LITERARY SPECTATOR.
TALES OF AN INDIAN CAMP.*
THESE are pleasant and instructive volumes. They embody the traditions of one of the most singular nations on the face of the earth, the Red Indians of North America. Their Origines, according to the floating notions among themselves, are here put into the agreeable form of fables and stories. The writer is one who has studied the people on the spot ; and he has done more—he has compared them with all the old travellers and historians of America. We would not wish for pleasanter or'more instructive reading than the commentaries on the writer's own narratives: they consist chiefly of his own observations, together with a great variety of extracts from voyages and travels illustrative of Indian manners.
The Indians are a nation possessing a code of morals differing from all others : perhaps it is inferior to every other; • but at the same time, it is put in practice (or was so till the wra of rum) with a rigorous strictness which would do honour to the best. Were the precepts of another moral code adhered to with one-thousandth part the superstitious exactness of the Red Indian, the Pale Faces would be a hap pier people. • We have pleasure in quoting the following specimen of the text : for the notes we refer to the volumes.
.".CHE DISCOVERY OF THE UPPER WORLD.
"A TRADITION 01+ THE IIIINNATAREES.
" The.Minnatarees, and all the other Indians who are of the stock of the grandfather of nations, were once not of this upper air, but dwelt in the bowels of the earth. The Good Spirit, when lie made them, no doubt meant, at a proper time, to put them in the enjoyment of all the good things which he had prepared for them upon the earth, but he ordered that their first stage of existence should be within it, as the infant is formed, and takes its first growth in the womb of its natural mother. They all dwelt under ground, like moles in one great cavern, which covered the whole island ; when they emerged, it was in different places, but generally near where they now inhabit. At that time, few of the. Indian tribes wore the human form ; some had the figures or semblances of beasts. The Paukunnawkuts were rabbits, some of the Delawares were ground hogs, others tortoises, and the Tuscaroras and a great many others, were rattlesnakes. The Sioux were the hissing-snake ; but the Minnatarees were always men. Their part. of the great cavern was situated far towards the Mountains of Snow.
"The great cavern in which the Indians dwelt was indeed a dark and dismal region. In the country of the Minnatarees it was lighted up only by the rays of the sun which strayed through the fissures of the rock, and the crevices in the roof of the cavern, while in that of the Mengwe it was dark and sunless. The life of the Indians was a life of misery compared with that they now enjoy, and it was endured only because they were ignorant of a fairer or richer world, or a better or happier state of being. Clothes they had none ; they lived and died naked as they came into the world I Their food was mice, and snakes, and worms, and moles, with now and then a bat, and the roots of trees, which crept downward from the regions of the upper air, till they sreached the subterranean abodes of the poor benighted Indian. They ate sand, it is true, and fed upon a dirt which glittered like the sun, but which was tasteless, and contained no nutriment, and they grew poor upon it, and early sickened and died. A miserably poor and weak race they were, and the Great Spirit was kindest, when he took them from their dismal dwellings to the happy mansions in the green vales and quiet lakes which lie hid in the mountains. And, so well convinced were the Indians that the exchange would he for the better, that they celebrated the death of a man with great rejoicing, but wept and howled loud and long when a child was born. And thus they dwelt, in the caverns which lie beneath the surface of the earth, unknowing of the beautiful and glorious world over their heads, till the Good Spirit sent agents for their deliverance. "There were among the DI innatarees two boys, who, from the hour of their birth, showed superior wisdom, sagacity, and cunning. Even while they were children, they were wiser than their fathers and mothers. They asked their parents whence the light which streamed through the fissures of the rock and played along the sides of the cavern came, and whence and from what descended the roots of the great vine. Their father said he could not tell ; and their mother only laughed at the question, which appeared to her very foolish. They asked the priest ; neither could he tell ; but said he supposed the light came from the eyes of some great wolf. The boys told him he was a fool. They asked the king tortoise, who sulkily drew his head into his shell, and made no answer. But when they asked the chief rattlesnake, he answered that he knew, and would tell them all about it if they would promise to make peace with his tribe, and on no account ever to kill one of his descendants. The boys promised, and the chief rattlesnake then told them that there was a world above them, composed of ore more shining than that they had tossed in boyish play in each other's eyes—a beautiful world, peopled by creatures in the shape of beasts, having a pure atmosphere and a soft sky, sweet fruits and mellow water, well-stocked hunting grounds and well-filled ponds. He told them to ascend -by the roots, which were
* 3 vols. London, 1829.
those of a great grape-vine. A while after the boys were missing. Another while they had not returned ; nor did they come back until the Minnatarees had celebrated the feast of rejoicing for their death, and the lying priest had, as he falsely said, in a vision seen them inhabitants of the Land of Spirits.
" One day; t Indians were surprised by the return of the boys. They came back singing and dancing, and were grown so much, and looked so different from what they did when they left the cavern, that their father and _Mother scarcely knew them. They were sleek and fat ; and when they walked it was with so strong a step that the hollow space rung with the sound of their feet. Their bodies were covered with something which the Minnatarees had never seen before, but which they since know was feathers and the skins of animals. They had blankets wrapped around them of the skins of racoons and beavers. Each of them had at his back a bundle of beautiful ripe grapes, and of the flesh of a great animal which they had been taught to kill by people looking much like the Minnatarees, only handsomer and stronger—people who lived by hunting, and delighted in shedding the blood of each other, who painted their bodies with strange figures, and loved to drink a water which made them crazy and boisterous.
"On first emerging from the caverns, they came, they said, into a world where all was light and beauty. It was directly over that part of the cavern where our tribe dwelt. They saw a great round ball of fire, which gave light and heat to the earth, and whose beams it was which had shot down through the fissures of the rock, partially illumining the cavern. The earth above them they had found covered with green, and scented with sweetsmelling flowers. Here and there were beautiful groves of trees, in whose shady branches birds of soft notes and varied and lovely plumage were singing all the day long. Its waters, which flowed cool and clear were peopled by sportive fishes, and by many kinds of fowls, whose motions in their element were beautiful to the eye, and whose meat, when cooked, was exceedingly sweet to the taste. They saw a beautiful river, gliding rapidly through banks, shaded by-lofty trees ; its smooth current wafting the Indian brave to distant expeditions of war and the chase. Here were vast herds of wild animals, called by the inhabitants bisons, whose flesh they had found very good and juicy, and which animals were killed with arrows and sharp spears. The eyes of the boys glistened like coals of fire, and became of double size, while they described the beauties and wonders of the upper earth. "The Indians were very much delighted with the boys' story. They tasted of the meat, and the grapes, and liked them so well, that they resolved to leave their dull residence under ground, for the charms of the upper air. All the inhabitants of the cavern agreed to leave it for the newly-discovered hunting-grounds, except the ground-hog, the badger, and the mole, who said as their maker had placed them there, there they would live, and there they would die. The rabbit said he would live sometimes below and sometimes above, and the rattlesnake, and the tortoise, promised to spend the winter in the caverns, which they always do.
"When the Indians had determined to leave their habitations under ground, they agreed to do it at different points, that they might sooner be on the surface. The Minnatarees began, men, women, and children, to clamber up the vine. One half of them had already reached the surface of the earth, when a dire mishap involved the remainder in a still more desolate captivity within its bowels. There was among the Minnatarees a very big and fat old woman, who was heavier than any six of her nation. Nothing would do but she must go up before certain of her neighbours. Away she clambered, but her weight was so great, that the vine broke with it ; and the opening, to which it afforded the sole means of ascending, closed upon her and the rest of the nation. Other tribes fared better : in particular the beasts. The tortoise, who always took the lead, because he was descended from the Great Tortoise who bears the world on his back, and can live both on the land and in the water, very easily crept out, but the monseys or wolves, who dwelt under Lake Onondaga, did not emerge so easily. After trying to reach the upper air for along time in vain, one of their number, a cunning old wolf, discovered a hole through which he crept out. Ile seon caught a deer, which he carried down to his tribe, who found it so sweet that they redoubled their exertions to reach a spot where such good things were to be had, and fortunately -soon reached it in company with the turkeys, whom they overtook on the way. The Mengwe crept out of the same hole, but it was a long while afterwards. The tortoise, the wolves, and the turkeys all confederated to declare war against the Bears, who were a very numerous and savage tribe ; and the hatchet has not been buried yet. But they made a firm peace with the Rattlesnakes, which lasted till the coming of the Big-knives, when the latter broke the calumet of peace by biting an Indian, whom they mistook for a white man. Since then these two people have also been at war.
" When the Minnatarees arrived in the upper air, they established themselves on the spot where they now reside. Very soon after, a party of strange men appeared among them, mounted on animals, or rather they seemed a part of strange animals, with four legs, possessed of great fleetness, and whose long and beautiful tails swept the earth where they trod. They attacked the wonderful creatures with their bows and arrows, and succeeded in killing one of them, upon which the others ran away. Not at first perceiving that the man and horse were two distinct animals, how much were they surprised to see the former fall to the earth, as if one part of the tompound of the animal was dead, and the other still active, having received no injury. They at length succeeded in capturing the horse, and, after admiring the beauty of his form, and becoming familiar with him, they proceeded to tie one of their young men upon his back with cords that he might not fall off. The horse was then led cautiously by the halter until he became, sufficiently tame to ride alone, and without a leader. It was in this manner that our nation procured the horse, and from this one sprung the breed we now have.
" Brothers, this is what our fathers told us of the manner in which the Minnatarecs and other Indian tribes became possessed of their present hunting-grounds, and of the way in which our nation procured the horse.—I have done."
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