Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/174

 1 62 On tie defcent of the American Indians from- the Jews..

never place the ark on the ground, nor fit on the bare earth while are carrying it againft the enemy. On hilly ground where ftones are plenty, they place it on them : but in level' land upon mort logs, always refting themfdves on the like materials. Formerly, when this tradt was the Indian Flanders of America, as the French, and all their red Canadian con federates were bitter enemies to the inhabitants, we often faw the woods full of fuch religious war-reliques. The former is a ftrong imitation of the pedeftal, on which the Jewim ark was placed, a (lone rifing three ringers breadth above the floor. And when we confider in what a furprifing manner the Indians copy after the ceremonial law of the Hebrews, and their ftrifl purity in their war camps, that Qpae> " the leaden," obliges all during the firft campaign they make with the beloved'ark, to (land, every day they lie by, from fun-rife to fun-fet and after a= fatiguing day's march, and fcanty allowance, to drink warm water imbittered with rattle-fnake-root very plentifully,, in order to be purified that they have alfo as ftrong a- faith, of the power and holinefs of their ark, as ever the Ifraelites retained of their's, afcribing the fuperior fuccefs of the party, to their ftri<5ler adherence to- the law than the other j and after they return, home, hang k on the leader's red-painted war pole we have ftrong reafon to conclude: their origin is Hebrew. From the Jewiflti ark of the tabernacle and the tem ple, the ancient heathens derived their arks,, their cift<e or religious chefis, their Teraphim or Dii Lares, and their tabernacles and temples. But their modes and objects of worlhip^ differed very widely from thofe of the Ame ricans..

The Indian, ark is deemed fo facred and dangerous to be touched, either by their own fanfbifted warriors, or the fpoiling enemy, that they durft not touch it upon any account *. It is not to be meddled with by any, except the war chieftain and his waiter,, under the penalty of incurring great evil.

Nor

very importunate to view the infide of the Cheerake ark, which was covered with a dreit decr- fkin, and placed on a couple of fhort blocks. An Indian centinel watched it, armed with a hiccory bow, and brafs-pointed baibed arrows, and he was faithful to his truil; for finding the Granger obtruding to pollute the fuppofed facred vehicle, he drew an arrow to the head,, and would have mot him- through the body, had he not fuddenly withdrawn ; the interpreter, when afked by the gentleman what it contained, told him there was nothing in it but a bun dle of conjuring traps. This fhews what conjurers our common interpreters are, and how much the learned world have really profited by their informations. The Indians have an old,
 * A gentleman who was at the Ohio,, in the year 1756, a/lured me he faw a flranger there

tradition,

�� �