Colorado—The Bright Romance of American HistoryGrable, F. C.
History
Colorado—The Bright Romance of American History
Grable, F. C.
Colorado -- History
An Indian never touches a razor to his face, for they are a beardless
race. The tribes who occupied the eastern part of the United States,
wore their hair clipped short like the Chinamen, excepting that
instead of a queue, there was a scalp lock which they adorned with
feathers. It was worn in defiance of the Indians of other tribes, who
were thus dared to come and take their scalp. The picturesque and
warlike appearance of the Indians that comes from painting their faces
with deep and varying hues, originated in the preservation of the skin
from burning and chapping in the sun and alkali dust. They used
compounds made from roots or earth which they ground or baked and
mixed with grease. There were many kinds of earth that had different
tints which they liked, so this became a permanent custom which made
their appearance seem fierce and warlike. They believe that the red
men are made of earth, and the white men are made of sea foam.
In surgery they had rude skill and in disease they had a limited
knowledge of the proper application of roots and herbs. But they knew
nothing of the science of medicine in its complicated form as
practiced by the learned of the profession at the present time, who so
thoroughly understand prophylaxis, serum therapy, and the role of
antibodies in passive immunization. Dentistry was unknown among them;
their simple food and outdoor lives kept them well, and the food they
ate was thoroughly ground between their well-preserved teeth. The game
that was formerly so abundant was their principal food, and its
destruction by the whites took from the Indian his chief mode of
existence, and occasioned his menacing attitude toward our people.
Other food consisted of wild berries, sweet potatoes, rice and nuts,
which they would gather and bury. As they had a practiced eye, they
found the buried food of the squirrel, the otter and the muskrat,
which they would dig up and appropriate to their own use.
[Illustration: "Behold, he winnoweth barley to-night in the threshing
floor." Ruth 3:2.
As they did in biblical times, so do some of the Indian tribes to this
day. They beat out the grain with a stick and then pour it out gently
for its cleansing by the wind.]
They mourn noisily with each other in case of death. Likewise did the
tribes of the patriarchs, who "mourned with great and very sore
lamentation." The Indians think that it takes four days for the soul
to reach the land of the dead. So a light burns on the grave nightly
for four nights, that the disembodied may not get lost. They believe
that there are two souls, one that soars away in dreams, while the
other remains in the body. In the absence of a clock in the wigwam and
a watch in the pocket, they measure time in their own way; a sun is a
day, a moon is a month, and a snow is a season.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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