i^o OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING 



fplitting into fuch numerous tribes, and of their fcattered 

 d.fperiion over this vaft continent. 



Secondly. Exclufively of a diminution in their num- 

 bers, many of the North- American tribes are much lefs 

 poUfh"ed and improved now than tliey were two hundred 

 years fince, when the Europeans firft became acquainted 

 ^vith them. DecUning in induftry, they have ncgle<Sed, 

 if not forgotten, iome of the arts by which they were 

 difiinguifhed. They are no longer ftudious to preferve 

 the humble ftory of their country ; the fublimell: features 

 of their religion, the acknowledgment of a great fuper- 

 intending fpirit, or God, and of a place of future repofe 

 or happinefs, are clouded in ignorance, and hardly 

 known.* In fhort, we behold them rapidly pafling to 

 a melancholy decay, without our being able, in many 

 inflances, to determine to what caufes their declenfion is 

 owing. -f- Does not this knowji declenfion from a more 



* In Adair's Hijiory of the American Indians, there is a greater colleftion 

 of fafts relative to the corruption or alteration of the religious notions and 

 ceremonies of the Indians (particularly the Cheerake, Mulkohge, Choktah, 

 Chikkafah, and Katahba) than is to be found in any other work that I have 

 ever met with. Adair had great opportunities of being acquainted with 

 the Indians, and his work certainly contains many higlily interefting fafls. 

 I believe him to have been a man of veracity ; but, in the fulnefs of his 

 enthufiafm for a fyftem, he appears, in fome inftances, to have fhaped and 

 pared his faifls to fuit his purpofc : he is, therefore, a guide ■who may mif- 

 lead. Still his work ought to be read by every perfon wlio is curious of 

 Indian matters. The following fafts are well calculated to fhow the al- 

 tered (late of fome of the American tribes. The Bujh, ox green-corn-dance, 

 of the fouthern Indians, was originally a very folemn religious inftitution. 

 But many Indians, who ftill attend at the bufK, are entirely ignorant that 

 it is an inftitution of a religious kind. Some of the Indian tribes, which are 

 well remembered to have offered up facrifices, offer them up no more. 

 The Onondagoes have an annual facritice. The animal which they make 

 choice of for this purpofe is a large tortoife, and in dcfeifl of this a bear. 

 An intelligent Indian, who gave me this information, confeiTed that he 

 could not tell me, whether thelacrifice was made to the good or to the evil 

 fpirit. A little Revelation would be. of great ufe to fuch people as 

 thefe. 



f " The greateft part of the nations of Louifiana had formerly their 

 temples as well as the Natchez, and in all thefe temples a perpetual fire is 



kept 



