substance of all that has yet come to our knowledge respecting them :

They believe in a Supreme Being, whom they call Zangahara. They consider him as the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the universe. When they speak concerning him, their countenances immediately assume an unusual solemnity. What a reproof is this to those Christians, so called, who profane the name of God! They have no places of religious worship; but they pray with great earnestness to Zangahara on particular occasions; as, for instance, when they are about to cross a river, for success in war, for the recovery of the sick, for the growth of their rice, &c. They believe that the souls of all good men, after their death, ascend to Zangahara, and live for ever in perfect happiness in his presence; but that the souls of all bad men (who according to their ideas are those only who are guilty of heinous crimes, such as murder, theft, perjury, and the like,) are delivered over to the evil spirit, to be tormented according to their demerits. This evil spirit they call Ang-gatyr, and believe him to be the author of evil they consider him as possessing a very extensive influence, and are consequently very much afraid of him: they say, that he is frequently seen in the woods, sometimes in the form of a man, and at other times in that of a beast. Always before they take their drink, they sprinkle a few drops of it on the ground: this is done as a tribute to the evil spirit, in order that he may not hurt them. There are many traces of Judaism amongst the Malegaches: they practise circumcision, and offer the first fruits of their harvests to Zangahara, and drink-offerings on various occasions, and also pay deference to the new moons, &c.; but they do not observe the Sabbath. Of the knowledge of the Saviour, they are entirely destitute; but we trust that the time is not far distant, when the name of Jesus shall be known throughout the island of Madagascar. When we first intimated to the Malegaches our wish to commence a school immediately after we should obtain their permission to instruct their children, they not only manifested great pleasure at the proposal, but several of them said, 'If our children are taught to read and write, and to love Zangahara, and all men, there will be no wars!' which excellent idea we endeavoured to cherish*."

The London Missionary Society bave now three missionaries labouring among these people, and it is hoped with much success; but, it may y ywell be asked, "what are they among so

many?"

"Missionary Register" for 1820, p. 202-3.

AMERICAN PAGANS.

VARIOUS causes have conspired to prevent, or to impede, an examination into the state of religion among the Indian tribes of North America. And long have they been permitted to dwell in the shadow of death, though within the hemisphere of heavenly light. Even those men who now occupy the territories of their forefathers have unkindly withheld from them their charitable aid till of late, when they have been roused to a lively sense of their duty in this respect It is animating to contemplate the United States in particular-in the name, as it were, and as the representatives of the various nations who have participated in the wrongs inflicted on this injured race-now preparing to offer the noblest compensation in their power, and to diffuse throughout the aborigines of the western world the inestimable boon of Gospel light and truth.

The latest and most authentic account of the religious notions of the several Indian tribes of North America is no doubt that given in an able discourse on the subject by the Rev. Dr. Jarvis, a learned and distinguished divine of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. Dr. Jarvis arranges his communications under the following heads, viz.-1. The Supreme Being; 2. A future State of Rewards and Punishments; 3. Expiatory Sacrifices for Sin; 4. Their Priesthood; and, 5. Their Jongleurs, or Jugglers.

1. Of the Supreme Being.-They acknowledge one Supreme Being, whom they denominate the Great Spirit, or the Master of life, the Creator and the Governor of the world. He is with them the God of war. His name they invoke as they march it is the signal to engage; and it is the war-cry in the hottest of the battle.

But besides the Supreme Being, they believe in an infinite number of subaltern spirits, who are the objects of worship, and whom they divide into good and evil. With them every thing in nature has its spirit, though all have not the same

It is calculated, that " even within the United States and their territories, there are not less than about a quarter of a million of poor pagans, divided and subdivided into many different tribes and clans," and in the most deplorable state of ignorance and wretchedness." The Conversion of the World," edit. 1819, p. 60.

rank nor the same influence. And it is remarkable that these tutelary deities are not supposed to take men under their protection till something has been done to merit the favour *.

But amidst all their superstitious notions, which appear to be many, the Supreme Being is said to be the great object of their adoration; in respect of him a great uniformity of belief prevails, together with a great harmony of polytheism throughout the vast extent of America.

The idea of the Divine Unity, says Dr. Jarvis, "is much more perfectly preserved among the Indians of America, than among the more civilised nations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The subordinate divinities are kept at a much more immeasurable distance from the Great Spirit; and, above all, there has been no attempt among them to degrade to the likeness of men, the invisible and incomprehensible Creator of the universe." Whence he concludes, that theirs is that milder form of idolatry which overspread the world soon after the days of Abraham, and infected, from time to time, the chosen family itself.

2. The belief of a future State of Rewards and Punishments, though its origin may have been in Divine Revelation, has been kept alive among all heathen nations, and is universally maintained by the American Indians: but if we inquire into their particular notions respecting it, we shall find, here as elsewhere, that their traditions are coloured by the nature of their earthly occupations, and by the opinions which they thence entertain on the subject of good and evil.

Thus they suppose that the soul, when separated from the body, preserves the same inclinations which it had when both were united; and hence they bury with the dead all that they had in use when alive. Some imagine that all men have two souls, one of which never leaves the body, unless it be to inhabit another; and from this belief arises the duty of placing food upon their graves.

The region which is destined to be the eternal abode of spirits, on their leaving the body, is called the "country of souls." It lies at a great distance toward the west; and to go thither costs them a journey of many months. They have many difficulties to surmount, and many perils to encounter.

• An account of the ridiculous ceremonies that must be performed by a parent who wishes to obtain a guardian spirit for his child may be seen in Mr. Nightingale's Religions and Religious Ceremonies of all nations, 1821, p. 505, &c.

To be put to death as a captive excludes from the Indian paradise; while, on the contrary, to have been a good hunter, brave in war, fortunate in enterprize, and victorious over many enemies, are the only passports to their abodes of bliss, the happiness and enjoyments of which depend on the situa tion and circumstances of their respective tribes or nations.

3. They offer Sacrifices and oblations, both to the Great Spirit, and also to the subordinate or inferior divinities, to propitiate their protection or to avert calamity; and likewise eucharistic sacrifices for success in war. The Charibbees, in the West Indies were wont to immolate some of the captives who had been taken in war; and the Mexicans, it is well known, offered human sacrifices; but of this practice there are no traces among the present Indian tribes, unless the tormenting of their captives may be considered as a sacrifice to the god of war.

4. With sacrifices the idea of a Priesthood is naturally connected; and on this subject the testimony of travellers is somewhat discordant; but those who deny that they have priests, allow, that in their public sacrifices, the chiefs are the only persons who are permitted to officiate; while in private the head of every family discharges the sacerdotal functions, agreeably to the practice of the patriarchial times.

5. Another office, concerning which there has been no diversity of opinion, has been found to exist among all the tribes in America, and has been confounded by many travellers with the priesthood. To the men who hold this office the French Missionaries have given the name of Jongleurs, a term which in English may be undertood to mean Jugglers or Conjurors.

Doctor Jarvis has collected several curious particulars relative to the frauds committed by these impostors, and their powerful influence on the superstitious minds of the untutored Indians. They are supposed to possess the power of curing diseases miraculously, of procuring rain and other temporal blessings in the same supernatural manner, of foretelling future events, and of miraculously inflicting punishment on the objects of their displeasure.

Upon the whole, the learned Doctor concludes, that a strong analogy subsists between the religion of the American Indians and that of the Patriarchal times; and that they are to be viewed as a primitive people, who, like the Chinese, must have been among the earliest emigrants of the descendants of Noah. In so far he differs from Mr. Adair, who, after a residence among them of forty years, has adopted and main

tains, in his "History of the American Indians," the hypothesis that they are descended from the Ten Tribes of Israel, -an hypothesis which the famous Menasses Ben Israel bad entertained long before, and attempted to prove, in his work entitled "The Hope of Israel."

Such is briefly the present state, in regard to religion, of the American Indians, whereby it must appear that their views are dark and cheerless, and that though they are not so grossly ignorant or so vile and depraved as many of their brethren in the heathen world, yet they are far gone from the knowledge of the truth and the way of peace, and are therefore peculiar objects of Christian regard and attention. Elliott, the Mayhews, Sergeant, and Brainerd, laboured among them, in various quarters and at different times, with a view to evangelize them, and with much success. But the spirit of those men appears to have slept till of late, when various attempts have been made for the same purpose by "the Scottish Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; "the New York Missionary Society;" "the American Presbyterian General Assembly;" "the Western Missionary Society," and others. And now the "American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions" (the Congregationalists) has undertaken their cause, and is labouring for their good.

As, therefore, it is recorded as a truth, " that, in proportion to the time and means employed, no missions to the heathen, since the apostolic age, have been more successful than those to the American aborigines," we may confidently hope that the time is not far distant when those scattered tribes, that had long been engaged in all the horrors of savage warfare, shall be hushed into tranquillity;-when the war-whoop shall cease among the mountains; the blood-stained tomahawk be washed and buried; their fierce and raging passions subside, like the ocean waves, into a calm; and, those who had been dead in sin and devoted to superstition, shall awake unto righteousness and be found alive unto God.

* See Brainerd's "Journal," and Neal's "History of New England,” vol. i. p. 33, &c.