-tempered and wicked. In consequence of this, the Great Spirit created the great buffalo, the bones of which you now see before us; these made war upon the human species alone, and destroyed all but a few, who repented, and promised the Great Spirit to live according to his laws, if he would restrain the devouring enemy: whereupon he sent lightning and thunder, and destroyed the whole race, in this spot, two excepted, a male and female, which he shut up in yonder mountain, ready to let loose again should occasion require."
The following tradition, existing among the natives, we give in the very terms of a Shawanee Indian, to shew that the
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impression made on their minds by it must have been forcible. "Ten thousand moons ago, when nought but gloomy forests covered this land of the sleeping sun, long before the pale men, with thunder and fire at their command, rushed on the wings of the wind to ruin this garden of nature; when nought but the untamed wanderers of the woods, and men as unrestrained as they, were the lords of the soil; a race of animals were in being, huge as the frowning precipice, cruel as the bloody panther, swift as the descending eagle, and terrible as the angel of night. The pines crashed beneath their feet, and the lake shrunk when they slaked their thirst; the forceful javelin in vain was hurled, and the barbed arrow fell harmless from their side. Forests were laid waste at a meal; the groans of expiring animals were every where heard; and whole villages inhabited by men were destroyed in a moment. The cry of universal distress extended even to the region of peace in the west, and the Good Spirit interposed to save the unhappy. The forked lightnings gleamed all around, and loudest thunder rocked the globe. The bolts of heaven were hurled upon the cruel destroyers alone, and the mountains echoed with the bellowings of death. All were killed except one male, the fiercest of the race, and him even the artillery of the skies assailed in vain. He ascended the bluest summit which shades the source of the Monongahela, and, roaring aloud, bid defiance to every vengeance. The red lightning scorched the lofty firs, and rived the knotty oaks, but only glanced upon the enraged monster. At length, maddened with fury, he leaped over the waves of the west at a bound, and this moment reigns the uncontrolled monarch of the wilderness, in despite of even Omnipotence itself." -- Winterbotham.
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The tradition probably is Indian, but certainly not the bombast.
In your youth
Ye have quaffed manly blood, that manly thoughts
Might ripen in your hearts. -- X. p. 55.
In Florida, when a sick man was bled, women who were suckling a man-child drank the blood, if the patient were a brave or strong man, that it might strengthen their milk, and make the boys braver. Pregnant women also drank it. Le Moyne de Morgues.
There is a more remarkable tale of kindred barbarity in Irish history. The royal family had been all cut off, except one girl; and the wise men of the country fed her upon children's flesh to make her the sooner marriageable. I have not the book to refer to, and cannot therefore give the names; but the story is in Keating's history.
The spreading radii of the mystic wheel. -- X. p. 56.
This dance is described from Clavigero; from whom also the account of their musical instruments is taken.
On the top
Of yon magnolia, the loud turkey's voice
Is heralding the dawn. -- XI. p. 59.
"I was awakened in the morning early by the cheering converse of the wild turkey-cock (Meleagris occidentalis), saluting each other from the sun-brightened tops of-the lofty Cupressus disticha and Magnolia grandiflora. They begin at early dawn, and continue till sun-rise, from March to the last
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of April. The high forests ring with the noise, like the crowing of the domestic cock, of these social sentinels, the watchword being caught and repeated, from one to another, for hundreds of miles around; insomuch that the whole country is, for an hour or more, in an universal shout. A little after sun-rise, their crowing gradually ceases; they quit their high lodging places, and alight on the earth; where, expanding their silver-bordered train, they strut and dance round about the coy female, while the deep forests seem to tremble with their shrill noise." -- Bartram.
His cowl was white. -- XII. p. 67.
"They wore large garments like surplices, which were white, and had hoods such as the canons wearl; their hair long and matted, so that it could not be parted, and now full of fresh blood from their ears, which they had that day sacrificed; and their nails very long." -- B. Diaz.
Such is the description of the Mexican priests by one who had seen them.
Tlalocan. -- XII. p. 69.
The Paradise of Tlaloc.
"They distinguished three places for the souls when separated from the body: Those of soldiers who died in battle or in captivity among their enemies, and those of women who died in labor, went to the House of the Sun, whom they considered as the Prince of Glory, where they led a life of endless delight; where, every day, at the first appearance of the sun's rays, they hailed his birth with rejoicings; and with dancing, and the music of instruments and of voices, attended him to his meridian: there they met the souls of the women, and with the same festivity accompanied him to his setting.
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They next supposed, that these spirits, after four years of that glorious life, went to animate clouds, and birds of beautiful feathers and of sweet song, but always at liberty to rise again to heaven, or to descend upon the earth to warble, and suck the flowers. .. The souls of those that were drowned, or struck by lightning, of those who died of dropsy, tumors, wounds, and other such diseases, went along with the souls of children, at least of those which were sacrificed to Tlaloc, the God of Water, to a cool and delightful place called Tlalocan, where that god resided, and where. they were to enjoy the most delicious repasts, with every other kind of pleasure. - Lastly, the third place allotted to the souls of those who suffered any other kind of death was Mictlan, or Hell, which they conceived to be a place of utter darkness, in which reigned a god called Mictlanteuctli, Lord of Hell, and a goddess named Miclancihuatl. I am of opinion that they believed hell to be a place in the centre of the earth; but they did not imagine that the souls underwent any other punishment there than what they suffered by the darkness of their abode. Siguenza thought the Mexicans placed hell in the northern part of the earth, as the word Mictlampa signifies towards both." -- Clavigero.
When any person whose manner of death entitled him to a place in Tlalocan was buried (for they were never burnt), a rod or bough was laid in the grave with him,. that it might bud out again and flourish in that paradise. -- Torquemada, L. 13, c. 48.
The souls of all the children who had been offered to Tlaloc were believed to be present at all after-sacrifices, under the care of a large and beautiful serpent called Xiuhcoatl. -- Torquemada, L. 8, c. 14.
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Green islets foat along. -- XII. p. 700.
Artificial islands are common in China as well as in Mexico.
"The Chinese fishermen, having no houses on shore nor stationary abode, but moving about in their vessels upon the extensive lakes and rivers, have no inducement to cultivate patches of ground, which the pursuits of their profession plant their onions on rafts of bamboo, well interwoven with reeds and long grass, and covered with earth; and these floating gardens are towed after their boats." -- Barrow's China.
To Tlaloc it was hallow'd; and the stone
Which closed its entrance never was remov'd,
Save when the yearly festival return'd,
And in its womb a child was sepulchred,
The living victim. -- XII. p. 72.
There were three yearly sacrifices to Tlaloc. At the first, two children were drowned in the Lake of Mexico; but, in all the provinces, they were sacrificed on the mountains: they were a boy and a girl, from three to four years old. In this last case, the bodies were preserved in a stone chest, as relics, I suppose, says Torquemada, of persons whose hands were clean from actual sin, though their souls were foul with the original stain, of which they were neither cleansed nor purged; and therefore they went to the place appointed for all like them who perish unbaptized. -- At the second, four children, from six to seven years of age, who were bought for the purpose, the price being contributed by the chiefs, were shut up
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in a cavern, and left to die with hunger. The cavern was not opened again till the next year's sacrifice. .. The third continued. during the three rainy months, during all which time children were offered up on the mountains. These also were bought; the heart and blood were given in sacrifice; the bodies were feasted on by the chiefs and priests." Torquemada, L. 7, c. 21.
"In the country of the Mistecas was a cave sacred to the water god. Its entrance was concealed; for, though this idol was generally reverenced, this his temple was known to few. It was necessary to crawl the length of a musquet-shot; and then the way, sometimes open and sometimes narrow, extended for a mile before it reached the great dome, a place seventy feet long and forty wide, where were the idol and the altar. The idol was a rude column of stalactites, or incrustations, formed by a spring of petrifying water; and other fantastic figures had thus grown around it. The ways of the cave were so intricate, that sometimes those who had unwarily bewildered themselves there perished. The friar who discovered this idol destroyed it, and filled up the entrance." -- Padilla, p. 643.
The Temple Serpents. -- XIV. p. 82.
"The head of a sacrificed person was strung up; the limbs eaten at the feast; the body given to the wild beasts which' were kept within the temple circuits. Moreover, in that accursed house they kept vipers and venomous snakes, who had something at their tails which sounded like morris-bells; and they are the worst of all vipers. These were kept, in cradles and barrels and earthen vessels, upon feathers; and there they
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laid their eggs, and nursed up their snakelings; and they were fed with the bodies of the sacrificed, and with dogs' flesh. We learnt for certain, that, after they had driven us from Mexico, and slain above eight hundred and fifty of our soldiers and of the men of Narvaez, these beasts and snakes, who had been offered to their cruel idol to be in his company, were supported upon their flesh for many days. When these lions and tigers roared, and the jackals and foxes howled, and the snakes hissed, it was a grim thing to hear them; and it seemed like hell." -- Bernal Diaz.
He had been confin'd
Where myriad insects on his nakedness
Infix'd their venomous anger, and no start,
No shudder, shook his frame. -- XIV. p. 83.
Some of the Orinoco tribes required these severe probations, which are described by Gumilla, c. 35. The principle upon which they acted is strikingly stated by the Abbe Marigny in an Arabian anecdote.
"All having been chosen by Nasser for Emir,-or general of his army, against Makan, being one day before this prince, whose orders he was receiving, made a convulsive motion with his whole body on feeling an acute bite. Nasser perceived it not. After receiving his orders, the Emir returned home, and, taking off his clothes to examine the bite, found the scorpion that had bitten him. Nasser, learning this adventure, when next he saw the Emir. reproved him for having sustained the evil without complaining at the moment, that it might have been remedied. 'How, sir,' replied the Emir, 'should I be capable of braving the arrow's point, and the
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sabre's edge, at the head of your armies, and far from you, if in your presence I could not bear the bite of a scorpion!'"
Rank in war, among savages, can only be procured by superior skill or strength.
Y desade ninez al egercicio
los apremian por fuerza y incitan,
y en el belico extudio y duro oficio
entrado en mas edad las egercitan;
si alguno de flaqueza da un indicio
del uso militar lo inhabilitan,
y el que sale en las armas senalado
conforme a su valor le dan el grado.
Los cargos de la guerra y preeminencia
no son por flacos medios proveidos,
ni van por calidad, ni por herencia,
ni por hacienda, y ser mejor nacidos;
mas la virtud del brazo y la excelencia,
esta hace los hombres perferidos,
esta ilustra, habilita, perficiona,
y quilata el valor de la persona. Araucana, I.
From the slaughter'd brother of their King
He stripped the slain, and form'd of it a drum,
Whose sound affrighted armies. -- XIV. p. 83.
In some provinces they flayed the captives taken in war, and with their skills covered their drums, thinking with the
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sound of them to affright their enemies; for their opinion was, that, when the kindred of the slain heard the sound of these drums, they would immediately be seized with fear, and put to flight. Garcilaso de la Vega.
"In the Palazzo Caprea, at Bologna, are several Turkish bucklers lined with human skin, dressed like leather: they told us it was that of the backs of Christian prisoners taken in battle; and the Turks esteem a buckler lined with it to be a particular security against the impression of an arrow or the stroke of a sabre." -- Lady Miller's Letters from Italy.
Should thine arm
Subdue in battle six successive foes,
Life, liberty, and honour will repay
The noble conquest. -- XIV. p. 84.
Clavigero. One instance occurred, in which, after the captive had been victorious in all the actions, he was put to death, because they durst not venture to set at liberty so brave an enemy; but this is mentioned as a very dishonorable thing. I cannot turn to the authority, but can trust my memory for the fact.
Often had he seen
His gallant countrymen with naked breast
Rush on their iron-coated enemies. -- XIV. p. 85.
Schyr Mawrice alsua the Berclay
Fra the gret battaill held hys way,
With a great rout off Walis men;
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Quahareuir thai yeid men mycht them ken,
For thai wele ner all nakyt war,
Or lynnyn clayths had but mar.
The Bruce, B. 13, p. 147.
And with the sound of sdnorous instruments,
And with their shouts and screams and yells, drove back
The Britons' fainter war-cry. -- XV. p. 94.
Music seems to have been as soon applied to military as to religious uses.
Con flautas, cuernos, roncos instrumentos,
alto estruenudo, alaridos desdeniosos,
salen los fieros barbaros sangrientos
contra los Espalioles valerosos. Araucana, C. 4.
"James Reid, who had acted as piper to a rebel regiment in the Rebellion, suffered death at York, on Nov. 15, 1746, as a rebel. On his trial, it was alleged in his defence, that he had not carried arms. But the court observed, that a Highland regiment never marched without a piper; and therefore his bagpipe, in the eye of the law, was an instrument of war." -- Walker's Irish Bards.
The construction was too much in the spirit of military law. Esop's trumpeter should not have served as a precedent. Croxall's fables have been made of much practical consequence: this poor piper was hung for not remembering one, and Gilbert Wakefield imprisoned for quoting another.
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A line of ample measure still retained
The missile shaft. -- XV. p. 137.
A retractile weapon of tremendous effect was used by the Gothic tribes. Its use is thus described in a very interesting poem of the sixth century.
At nonus pugnie Helmnod successit, et ipse
Incertum triplici gestabat fune tridentem,
Quem post terga quidem stantes socii tenuerunt;
Consiliumque fuit, dum cuspes missa sederet
In clypeo, cuncti pariter traxisse studerent,
Ut vel sic hominem dejecissent furibundum,
Atque sub hac certum sibi spe posuere triumphum.
Nec mora; Dux, totes fundens in brachia vires,
Misit in adversum magna cum voce triclentem,
Et dicens, finis ferro tibi, calve, sub isto.
Qui, ventos penetrans, jaculorum more coruscat;
Quod genus aspidis, ex alta sese arbore, tanto
Turbine demittit, quo cuncta obstantia vincat.
Quid moror? umbonem scindit, peltaque resultat.
Clamorem Franci tollunt, saltusque resultant.
Obnixique trahunt restim simul atque vicissim;
Nec dubitat princeps tali se aptare labori;
Manarunt cunctis sudoris flumina membris:
Sed tamen hic intra velut esculus astitit heros,
Qui non plus petit astra comis, quam tartara fibris,
Contemnens omnes ventorum, immota, fragores.
De prima Expeditione Attile, Regis Hunnorum,
in; Gallias, ac de Rebus Gestis Waltharii
Aqitanorum Preicipis. Carmen epicum.
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This weapon, which is described by Suidas, Eustatius, and Agathias, was called Augo, and was a barbed trident. If it entered the body, it could not be extracted without certain death; and, if it only pierced the shield, the shield became unmanageable, and the enemy was left exposed.
The Cataia, which Virgil mentions as a Teutonic weapon, was also retractile. This was a club of about a yard long, with a heavy end worked into four sharp points. To the thin end, or handle, a cord was fixed, which enabled a person, well trained, to throw it with great force and exactness, and then, by a jerk, to bring it back to his hand, either to renew his throw, or to use it in close combat. This weapon was called Cat and Catai. -- Cambrian, Register.
The Irish horsemen were attended by servants on foot, commonly called Deltini, armed only with darts or javelins, to which thongs of leather were fastened, wherewith to draw them back after they were cast. Sir James Ware's Antiquities of Ireland.
Paynalton. -- XV. p. 97.
When this name was pronounced, it was equivalent to a proclamation for rising in mass. Torquemada, L. 6, c. 22.
The House of Arms. -- XV. p. 97.
The name of this Arsenal is a tolerable specimen of Mexican sesquipedalianism: Tlacochcalcoatlyacapan. Torquemada, L. 8, c. 13.
Cortes consumed all the weapons of the arsenal in the infamous execution of Qualpopoca and his companions. -- Herrera, 2, 8. 9.
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The ablution of the Stone of Sacrifice. -- XV. p. 98.
An old priest of the Tlatelucas, when they were at war with the Mexicans, advised them to drink the holy beverage before they went to battle: this was made by washing the Stone of Sacrifice. The king drank first, and then all his Chiefs and soldiers in order: it made them eager and impatient for the fight. Torquemada, L. 2, c. 58.
To physic soldiers before a campaign seems an odd way of raising their courage; yet this was done by one of the fiercest American tribes.
"When the warriors among the Natchez had assembled in sufficient numbers for their expedition, the medicine of war was prepared in the chief's cabin. This was an emetic, composed of a root boiled in water. The warriors, sometimes to the number of three hundred, seated themselves round the kettles or caldrons. About a gallon was served to each. The ceremony was to swallow it at one draught, and then discharge it again with such loud eructations and efforts as might be heard at a great distance." -- Heriot's History of Canada.
Odd as this method of administering medicine may appear, some tribes have a still more extraordinary mode of dispensing it.
"As I was informed there was to be a physic-dance at night, curiosity led me to the town-house to see the preparation. A vessel of their own make, that might contain twenty gallons (there being a great many to take the medicine), was set on the fire, round which stood several gourds filled with river-water, which was poured into the pot. This done, there arose one of the beloved women, who, opening a deer-skin
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filled with various roots and herbs, took out a small handful of something like fine salt, part of which she threw on the head man's seat, and part on the fire close to the pot; she then took out the wing of a swan, and, after flourishing it over the pot, stood fixed for near a minute, muttering something to herself; then taking a shrub like laurel, which I supposed was the physic, she threw it into the pot, and returned to her seat. As no more ceremony seemed to be going on, I took a walk till the Indians assembled to take it. At my return, I found the house quite full. They danced near an hour round the pot, till one of them, with a small gourd that might hold about a gill, took some of the physic, and drank it; after which, all the rest took in turn. One of their head men presented me with some, and, in a manner, compelled me to drink, though I would willingly have declined. It was, however, much more palatable than I expected, having a strong taste of sassafras. The Indian who presented it told me it was taken to wash away their sins; so that this is a spiritual medicine, and might be ranked among their religious ceremonies. They are very solicitous about its success: the conjurer, for several mornings before it is drank, makes a dreadful howling, yelling, and hollowing, from the top of the town-house, to frighten away apparitions and evil spirits." -- Timberlake.
-- two fire-flies gave
Their lustre. -- XVII. p. 116.
It is well known that Madame Merian painted one of these insects by its own light.
"In Hispaniola and the rest of the Ocean Islands, there are plashy and marshy places, very fitt for the feeding of
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heardes of cattel. Gnattes of diverse kindes, ingendered of that moyste heate, greviously afflict the colonies seated on the brinke thereof, and that not only in the night, as in other countries: therefore the inhabitants build low houses, and make little doores therein, scarce able to receive the master, and without holes, that the gnats may have no entrance. And for that cause also, they forebeare to light torches or candels, for the gnatts by natural instinct follow the light; yet neverthelesse they often finde a way in. Nature hath given that pestilent mischiefe, and hath also given a remedy; as she hath given us cattes to destroy the filthy progeny of mise, so hath she given them pretty and commodious hunters which they call Cucuij. These be harmless winged worms, somewhat lesse than battes or reere mise, I should rather call them a kinde of beetles, because they have other wings after the same order under their hard winged sheath, which they close within the sheath when they leave flying. To this living creature (as we see flyes shine by night, and certaine sluggish worms lying in thick hedges) provident nature hath given some very cleere looking glasses: two in the seate of the eyes, and two lying hid in the flank, under the sheath, which he then sheweth, when, after the manner of the beetle, unsheathing his thin wings, he taketh his flight into the ayre; whereupon every Cucuius bringeth foure lights or candels with him. But how they are a remedy for so great a mischiefe, as is the stinging of these gnatts, which in some places are little less than bees, it is a pleasant thing to hear. He, who either understandeth he hath those troublesome guestes (the gnattes) at home, or feareth least they may get in, dilligently hunteth after the Cucuij, which he deceiveth by this means and industry
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which necessity (effecting wonders) hath sought out: whoso wanteth Cucuij, goeth out of the house in the first twilight of the night, carrying a burning fire-brande in his hande, and ascendeth the next hillock, that the Cucuij may see it, and hee swinging the fire-brande about, calling Cucuius aloud, and beateth the ayre with often calling and crying out Cucuie, Cucuie. Many simple people suppose that the Cucuij, delighted with the noise, come flying and flocking together to the bellowing sound of him that calleth them, for they come with a speedy and headlong course: but I rather thinke the Cucuij make haste to the brightness of the fire-brande, because swarmes of gnatts fly unto every light, which Cucuij eate in the very ayre, as the martlets and swallowes doe. Behold the desired number of Cucuij, at what time the hunter casteth the fire-brande out of his hand. Some Cucuius sometimes followeth the fire-brande, and lighteth on the grounde; then is he easily taken, as travellers may take a beetle if they have need thereof, walking with his wings shutt. Others denie that the Cucuij are woont to bee taken after this manner, but say, that the hunters especially have boughs full of leaves ready prepared, or broad linnen cloathes wherewith they smite the Cucuius flying about on high, and strike him to the ground, where he lyeth as it were astonished, and suffereth himself to bee taken; or as they say, following the fall of the fly, they take the preye, by casting the same bushie bough, or linnen cloath upon him: howsoever it bee, the hunter havinge the hunting Cucuij, returneth home, and shutting the doore of the house, letteth the preye goe. The Cucuij loosed, swiftly flyeth about the whole house seeking gnattes, under their hanging bedds, and about
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the faces of those that sleepe, whiche the gnatts use to assayle; they seem to execute the office of watchman, that such as are shut in may quietly rest. Another pleasant and profitable commodity proceedeth from the Cucuij. As many eyes as every Cucuius openeth, the hoste enjoyeth the light of so many candels: so that the Inhabitants spinne, swew, weave, and dance by the light of the flying Cucuij. The Inhabitants thinke that the Cucuius is delighted with the harmony and welody of their singing, and that hee also exerciseth his motion in the ayre according to the action of their dancing; but hee, by reason of the divers circuit of the gnatts, of necessity swiftly flyeth about divers wayes to seek his food. Our men also reade and write by that light, which always continueth untill he have gotten enough whereby he may be well and fedd. The gnats being cleansed, or driven out of doores, the Cucuius beginning to famish, the light beginneth to faile; therefore when they see his light to waxe dim, opening the little doore, they set him at linertie, that he may seeke his foode.
"In sport and merriment, or to the intent to terrifie such as are afrayd of every shadow, they say that many wanton fellowes sometimes rubbed their faces by night with the fleshe of a Cucuius, being killed, with the purpose to meet their neighbours with a flaming countenance, as with us sometimes wanton young men, putting a gaping toothed vissard over their face, endeavour to terrifie children, or women, who are easily frighted: for the face being anointed with the lump or fleshy part of the Cucuius, shineth like a flame of fire; yet in a short space that fiery virtue waxeth feeble and is extinguished, seeing it is a certayne bright humour received in a thin substance. There is also another wonderful commodity proceeding
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from the Cucuius: the Islanders appoynted by our menn, goe with their good will by night, with two Cucuij tied to the great toes of their feet; for the travailer goeth better by direction of these lights, than if he brought so many candels with him as their open eyes; he also carryeth another in his hand to seek the Utia by night, a certain kind of cony, a little exceeding a mouse in bignesse and bulke of bodie: which four-footed beast they onely knowe before our coming thither, and did eate the same. They also go a fishing by the light of the Cucuij." -- Pietro Martire.
Bells of gold
Emboss'd his glittering helmet. -- XVIII. p. 127.
Among the presents which Cortes sent to Spain were "two helmets covered with blue precious stones; one edged with golden belles and many plates of gold, two golden knobbes sustaining the belles. The other covered with the same stones, but edged with twenty-five golden belles, crested with a greene foule sitting on the top of the helmet, whose feet, bill, and eyes were all of gold; and several golden knobbes sustained every bell." -- Pietro Martire.
A white plume
On the war-tempest. -- XVIII. p. 128.
His tall white plume, which like a high wrought foam,
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Floated on the tempestuous stream of fight,
Shewed where he swept the field.
Young's Busiris.
[Rocks that meet in battle.] -- XIX. p. 138.
Clavigero. Torquemada, L. 13, c. 47.
The fighting mountains of the Mexicans are less absurd than the moving rocks of the Greeks, as they are placed, not in this world, but in the road to the next.
"L. Martio et Sex. Julio consulibus, in agro Mutinensi duo montes inter se concurrerunt, crepitu maxirno assultantes et recedentes, et inter eos fiammn fumoque exeunte. Quo concursu villa omnes elisen sunt; animalia permulta qume intra fuerant, exanimata sunt." -- J. Ravisii Textoris Offcina, f. 210.
A fiery mountain is a bad neighbor; but a quarrelsome one must be infinitely worse, and a dancing one would not be much better. It is a happy thing for us, who live among the mountains, that they are now-a-days very peaceable, and have left off "skipping like rams."
Funeral and Coronation. -- XIX. pp. 139, 142.
Clavigero. Torquemada.
This coronation oath resembles in absurdity the language of the Chinese, who, in speaking of a propitious event occurring, either in their own or any other country, generally attribute it to the joint will of Heaven and the Emperor of China." Barrow.
I once heard a Methodist street-preacher exhort his auditors to praise God as the first cause of all good things, and the king as the second.
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Let the guilty tremble! it shall flow
A draught of agony and death to him,
A stream of fiery poison. -- XX. p. 145.
I have no other authority for attributing this artifice to Tezozomoc, than that it has been practised very often and very successfully.
"A chief of Dsjedda," says Neibuhr, "informed me that two hundred ducats had been stolen from him, and wanted me to discover the thief. I excused myself, saying that I left that sublime science to the Mahommedan sages; and very soon afterwards a celebrated sheik showed, indeed, that he knew more: than I did. He placed all the servants in a row, made a long prayer, then put into the mouth of each a bit of paper, and ordered them all to swallow it, after having assured them that it would not harm the innocent, but that the punishment of Heaven would fall on the guilty; after which, he examined the mouth of every one; and one of them, who had not swallowed the paper, confessed that he had stolen the money."
A similar anecdote occurs in the old legend of Pierre Faifeu.
Comment la Dame de une grosse Maison ou il hautoit, perdit ung Dyamant eu so maison, qu'il luy fist subtillement recouvere. Chap. 22. p. 58.
Ung certain jour, la Dame de l'hostel
Eut ung ennuy, le quel pour vray fut tel,
Car elle avoit en sa main gauche ou dextre
Ung Dyamant, que l'on renommoit de estre
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De la valeur de bien cinq cens ducatz;
Or, pour soubdain vous advertir du cas,
Ou en dormant, ou en faisant la veille,
Du doy luy cheut, dont cres font s'esmerveille,
Qu'el ne le treuve est son cueur tres mary,
Et n'ose aussi le dire a son mary;
Mais a Faifeu allee est s'en complaindre,
Qui respondit, sans grandement la plaindre,
Que bien failloit que Seigneur le sceust,
Et qu'elle luy dist ains qu'i; s'en appweceust.
En ce faisant le vaillant Pierre Maistre
La recouvere luy est alle promettre,
Ce moyennant qu'il eust cinquante escuz,
Qu'elle luy promist, sans en faire refuz,
Pareillement qu'auchun de la maison
L'eust point trouve, il en rendoit raison.
Leurs propos tins, s'en alla seure et ferme
La dicte Dame, et au Seigneur afferme
Du Dyamant le susdict interest,
Dont il ne fas grant conte ou arrest,
Ce nonobstant que fust le don de nopces,
Qu'avoit donne 'par sur autres negoces;
Car courroucer sa femme assez en veoit
L'avoit perdu, mais grand dueil en avoit:
Or toutes fois a Faifeu it ordonne
Faire son vucil, et puissance il luy donne
A son plaisir faire ainsi qu'il entend.
Incontinent Faifeu fist tout content
Tost assembler serviteurs et servantes,
Grans et petitz, et les portes-fermantes,
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Les fist rengu en une chambre a part.
Ou de grand peur chascun d'culz avoit part.
Quant il cust fait appella Sicur et Dame,
Desquelz ame estoit de corps et ame,
Et devant eulx au servans fist sermon
Du Dyamant, leur disant; nous chermon,
Et scavons bien par l'art de nicromance
Celuy qui le a et tout en evidance
Feignoit chermer la chambre en tous endroitz,
Se pourmenant devant boytteu ou droitz.
Il apperceut parmy une verriere,
Emmy la court, ung garsonnet arricre,
Qui n'estoit point o les autres venu,
Dont vous orrez qu'il eu est advenu.
Ce nonobstant qu'il y en eust grant nombre,
Cinquante ou plus, soubdain faignit soube umbre
De deviner, que tout n'y estoit point.
Les serviteurs ne congnoissans le point
Dirent que nul ne restoit de la bende
Fors le berger; donc, dist-il, qu'on le mande,
Bien le scavoys et autres choses scay,
Qu'il vienne tost, et vous verrez l'essay.
Quant fut venu, demande une arballeste
Que bender fist o grant peine et moleste,
Car forte estoit des meilleures qui soient.
Les assistens tresfort s'estabyscient
Que faire il veult, cas dessus il fait mettre
Ung font raillon, puis ainsi la remettre
Dessus la table, et couchee a travers
Tout droit tendue, et atournee envers,
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Par ou passer on doit devaont la table.
Tout ce cas fait, comme resolu et stable,
Dist a la Dame, et aussi au Seigneur,
Que nul d'eulx ne heut tant fiance en son heur,
De demander la bague dessus dicte,
Par nul brart ou cautelle maudicte;
Car il convient, sans faire nul destour,
Que chascun d'eulx posse et face son tour
Devant le trect, arc, arballeste, ou flesches,
Sans que le cueur d'aucun se plye ou flesche;
Et puis apres les servans passeront,
Mais bien croyer que ne repasseront,
Ceulx ou celuy qui la baque retiennent,
Mais estre mortz tous asseurez se tiennent.
Son dit finy, chascun y a passe,
Sans que nul fust ne blece ne casse;
Mais quant ce fut a cil qui a la baque,
A ce ne veult user de mine ou braque,
Car pour s'excuser ne sceut est vaincquer;
Mais tout souddain son espirit se tendit
Cryer mercy, et la baque rendit,
Et effermant qu'il eu l'avoit robee,
Mais sans Faifeu eust este absorbee.
Auquel on quis s'il estoit bien certain
Du larronneau, mais jura que incertain
Il en estoit, et sans science telle
Qu'on estimoit, avoit quis la cantelle
Espoventer par subtille Lecon
Ceulx qui la bague avoient, en la facon
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Vous pouver voir que, par subtille prouve,
Tel se dit bon, qui meschant on approuve.
The trial by ordeal more probably originated in wisdom than in superstition. The Water of Jealousy is the oldest example. This seems to have been enjoined for enabling women, when unjustly suspected, fully to exculpate themselves; for no one who was guilty would have ventured upon the trial.
I remember an anecdote of John Henderson, which is characteristic of that remarkable man. The maid-servant, one evening, at a house where he was visiting, begged that she might be excused from bringing in the tea; for he was a conjurer, she said. When this was told him, he desired the mistress would insist upon her coming in: this was done. He fixed his eye upon her, and, after she had left the room, said, take care of her; she is not honest. It was soon found that he had rightly understood the cause of her alarm.
Their Sports. -- XXI. p. 149.
These are described from Clavigero, who gives a print of: the Fliers: the tradition of the banner is from the same author; the legend of Mexitli, from Torquemada, L. 6, c. 21.
Then the temples fell,
Whose black and putrid walls were scaled with blood. -- XXII. p. 156.
I have not exaggerated. Bernal Diaz was an eye-witness; and he expressly says, that the walls and the floor of Mexitli's temple were blackened and flaked with blood, and stenching. p. 71.
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One of our nation lost the Maid he loved. -- XXII. p. 158.
There was a young man in despair for the death of his sister, whom he loved with extreme affection. The idea of the departed recurred to him incessantly. He resolved to seek her in the Land of Souls, and flattered himself with the hope of bringing her back with him. His voyage was long and laborious; but he surmounted all the obstacles, and overcame every difficulty. At length he found a solitary old man, or rather genius, who, having questioned him concerning his enterprise, encouraged him to pursue it, and taught him the means of success. He gave him a little empty calabash to contain the soul of his sister, and promised on his return to give him the brain, which he had in his possession; being placed there, by virtue of his office, to keep the brains of the dead. The young man profited by his instructions, finished his course successfully, and arrived in the Land of Souls, the inhabitants of which were much astonished to see him, and fled at his presence. Tharonhiaouagon received him well, and protected him by his counsel from the old woman his grandmother, who, under the appearance of a feigned regard, wished to destroy him by making him eat the flesh of serpents and vipers, which were to her delicacies. The Souls being assembled to dance, as was their custom, he recognized that of his sister. Tharonhiaouagon assisted him to take it by surprise, without which help he never would have succeeded; for, when he advanced to seize it, it vanished like a dream of the night, and left him as confounded as was Aeneas when he attempted to embrace the shade of his father Anchises. Nevertheless he took it, confined it; and in spite of the attempts and stratagems of this captive soul, which sought but to deliver
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itself from its prison, he brought it back the same road by which he came to his own village. I know not if he recollected to take the brain, or judged it unnecessary; but, as soon as he arrived, he dug up the body. and prepared it according to the instructions lie had received, to render it fit for the reception of the soul, which was to re-animate it. Every thing was ready for this resurrection, when the impertinent curiosity of one of those who were present prevented its success. The captive soul, finding itself free, fled away, and the whole journey was rendered useless. The young man derived no other advantage than that of having been at the Land of Souls, and the power of giving certain tidings of it, which were transmitted to posterity. -- Lifitau sur les moeurs de Sauvages Ameriquains, Tom. i. p. 401.
"One, I remember, affirmed to me that himself had been dead four days; that most of his friends in that time were gathered together to his funeral; and that he should have been buried, but that some of his relations at a great distance, who were sent for upon that occasion, were not arrived; before whose coming he came to life again. In this time, he says, he went to the place where the sun rises (imagining the earth to be a plain), and directly over that place, at a great height in the air, he was admitted, he says, into a great house, which he supposes was several miles in length, and saw many wonderful things, too tedious as well as ridiculous to mention. Another person, a woman, whom I have not seen, but been credibly informed of by the Indians, declares she was dead several days; that her soul went southward, and feasted and danced with the happy spirits; and that she found all things exactly agreeable to the Indian notions of a future state." -- Brainerd.
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-- that cheerful one, who knoweth all
The songs of all the winged choristers. -- XXIII. p. 162
The Mocking Bird is often mentioned, and with much feeling, in Mr. Davis's "Travels in America," a very singular and interesting volume. He describes himself in one place as listening by moonlight to one that usually perched within a few yards of his log-hut. A negress was sitting on the threshold of the next door, smoking the stump of an old pipe. "Please God Almighty," exclaimed the old woman, "how sweet that mocking-bird sing! he never tire." By day and by night, it sings alike: when weary of mocking others, the bird takes up its own natural strain; and so joyous a creature is it, that it will jump and dance to its own music. The bird is perfectly domestic; for the Americans hold it sacred. Would that we had more of these humane prejudices in England, -- if that word may be applied to a feeling so good in itself and in its tendency.
A good old Protestant missionary mentions another of the American singing-birds very technically.
"Of black birds there be millions, which are great devourers of the Indian corn as soon as it appears out of the ground. Unto this sort of birds, especially, may the mystical fowls, the Divells, be well resembled (and so it pleaseth the Lord Jesus himself to observe. Matt. xiii.); which mystical fowl follow the sowing of the word, pick it up from loose and careless hearers, as these blackbirds follow the material seed. Against these they are very careful, both to set their corn deep enough, that it may have a strong root, not so apt to be pluckt up, as also they put up little watch-houses in the middle of their fields, in which they or their biggest children lodge." -- Roger Williams.
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But of all the songsters in America who warble their wood-notes wild, the frogs are the most extraordinary.
"Prepared as I was," says a traveller, "to hear something extraordinary from these animals, I confess the first frog concert I herd in America was so much beyond any thing I could conceive of the powers of these musicians, that I was truly astonished. This performance was al fresco, and took place on the 18th (April) instant, in a large swamp, where there were at least ten thousand performers, and, I really believe, not two exactly in the same pitch, if the octave can possibly admit of so many divisions, or shakes of semitones. An Hibernian musician, who, like myself, was present for the first time at this concert of anti-music, exclaimed, 'By Jesus, but they stop out of tune to a nicety!'
"I have been since informed by an amateur who resided many years in this country, and made this species of music his peculiar study, that on these occasions the treble is performed by the Tree-Frogs, the smallest and most beautiful species: they are always of the same color as the bark of the tree they inhabit, and their note is not unlike the chirp of a cricket., The next in size are our countertenors: they have a; note resembling the setting of a saw. A still larger species sing tenor; and the under part is supported by the bull-frogs, which are as large as a man's foot, and bellow out the bass in A tone as loud and sonorous as that of the animal from which they take: their name." -- Travels in America, by W. Priest, Musician.
"I have often thought," says this lively traveller, "if an enthusiastic cockney of weak nerves, who had never been out of the sound of Bow Bell, could suddenly be conveyed from his bed ii the middle of the night, and laid fast asleep
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in an Americain swamp, he would, on waking, fancy himself in the infernal regions. His first sensations would be from the stings of a myriad of mosquitoes; waking with the smart, his ears would be assailed with the horrid noises of the frogs; on lifting up his eyes, he would have a faint view of the nighthawks, flapping their ominous wings over his devoted head, visible only from the glimmering light of the fire-flies, which he would naturally conclude were sparks from the bottomless pit. Nothing would be wanting at this moment to complete the illusion but one of those dreadful explosions of thunder and lightning so extravagantly described by Lee in Oedipus. "Call you these peals of thunder but the yawn of bellowing clouds? By Jove, they seem to me the world's last groans, and those large sheets of flame its last blaze!'"
In sink and swell
More exquisitely sweet than ever art
Of man evoked from instrument of touch,
Or beat, or breath. -- XXIII. p. 182.
The expression is from an old Spanish writer: "Tanian instrumentos de diversas maneras de la musica, de pulso, e flato, e tato, e voz." -- Cronica de Pero Nino.
-- the old, in talk
Of other days, which mingled with their joy
Memory of many a hard calamity. -- XXIV. p. 167.
"And, when the builders laid the foundation of the Temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David, King of Israel.
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"And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
"But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud with joy:
"So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off." -- Ezra, iii. 10-13.
For Aztlan comes in anger, and her Gods
Spare none. -- XXIV. p. 170.
Kill all that you can, said the Tlascallans to Cortes; the young that they may not bear arms, the old that they may not give, counsel. Bernal Diaz, p. 56.
The Circle of the Years is full. -- XXVI. p. 183.
Torquemada, L. 10, c. 33. The tradition of the Five Suns is related by Clavigero; the origin of the present by the same author, and by Torquemada, L. 6, c. 42: the whole of the ceremonies is accurately stated.
Depart! depart!" for so the note,
Articulately in his native tongue,
Spake to the Azteca. -- XXVII. p. 195.
My excuse for this insignificant agency, as I fear it will
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be thought, must be, that the fact itself is historically true: by means of this omen, the Aztecas were induced to quit their country, after a series of calamities. The leader who had address enough to influence them was Huitziton, a name which I have altered to Yuhidthiton for the sake of euphony. The note of the bird is expressed in Spanish and Italian thus, tihui: the cry of the peewit cannot be better expressed. Torquemada, L. 2, c. 1. Clavigero.
The Chair of God. -- XXVII. p. 206.
Mexitli, they said, appeared to them during their emigration, and ordered them to carry him before them in a chair: Teoycpalli it was called. Torquemada, L. 2, c. 1.
The hideous figures of their idols are easily accounted for by the historian of the Dominicans in Mexico.
"As often as the Devil appeared to the Iexicans, they made immediately an idol of the figure in which they had seen him; sometimes as a lion, other times as a dog, other times as a serpent; and, as the ambitious Devil took advantage of this weakness, he assumed a new form every time to gain a new image in which he might be worshipped.. The natural timidity of the Indians aided the design of the Devil; and he appeared to them in horrible and affrighting figures, that he might have them the more submissive to his will: for this reason it is that the idols which we still see in Mexico, placed in the corners of the streets as spoils of the gospel, are so deformed and ugly." -- Augustin Davila Padilla.
To spread in other lands Mexitli's name. -- XXVII. p. 210.
It will scarcely be believed that the resemblance between
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Mexico and Messiah should have been adduced as a proof that America was peopled by the Ten Tribes. Fr. Estavan de Salazar discovered this wise argument, which is noticed in Gregorio Garciat's very credulous and very learned work on the Origin of the Indians, L. 3, c. 7, sec. 2.
THE END.
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