The Last of the Mohicans | Page 4

there
is so much obscurity in the Indian traditions, and so much confusion in
the Indian names, as to render some explanation useful.
Few men exhibit greater diversity, or, if we may so express it, greater
antithesis of character, than the native warrior of North America. In war,
he is daring, boastful, cunning, ruthless, self-denying, and self-devoted;
in peace, just, generous, hospitable, revengeful, superstitious, modest,
and commonly chaste. These are qualities, it is true, which do not
distinguish all alike; but they are so far the predominating traits of these
remarkable people as to be characteristic.
It is generally believed that the Aborigines of the American continent
have an Asiatic origin. There are many physical as well as moral facts
which corroborate this opinion, and some few that would seem to
weigh against it.
The color of the Indian, the writer believes, is peculiar to himself, and
while his cheek-bones have a very striking indication of a Tartar origin,
his eyes have not. Climate may have had great influence on the former,

but it is difficult to see how it can have produced the substantial
difference which exists in the latter. The imagery of the Indian, both in
his poetry and in his oratory, is oriental; chastened, and perhaps
improved, by the limited range of his practical knowledge. He draws
his metaphors from the clouds, the seasons, the birds, the beasts, and
the vegetable world. In this, perhaps, he does no more than any other
energetic and imaginative race would do, being compelled to set
bounds to fancy by experience; but the North American Indian clothes
his ideas in a dress which is different from that of the African, and is
oriental in itself. His language has the richness and sententious fullness
of the Chinese. He will express a phrase in a word, and he will qualify
the meaning of an entire sentence by a syllable; he will even convey
different significations by the simplest inflections of the voice.
Philologists have said that there are but two or three languages,
properly speaking, among all the numerous tribes which formerly
occupied the country that now composes the United States. They
ascribe the known difficulty one people have to understand another to
corruptions and dialects. The writer remembers to have been present at
an interview between two chiefs of the Great Prairies west of the
Mississippi, and when an interpreter was in attendance who spoke both
their languages. The warriors appeared to be on the most friendly terms,
and seemingly conversed much together; yet, according to the account
of the interpreter, each was absolutely ignorant of what the other said.
They were of hostile tribes, brought together by the influence of the
American government; and it is worthy of remark, that a common
policy led them both to adopt the same subject. They mutually exhorted
each other to be of use in the event of the chances of war throwing
either of the parties into the hands of his enemies. Whatever may be the
truth, as respects the root and the genius of the Indian tongues, it is
quite certain they are now so distinct in their words as to possess most
of the disadvantages of strange languages; hence much of the
embarrassment that has arisen in learning their histories, and most of
the uncertainty which exists in their traditions.
Like nations of higher pretensions, the American Indian gives a very
different account of his own tribe or race from that which is given by

other people. He is much addicted to overestimating his own
perfections, and to undervaluing those of his rival or his enemy; a trait
which may possibly be thought corroborative of the Mosaic account of
the creation.
The whites have assisted greatly in rendering the traditions of the
Aborigines more obscure by their own manner of corrupting names.
Thus, the term used in the title of this book has undergone the changes
of Mahicanni, Mohicans, and Mohegans; the latter being the word
commonly used by the whites. When it is remembered that the Dutch
(who first settled New York), the English, and the French, all gave
appellations to the tribes that dwelt within the country which is the
scene of this story, and that the Indians not only gave different names
to their enemies, but frequently to themselves, the cause of the
confusion will be understood.
In these pages, Lenni-Lenape, Lenope, Delawares, Wapanachki, and
Mohicans, all mean the same people, or tribes of the same stock. The
Mengwe, the Maquas, the Mingoes, and the Iroquois, though not all
strictly the same, are identified frequently by the speakers, being
politically confederated and opposed to those just named. Mingo was a
term of peculiar reproach, as were Mengwe and Maqua in a less degree.
The Mohicans were the possessors of the country