A Strange Religious Service

Before I come to that part of my story relating to the war which did break out between us and William Claiborne of Kent Island, I am minded to tell you of a queer religious service that I saw among the Indians of Yaocomico shortly after the harvest.

On a certain day one of the brown-skinned lads came to me with much secrecy, saying that his people were about to have their annual corn and fire dance, and asking if I would go with him to see it.

There is little need for me to say that I much the same as jumped at such a chance, and after gaining permission from my father to be absent from home until late in the night, the lad and I set out through the forest to a certain place not above five miles distant from St. Mary's, where we found more than four hundred brown men, women, and children gathered as if to take part in some festival.

Now to understand better what I saw, you must bear in mind that these savages worship one God, as do we who are Christians, and they also make offerings to an evil spirit whom they call Okee, believing it is necessary to do so in order to prevent harm from coming to them.

While believing there is but one God who rules over everything, they pay homage to a lot of little gods, such as Corn, Fire, and Water, all of which are in some way, I cannot understand well how, supposed to have an influence upon their lives, and in honor of which they dance at certain times of the year.

It is an odd kind of faith, and the longer I puzzle over it the less clear does it appear; but I am bound to admit that these brown-skinned people strive to serve faithfully all these little gods.

Now this festival, or religious service, or whatsoever you may call it, to which I had been invited, was given in honor of Corn, most like because our harvest had been so plentiful.

When we were come to the meeting-place, we found a great fire feeding upon a stack of tree trunks that had been thrown up as high as the foremast of the Dove, and around this, forming complete circles, were all the people, with the children nearest the burning wood, and the elders in the outer rows.

Save for the crackling of the flames, the silence was profound when the Indian lad and I came up. All the people were sitting facing the fire, immovable as statues, and I gazed intently at them a full two minutes without seeing so much as a hand lifted or a head turned. I am not overly timorous; but there came what was much like a chill along my spine as I gazed at the motionless brown people, many of whom were painted most hideously, and save that the Indian lad would know of my faint-heartedness, I should have fled homeward.