Diary in America Volume II Part 35

DISCOURSE ON THE EVIDENCES OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS BEING THE DESCENDANTS OF THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL.

Those who study the Scriptures, either as a matter of duty or pleasure-- who seek in them divine revelations, or search for the records of history, cannot be ignorant of the fact that the Jewish nation, at an early period, was divided into twelve tribes, and occupied their ancient heritage under geographical divisions, during the most splendid periods under the kingdoms of Judah and of Israel.

Their early history--the rise, progress, and downfall of the nation--the proud distinction of being the chosen people--their laws, government, and wars--their sovereigns, judges, and temples--their sufferings, dispersions, and the various prophecies concerning this ancient and extraordinary people, cannot be unknown to you all. For their history is the foundation of religion, their vicissitudes the result of prophecy, their restoration the fulfilment of that great promise made to the Patriarch Abraham, almost I may say in the infancy of nature.

It is also known to you that the Jewish nation was finally overpowered, and nine and a half of the tribes were carried captives to Samaria; two and a half, to wit: Judah, Benjamin, and half Mena.s.sah, remained in Judea or in the transjordani cities.

The question before us for consideration is, what has become of the missing or dispersed tribes--to what quarter of the world did they direct their footsteps, and what are the evidences of their existence at this day?

An earthquake may shake and overturn the foundations of a city--the avalanche may overwhelm the hamlet--and the crater of a volcano may pour its lava over fertile plains and populous villages--but a whole nation cannot vanish from the sight of the world, without leaving some traces of its existence, some marks of habits and customs.

It is a singular fact that history is exceedingly confused, or rather, I may say, _dark_, respecting the ultimate dispersion of the tribes among the cities of the Medes. The last notice we have of them is from the second Book of Esdras, which runs thus:

"Whereas thou sawest another peaceable mult.i.tude: these are the ten tribes which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea, whom Salmanazar, king of a.s.syria, led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, so they came unto another land.

"They took this counsel among themselves that they would leave the mult.i.tude of the _heathen_, and go into a further country wherein _never mankind dwelt_, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land (a.s.syria), and there was a great way to go, namely, a year and a half."

Esdras, however, has been deemed apocryphal. Much has been said concerning the doubtful character of that writer. He wrote in the first century of the Christian church, and Tertullian, St Ereneus, Clemens Alexandrius, Pico di Mirandola, and many learned and pious men, had great confidence in his writings. Part of them have been adopted by Protestants, and all considered orthodox by Catholics. With all his old Jewish attachments to the prophecies and traditions, Esdras was nevertheless a convert to Christianity. He was not an inspired writer or a prophet, although he a.s.sumed to be one, and followed the course as well as the manner of Daniel.

The Book of Esdras, however, is of great antiquity, and as an historical record is doubtless ent.i.tled to great respect.

The precise number which left Babylon and other cities, and took to the desert, cannot be accurately known; but they were exceedingly numerous, for the edict of Ahasherus, which decreed their destruction, embraced 127 provinces, and reached from Ethiopia to the Indies. Benjamin of Tudela, who travelled in the eleventh century through Persia, mentions that in some of the provinces, at the time of that decree, the Jews occupied forty cities, two hundred boroughs, one hundred castles, which contained 300,000 people. I incline to the opinion that 300,000 of the tribes left Persia.

There is no doubt that, in the march from the Euphrates to the north-east coast of Asia, many of the tribes hesitated in pursuing the journey: some remained in Tartary, many went into China. Alverez states in his History of China, that the Jews had been living in that kingdom for more than six hundred years. He might with great probability have said 1,600 years. He speaks of their being very numerous in some of the provinces, and having synagogues in many of the great cities, especially in that of Hinan and in its metropolis Kai-tong-fu, where he represents them to have a magnificent place of wors.h.i.+p, and a repository, the Holy Volume, adorned with richly embroidered curtains, in which they preserve an ancient Hebrew ma.n.u.script roll.

They know but little of the Mosaic law, and only repeat the names of David, Abraham, Isaiah, and Jacob. In a Hebrew letter written by the Jews of Cochin-China to their brethren at Amsterdam, they give as the date of their retiring into India, the period when the Romans conquered the Holy Land.

It is clearly evident, therefore, that the tribes, in their progress to a new and undiscovered country, left many of their numbers in China and Tartary, and finally reached the Straits of Behring, where no difficulty prevented their crossing to the north-west coast of America, a distance less than thirty miles, interspersed with the Copper Islands, probably frozen over; and reaching our continent, spread themselves in the course of two thousand years to Cape Horn, the more hardy keeping to the north, to Labrador, Hudson's Bay, and Greenland; the more cultivated fixing their residence in the beautiful climate and rich possessions of Central America, Mexico, and Peru.

But it may here be asked, could the scattered remnants of Israel have had the courage to penetrate through unknown regions, and encounter the hards.h.i.+ps and privations of that inhospitable country? Could they have had the fort.i.tude, the decision, the power, to venture on a dreary pilgrimage of eighteen months, the time mentioned by Esdras as the period of their journey? Could they not? What obstacles had hitherto impeded their progress, that had broken down their energies, or impaired their constancy and fidelity?

They knew that their brethren had severed the chains of Egyptian bondage; had crossed in safety the arm of the Red Sea; had sojourned for years in the wilderness; had encamped near Mount Sinai, and had possessed themselves of the Holy Land.

They remembered the kingdoms of Judah and Israel in all their glory; they had witnessed the erection and destruction of their Temple; they had fought and conquered with the Medes, the a.s.syrians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. They had encountered sufferings upon sufferings unmoved; had bowed their necks submissively to the yoke.

Kings, conquerors, nations, Christians, Mahometans, and Heathens, all had united in the design of destroying the nation; but they never despaired--they knew they were the elect and chosen of the Lord. The oath, that He never would abandon his people, had been fulfilled 3,500 years, and, therefore, with the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, they abandoned the Heathens and the Persian territory, pa.s.sed the confines of Tartary and China, and, no doubt, through great sufferings, reached the north-eastern coast of Asia, and came in sight of that continent, wherein, as they had reason to believe, "mankind never before had dwelt."

On the discovery of America by Columbus, and the discoveries subsequent to his time, various tribes of Indians or savages were found to inhabit this our continent, whose origin was unknown.

It is, perhaps, difficult for the human mind to decide on the character and condition of an extreme savage state. We can readily believe that children abandoned in infancy in a savage country, and surviving this abandonment, to grow up in a state of nature, living on herbs and fruits, and sustaining existence as other wild animals, would be stupid, without language, without intellect, and with no greater instinct than that which governs the brute creation. We can conceive nothing reduced to a more savage condition; with cannibal propensities, an ungovernable ferocity, or a timid apprehension, there can be but a link that separates them from other cla.s.ses of animal creation. So with herds of men in a savage state, like herds of buffalo or wild horses on our prairies, they are kept together by sounds common amongst themselves, and are utterly unacquainted with the landmarks of civilisation.

This, however, was not the condition of the American Indians when first discovered. They were a singular race of men, with enlarged views of life, religion, courage, constancy, humanity, policy, eloquence, love of their families; with a proud and gallant bearing, fierce in war, and, like the ancients, relentless in victory. Their hospitality might be quoted as examples among the most liberal of the present day. These were not wild men--these were a different cla.s.s from those found on the Sandwich and Feegee Islands. The red men of America, bearing as they do the strongest marks of Asiatic origin, have, for more than two thousand years (and divided as they are in upwards of three hundred different nations) been remarkable for their intellectual superiority, their bravery in war, their good faith in peace, and all the simplicity and virtues of their patriarchal fathers, until civilisation, as it is called, had rendered them familiar with all the vices which distinguish the present era, without being able to enforce any of the virtues which are the boast of our present enlightened times.

It is, however, in the religious belief and ceremonies of the Indians that I propose showing some of the evidences of their being, as it is believed, the descendants of the dispersed tribes. The opinion is founded--

1st. In their belief in one G.o.d.

2nd. In the computation of time by their ceremonies of the new moon.

3rd. In their divisions of the year in four seasons, answering to the Jewish festivals of the feast of flowers, the day of atonement, the feast of the tabernacle, and other religious holidays.

4th. In the erection of a temple after the manner of our temple, and having an ark of the covenant, and also the erection of altars.

5th. By the divisions of the nation into tribes, with a chief, or grand sachem at their head.

6th. By their laws of sacrifices, ablutions, marriages; ceremonies in war and peace, the prohibitions of eating certain things, fully carrying out the Mosaic inst.i.tutions;--by their traditions, history, character, appearance, affinity of their language to the Hebrew, and finally, by that everlasting covenant of heirs.h.i.+p exhibited in a perpetual transmission of its seal in their flesh.

If I shall be able to satisfy your doubts and curiosity on these points, you will certainly rejoice with me in discovering that the dispersed of the chosen people are not the lost ones--that the promises held out to them have been thus far realised, and that all the prophecies relative to their future destination will in due time be strictly fulfilled.

It has been the general impression, as before mentioned, that great resemblance existed between some of the religious rites of the Jews, and the peculiar ceremonies of the Indians; and the belief in one Great Spirit has tended to strengthen the impression; yet this mere resemblance only extended so far as to admit of the belief, that they possibly may have descended from the dispersed tribes, or may have been of Tartar or Malay origin.

It was, however, a vague and unsatisfactory suspicion, which, having no tangible evidence, has been rejected, or thrown aside as a mere supposition. All the missionaries and travellers among the Indian tribes since the discovery of America--Adair, Heckwelder, Charliveux, Mckenzie, Bartram, Beltrami, Smith, Penn, Mrs Simon, who has written a very interesting work on this subject, etcetera, have expressed opinions in favour of their being of Jewish origin--the difficulty, however, under which they all laboured was simply this; they were familiar with the religious rites, ceremonies, traditions, and belief of the Indians, but they were not sufficiently conversant with the Jewish rites and ceremonies to show the a.n.a.logy. It is precisely this link in the chain of evidence that I propose to supply.

It has been said that the Indians, believing in one great Spirit and Fountain of Life, like the Jews, does not prove their descent from the missing tribes, because in a savage state their very ignorance and superst.i.tion lead them to confide in the works of some divine superior being. But savages are apt to be idolaters, and personate the deity by some carved figure or image to whom they pay their adoration, and not, like the Indians, having a clear and definite idea of one great Ruler of the universe, one great Spirit, whose attributes are as well known to them as to us.

But if the continued unerring wors.h.i.+p of one G.o.d like the Jews prove nothing, where did they acquire the same Hebrew name and appellation of that deity? If tradition had not handed down to them the ineffable name as also preserved by the Jews, how did they acquire it in a wilderness where the word of the Lord was never known?

Adair, in whom I repose great confidence, and who resided _forty_ years among them, in his work published in 1775, says, "The ancient heathens wors.h.i.+pped a plurality of G.o.ds, but these Indians pay their devoirs to _Lo-ak_ (Light) _Ish-ta-koola-aba_, distinctly Hebrew, which means the great supreme beneficent holy Spirit of Fire who resides above."

"They are," says Adair, "utter strangers to all the gestures practised by the Pagans in their religious rites--they kiss no idols, nor would they kiss their hands in tokens of reverence or willing obedience."

"These tribes," says Adair, "so far from being Atheists, use the great and dreadful name of G.o.d, which describes his divine essence, and by which he manifested himself to Moses! and are firmly persuaded that they now live under the immediate government of the Almighty Ruler. Their appellative for G.o.d is _Isto-hoolo_, the Hebrew of _Esh-Eshys_, from _Ishto, Great_, but they have another appellative, which with them, as with us, is the mysterious essential name of G.o.d, which they never mention in common speech, and only when performing their most sacred religious rites, and then they most solemnly divide it in syllables, with intermediate words, so as not to p.r.o.nounce the ineffable name at once."

Thus, in their sacred dances at their feast of the first-fruits, they sing _Aleluyah_ and _Mesheha_, from the Hebrew of _Masheach_, Messiah, the anointed one.

"Yo mesheha", "_He_ mesheha", "_Wah_ meshehah," thus making the _Alleluyah_, the Mes.h.i.+ah, the Yehovah.

Can we, for a moment, believe that these sacred well-known Hebrew words found their way by _accident_ to the wilderness? Or can it be doubted that, like the fire of the burning bush, which never is extinguished, those words of religious adoration are the sacred relics of tradition, handed down to them from generation to generation? "In the same manner," says Adair, "they sing on certain other religious celebrations, _ailyo ailyo_, which is the Hebrew _el_ for G.o.d, by his attribute of omnipotence." They likewise sing _hewah, hewah_, He chyra, the "immortal soul." Those words sung at their religious rejoicings are never uttered at any other time, which must have occasioned the loss of their divine hymns. They on some occasions sing _s.h.i.+lu yo_--_s.h.i.+lu he_--_s.h.i.+lu wah_. The three terminations make up in their order the four lettered divine name in Hebrew. _s.h.i.+lu_ is evidently _Shaleach_, _s.h.i.+loth_, the messenger, "the peace maker."

The number of Hebrew words used in their religious services is incredible; thus, in chiding anyone for levity during a solemn wors.h.i.+p, they say, _Che hakeet Kana_, "you resemble those reproved in Canaan,"

and, to convey the idea of criminality, they say _Hackset Canaha_, "the sinners of Canaan." They call lightning _eloah_, and the rumbling of thunder _rowah_, from the Hebrew _ruach_, "spirit."

Like the Israelites, they divide the year into four seasons, with the same festivals; they calculate by moons, and celebrate, as the Jews do, the _berachah halebana_, the blessing for the new moon.

The Indians have their prophets and high-priests, the same as the Jews had; not hastily selected, but chosen with caution from the most wise and discreet, and they ordain their high-priests by anointing and have a most holy place in their sanctuaries, like the Holy of Holies in the temple. The archimagus, or high-priest, wears, in resemblance to the ancient breast-plate, a white conch-sh.e.l.l ornamented so as to resemble the precious stones on the _Urim_, and instead of the golden plate worn by the Levite on his forehead, bearing the inscription _Kodish Ladonaye_, the Indian binds his brows with a wreath of swan's feathers, and wears a tuft of white feathers, which he calls _Yatira_.

The Indians have their ark, which they invariably carry with them to battle, well guarded. In speaking of the Indian places of refuge, Adair says, "I observed that if a captive taken, by the reputed power of the holy things of their ark, should be able to make his escape into one of these towns, or even into the winter house of the _Archima gun_, he is delivered from the fiery torture, otherwise inevitable. This, when taken in connection with the many other faint images of Mosaic customs, seems to point at the mercy-seat of the sanctuary. It is also worthy of notice, that they never place the ark on the ground. On hilly ground, where large stones are plenty, they rest it thereon, but on level prairies, upon short logs, where they also seat themselves. And when we consider," continues Adair, "in what a surprising manner the Indians copy after the ceremonial law of the Hebrews, and their strict purity in the war camps; that _opae_, "the leader," obliges all during the first campaign which they have made with the beloved ark, to stand every day, they are not engaged in warfare, from sunrise to sunset, and after a fatiguing day's march and scanty allowance, to drink warm water embittered with rattle-snake root very plentifully, in order to purification; that they have also as strong a faith in the power of their ark as ever the Israelites had in theirs, ascribing the success of one party to their stricter adherence to the law, than the other, we have strong reason to conclude them of Hebrew origin. The Indians have an old tradition, that when they left their own native land, they brought with them a _sanctified rod_, by order of an oracle, which they fixed every evening in the ground, and were to remove from place to place on the continent, towards the sun rising, till it budded in one night's time. I have seen other Indians," says the same writer, "who related the same thing." Instead of the miraculous direction to which they limit it, in their western banishment, it appears more likely that they refer to the ancient circ.u.mstance of the rod of Aaron, which, in order to check the murmur of those who conspired against him, was, in his favour, made to bud blossoms and yield almonds at one and the same time. It is a well attested fact, and is here corroborated by Adair, that in taking female captives, the Indians have often protected them, but never despoiled them of honour.

This statement of Adair, in relation to the ark, is corroborated by several travellers. Major Long, a more recent traveller, in his expedition to the Rocky Mountains, says, in relation to the ark, "It is placed upon a stand, and is never suffered to touch the earth. No person dare open all the coverings. Tradition informs them that curiosity induced three different persons to examine the mysterious sh.e.l.l, who were immediately punished for their profanation by instant blindness." This is the Jewish punishment p.r.o.nounced for looking on the holy of holies--even now for looking on the descendants of the high priest who alone have the privilege of blessing the people.

The most sacred fast day uniformly kept by the Jews is the day of atonement, usually falling in the month of September or early in October. This is deemed in every part of the world a most solemn fast, and great preparations are made for its celebration. It is in the nature of expiation of sin, of full confession, penitence, and prayer; and is preceded by ablution and preparation of morning prayer for some time.

It is a very sacred fast, which lasts from sunset on one day until the new moon is seen on the succeeding evening. It is not in the nature of a gloomy desponding penance, but rather a day of solemn rejoicing, of hope and confidence, and is respected by those most indifferent to all other festivals throughout the year.

Precisely such a fast, with similar motives, and nearly at the same period of the year, is kept by the Indian natives generally.

Adair, after stating the strict manner in which the Indians observe the revolutions of the moon, and describing the feast of the harvest, and the first offerings of the fruits, gives a long account of the preparations in putting their temple in proper order for the great day of atonement, which he fixes at the time when the corn is full-eared and ripe, generally in the latter end of September. He then proceeds: