Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/61

 Their manner of adjuration. 49

when the judge will fearch into fomething of material confequence, and ad jures the witnels to fpeak the naked truth, concerning the point in queftion, he fays " O E A (Jko . ? J" " What you have now faid, is it true, by this ftrong emblem of the beloved name of the great felf-exiftent God ?" To which the witnefs replies, O E A, " It is true, by this ftrong pointing fymbol of YO HE WAH." When the true knowledge of the affair in dif- pute, feems to be of very great importance, the judge fwears the witnefs thus : O E A YAH (Jko ?) This moft facred adjuration imports, " Have you now told me the real truth by the lively type of the great awful name of God, which defcribes his necefiary exiftence, without beginning or end ; and by his felf-exiftent literal name, in which I adjure you." The witnefs anfwers, O E A YAH, " I have told you the naked truth, which I moft folemnly fwear, by this ftrong religious picture of the adorable, great, di vine, felf-exiftent name, which we are not to prophane; and I likewife atteft it, by his other beloved, unfpeakable, facred, eflential name."

When we confider that the period of the adjurations, according to their idiom, only afks a queftion ; and that the religious waiters fay YAH, with a profound reverence, in a bowing pofture of body, immediately before they invoke YO HE WAH, the one reflects fo much light upon the other, as to convince me, that the Hebrews, both invoked and pronounced the divine tetragrammaton, YO HE WAH, and adjured their witnefTes to give true evidence, on certain occafions, according to the Indian ufage ; otherwife, how could they pofiibly, in a favage ftate, have a cuftom of fo nice and ftrong-pointing a ftandard of religious caution ? It feems exactly to coincide with the conduct of the Hebrew witnefles even now on the like religious occafions who being fworn, by the name of the great living God, openly to declare the naked truth, hold up their right hand, and anfwer, 3DN JDK, Amen Amen, or " very true ," " I am a moft faithful witnefs." The Hebrew word fignifies faithful, and by being repeated twice, becomes a fu- perlative, and O E A YAH is one of the higheft degree.

St. John, in his gofpel, according to the Hebrew method of adjuration, often doubles the Amen. And the fame divine writer, at the beginning of each of his feven epiftles, in defcribing the glorious and tranfcendant qua lities of Jefus Chrift, and particularly in the epiftle to the church of Laodicea, points at the fame cuftom, " Thefe things faith the Amen^ the faithful and true witnefs, the beginning of the creation of God,"

H The

�� �