Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
History
Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
Indians of North America -- Anecdotes
The circumstances attending the murder of Mr. Cooly’s family, are well
calculated to illustrate the treachery of the Indian character. He
had resided among them for many years, spoke their language well, and
treated them with uniform kindness and hospitality. Indeed, such was
his friendship for them, that he named two of his sons after their
chiefs Alnomock and Montezuma. His wife had once been a captive among
them, and was esteemed a great favourite. Standing in this relation,
and confiding in their professions of friendship, which lulled him into
a fatal security, he left his home for a few days, and returned to find
it desolate. It is a remarkable fact, that the villains who perpetrated
the deed of death, had not the hardihood to scalp the poor mother
and her three innocent children. Was it the recollection of former
friendship, that induced them thus to spare? Or were they conscious
that their own savage colleagues would have blushed for the chivalry of
those warriors, who could find no work more befitting their tomahawks
and scalping knives, than the cruel butchery of women and children? Did
they fear that some chief, more feeling than the rest, would ask,
“Oh wherefore strike the beautiful, the young,
So innocent, unharming? Lift the knife,
If need be, ‘gainst the warrior; but forbear
The trembling woman.”
The unfortunate schoolmaster shared a different fate. To him they owed
no obligations of friendship; he was a man, and as such, capable of
resistance; his scalp was therefore torn from him, and borne off as a
testimony of their savage triumph.
PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS.
In their physical character, the American Indians are considered by
Blumenbach as forming a particular variety of the human species,
differing, though not very widely, from the Mongolian. Believing, as
we do, that the New World was peopled from the Old, and considering
that the Mongol race was situated nearest to the point where Asia
and America come almost into contact, we incline to ascribe these
variations merely to a change of outward circumstances. The face
is broad and flat, with high cheek-bones; more rounded and arched,
however, than in the allied type, without having the visage expanded
to the same breadth. The forehead is generally low; the eyes deep,
small, and black; the nose rather diminutive, but prominent, with wide
nostrils; and the mouth large, with somewhat thick lips. The stature,
which varies remarkably throughout the Continent, is, in the quarter
of which we treat, generally above the middle size. This property,
however, is confined to the men, the females being usually below that
standard, a fact which may be confidently ascribed to the oppressive
drudgery they are compelled to undergo. The limbs, in both sexes, are
well proportioned; and few instances of deformity ever occur.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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