| Show THE INDIAN MESSIAH rho rhe following from the st louis apost will iu in consequence of t the he phenomenal move duent amol ahe tue indiana Ind iaus be read mad with much interest by a good many people there to is food for thought and speculation in the stories of the excitement adiong the indian tribes produced by the promise ot of a messiah it is not certain whether or not those these promises are a part of the indian mythology or whether they are the cunning contrivances of white men hoping for profit from the disturbances which are sure to follow this story of the messiah may be looked upon as a revival of the old hero myth pre prevalent ilent all over the continent in one form or another it is ia paralleled by the cadmus myth partly aryan partly semitic cadmus is simply the semitic word for the east and the legend is a slightly veiled account of the origin and course of light and life in other words itis one of the thousand ond end one sun myths which are plenty ac poverty all the world over the egyptian story was that the heavenly light impregnated a virgin of whom WAS born a godman god man who fought his twin brother and was for a time conquered and banished but he was adre to return like the morning and rule the land as the sun rules atis it Is worth noticing too that although the egyptians were a brown race their hero was light colored white or yellow in america there is the same mine virgin mother and the same career in different form followed by disappearance and a promise of return the peruvians I 1 had large establishments where they kept virgins of the sun who were pledged to chastity did one of f them violate her pledge she was put to death as a criminal but did she declare that her offspring was of divine parentage she was treated with honor and her son classed among the princes a son odthe of the sun in central america a maiden visited the underworld whither a god had been enticed and murdered the head of this god cast forth spittle into the maidens maiden Is palm whereupon she became pregnant and bore twins who performed prodigies of valor and afterward rose to the sky to grace a constellation 4 both in america and the orient brinton the myths of the hero god born of a virgin and that of the descent into hades are among the most common their explanation rests on the universality and prominence of the process of nature which are ty typified idled under these narratives ra tives ai re the similarity Fimi larity of these myths to the Jn ristian history made a profound impression on the early missionaries missions iries and it was believed by many bof of them that the indians were either descendants of the ten lost tribes or that they had at some time been in communication with the orient but this impression was removed when it was ascertained by travelers and explorers in all other savage lands that the same legends prevailed among the most diverse and remote tribes s the aztec hero Quetzal coat high priest in the glorious city of tular the the teacher of the arts the law giver prince and judge fudge was the expected messiah of the aate azteca aztecs 8 he was born of a virgin played pretty much the same role in aztec history that cadmus did in greek and semitic and disappeared to the place of the sun whence he be was to come again to possess his own the myth is almost exactly the same 9 as 99 9 that found among the ancient britons in the latter arthur after fighting all day and being sorely wounded was carried to the sea aea shore where appeared a emp filled with virgins who lifted the king into the craft and bore him away to the island valley of avilon whence he promised to return and reign aga again in when montezuma heard of the landing of cortez he said it is quetzalcoatl from tula every account he received of the strangers confirmed him in this belief they came from the east tb they were wh white ite and they were beara bearded the legend required th these ese features it has often been remarked a as strange that cortes with his handful of adventurers found the mexicans such easy prey but it Is not at all strange the natives were stricken with awe and wonder they dared not strike too hard bard because they knew nut not it was a human invader and they feared the vengeance of outraged divinity not even after the spaniards had exhibited the most moist human of human buman huan buan m an weaknesses did the mexicans pluck up courage they fought the spaniards but they never escaped irom from the spell of the legend and were never quite quile sure they were not making an unpardonable mt mistake stake when cortes reached the city of df mexico the monarch acknowledged him as the emissary emif wary of the messiah we have known for a long time said he by the writings handed banded down by our forefathers that neither I 1 nor any who inhabit this land are natives of it but foreigners who came here from remote parts we also know that we were led here by a ruler whose subjects we all were who returned to his country and after a long time ti me came here again and wished to take his people away but they had bad married wives and built houses and they would neither go with him nor recognize him as their king therefore he went back we have ever believed that those who were of his lineage would come and claim this land as his aud and us as his vassals prom from the direction whence you came which is where the sun rises and from what you tell me of this great lord who sent you we believe and think it certain that he be is our natural ruler especially since you say that for long time he has known about us therefore you may feel certain that we shall obey you and shall respect you as holding the place of that great lord and in all the land I 1 rule you may give what orders you wish and they shall be obeyed and everything we have shall be put at your service and since you are thus in your own heritage and your own house take your ease and rest from the fatigue of the journey bourney and the wars you have had ad on the way all over the continent the same legend is found in every case a hero in remote ages taught the people laws government and the arts of life in every case he was white and bearded and in every case he be went away promising to return the universality of the belief aroused the curiosity of the missionaries some of whom held to the belief in the hebrew origin of the natives while others particularly the catholic missionaries in south america thought the belief could be traced to st thomas who they thought must have visited the american continent and taught the people the rudiments of the christian dan religion the few indians indiana of the west who have seen the messiah describe him as a white man with a beard this has been referred to as a 8 proof that the whole thing is a humbug but realty it is proof that the myth retains its ite integrity in spite of time and the influence of the whites it is said that one chief sitting bitting bull the arapahoe saw him he displayed holes in his hands and feet proving himself to be christ as the savior did when he met doubting thomas this however is an addition due to the knowledge know lege the savages have acquired of christianity in some of the american religions this messiah ic hope was the central idea in mexico the mes slabs s name was Quetzal quetzalcoatl coati in peru in yucatan the word lenape the name of a delaware tribe is said to have hava esoteric meaning the man comes at any rate the legend was found among them in perfection it is probable that the same sam story estory can be found in the mythology of every tribe on the american continent the messiah legend or as it ought to be called the culture hero myth is not the only belief ent entertained r by the american indians which is wonderfully similar to those of other lands and which bear puzzling resemblance to the christian traditions an old ojibway chief on being told some bible stories by a missionary said the book must be true for our ancestors told us similar stories generation after generation since the earth was new this tribe had a legend of eight or ten brothers the youngest of whom was favored by his father and by the gods his brothers were evilly disposed and tried to slay him he was rescued by an interposition from the other world and lived to heap coals of fire upon their heads he gave them corn principally and relieved their hunger brought on by a famine the story is wonderfully like that of joseph and his brethren I lovs lots wife is also found among them she looked back upon her burning village and was turned to a pillar of stone the Cha chastas litas had a legend of their wanderings it is now believed that the ancestors of the chubka tribes were the mound builders of the ohio valley and migrated from their old home not more than years ago their old men tell that in their wanderings after they left their ohio home they were guided by a pole which they saw floating in the air before them leaning in the direction they were to go when night came the pole stood upright indicating the place where they should encamp it was a prosaic reproduction action of the pillar i liar of cloud which guided the fa israelites ra elites over the wastes of arabia circumcision was practiced among the egyptians arabs and persians and there are A merican american tribes who practice the same rite the minute ceremonials prescribed by the law for the purification of women after child birth have many parallels among the tribes of north america the israelite might not eat certain animals neither may the americans bear meat is forbidden the navajos cavajos Nava jos the beaver was forbidden the Os ages while most southern tribes held the wolf unclean the israelites had no conception of the resurrection of the body but believed that the dead maus spirit went to the under world where he led a gloomy existence this under world the place of departed spirits called in the old translations hep hell in the revised is found among the indians indiana it was reached by the spirit after a long and trying journey and at its end before the spirit was admitted he be was obliged to fight a ferocious dog this dog is a favorite in the underworld legend of almost all people milton adopted the legend of cerberus in his great poem the belief in resurrection of the body is not entertained by the indians A tribe of oregon indians on being told of it by a missionary went in multitudes to a cemetery where were gathered many of their dead and plied piled stones upon the graves in order to prevent the departed from returning they greatly fear a dead mans and shudder at the thought of his bis re appearance it must be remembered that the culture hero whose return they look for so eagerly lydid did not die I 1 he went away is the form used to describe his disappearance and therefore he is to be welcomed as a living man come as a deliverer A curious variation of the messiah myth is found among the al conkin tribes where the culture hero appears under a name implying that he is if a cheat or a liar mr leland thinks that he got this ibis name because after creating the world and getting his people started on the right path he be had bad gone away left them to all sorts of misfortune and had not kept his bis promise to return but a survey of related customs does not bear out this explanation the same deity is described as a disrepute d lareau t able 1 individual by the Chipp chippeway ewas and other tribes but h his Is bad reputation arises not from the ideas entertained u by the indians but because of the inability to find a suitable english word to translate the indian epithet the hero was a savior and benefactor he fought in behalf of his people but his greatest successes were won by means of his magic skill by which he deceived his enemies and thus was able to circumvent them was a diplomat an astute and tricky word carpenter but his astuteness and trickery were employed ip in the good cause and his people therefore held him film in honor there are many other legends of the american indians indiana and religious rites and practices which are startlingly lire like those which we have all been accustomed to consider as the peculiar property of the peculiar people but it to is pretty well settled that there are no peculiar people but that all tribes go through the same stages of culture and display the same forms of religious and social customs this messiah craze although no doubt suggested by some wily white mau would never have taken so strong a hold upon the minds of the savages did it not harmonize with their own beliefs |
