ISRAELITE AND INDIAN. 6 7 



its surroundings "beyond that to be inferred from the ordinances 

 concerning pollution, which, however, are significant. 



Religious Practices. There should, always be a cross-refer- 

 ence in thought between what in time became a religious practice 

 and the earlier sociology, to be mentioned in its place, with which 

 it was closely connected. 



Josephus remarks about the Israelites that " beginning imme- 

 diately from the earliest infancy, nothing was left of the very 

 smallest consequence to be done at the pleasure and disposal of 

 the person himself." 



The same is true regarding the Indians. Their religious life 

 is as intense and all-pervading as that of the Israelites. It is yet 

 noticed in full effect among tribes as widely separated, both by 

 space and language, as the Zuni and the Ojibwa, and their prac- 

 tices are astonishingly similar in essence and even in many details 

 to some of those still prevailing in civilization. 



Among the Hurons and Iroquois there were religious rites for 

 all occasions, among others for the birth of a child, for the first 

 cutting of its hair, for its naming, and for its puberty, for the ad- 

 mission of a young man into the order of warriors, and the pro- 

 motion from warrior to chieftain, for making a mystery-man, for 

 first using a new canoe, for breaking tillage-ground, for sowing 

 and harvest, for fixing the time to fish, for deciding upon a war- 

 like expedition, for marriages, for the torturing of captives, for 

 the cure of disease, for consulting magicians, invoking the daimons, 

 and lamenting the dead. 



Shamans. Among the Indians there was frequently an estab- 

 lished and recognized priesthood, provided by initiation into secret 

 religious societies, corresponding in general authority to that of 

 the Levites, although the order of the latter was instituted in a 

 different manner, perhaps imitated from the exclusive class of the 

 priesthood in Egypt. The shamans in all tribes derived a large 

 part of their support from fixed contributions or fees. 



Adair describes a special ceremony for the admission or conse- 

 cration of a priest among the southern tribes, as follows : " At the 

 time of making the holy fire for the yearly atonement of sin the 

 Sagan clothes himself with a white ephod, which is a waistcoat 

 without sleeves, and. sits down on a white buckskin, on a white 

 seat, and puts on it some white beads, and wears a new pair of 

 white buckskin moccasins, made by himself, and never wears these 

 moccasins at any other time." 



Similar exclusive use by the high priest of the garments used 

 on the day of the atonement is mentioned in Leviticus. 



In addition to the organized class referred to, there were other 

 professional dealers in the supernatural who may be called con- 

 jurers, sorcerers, or prophets. They were independent of and often 



