Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/117

 Their religious fejliii ah, fajls t &c* 10$

to haften the holy attendants, as they are all capable of their facred offices. They are as Uriel: obfervers of all their fet forms, as the Ifraelltes were of thofe they had from divine appointment.

Before noon, the temple is fo cleared of every thing the women brought to the fquare, that the fcftival after that period, refembles a magical enter tainment that had no reality in it, confifting only in a delufion of the fenfes. The women then carry the veffels from the temple to the water, and wafli them clean for fear of pollution. As foon as the fun is vifibly declining from his meridian, this third day of the faft, the Archi-magus orders a religious attendant to cry aloud to the crowded town, that the holy fire is to be brought out for the facred altar commanding every one of them to ftay within their own houfes, as becomes the beloved people, without doing the lealb bad thing and to be fure to extlnguifh, and throw away every fpark of the old fire, otherwife, the divine fire will bite them feverely with bad difeafes, ficknefs, and a great many other evils, which he fenten- tioufly enumerates, and finilhes his monitory caution, by laying life and deajh before them.

Now every thing is huflied. Nothing but filence all around : the Archi- magus, and his beloved waiter, rifing up with a reverend carriage, fteady countenance, and compofed behaviour, go into the beloved place, or holieft, to bring them out the beloved fire. The former takes a piece of <iry poplar, willow, or white oak, and having cut a hole, fo as not to reach through it, he then fharpens another piece, and placing that with the hole between his knees, he drills it brifldy for feveral minutes, till it begins to fmoke or, by rubbing two pieces together, for about a quarter of an hour, by friction he collects the hidden fire ; which all of them reckon to immediately iflue from the holy Spirit of fire. The Mufkohge call the fire their grandfather and the fupreme Father of man kind, Efakata-Emffle, " the breath mafter," as it is commonly explained. When the fire appears, the beloved waiter cheriflies it with fine chips, or maved fplinters of pitch-pine, which had been depofited in the holieft : then he takes the unfullied wing of a fwan, fans it gently, and cherimes it to a flame. On this, the Arcbi-^magus brings it out in an old earthen veffel, whereon he had placed it, and lays it on the facred altar, which is under an arbour, thick-weaved a-top with green boughs. It is obfervable, that when the Levites laid wood on the facred fire, it was un-

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