The American Indians Part 45

and then the Hare laid her pink ears upon her shoulders, and was about to go on, but the Lynx began to sing again,--

Why, why do you go away?

Pretty white one, can't you stay?

Tell me why your little feet, Are made so dry and very fleet?

Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! said the poor little Hare, and she ran back again to the lodge to ask again. "Ho! Nosis!" said the grandmother, who was old and tired, "do not mind him, nor listen to him, nor answer him, but run on."

The Hare obeyed, and ran as fast as she could. When she came to the spot where the Lynx had been, she looked round, but there was no one there, and she ran on. But the Lynx had found out all about the little Hare, and knew she was going across to the neck of land; and he had nothing to do but reach it first, and waylay her; which he did: and when the innocent creature came to the place, and had got almost home, the Lynx sprang out of the thicket and eat her up.

The original chant, omitting the narrative part as given above, runs in this fashion, word for word.

Lynx. Tah kau (where ah!) Tah kau (where ah!) Wa bose (little white one) Wa bose (little white one) Ke te e zha (are you going?) Hare. Na kwa oushing (to the point of land) Ain dah nuk e aum baun (in my native country) In de e zha (I go.) Lynx. Au neen (what!) Au neen (what!) A nau be kaus o yun aig (causes it,) Kish ke mun ing (why like stripes of leather) Ish o tow ug a una, (are your ears?) Hare. Nish ish sha ug (my uncles,) O sha wun e nong (when from the south) Ke e zha waud (they came,) Ningeeaizh e goob un eeg (they did fix me so.) Lynx. Tah kau (where ah!) Tah kau (where ah!) Wa bose (little white one,) Wa bose (little white one,) Ke de e zha (are you going?) Au neen (why?) Na naub o kos o yun (look they so,) Kish ke mun a, (like dry bits of leather,) I izh e zida una, (your feet ha!)

4. THE KITE AND THE EAGLE.

This is a specimen of Indian satire. The coward is boastful when there is no danger: pretension succeeds in the absence of real merit! A Kite was boasting how high he could fly, and ventured to speak disparagingly of the eagle, not knowing that the latter overheard him. He began to sing in a loud voice,

I upward fly I! I alone disdain the air Till I hang as by a hair Poised in the sky.

The Eagle answers disdainfully, looking down from a branch far above the Kite,

Who _mounts_ the sky?

Who is this, with babbling tongue As he had on the storm-cloud hung, Who flies so high?

The Kite in a shrinking, feeble voice,

The great Khakake I've sometimes thought he flew so high That he must see within the sky The dawn awake.

The Eagle despises him, and yet cannot forbear to answer.

I spurn you all, ye prating throng How often have I pa.s.sed ye by When my broad pinions fleet and strong, Soared up where leapt the thunder cry!

Nor ye with feeble wing might dare, Those hill-tops high, to mount in air.

and he soared off, up, up into the sky till the boaster could not behold him. But no sooner was the Kite left alone to himself than he began to sing again so as to be heard on every side,

I upward fly I, I alone disdain the air Till I hang as by a hair Poised in the sky.

Literally thus.

Kite. Neen a (I alone) Neen a (I alone) Ta wa e ya (can go up) Bai bwau } As shau dau } (so as to seem as if hanging Wa ke ge naun } by a hair) O shau wush ko (from the blue sky.) geezhig oong a Eagle. Au wa nain (Who is this?) Au wa nain (Who is this?) Tshe mud je wa wa (with babbling tongue, who boasts) Ke pim o saing. (of flying so high?)

Kite (shrinkingly) replies, "Oh I was only singing of the great Khakake, it is he who is said to fly so high."

Eagle disdainfully replies, "Tshe mud je wa wa, that is great babbler, or bad-tongue, you are below my notice," &c., and soars aloft.

Kite, resuming its boasting tone, as soon as the eagle is out of hearing,

Neen a (I alone &c., the whole being a Neen a repet.i.tion of the first part.) Ta we ya Bai bwau As shau dau Wa ke ge naun, O shau wush ko, geezhig oong a.

5. THE RAVEN AND WOODp.e.c.k.e.r.

A still farther view of Indian manners and opinions is hid under this simple chant. Opinion among the forest race, makes the whole animated creation cognizant and intelligent of their customs.

A young married woman is supposed to go out from the lodge, and busy herself in breaking up dry limbs, and preparing wood, as if to lay in a store for a future and approaching emergency.

A raven, perched on a neighbouring tree, espies her, at her work, and begins to sing; a.s.suming the expected infant to be _a boy_.

In dosh ke zhig o mun In dosh ke zhig o mun In dosh ke zhig o mun

My eyes! my eyes my eyes! Alluding to the boy (and future man) killing animals as well as men, whose eyes will be left, as the singer antic.i.p.ates, to be picked out by ravenous birds. So early are the first notions of war implanted.

A woodp.e.c.k.e.r, sitting near, and hearing this song, replies; a.s.suming the s.e.x of the infant to be _a female_.

Ne mos sa mug ga Ne mos sa mug ga Ne mos sa mug ga.

My worms! my worms! my worms! Alluding to the custom of the female's breaking up dry and dozy wood, out of which, it could pick its favourite food, being the mosa or wood-worm.

Want of s.p.a.ce induces the writer to defer, to a future number, the remainder of his collection of these cradle and nursery chants. They const.i.tute in his view, rude as they are, and dest.i.tute of metrical attractions, a chapter in the history of the human heart, in the savage phasis, which deserves to be carefully recorded. It has fallen to his lot, to observe more perhaps, in this department of Indian life, than ordinary, and he would not acquit himself of his duty to the race, were he to omit these small links out of their domestic and social chain. The tie which binds the mother to the child, in Indian life, is a very strong one, and it is conceived to admit of ill.u.s.tration in this manner.

It is not alone in the war-path and the council, that the Red Man is to be studied. To appreciate his whole character, in its true light, he must be followed into his lodge, and viewed in his seasons of social leisure and retirement. If there be any thing warm and abiding in the heart or memory of the man, when thus at ease, surrounded by his family, it must come out here; and hence, indeed, the true value of his lodge lore, of every kind.

It is out of the things mental as well as physiological, that pertain to maternity, that philosophy must, in the end, construct the true ethnological chain, that binds the human race, in one comprehensive system of unity.

LANGUAGES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

The Polynesian languages, like those of the Algonquin group of North America, have inclusive and exclusive p.r.o.nouns to express the words _we_, _ours_, and _us_. They have also causative verbs such as, to make afraid, to make happy, &c., but while there appears this a.n.a.logy in grammatical principles, there are some strong points of disagreement, and there appears to be no a.n.a.logy whatever in the sounds of the language. There are eight well characterized dialects in the Polynesian family. They are the Tahitian, the Owyhee, [Hawaiian] Marquesan, or Washingtonian, Austral island, Hervey island, Samoan, Tongatabu, and New Zealand. In seven of these, the name for G.o.d is Atua, in the eighth, or Tongua dialect, it is Otua. Great resemblances exist in all the vocabularies. Much of the actual difference arises from exchanges of the consonants r and l, h and s, and a few others. They possess the dual number. The scheme of the p.r.o.nouns is very complete, and provides for nearly all the recondite distinctions of person. Where the vocabulary fails in words to designate objects which were unknown to them before their acquaintance with Europeans, the missionaries have found it to fall in better with the genius of the language, to introduce new words from the Greek, with some modifications. Thus they have introduced _hipo_ for horse, _arenio_ for lamb, _areto_ for bread, and _baptizo_ for baptism.

To continue faithful during a course of prosperity, says Xenophon, hath nothing wonderful in it, but when any set of men continue steadily attached to friends in adversity, they ought, on that account, to be eternally remembered.

There are but two sources only, says Polybius, from whence any real benefit can be derived, our own misfortunes and those that have happened to other men.

One wise counsel, says Euripides, is better than the strength of many.

From "_New England Prospect_."

CHAPTER XIX.

OF THEIR WOMEN, THEIR DISPOSITIONS, EMPLOYMENTS, USAGE BY THEIR HUSBANDS, THEIR APPARELL, AND MODESTY.