This Sabbath observance, and other religious forms greatly surprised travelers among these tribes, namely, the Flatheads, Nez Perces, and Cay uses. Dr. Parker found in it a mystery also. But the explanation is simple. Says Bonneville: "Mr. Pambrun informed me that he had been at some pains to introduce the Christian religion, in the Roman Catholic form, among them, where it had evidently taken root, but had become altered and modified to suit their peculiar habits of thought, and motives of action, retaining, however, the principal points of faith, and its entire precepts of morality. The same gentleman had given to them a code of laws, to which they conformed with scrupulous fidelity. Polygamy, which once prevailed among them to a great extent, was now rarely indulged in. All the crimes denounced by the Christian faith met with severe punishment. Even theft, so venial a crime among the Indians, had recently been punished with hanging, by sentence of a chief."
Bonneville, speaking of the Cayuses, says: "They will not raise their camp on that day, unless in extreme cases of danger or hunger; neither will they hunt, nor fish, nor trade, nor perform any kind of labor on that day. A part of it is passed in prayer and religious ceremonies. Some chief, who is at the same time what is called a medicine man, assembles the community. After invoking blessings from the Deity, he addresses the assemblage, exhorting them to good conduct; to be diligent in providing for their families; to abstain from lying and stealing; to avoid quarreling or cheating in their play, and to be just and hospitable to all strangers who may be among them. Prayers and exhortations are also made early in the morn ing on week days.[1] Sometimes all this is done by the chief from horseback, moving slowly about the camp with his hat on, and uttering his exhortations with aloud voice.
- ↑ Farnham, in his Travels, speaks admiringly of these morning devotions as he saw them practiced near Whitman's station in 1839; but he took it for granted that it came from the teachings of the missionaries at that station.
