The Myth Of The Hiawatha Part 11

Vide Criterion.

3.

When the volumes of Algic Researches, in 1839, were published, the book-trade had hardly awakened to that wide and diffusive impulse which it has since received. No attention had been given to topics so obscure as inquiries into the character of the Indian mind--if, indeed, it was thought the Indian had any mind at all. It was still supposed that the Indian was, at all times and in all places, "a stoic of the woods," always statuesque, always formal, always pa.s.sionless, always on stilts, always speaking in metaphors, a cold embodiment of bravery, endurance, and savage heroism. Writers depicted him as a man who uttered nothing but high principles of natural right, who always harangued eloquently, and was ready, with unmoved philosophy on all occasions, to sing his death song at the stake to show the world how a warrior should die.

4.

The songs and chants which form so striking a part of the original legends, and also the poetic use of aboriginal ideas, are transferred to the end of the volume, and will thus, it is apprehended, relieve and simplify the text.

5.

Gross.

6.

An abbreviated term for "my grandmother," derived from no-ko-miss.

7.

This is a term for the west wind. It is a derivative from Kabian-oong, the proper appellation for the occident.

8.

An interjection indicating pain.

9.

The scirpus, or bulrush.

10.

Do not--do not.

11.

The Northern Indians, when travelling in company with each other, or with white persons who possess their confidence, so as to put them at ease, are in the habit of making frequent allusions to Manabozho and his exploits. "There," said a young Chippewa, pointing to some huge boulders of greenstone, "are pieces of the rock broken off in Manabozho's combat with his father." "This is the duck," said an Indian interpreter on the sources of the Mississippi, "that Manabozho kicked." "Under that island," said a friend conversant with their language, "under that island Manabozho lost a beaver."

12.

The term weendigo, translated here monster, is commonly applied, at this time, by the Indians, to cannibals. Its ancient use appears, however, to have embraced giants and anomalous voracious beasts of the land, to the former existence of which, on this Continent, their traditions refer.

The word genabik, rendered serpent, appears likewise to have been used in a generic sense for amphibious animals of large and venomous character. When applied to existing species of serpents, it requires an adjective prefix or qualifying term.

13.

The wampum or pearl feather.

14.

An interjection equivalent to shame! shame!

15.

Animal tail, or bottom upward.

16.

A free translation of this expression might be rendered, n.o.ble scratchers, or grabbers.

17.

The conaus is the most ancient garment known to these tribes, being a simple extended single piece, without folds. The word is the apparent root of G.o.daus, a female garment. Waub-e-wion, a blanket, is a comparatively modern phrase for a wrapper, signifying, literally, a white skin with the wool on.

18.

Fasts. The rite of fasting is one of the most deep-seated and universal in the Indian ritual. It is practised among all the American tribes, and is deemed by them essential to their success in life in every situation. No young man is fitted and prepared to begin the career of life until he has accomplished his great fast. Seven days appear to have been the ancient maximum limit of endurance, and the success of the devotee is inferred from the length of continued abstinence to which he is known to have attained. These fasts are antic.i.p.ated by youth as one of the most important events of life. They are awaited with interest, prepared for with solemnity, and endured with a self-devotion bordering on the heroic. Character is thought to be fixed from this period, and the primary fast, thus prepared for and successfully established, seems to hold that relative importance to subsequent years that is attached to a public profession of religious faith in civilized communities. It is at this period that the young men and the young women "see visions and dream dreams," and fortune or misfortune is predicted from the guardian spirit chosen during this, to them, religious ordeal. The hallucinations of the mind are taken for divine inspiration. The effect is deeply felt and strongly impressed on the mind; too deeply, indeed, to be ever obliterated in after life. The father in the circle of his lodge, the hunter in the pursuit of the chase, and the warrior in the field of battle, think of the guardian genius which they fancy to accompany them, and trust to his power and benign influence under every circ.u.mstance. This genius is the absorbing theme of their silent meditations, and stands to them in all respects in place of the Christian's hope, with the single difference that, however deeply mused upon, the name is never uttered, and every circ.u.mstance connected with its selection, and the devotion paid to it, is most studiously and professedly concealed even from their nearest friends.

Fasts in subsequent life appear to have for their object a renewal of the powers and virtues which they attribute to the rite. And they are observed more frequently by those who strive to preserve unaltered the ancient state of society among them, or by men who a.s.sume austere habits for the purpose of acquiring influence in the tribe, or as preparatives for war or some extraordinary feat. It is not known that there is any fixed day observed as a general fast. So far as a rule is followed, a general fast seems to have been observed in the spring, and to have preceded the general and customary feasts at that season.

It will be inferred from these facts, that the Indians believe fasts to be very meritorious. They are deemed most acceptable to the Manitoes or spirits whose influence and protection they wish to engage or preserve. And it is thus clearly deducible, that a very large proportion of the time devoted by the Indians to secret worship, so to say, is devoted to these guardian or intermediate spirits, and not to the Great Spirit or Creator.

19.

The tuft feathers of the red-headed woodp.e.c.k.e.r are used to ornament the stems of the Indian pipe, and are symbolical of valor.

20.

Abbreviated from Neshomiss, my grandfather.

21.

That part of the intestines of a fish, which by its expansion from air in the first stage of decomposition, causes the body to rise and float. The expression here means float.

22.

The Alcedo or Kingfisher.

23.

This bird has a white spot on the breast, and a tufted head.

24.

Shau-go-dai-a, i. e., a Coward.

25.

The war-cry.

26.

A burrow.

27.

Diminutive form, plural number, of the noun Moz.

28.

The dress of the females in the Odjibwa nation, consists of sleeves, open on the inner side of the arm from the elbow up, and terminating in large square folds, falling from the shoulders, which are tied at the back of the neck with ribbon or binding. The sleeves are separately made, and not attached to the breast garment, which consists of square folds of cloth, ornamented and sustained by shoulder straps. To untie the sleeves or armlets, as is here described, is therefore to expose the shoulders, but not the back--a simple device, quickly accomplished, by which the magician could readily exercise his art almost imperceptibly to the object.

29.

Stop! stop!

30.

It is difficult to throw into the English p.r.o.noun the whole of the meaning of the Indian. p.r.o.nouns in this language being, like other parts of speech, transitive; they are at once indicative both of the actor, personal, and relative, and the nature of the object, or subject of the action, or relation. This, and that, are not used in the elementary form these p.r.o.nouns invariably possess in the English. Inflections are put to them indicating the cla.s.s of natural objects to which they refer. A noun masculine or feminine, requiring an animate p.r.o.noun, a noun inanimate, a p.r.o.noun inanimate.

31.

This word appears to be derived from the same root as Paup-puk-ke-nay, a gra.s.shopper, the inflection iss making it personal. The Indian idea is that of harum scarum. He is regarded as a foil to Manabozho, with whom he is frequently brought in contact in aboriginal story craft.

32.

This is an official who bears the pipe for the ruling chief, and is an inferior dignity in councils.

33.

This is a studied perversion of the interjection Ho. In another instance vide Wa.s.samo it is rendered Hoke.

34.

We may mention, for the youth who may read these tales, that beavers live by gnawing the bark of trees.

35.

Mats.

36.

A species of lightning.

37.

Pity me, my father.

38.

The C. Sylvestris inhabits North America, north of lat.i.tude 46.

39.

Michilimackinac, the term alluded to, is the original French orthography of mish en i mok in ong, the local form sing. and plu.), of Turtle Spirits.

40.

i. e. Place of shallow cataract, named Sault de Ste. Marie on the arrival of the French. This is the local form of the word, the substantive proper terminates in eeg.

41.

Nets are set in winter, in high northern lat.i.tudes, through orifices cut in the ice.

42.

A kind of water spirits.

43.

The fat of animals is esteemed by the N.A. Indians among the choicest parts.

44.

The muscalunge.

45.

The opinion that the earth is a square and level plain, and that the winds blow from its four corners, is a very ancient eastern opinion.

46.

Such is the meaning of Wabose.

47.

Oneota.

48.

Winter.

49.

The Claytonia Virginica.

50.

The Algic name for corn. The word is manifestly a trinary compound from monedo, spirit; min, a grain or berry; and iaw, the verb substantive.