"[127-1]
The Navajo who has been deputed to carry a dead body to burial, holds
himself unclean until he has thoroughly washed himself in water prepared
for the purpose by certain ceremonies.[127-2] A bath was an
indispensable step in the mysteries of Mithras, the initiation at
Eleusis, the meda worship of the Algonkins, the Busk of the Creeks, the
ceremonials of religion everywhere. Baptism was at first always
immersion. It was a bath meant to solemnize the reception of the child
into the guild of mankind, drawn from the prior custom of ablution at
any solemn occasion. In both the object is greater purity, bodily and
spiritual. As certainly as there is a law of conscience, as certainly as
our actions fall short of our volitions, so certainly is man painfully
aware of various imperfections and shortcomings. What he feels he
attributes to the infant. Avowedly to free themselves from this sense of
guilt the Delawares used an emetic (Loskiel), the Cherokees a potion
cooked up by an order of female warriors (Timberlake), the Takahlies of
Washington Territory, the Aztecs, Mayas, and Peruvians, auricular
confession.
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