their High Priests, and others of a religious order." "Ishtohoollo," he observes, "is the name of all their priestly order, and their pontificial office descends by inheritance to the eldest."*

Notwithstanding this diversity, however, the difference is more in appearance than in reality. Various meanings attached to the same words, in consequence of arbitrary associations, may produce a diversity of description. If a priest be one whose exclusive duty it is to celebrate the rites of religion, then it must be admitted that a priesthood exists among the indians; for those who deny that they have priests, allow that in their public sacrifices the chiefs are the only persons authorized to officiate. The only difference, then, lies in this, whether the priesthood be or be not connected with the office of the magistrate.

Among Christians, as among the Jews, the priesthood is distinct from the civil authority; but previous to the separation of the family of Aaron, these two offices were generally united. Melchizedeck was both king of Salem and priest of the most High God. Jethro was, at the same time, priest and prince of Midian; and Abraham himself, who is called a prince, performed the sacerdotal functions. We find this union of the regal and sacerdotal characters existing among heathen nations. Homer describes the aged Pylian King as performing religious rites;† and Virgil tells of the Monarch of Delos, who was both priest and king:

"Rex Anius, rex idem, hominum Phœbique sacerdos."

Among the Creeks and other Southern Indians, a monarchical form of government seems to prevail; among the Northern Indians, a republican. In both, the sacerdotal office may be united with civil authority,

* Adair's Hist. North American Indians, p. 80, 81. Odyss. lib. iii. l. 418 460.

Eneid. lib. iii. I. 80.

and therefore partake of its peculiar character. Among the one, it may be hereditary; among the other, elective. If this be not sufficient to reconcile the discordant accounts, we are bound, I think, to respect the united testimony of Charlevoix and Loskiel, in preference to any other, as they do not appear to have had any system to serve, which might give a bias to their statements. And if this be so, it will be seen that the Religion of the Indians approaches much nearer to the patriarchal, than to that of the Jews. Their public sacerdotal offices are performed by their chiefs, and in their private, the head of every family is its priest.

V. But there is another office, which Carver, Bartram, and others, have confounded with the priesthood, which exists among all the Indian Tribes, and concerning which, there is no diversity in the statement of travellers. To this class of men, the French Missionaries gave the name of Jongleurs, whence the English have derived that of Jugglers or Conjurers. To use the definition of Charlevoix, they are those servants of their Gods, whose duty it is to announce their wishes, and to be their interpreters to men :* or, in the language of Volney, those "whose trade it is, to expound dreams, and to negotiate between the Manitto, and the votary."+ "The Jongleurs of Canada,' says Charlevoix, "boast that by means of the good spirits whom they consult, they learn what is passing in the most remote countries, and what is to come to pass at the most distant period of time; that they discover the origin and nature of the most secret disorders, and obtain the hidden method of curing them; that they discern the course to be pursued in the most intricate affairs; that they learn to explain the obscurest dreams, to give

* "Ils (the Jongleurs) ne sont néansmoins les ministres de ces Dieux prétendus, que pour annoncer aux hommes leurs volontés, et pour être leurs interprétes: car, si l'on peut donner le nom de sacrifices aux offran" des que ces peuples font à leurs Divinités, les prêtres parmi eux ne sont jamais les Jongleurs." Journal Hist. p. 363-4.

+ View of the soil and climate, &c. p. 417.

success to the most difficult negociations, and to render the Gods propitious to warriors and bunters.” “I have heard," he adds, "from persons of the most undoubted judgment and veracity, that when these impostors shut themselves up in their sweating stoves, which is one of their most common preparations for the performance of their sleight of hand, they differ in vo respect from the descriptions given by the poets, of the priestesses of Apollo, when seated on the Delphic Tripod. They have been seen to fall into convulsions, to assume toues of voice, and to perform actious, which were seemingly superior to human strength, and which inspired with an unconquerable terror, even the most prejudicial spectators." Their predictions were sometimes so surprisingly verified, that Charlevoix seems firmly to have believed, that they had a real intercourse with the father of lies.*

This account of the Jongleurs of Canada, is confirmed by Mr. Heckewelder, in his late work on the Indian Tribes. "They are a set," he observes, " of professional impostors, who, availing themselves of the superstitious prejudices of the people, acquire the name and reputation of men of superior knowledge, and possessed of supernatural powers. As the Indians in general belive in witchcraft, and ascribe to the arts of sorcerers many of the disorders with which they are afflicted in the regular course of nature, this class of men has arisen among them, who pretend to be skilled in a certain occult science, by means of which they are able, not only to cure natural diseases, but to counteract or destroy the enchantments of wizards or witches, and expel evil spirits. †

"There are jugglers of another kind, in general old men and women-who get their living by pretending to supernatural knowledge-to bring down rain when wanted, and to impart good luck to bad hunters. In the

* Charlevoix, Journal, p 361-2.

t Heckewelder, Hist. Account, ut supr. p. 224.

summer of 1799, a most uncommon drought happened in the Muskingum country. An old man was applied to by the women to bring down rain, and, after various ceremonies, declared that they should have rain enough. The sky had been clear for nearly five weeks, and was equally clear when the Indian made this declaration. But about four in the afternoon, the horizon became overcast, and, without any thunder or wind, it began to rain, and continued to do so till the ground became thoroughly soaked. Experience had doubtless taught him to observe that certain signs in the sky or in the water were the forerunners of rain; yet the credulous multitude did not fail to ascribe it to his supernatural power."*"It is incredible to what a degree the superstitious belief in witchcraft operates on the mind of the Indian. The moment his imagination is struck with the idea that he is bewitched, he is no longer himself. Of this extraordinary power of their conjurers, of the causes which produce it, and the manner in which it is acquired, they have not a very definite idea. The sorcerer, they think, makes use of some deadening substance, which he conveys to the person he means to 'strike,' in a manner which they can neither understand nor describe. The person thus stricken,' is immediately seized with an unaccountable terror. His spirits sink, his appetite fails, he is disturbed in his sleep, he pines and wastes away, or a fit of sickness seizes him, and he dies at last, a miserable victim to the workings of his own imagination."+

A remarkable instance of this belief in the power of these sorcerers, and of the wonderful effects of imagination, is related by Hearne, as having occurred during his residence among the northern or Chepewyan Indians. Matonabbee, one of their chiefs, had requested him to kill one of his enemies, who was at that time several hundred miles distant. "To please this great

* Heckewelder, Hist. Acc. of Indians, ut sapr. p. 229–234.

↑ Ibid, p. 232-3.

man," says he, "and not expecting that any harm could possibly arise from it, I drew a rough sketch of two human figures on a piece of paper, in the attitude of wrestlling; in the band of one of them I drew the figure of a bayonet, pointing to the breast of the other. This,' said to Matonabbee, pointing to the figure which was bolding the bayonet, is I, and the other is your enemy.' Opposite to those figures I drew a pine tree, over which I placed a large human eye, and out of the tree projected a buman hand. This paper I gave to Matonabbee, with instructions to make it as public as possible. The following year when he came to trade, he informed me that the man was dead. Matonabbee assured me, that the man was in perfect health when he beard of my design against him, but almost immediately afterward became quite gloomy, and, refusing all kinds of sustenance, in a very few days died."*

Bartram, in his account of the manners and habits of the tribes which inhabit Florida and the south of the United States, relates, as their general belief, that "their seer has communion with powerful invisible spirits, who have a share in the government of buman affairs, as well as of the elements. His influence is so great, as frequently to turn back an army when within a day's journey of their enemy, after a march of several hundred miles." "Indeed," he adds, "the predictions of these men have surprised many people. They foretel rain or drought, pretend to bring rain at pleasure, cure diseases, exercise witchcraft, invoke or expel evil spirits, and even assume the power of directing thunder and lightning."+

The power, then, of these impostors, is supposed to consist in the miraculous cure of diseases the procuring of rain, and other temporal blessings, in the same supernatural manner-the miraculous infliction of

Hearne's, Journey to the Northern Ocean. Dublin, 1796, 8vo. p. 221. Note.

+ Bartram, Travels, ut supr. p. 495.