The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American India | Page 5

of his fasts and dreams. His mind completely
unbends itself, and the man lives over, in imagination, both the sweet
and the bitter scenes of a hunter's life. To him the clouds, which chase
each other, in brilliant hues and constantly changing forms, in the
heavens, constitute a species of wild pictography, which he can
interpret. The phenomena of storms and meteorological changes
connect themselves, in the superstitious mind, with some engrossing
mythos or symbol. The eagle, the kite, and the hawk, who fly to great
heights, are deemed to be conversant with the aerial powers, who are
believed to have an influence over men, and hence the great regard
which is paid to the flight of these birds in their war and hieratic songs.
Fictitious tales of imaginary Indian life, and poems on the aboriginal
model, have been in vogue almost from the days of the discovery. But
what has been fancied as life in the forest, has had no little resemblance
to those Utopian schemes of government and happiness which rather
denote the human mind run mad, than supply models to guide judgment
or please philosophy. In general, these attempts have held up high

principles of thought and action in a people, against truth, observation,
and common sense. High heroic action, in the Indian, is the result of
personal education in endurance, supported by pride of character; and if
he can ever be said to rejoice in suffering, it is in the spirit of a taunt to
his enemy. This error had been so long prevalent, that when, in 1839,
the author submitted a veritable collection of legends and myths from
the Indian wigwams, which reflected the Indian life as it is, it was
difficult, and almost impossible, to excite interest in the theme, in the
trade. He went to England and the continent, in hopes of better success.
But, although philanthropists and men of letters and science
appreciated the subject, as historical elements in the history of the
human mind, the booksellers of London, Paris, Leipsic, and
Frankfort-on-the-Main, to whose notice the subject was brought,
exhibited very nearly the same nonchalant tone; and had it not been for
the attractive poetic form in which one of our most popular and
successful bards has clothed some of these wild myths, the period of
their reproduction is likely to have been still further postponed.
In now submitting so large a body of matter, respecting the mental
garniture of a people whose fate and fortunes have excited so much
interest, the surprise is not that we know so little of their mental traits,
but that, with so little research and inquiry, we should know anything at
all. They have only been regarded as the geologist regards boulders,
being not only out of place, but with not half the sure guides and
principles of determining where they came from, and where the
undisturbed original strata remain. The wonder is not that, as
boulder-tribes, they have not adopted our industry and Christianity, and
stoutly resisted civilization, in all its phases, but that, in spite of such
vital truths, held up by all the Colonies and States, and by every family
of them, they have not long since died out and become extinguished.
No English colony could live three or four centuries, in any isolated
part of the world, without the plough, the school-book, and the Bible; it
would die out, of idleness and ignorance. If one century has kicked the
Indian in America harder than another, it is because the kicks of labor,
art, and knowledge are always the hardest, and in the precise proportion
to the contiguity of the object.

By obtaining--what these legends give--a sight of the inner man, we are
better able to set a just estimate on his character, and to tell what means
of treatment are best suited for his reclamation. That forbearance,
kindness, and teaching are best adapted to the object, there is no doubt.
We are counselled to forgive an erring brother seventy and seven times.
If, as some maintain, wrongfully, we believe, the Indian is not, in a
genealogical sense, of the same stock, yet is he not, in a moral sense, a
brother? If the knowledge of his story-telling faculty has had any
tendency to correct the evils of false popular opinion respecting him, it
has been to show that the man talks and laughs like the rest of the
human family; that it is fear that makes him suspicious, and ignorance
superstitious; that he is himself the dupe of an artful forest priesthood;
and that his cruelty and sanguinary fury are the effects of false notions
of fame, honor, and glory. He is always, and at all times and places,
under the strong influence of hopes and fears, true or false, by which he