The Iroquois; or, the bright side of Indian characterJohnson, Anna C. (Anna Cummings)
History
The Iroquois; or, the bright side of Indian character
Johnson, Anna C. (Anna Cummings)
Iroquois Indians -- Social life and customs
When assured that by the course he was pursuing, he was doing more than
any one else to break up and drive away his people, and that the effect
of the teachings of the missionaries was to preserve them, he grasped
the hand of the speaker and said: “If this is so, it is new to me, and
I will lay it up in my mind (pointing to his noble forehead), and talk
of it to the Chiefs and the people.”
Dr. B. continues: “Red Jacket was about sixty years old at this time,
and had a weather-beaten look, which age, and more than all,
intemperance had produced; but his general appearance was striking, and
his face noble. His lofty and capacious forehead, his piercing black
eye, his gently curved lips, fine cheek and slightly aquiline nose—all
marked a great man; and as sustained and expressed by his dignified
air, made a deep impression on all who saw him. All these features
became doubly expressive, when his mind and body were set in motion by
the effort of speaking—if effort that may be called which flowed like a
stream from his lips. I saw him in the wane of life, and heard him only
in private, and through a stupid and careless interpreter. Yet,
notwithstanding these disadvantages, he was one of the greatest and
most eloquent orators I ever knew. His cadence was measured, and yet
very musical; and when excited, he would spring to his feet, elevate
his head, expand his arms, and utter with indescribable effect of
manner and tone, some of his noblest thoughts.”
General Porter speaks of him as a man endowed with great intellectual
powers, and who, as an orator, was not only unsurpassed, but unequalled
by any of his contemporaries. Although those who were ignorant of his
language could not fully appreciate the force and beauty of his
speeches, when received through the medium of an interpreter,—generally
coarse and clumsy,—yet such was the peculiar gracefulness of his
person, attitudes and action, and the mellow tones of his Seneca
dialect, and such the astonishing effects produced on that part of the
auditory who did fully understand him, and whose souls appeared to be
engrossed and borne away by the orator, that he was listened to by all
with perfect delight. His figures were frequently so sublime, so
apposite and so beautiful, that the interpreter often said the English
language was not rich enough to allow of doing him justice.
Another gentleman says: “It is evident that the best translations of
Indian speeches must fail to express the beauty and sublimity of the
originals—especially of such an original as Red Jacket. It has been my
good fortune to hear him a few times, but only in late years, when his
powers were enfeebled by age and intemperance; but I shall never forget
the impression made on me the first time I saw him in council. The
English language has no figures to convey the true meaning of the
original, but though coming through the medium of an illiterate
interpreter, I saw the dismembered parts of a splendid oration.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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