WHITE EAGLE. 



From the winged ornaments of the Calumet., and its conciliat- 

 ing ufesj writers compare it to the Caduceus of Mercury, which was 

 carried by the Caduceatores, or meflengers of peace, with terms to the 

 hoftile ftates. It is fingular, that the moft remote nations, and the 

 moft oppofite in their other ciiftoms and manners, fliould in fome 

 things have, as it v/ere, a certain confent of thought. The Greeks 

 and xht Americans had the fame idea, in the invention of the Caduceus 

 of the one, and the Calumet of the other. Some authors imagine^, 

 that among the Greeks the wings were meant as a fymbol of elo- 

 quence. I rather think that the twifted Serpents expreffed that in- 

 finuating faculty ; and that the emblem was originally taken from the 

 fatal effeft the rhetoric of Satan had on our great mother, when he 

 aflumed the form of that reptile, which the higheft authority repre - 

 fents as more Jub tile than a-ny heaji of the field.. On this the heathen 

 mythology formed their tale oi Jupiter taking the figure of a Serpentj. 

 to infmuate himfelf into the good graces of Olympas ; who, like Evey 

 fell a viftim to his perfuafive tongue. As to the wings, it is moft 

 probable that they were to fhew the flight of difcord ; which the re- 

 conciled parties gave, with all the horrors of war, to the air, and 

 fport of the winds. 



The Qole, or Eagle, is a facred bird among the Americans. la 

 cafe of ficknels, they invoke this bird to defcend from heaven (which: 

 in its exalted flight it approaches nearer than any other) and bring: 

 down refrefl:iing things ; as it can dart down on its rapid wing quick 

 as a flalh of lightning *. 



* Adair's Hijl, Am, Indians, 173, 



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