American antiquities, and researches into the origin and history of the red race / By Alexander W. Bradford.

  • Alexander Warfield Bradford
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: American antiquities, and researches into the origin and history of the red race / By Alexander W. Bradford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    —the Infinite.” He was invoked in prayers.* They also be- lieved in the immortality of the soul; that it is carried away after death towards the West beyond the sea, but before it en- ters its paradise, that it is obliged to pay toll to a malicious and wicked spirit.f The Arikaras believed in a Supreme Being, “ the Master of life the Osages in a great and good Spirit, and in future rewards and punishments.J The Brazilian tribes acknowledged the existence of a great Creator, to whom some sang hymns of praise, and they admitted the immortality of the soul, but with the qualification that the spirits of their chiefs and sorcerers entered into a state of enjoy- ment, while those of the others were condemned to wander about the cemeteries.§ Of the nations occupying the north-eastern portions of the United States, a similar account is given.|| Loskiel says, “ The prevailing opinion of all these nations is, that there is one God, or, as they call him, one great and good Spirit, who has cre- ated the heavens and the earth, and made man and every other creature.” That they consider the soul as immortal, and even suppose a resurrection of the body, may be inferred from their usual manner of expressing themselves, when they say, ^ we Indians cannot die eternally ; even Indian corn, buried in the ground, is vivified and rises again.’ Many believe in the trans- * Molina, vol. ii. pp. 75, 77. t Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 79, 81. Freziers Yoyagc, p. 59. I Brackenridge’s Journal, p. 152. Dos. Red River, ]). 119. Nu1- talPs Arkansas, p. 95. § ticnderson’s Brazil, pp. 210, 213. II Loskiel, pp. 33, 34, 36. Charl«^'oix, Voy., vol. ii. pp. 16, 109. 44