But some tribes of the western continunt have made greater advances towards a regular worship; and in stances are not wanting of bills, trees, and lakes, mark ed out as the residence of particular divinities, and con secrated to their service. The Natchez, however, and the people 01 Bogota, as they were by far the most civi lized of the ruder nations which inhabit America, so their religious ideas were much more improved than those of the surrounding tribes. Among the Natchez, the sun was the chief object of reverence. Temple., were built and dedicated to this luminary ; and in these structures, which were comparatively magnificent, a sa cred fire was kept perpetually burning, as the purest and most expressive symbol of the divinity whom they worshipped. An aged woman, together with other mi nisters devoted to the service of the temple, had it in charge to watch and to feed the holy flame. Festival, were appointed in honour of the god. At these the whole nation assembled, relinquishing their ordinary pursuits ; consecrating their time and their thoughts to the divinity ; and performing the rites and ceremonies which were believed to be most acceptable to him, and most effectual in procuring his favour. These rites were numerous and solemn; and whether it arose from the mild influence of the power which they acknow ledged, or from sonic other cause which has nut been mentioned, no blood was shed in their sat red observan ces. (Dumont, i. 158. Laii/au, i. 167.) To titan, unin structed by re elation, the sun appears to be the most natural and attractive object of rt II is presence diffuses light, Icriiiity, and joy ; and vylien he IA ithdraws himself from the view of mortals, dark ness, with all its associate I terrors, succeeds. Ills in fluence is benignant, animating, and universal. As fire is the purest of the elements, and as it strikes the senses with the greatest effect, it was chosen among the Natchez as the most proper emblem of their divinity ; and in this circumstance, as well as in the object of their worship, they resembled the ancient Persians, a nation far superior to the Natchez, yet agreeing with them in the most refined and innocent species of super stition, which men, destitute of revelation, have any where adopted. Among the Romans too, a sacred fire, watched and fed by priestesses of spotless purity, was not unknown. In conjunction with the sun, the inhabit ants of Bogota worshipped also the moon. Though the influence of this latter body upon the earth is neither so decisive nor so useful as that of the former; yet unen lightened and barbarous nations have generally received them both into the number of their divinities. The Bo gotans had a religious system more fixed and complete than that of the Natchez. They had temples, priests, altars, and sacrifices. Human victims were offered to the deities whom they feared ; and the blood of a child, a sister, or a friend, streamed in the places hallowed to their worship, in order to avert their displeasure, or stimulate their kindness.
With regard to the doctrine of a future state, the notions of the American tribes are in some respects peculiar to themselves. They have no distinct concep tion of an existence, wholly spiritual, beyond the grave. Their ideas do not reach so far, as either to admit or to doubt of an eternal duration in the future world ; but, satisfied that death does not put an end to their being, they look not beyond an indefinite time, which succeeds the dissolution of the body. That there is a future state, however, is an opinion entertained from one ex tremity of America to the other ; and is indeed so gen eral, wherever man is found, that it may be regarded as with his nature. In some places of the New
World, the marks by which we can discover it are in distinct and rare ; but in no part of the western con tinent is it altogether unknown. " The Brazilians," says Nieuhoff, with equal simplicity and truth, " have a tradi among them, that their souls do not die with their bodies, but that they are transformed either into de vils, or spirits ; or else enjoy a great deal of pleasure, with dancing and singing in sonic pleasant fields, which they say are behind the mountains. These fields are enjoyed by all the brave men and women who have kil led and eaten many of their enemies." (Voyagys and Traycls to _Brazil. Churchill's ('ollec. ii. 1.32.) The ideas of the American tribes, with regard to the condi tion of man in the future state, are taken from what con stitutes his chief happiness in this. They believe that after death, he exists in a country where the sun shines with unclouded light, and no whirlwind tears up the trees by the roots ; where the rivers are stored with fish, and the forests are stocked with game ; where hunger is unknown, and plenty continues throughout +he year without effort or care. His occupations, too, are imagined to be of the same kind as in the present life ; and eminence and reputation are supposed to be procured by the qualities which entitle their possessor here to honour and to fame. They give the first places, in their land of spirits, to the courageous war rior IA ho has put to death the greatest number of his enemies, and devoured their flesh ; and to the hunter who has distinguished himself the most, in the exertions of the enace ; and it is their practice to bury the hatchet and the bow ol a leader in the same grave with his body, that he may not be destitute of arms when he en ters upon the future world. They likewise deposit in his tomb, the skins and stuffs of which their garments are made, Indian corn, venison, drugs, utensils of dif ferent kinds, and whatever else they hold to be neces sary or convenient, in their simple estimate of life.—See Creuxii, Hist. Can. p. 91. Dr Rochefort His. des Anti! /es, p. 568. De la Potherit, ii, 44. iii. 8 ; and Colden, Five l art. i. 17.
In some districts, a more remarkable custom pre vails. When a cacique is buried, a number of his wives, officers, and favourites, are put to death, that he may be attended in the country of spirits as his dignity requires ; and such has been the rage ol dying in this manner, that the elders of a tribe have been known to interfere, lest the strength of the community should he impaired by the too rapid diminution of its numbers. By the account of Dumont, however, it appears, that this extraordinary zeal is by no means universal. That gentleman relates in his Memoir sur Louisiane, i. 227. that he was present at the funeral of a great chief among the Natchez, and that the feelings of those who were about to suffer on that awful occasion were extremely different. Some courted with eagerness and impatience the honour of being interred with their leader ; others dreaded their fate, and wished to avoid it ; and a few of them saNed their lives by escaping into the woods. Nor are the savages altogether destitute of attention to the condition of the victims. For, as the Bramins give an intoxicating draught to the women who are to die by lire in honour of their husbands, that their sufferings may be lessened by the approach of insensibility ; so the Indians give pills made of tobacco, which has similar effect, to those who are appointed to accompany their chiefs into the world of spirits. These pills they oblige the victims to swallow.