. The history of Virginia, in four parts. there,or at least we did not find them. We had not leisure tomake a very narrow search, for having spent about an hourin this enquiry, we feared the business of the Indians mightbe near over, and that if we staid longer, we might becaught offering an affront to their superstition. For thisreason, we wrapt up those holy materials in their severalmats again, and laid them on the shelf where we foundthem. This image, when dressed up, might look very ve-nerable in that dark place where tis not possible to see it,but by the glimmering light that is let in b
. The history of Virginia, in four parts. there,or at least we did not find them. We had not leisure tomake a very narrow search, for having spent about an hourin this enquiry, we feared the business of the Indians mightbe near over, and that if we staid longer, we might becaught offering an affront to their superstition. For thisreason, we wrapt up those holy materials in their severalmats again, and laid them on the shelf where we foundthem. This image, when dressed up, might look very ve-nerable in that dark place where tis not possible to see it,but by the glimmering light that is let in by lifting up apiece of the malting, which we observed to be convenientlyhung for that purpose ; for when the light of the door andchimney glance in several directions upon the image throughthat little passage, it must needs make a strange represen-tation, which those poor people are taught to worship witha devout ignorance. There are other things that contributetowards carrying on this imposture. Frst, the chief conjurer Mr %? .;? 1. Jjith of rhtchim &rDuaaovant x\ichjw>Ti<LiVa- Wo/ valid , OKEEQUIOCCOS, or KIWASA . RELIGION, WORSHIP AND CUSTOMS. 155 enters within the partition in the dark, and may undiscernedmove the image as he pleases. Secondly, a priest of autho-rity stands in the room with the people, to keep them fiombeing too inquisitive, under the penalty of the deitys dis-pleasure and his own censure. Their idol bears a several name in every nation, as Okee,Quioccos, Kiwasa. They do not look upon it as one sin-gle being, but reckon there are many of the same nature ;they likewise believe that there are tutelar deities in everytown. Tab. II. Their idol in his tabernacle. The dark edging shows the sides and roof of the house,which consists of saplings and bark. The paler edgingshows the mats, by which they make a partition of aboutten feet at the end of the house for the idols abode. Theidol is set upon his seat of mats within a dark recess abovethe peoples heads,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade185, booksubjectindiansofnorthamerica
