them, frequently more than they are able, they are sometimes obliged to take medicine that it may be possible for them to pursue their eating. At the Feast of the Spirits, if the guest fails to eat all that is placed before him, he must redeem himself by the forfeit of a buffalo or beaver skin. Great quantities of provisions, especially of venison, are collected for these festivities. In the mean time they are often famished with hunger.

Their medical knowledge, even if classed with superstitious usages, is not to be despised, and they have large acquaintance with healing herbs and the powers of nature. A lady of Philadelphia, who resided many years among the Indians, in order to gain a knowledge of their various remedies, drew up, on her return, an Indian materia-medica, which became much celebrated, and many new curative means have thus enriched the American pharmacopæia. Women are also, among the Indians, esteemed as physicians and interpreters of dreams; and the Winnebago Indians, who dwell by Lake Superior, in the northeastern part of Minnesota, have now, singularly enough, two queens whom they obey—the one for her wisdom, the other for her courage and bravery. Otherwise, women among the Indians are, as is well known, servants who do all the hard work, as well without as within the house. They dig the fields (pieces of land without form or regularity), sow and reap, gather wild rice, berries, roots, and make sugar from the juice of the sugar-maple. When the man kills a deer, he throws it down for the woman, who must prepare it for household use.

“What estimate may be given of the morals and character of the Indian women in this neighborhood ?" inquired I from a lady of St. Paul's, who had resided a considerable time at this place.

“Many are immoral, and can not be much commended; but others, again, there are who are as virtuous and blameless as any of us.”

I have also heard incidents cited which prove that the Indian woman will sometimes assume, in the wigwam, the privilege of the husband, bring him under the rule of the moccasin, and chastise him soundly if he offend her. He never strikes again, but patiently lets himself be beaten black and blue. He knows, however, that his turn will come, and he knows well enough that he can then have

his revenge.

When an Indian dies, the women assemble round the corpse, make a howling lament, tear their hair, and cut themselves with sharp stones. A missionary in Minnesota saw a young Indian woman slash and cut her flesh over her brother's corpse in the most terrific manner, while other women around her sung songs of vengeance against the murderer of the dead. The god of revenge is the ideal of the savage.

The virtues of the Indian man are universally known. His fidelity in keeping a promise, his hospitality, and his strength of mind under sorrow and suffering, have often been praised. It strikes me, however, that these his virtues have their principal root in an immense pride. The virtue of the Indian is selfish. That dignity of which we have heard so much seems to me more like the conceit of a cock than the natural dignity of a noble, manly being. Now they raise themselves up, and stand or walk proudly. Now they squat all in a heap, sitting on their hams like dogs or baboons. Now they talk with proud words and gestures; now prate and jabber like a flock of magpies. There is a deal of parade in their pride and silence. Occasionally beautiful exceptions have been met with, and still exist, where the dignity is genuine, and the nobility genuine also. These exceptions are met with among the old chiefs in particular. But the principal features among the Indians are, after all, idolatry, pride, cruelty, thirst of vengeance, and the degradation of woman.

Vol. II.-C

They have no other government nor governors but through their chiefs and medicine-men. The former have but little power and respect, excepting in their own individual character, and they seem greatly to fear the loss of their popularity in their tribe.

Such, with little variation, are the manners, the faith, and the condition of the North American Indians.

A great deal has been said, and conjectured, and written, and much inquiry has been made on the question of whence came these people ? And it now seems to be an established idea that they are of the Mongolian race, from the northern part of Asia, a resemblance having been discovered between them and this people, both in their appearance and mode of life, and also because Asia and America approach each other so nearly at this point, that the passage from one hemisphere to the other does not appear an improbable undertaking for bold coasting voy. agers.

The Peruvians of South America, and those noble Az. tecs, who possessed a splendid, though short-lived power, and whose noblest ruler spake words as wise and poetry as rich as that of King Solomon; these Indians, and those whose devastated cities have lately been discovered in Central America, were evidently of a higher race than the people of North America, and their remains, as well as all that is known of their manners and customs, prove them to be kindred to the noblest Asiatic races.

The zealous upholders of the doctrine that all mankind have descended from one single human pair, and who placed them in Asia, are reduced to great straits to explain the emigration of these various people from the mother country. I can not understand why each hemisphere should not be considered as the mother country of its own people. The same power of nature, and the same creative power, are able to produce a human pair in more than one place. And when God is the father, and nature the mother, then must indeed, in any case, the whole human race be brethren. And the Adamite pair may very well consider themselves as the elected human pair, sent to instruct and emancipate those young kindred pairs which were still more in bondage than themselves to the life of earth. God forgive us for the manner in which we have most frequently fulfilled our mission.

But North America is not altogether to blame with regard to her Indians. If the Indian had been more susceptible of a higher culture, violence and arms would not have been used against him, as is now the case. And although the earlier missionaries, strong in faith, and filled with zealous ardor, succeeded in gathering around them small, faithful companies of Indian proselytes, yet it was evidently rather through the effect of their individual character than from any inherent power in the doctrines which they preached. When they died their flocks dispersed.

Sometimes white men of peculiar character have taken to themselves Indian wives, and have endeavored to make cultivated women of them; but in vain. The squaw continued to be the squaw ; uncleanly, with unkemmed hair, loving the dimness of the kitchen more than the light of the drawing-room, the ample envelopment of the woolen blanket rather than tight lacing and silken garments. The faithful wife and tender mother she may become, steadfast to home and the care of her family as long as her husband lives and the children are small; but when the children are grown up, and if the husband be dead, then will she vanish from her home. When the birds warble of spring and the forest, and the streams murmur of renovated life, she will return to the wigwams of her people in the forest or by the river, to seek by their fires for freedom and peace. This wild life must assuredly have a great fascination.

Of all the tribes of North American Indians now existing, the Cherokees and Choctaws are the only ones which have received Christianity and civilization. When the Europeans first visited these tribes, they were living in small villages in the highland district of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama; they were peaceful, and pursued agriculture. They were drawn from their homes by fair means and foul, and obtained land west of the Mississippi, in the western part of the State of Missouri, and there it is said they have become a large and flourishing community, greatly augmenting in number, and assimilating to the manners and customs of Europeans. They are employed in agriculture and the breeding of cattle; they build regular houses, and have of late years reduced their language to writing, and have established a printingpress. I have, among my American curiosities, a Cherokee newspaper, printed in the Cherokee language.

The wild Indians, who for the most part sustain themselves by fishing and hunting, are becoming more and more eradicated, in part by mutual wars, and in part by the small-pox, as well as by brandy, which, adulterated by pernicious inflammatory ingredients, is sold to them by the white traders. The American government has strictly interdicted the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians, but they are so covetous of intoxicating drinks, and mean souls are every where so covetous of gain, that the prohibition is of very little avail. Spirituous liquors are smuggled in with other merchandise among the Indians of this district. The American government buys land from the Indians, and with the money which is annually distributed among them as payment they purchase “fire

" water," as well as the means of life, for which they pay an exorbitant price. Thus they are impoverished by degrees, and fall into utter penury. Thus they become more and more degraded, both morally and physically, nor have their medicine-men either remedy or magic art against the poisoned contact of the whites.