The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and ManuscriptsSchoolcraft, Henry Rowe
History
The American Indians: Their History, Condition and Prospects, from Original Notes and Manuscripts
Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
Indians of North America
The power of transformation was variously exercised. It most commonly
existed in magicians, of whom Abo, Manabosh or Manabozha, and Mishosha,
retain much celebrity. The latter possessed a magic canoe which would
rush forward through the water on the utterance of a charm, with a speed
that would outstrip the wind. Hundreds of miles were performed in as
many minutes. The charm which he uttered, consisted of a monosyllable,
containing one consonant, which does not belong to the language; and
this word has no definable meaning. So that the language of magic and
demonology has one feature in common in all ages and with every nation.
Man, in his common shape, is not alone the subject of their legends. The
intellectual creations of the Indians admit of the agency of giants and
fairies. Anak and his progeny could not have created more alarm in the
minds of the ten faithless spies, than do the race of fabulous Weendigos
to the Indian tribes. These giants are represented as cannibals, who ate
up men, women and children. Indian fairies are of two classes,
distinguished as the place of their revels is either the land or water.
Land-fairies are imagined to choose their residences about promontories,
water-falls and solemn groves. The water, besides its appropriate class
of aquatic fairies, is supposed to be the residence of a race of beings
called Nibanaba which have their analogy, except as to sex, in the
mermaid. The Indian word indicates a male. Ghosts are the ordinary
machinery in their tales of terror and mystery. There is, perhaps, a
glimmering of the idea of retributive justice in the belief that ghosts
and spirits are capable of existing in fire.
INDIAN ARROW HEADS, &c.
By far the most numerous relics of the Red Race, now found in those
parts of our country from which it has disappeared, are the small stones
with which they headed their arrows. Being made of the most durable
substances, they have generally remained in the soil, unaffected by time
and the changes of season. They most abound in those rich meadows which
border some of our rivers, and in other spots of peculiar fertility,
though of less extent, where the pasture, or other attractions,
collected game for the Red men. The stones most commonly used were
quartz and flint, which were preferred on account of the facility of
shaping them, the keenness of the points and edges, which they readily
present under the blows of a skilful manufacturer, as well as their
superior hardness and imperishable nature. Multitudes of specimens still
exist, which show the various forms and sizes to which the Red men
reduced stones of these kinds: and they excite our admiration, by their
perfect state of preservation, as well by the skilfulness of their
manufacture.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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