ASCRIBED TO THE R ATT LE«SN AKE. 275 



tiki not know in what manner it does it. The interpreter, 

 llirough whom I couverfed with this Indian, faid that the fnake 

 charms by means of its rattle. 



The veneration, or regard, which has been paid to the SomcNorth- 



^ M r r /I American tnbes 



rattle-fnake by certain North-American tribes teems, at tirlt had a veneration 

 fight, to favour the opinion, that tliefe tribes attributed to for therattk- 

 this hideous reptile fome hidden power*, perhaps that of ' 



fafcinating animals. Mr. William Bartrara informs me, that 

 the fouthern Indians, with whom he is acquainted, feem to 

 hold the rattle-fnake in a degree of veneration |. Mr. Hecke- 

 welder fays that, to his certain knowledge, this reptile was 

 once lield in particular efteem by the Delawares. He was 

 feveral times prevented, by thefe Indians, from killing the 

 rattle-fnake, being told that it was their grand-father, and, 

 therefore, mufl: not be hurt. At other times, he was told, he 

 muft not kill this fnake, becaufe the whole race of ratde-fnakes 

 would grow angry, and give orders to bite every Indian that 

 might come in their way J. Bui, of late, efpecially among 

 thofe Indians who have had connedlion with the whites, thefe 

 ridiculous notions have mouldered away, and our Indians, at 

 prefent, kill their rattling ** grandfather" with as little cere- 

 mony as the Etkemaux are faid to kill their parents in old- 

 age. 



It is obvious, from contemplating the manners and me '^^^*^'^ ^""^^ ^'^ 



1 -o /• • 1 r 1 • ^• • II have been part 



hiltory or nations, that a part or their religions, and a large of the religious 



part of the fabrick of their fuperftitious notions, have arifen. ^^ -^ grounded 



on fear, . 



* Vis abdita. Lucretius i 



+ MS. note communicated tome, 



J In my Hijiorical and Philofophical Inquiry (not yet publiflied), 

 I have colle6ied many fa^ls which feem inconteftibly to prove, that 

 the mythology, or fuperftitious religion, of the Americans is- a 

 fragment of that mythology whofe range in Afia, and in Africa, has 

 .been fo extenfive. Poffibly, the veneration, or regard, which was 

 paid to different kinds of ferpents in America did not originate in 

 this continent, but had its fource in Afia, from which portion of 

 the globe (after a long and laborious attention to the fubjeft) I can- 

 jjot doubt, that almoft all the nations of America are derived. It 

 is unneceflary, in this place, to cite inftancesof the religious venera- 

 tion which was, and ftill is, paid to fome fpecies of ferpents, in 

 various parts of the old-world. Thefe inftances muft be familiar to 

 every perfon, who is acquainted with the hiftorians or with the 

 poets of antiquity, and with the hiftory of the Gentoo-Indies. 



T 2 out 



