parts of Scripture, named the ornaments of their parents, and Christ is called the image of the Father's glory."

Her restored tribes are moreover called the ornaments with which Jerusalem shall attire herself anew, as a bride doth.

The Honourable Elias Boudinot mentions an Indian1 tradition, which intimates that nine parts of their people out of ten went over the river, but the remainder staid behind.

Sir Alexander M'Kenzie says of the Chippawayian tribe,

1 'As the Indian nations have not the assistance afforded by the means of writing and reading, they are obliged to have recourse to tradition, as Du Pratz, 2 vol. 169, has justly observed, to preserve the remembrance of remarkable transactions or historical facts; and this tradition cannot be preserved but by frequent repetitions; consequently many of their young men are often employed in hearkening to the old beloved men, narrating the history of their ancestors, which is thus transmitted from generation to generation. In order to preserve them pure and incorrupt, they are careful not to deliver them indifferently to all their young people, but only to those young men of whom they have the best opinion. They hold it as a certain fact, as delivered down from their ancestors, that their forefathers, in very remote ages, came from a far distant country, by the way of the west, where all the people were of one colour, and that in process of time they moved eastward to their present settlements.

This tradition is corroborated by a current report among them, related by the old Chickkasah Indians to our traders, that now about one hundred years ago, there came from Mexico some of the old Chickkasah nation, or as the Spaniards call them, Chichemicas, in quest of their brethren, as far north as the Aquahpah nation, above one hundred and thirty miles above the Natchez, on the south-east side of the Mississippi river; but through French policy they were either killed or sent back, so as to prevent their opening a brotherly intercourse with them, as they had proposed. It is also said, that the Nauatalcas believe that they dwelt in another region before they settled in Mexico. That their forefathers wandered eighty years in search of it, through a strict obedience to the commands of the Great Spirit; who ordered them to go in quest of new lands, that had such particular marks as were made known to them, and they punctually obeyed the divine mandate, and by that means found out and settled that fertile country of Mexico.

'Our southern Indians have also a tradition among them which they firmly believe, that of old time, their ancestors lived beyond a great river. That nine parts of their nation, out of ten, passed over the river, but the remainder refused, and staid behind. That they had a king when they lived far to the west, who left two sons. That one of them, with a number of his people, travelled a great way for many years, till they came to Delaware river, and settled there. That many years the king of the country from which they had emigrated, sent a party in search of them, but they have never been heard of since.

'It is said among their principal or beloved men, that they have it handed down from their ancestors, that the book which the white people have was once theirs. That while they had it they prospered exceedingly; but that the white people bought it of them, and learnt many things from it; while the Indians lost their credit, offended the Great Spirit, and suffered exceedingly from the neigh.

far to the north west. "They have a tradition among them, that they came from another country, and had traversed a great water, which was in one place narrow and full of islands, where they had suffered great misery, it being always winter there, with ice and deep snows. At the copper-mine river, where they first made land, the ground was covered with copper, over which a body of earth has since been collected."

bouring nations. That the Great Spirit took pity on them and directed them to this country. That on their way they came to a great river, which they could not pass, when God dried up the waters, and they passed over dry-shod. They also say that their forefathers were possessed of an extraordinary Divine Spirit, by which they foretold future events, and controlled the common course of nature, and this they transmitted to their offspring, on condition of their obeying the sacred laws. That they did by these means, bring down showers of plenty on the beloved people. But that this power, for a long time past, had entirely ceased.

'Can any man read this short account of Indian traditions, drawn from tribes of various nations, from the west to the east, and from the south to the north, wholly separated from each other, written by different authors of the best characters, both for knowledge and integrity, possessing the best means of information, at various and distant times, without any possible communication with each other, and from ocular and sensible demonstration; written on the spot in several instances, with the relators before them; and yet suppose that all this is either the effect of chance, accident, or design, from a love of the marvellous or a premeditated intention of deceiving, and thereby ruining their own well established reputations?

'Charlevoix was a clergyman of character, who was with the Indians some years, and travelled from Canada to the Mississippi, in that early day.

'Adair lived forty years entirely domesticated with the southern Indians, and was a man of learning and great observation. Just before the revolutionary war he brought his manuscript to Elizabeth-Town, in New-Jersey, to William Livingston, Esq. (a neighbour of the writer) to have it examined and corrected, which was prevented by troubles of a political nature, just breaking out. The Rev. Mr. Brainerd was a man of remarkable piety, and a missionary with the Crosweek Indians to his death. Doctor Edwards was eminent for his worth and learning, and was intimately acquainted with the Indians from his youth. Doctor Beatty was a' clergymen of note, and established character. Bertram was a man well known to the writer, and travelled the country of the southern Indians as a botanist, and was a man of considerable discernment, and had great means of knowledge; and M'Kenzie, in the employment of the north west company, was an old trader, and the first adventurous explorer of the country, from the lake of the woods to the ocean, &c.

'The Indian tradition says, that their forefathers, in very remote ages, came from a far distant country, where all the people were of one colour, and that in process of time, they moved eastward to their present settlements.

This tradition is corroborated by a current report of the old Chickkasah Indians to our traders, about forty years since, (this was written in the year 1775).

193

THE TOLTICS OR TULIANS.

"A NORTHERN, but very polished nation, the Toltics, appears in the mountains of Anahuac, on the east gulph of California; declares itself expelled from a country lying north-west of Rio Gila, and called Hue-hue-Tlapallan; and brings with it paintings indicating year by year the events of its migration," &c.

'It is very remarkable moreover, that the names which the Toltics bestowed on the cities they built, were those of the countries which they had been compelled to abandon ; from this circumstance, the origin of the Toltics, the Chermecks, the Acolhuan, and the Aztics, who spoke the same language, &c. will be known if we ever discover in the North of America, or in Asia, a people acquainted with the names1 of Hue-hue-Tlapallan,-Aztlan,-TEO-colhuacan,Amaquemacan,-Tehuago and Cozulla.'-Humboldt, p. 179.

"The Toltecas," who were great artists, and who excelled in working jewellery, probably recollected the words of David-"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem!" and it is a

The Mexicans and several other nations, it is to be recollected, had fallen into the disuse of many alphabetic sounds which distinguish the Hebrew language. The substitution of l for r, of c for m, &c. must necessarily disguise the pronunciation of Hebrew terms: to which cause of obscurity may be added the termination of tzin, atl, can, itli, and others. Thus we arrive at the knowledge of the identity of the name of the virgin of Tula, not by the sound, but by observing that Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, who was excluded certain days from the camp or congregation for contending with her brother, has the same name as that by which they designate the virgin of Tula, viz.* Chemalman. Thus also we discover Mox or Moxic is by another nation pronounced Cozes, as they substitute x for j, and sometimes c for m.

Chiribrias is another appellative-that of the, Chiapanese.

fact notorious to all, that wherever Jews exist the recollection of the Temple and of its destruction (to preserve among them the coming of the Messiah, and their own restoration to the New Jerusalem, and rebuilding of the Temple) continually occupy their thoughts." "The retrospect, however, of the city and the Holy-hill, which their ancestors seem to have founded in the new world and called Churula, after Jerusalem, and Tlactichualtepetc (or the hill of sacrifice) after Mount Zion, will not be so agreeable to the Jews of the present day as the prospect of the sceptre returning to Judah."—Antiq. Mex. p. 388.

1

"Sahagun, in the first section of the twenty-ninth chapter of the tenth book of his History of New Spain, 1 describing the manners of the ancient Toltecas, says, "The said Toltecas were good men, who studied virtue in their actions; they never uttered a falsehood; and their style of address and salutation was-Sir, my elder brother;' or 'Sir, my younger brother.' In speaking, they never made use of an oath, but said 'verily, it is so;' or 'yea, yea, and nay, nay.’ There is something evangelical in the style of salutation and affirmation which Sahagun in the above passage ascribes to the Tulticas."-Ibid. p. 389.

"That the Tulticas were the founders of many of the most splendid monuments of the New World, may be inferred not only from the signification of the proper name Tultica, which means an architect, but likewise the figure of a feathered serpent is sometimes represented in mosaic on the walls, which undoubtedly referred to the God Quetzalcoatl. A gigantic serpent of this description ornaments the ruins of "Since nothing appears more

the fortress of Xochtozcaleo."

1 "The Mexicans had a tradition that Totec had commanded the Tulians or Tulticas to bind the image of transgression with thick ropes and drag it out of the city of Tulan."-ibid.

admirable in the architecture of the New World than the beautiful and durable Mosaic ornaments which cover the walls of the palaces of Mitlan, it is highly probable that these structures were erected by the Tulticas, and they furnish an argument in favour of the belief that the Tulticas were originally a little colony, which in remote ages had settled in Anahuac, since we do not read that any other nation of the old continent except the Hebrews, ever introduced that style of architecture, whilst Josephus, it should be remarked, commends in the highest terms the skill which his countrymen displayed in uniting together the stones of which the walls of the Temple were composed, the joints of which were scarcely visible."

Speaking of the departure of Quetzalcoatl from the Toltics, to the distant country of Tlapallan, from whence he came, Humboldt observes, "The resemblance of this name to Hue-huetlapallan, the country of the Toltics, appears not to be accidental. But how can we conceive that this white man, priest of Tula, should have taken his direction, as we shall presently find, to the south-east, towards the plains of Cholula, and then to the eastern coast of Mexico, in order to visit this northern country, whence his ancestors had issued." Quetzalcoatl in crossing the territory of Cholula, or Chorula, yielded to the intreaties of the inhabitants, who offered him the reins of government. He dwelt twenty years amongst them, taught them to cast metals, ordered fasts of eight days, and regulated the intercalations of the

1 Humboldt observes, describing an ancient monument call Xochmalco (house of flowers) "travellers who examine attentively this work of the native tribes of America, cannot fail to be greatly struck with the polish and cut of the stones which are parallelopipedes; the care with which they have been arranged without cement between the joints; and the execution of the reliefs with which the stones are decorated. each figure occupies several stones, and from the outlines not being interrupted by the joints of the stones, we may conjecture that these reliefs were sculptured after the construction of the edifice was finished."-p. 710.