102 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 223. 



of information obliges us here to jump at once 

 over the whole range of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and then we find Enareanism (if I may so term it) 

 extending from Canada to Florida inclusive, and 

 thence at intervals to the Straits of Magellan. 



Most of the earlier visitors to America have 

 noticed the numerous hermaphrodites everywhere 

 met with. De Pauw (who, I believe, never was 

 in America) devotes a whole chapter to the sub- 

 ject in his Recherches sur les Americains, in which 

 he talks a great deal of nonsense. It assisted 

 his hypothesis, that everything American, in the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms, was inferior to 

 their synonymes in the Old World. 



The calm and more philosophical observation of 

 subsequent travellers, however, soon discovered 

 that the so-called hermaphrodites were men in 

 female attire, associating with the women, and 

 partaking of all their labours and occupations. 

 Pere Hennepin had already mentioned the cir- 

 cumstance (Amstel. ed. in 12mo., p. 219.), but 

 he seems to have had no idea of the practice being 

 in any way connected with religion. Charlevoix 

 went a step farther, for speaking of those he met 

 with among the Illinois, he says : 



" On a pretendu que cet usage venait de je ne sais 

 quel principe de la religion, mais cette religion avait, 

 comme bien d'autres, prit sa naissance dans la corruption 

 du cceur," &c. 



Here he stopped, not caring to inform himself as 

 to the real origin of the usage. Lafitau says these 

 so-called hermaphrodites were numerous in Loui- 

 siana, Florida, Yucatan, and amongst the Sioux, 

 Illinois, &c. ; and goes on, — 



" II y a de jeunes gens qui prennent l'habit de femme 

 qu'ils gardent toute leur vie, et qui se croyent ho- 

 norez de s'abaisser a toutes leurs occupations ; ils ne 

 se marient jamais, ils assistent a tous les exercises ou 

 la religion semble avoir part, et cette profession de vie 

 extraordinaire les fait passer pour des gens d'un ordre 

 superieur et au-dessus du commun des honimes," &c. 



Are not these, he asks, the same people as those 

 Asiatic worshippers of Cybele ? or those who, ac- 

 cording to Julius Firmicus, consecrated them- 

 selves, the one to the Phrygian goddess, the others 

 to Venus Urania? — priests who dressed as women, 

 &c. (See Moeurs des Sauvages americains^ vol. i. 

 p. 52., ed. 4to., Paris, 1724.) He farther tells us 

 that Vasco Nuiiez de Balbao met many of them, 

 and in the fury of his religious zeal had them torn 

 to pieces by dogs. Was this in Darien ? I be- 

 lieve neither Heckewelder, Adair, Colden, nor 

 J. Dunn Hunter, mention this subject, though 

 they must all have been aware of the existence of 

 Enareans in some one or more of the tribes with 

 which they were acquainted ; and I do not re- 

 member having ever met with mention of them 

 among the Indian nations of New England, and 

 Tanner testifies to their existence amongst the 



Chepewa and Ottawa nations, by whom they are 

 called A-go-kwa. Catlin met with them among 

 the Sioux, and gives a sketch of a dance in honour 

 of the I-coo-coo, as they call them. Southey 

 speaks of them among the Guayacuru under the 

 name of " Cudinas," and so does Von Martius. 

 Captain Fitzroy, quoting the Jesuit Falkner, says 

 the Patagonian wizards (query priests) are dressed 

 in female attire : they are chosen for the office 

 when young, preference being given to boys 

 evincing a feminine disposition. 



Lantau's conjecture as to the connexion between 

 these American Enareans and the worshippers of 

 Venus Urania, seems to receive some confirmation 

 from our next evidence, viz. in Major Long's 

 Expedition to St. Peter s River, some of these 

 people were met with, and inquiry being made 

 concerning them, it was ascertained that — 



" The Indians believe the moon is the residence of a 

 hostile female deity, and should she appear to them in 

 their dreams, it is an injunction to become Cinacdi, 

 and they immediately assume feminine attire." — Vol. i. 

 p. 216. 



Farther it is stated, that two of these people whom 

 they found among the Sauks, though generally 

 held in contempt, were pitied by many — 

 " As labouring under an unfortunate destiny that 

 they cannot avoid, being supposed to be impelled to 

 this course by a vision from the female spirit that 

 resides in the moon," &c. — Vol. i. p. 227. 



Venus Urania is placed among the Scythian 

 deities by Herodotus, under the name " Artim- 

 pasa." We are, for obvious reasons, at liberty to 

 conjecture that the adoption of her worship, and 

 the development of " the female disease," may 

 have been contemporaneous, or nearly so. It 

 were needless entering on a long story to show the 

 connexion between Venus and the moon, which 

 was styled Urania, Juno, Jana, Diana, Venus, &c. 

 Should it be conceded that the American Mon- 

 golidce brought with them this curse of Scythia, 

 the date of their emigration will be approximated, 

 since it must have taken place subsequently to 

 the affair of Ascalon, or between 400 or 500 

 years b.c. 



The adoption of female attire by the priesthood, 

 however, was not confined to the worshippers of 

 Venus Urania ; it was widely spread throughout 

 Heathendom ; so widely that, as we learn from 

 Tacitus, the priests of the Naharvali (in modern 

 Denmark) officiated in the dress of women. Like 

 many other heathenish customs and costumes, 

 traces of this have descended to our own times ; 

 such, for example, may have been the exchange 

 of dresses on New Year's Eve, &c. : see Drake's 

 Shakspeare and his Times, vol. i. p. 124., ed. 4to. 

 And what else is the effeminate costume of the 

 clergy in many parts of Europe, the girded 

 waist, and the petticoat-like cassock, but a re- 



