Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/16

Rh beside them stand two large bottles of the genuine Louisiana grape-juice—new year's gifts from kind, new friends, who have brought summer and warmth into room and heart. I have sun enough on this new year, yes and even a little more, to give away in case anybody wanted it.

But I must tell you something about Bushkiton! Bushkiton is a festival, which was celebrated annually by the Indians of the Mississippi in these southern regions, when the Europeans first intruded themselves here. It appears to me the most remarkable of all the festivals of the North-American Indians, and some of its spiritual meaning might have been engrafted beneficially upon the white race, which has now seized upon the soil of the red man.

This festival occurred at the close of the year, and continued eight days. Each day had its separate ceremony; but the principal features of the whole ceremonial were fasting, purification, and self-contemplation. It is said, in the narrative describing it, “that on these days (the third, fifth, and seventh, if I recollect right), the men sate silent in the market-place.” Ashes played a principal part in the purifications; and it appears to me worthy of remark, that these ashes were to be conveyed to the warriors by young maidens who were still half children. The food, also, of which they partook during their fasts, was to be presented to them by these childish hands. The men—for the women are not mentioned at all—held also nocturnal dances by the light of the fire, during which they washed themselves with warm water, in which certain herbs and roots of a medicinal quality had been boiled. The seventh-night's dance appears most symbolical and significant. On the seventh day, the men again “sit silent in the market-place.” The eighth is the last great day of purification. The men then ascend a bank by the river, and throw themselves headlong into it, diving down many times. After this, they come out and reassume