ASCRIBED TO THE RATTLE-SNAKE, S^c. 8i 



bleflings, was merely acknowledged and named, but un- 

 worfhipped and neglected *. The Delawares, and fome 

 other nations who fpeak dialects of their language, be- 

 lieve that a turtle, of an enormous fize, inhabits the 

 deep, and fupports upon his back this continent, or, as 

 they cnll it, illand. They fay it is in the power of this 

 animal, by divuig, to drown the world, as he has al- 

 ready done, in former ages. They, therefore, endeavour 

 to conciliate his friend fliip and good-will. With this 

 view, they make rattles of the turtle-fhell, into which 

 they put fmall ftones, beans, or Indian-corn j", and play* 

 with this inftrument, at their dances. The turtle is 

 greatly efteemed by them ; and, in the fulnefs of a mixed 

 zeal and fear, they even deign to call him Mufinitto, or 

 God ; becaufe, they fay, he can live both upon the land 

 and in the water ;{;. 



It feems very probable to me, that the veneration for 

 the ratde-fnake had its birth in fear, and not in the belief 

 that this reptile pofleffed the power of fafcinating ani- 

 mals. If, as fome writers have afferted, the Indians 

 were in pofTefFion of abfolute fpecificks for the bite of the 

 rattle-fnake, 1 am of opinion that the veneration for this 

 animal would not have exifted ; or, at leaft, that it would 

 not long have continued. But the Indians are often un- 

 able to prevent or to cure the efFe£ls of the active poifoa 

 of this ferpent, which not unfrequently deftroys them §. 



* John De Laet, fpeaking of the Indians of New- York, has the follow- 

 ing words : " Cxterum nullus ipfis religionis fenfus, nulla Dei veneratio : 

 diabolum quidem coliint fed non tarn folemniter neque certis ceremoniis, 

 ut African! faciuni," &c. Nevus Orbis feu Defcriptionis India; Occiden- 

 talis Libri xviii. lib. iii. cap. xi. p. 75. Lugd. Batav. 1633. 



\ Maize. 



X MS. by Mr. John Heckewelder, penes mi. 



^ Adair fays, he does" not remember to have feen or heard of an Indian 

 dying by the bite of a fnake, when out at war, or a hunting ; although 

 they are then often bitten by the moft dangerous fnakes." The Hijiory of 

 the ylmerkan Liiiian!, &c. p. 235. London; 1775. It is certain, from the 



teflimony 



