Thus
disguised they dance about to the awe and terror, real or assumed, of
the women and uninitiated, who take, or pretend to take, them for
spirits. When lads are being initiated into the secrets of this august
society, the adepts cut down some very large and heavy bamboos, one for
each lad, and the novices carry them, carefully wrapt up in leaves, to
the sacred ground, where they arrive very tired and weary, for they may
not let the bamboos touch the ground nor the sun shine on them. Outside
the fence of the enclosure every lad deposits his bamboo on a couple of
forked sticks and covers it up with nut leaves.[23] Among the Carrier
Indians of North-Western America, who burned their dead, the ashes of a
chief used to be placed in a box and set on the top of a pole beside his
hut: the box was never allowed to touch the ground.[24] In the Omaha
tribe of North American Indians the sacred clam shell of the Elk clan
was wrapt up from sight in a mat, placed on a stand, and never suffered
to come in contact with the earth.[25] The Cherokees and kindred Indian
tribes of the United States used to have certain sacred boxes or arks,
which they regularly took with them to war. Such a holy ark consisted of
a square wooden box, which contained "certain consecrated vessels made
by beloved superannuated women, and of such various antiquated forms, as
would have puzzled Adam to have given significant names to each.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51