A mode of life will be suggested by the individual's
estate and surroundings, and will, naturally, be accommodated to
the exactions merely of the society in which he moves. With the
Indian, poverty shapes his habits of life, and he bends to
compulsion's decree in the matter. If we consider his
hypothetical translation to a higher sphere, the Indian might
develop and maintain a course of living which should not, in
those altered circumstances, discredit him.
As our notions of early Indian life are so associated
with the wigwam, a description of the manner and stages of its
construction may be interesting. Poles, twelve or fourteen feet
long, are placed in the ground, these meeting at the top, and
leaving an opening through which the smoke may escape. Over the
poles are placed nets, made of flags, or birch bark, and,
sometimes, the skins of animals.
The Indian, in defining comfort, evidently does not
mean soft beds and generous covering. His couch, as often as
not, is the bare floor, without mattress, or, indeed, aught that
might be conceded to a weak impulse; and his covering nil, as a
rule, in summer, and a buffalo robe, or some kindred substitute,
in winter. He adopts very frugal fare, doing high honor to
maize, or Indian corn. Indeed, to the growth and cultivation of
this order of grain he appropriates the greater part of his
land.
In walking, the man usually goes before the woman, as
he thinks it undignified to walk alongside. Nothing like social
intercourse ever goes on between man and wife; and in their
domestic experience they have no little pursuits in common, such
as cheer and brighten life with us.
The hut (for, in the majority of cases, it is really
little better) that, with excess of boldness, commingles its
cramped, unpleasing outlines with the forest's wealth of
foliage; and has reared its unshapely structure on the site of
the historic wigwam, obliterating, in its ruthless, intrusive,
advent, that lingering relic of the picturesque aspect of Indian
life--a relic that, with its emblems and inner garniture of war,
bids a scion of the race indulge a prideful retrospect of his
sometime grandeur, and pristine might; that has power to invoke
stirring recollections of a momentous and a thrilling past; to
re-animate and summon before him the shadowy figures of his
redoubtable sires, and re-enact their lofty deeds: in view of
which, there is wafted to him a breath, laden with moving
memories of that glorious age, when aught but pre-eminence was
foreign to his soul; when, though a rude and savage, he was yet
a lordly, being; when he owned the supremacy, brooked the
dictation, of none; when his existence was a round of joysome
light-heartedness, and he, a stranger to constraint--this
habitation of the Indian, to my mind, emphasizes his melancholy,
and, perhaps, inevitable decadence, rather than symbolizes his
partnership with the white in the more palpable pursuits of a
practical, enlightened, and energetic age, or co-activity with
him on a theatre of enlarged and more vigorous action. It is in
some respects more comfortless than even was his experience
under his primitive style of living, and is usually composed of
one room, answering all the purposes of life--eating-room,
bed-room, reception-room, principally, however, for the snow and
mud, which have been persuaded here to relax their hold, after
antecedent demonstration of their adhering qualities.
His Alleged Commission Of
Perjury
The Indian very
frequently has the crime of perjury alleged against him, though
what is assumed to be perjury is usually demonstrated to have
nothing whatever of that element in it.
These imputations come about in this way: If the
Indian, about to give evidence, be declared to have a reasonable
mastery of English, the Court, sometimes rather hastily, I
think, dispenses with the interpreter, in order to save time. A
question is put to a witness, who, though not understanding it
sufficiently to appreciate its full import and bearing, yet
protesting, in a self-sufficient spirit, that he does (for the
Indian likes to have imputed to him extensive knowledge of
English) returns an answer apart from the truth, and one which
he really never intended to give, and becomes, through the
interpreter, committed to it on the records.
Or, the allegation may arise after this fashion:--The
interpreter, having to master several different languages, will
almost insensibly, in the confusion of idioms, misinterpret what
has been said. The outrageous prevalence of this supposed
perjury would of itself point to an explanation of this kind,
since, we cannot believe that the Indian wishes to canonize
untruthfulness.
The Indian As A
Musician
The Indian's musical
taste is conceded on all hands. He is a proficient in the use of
brass instruments, the Mohawk Brass Band always taking high rank
at band competitions. He has usually fine vocal power, and is in
great request as a chorister. He has a full repertory of
plaintive airs, the singing of which he generally reserves for
occasions, resembling much the "wakes" that obtain with Roman
Catholics, where he watches over night the body of some departed
member of the tribe. |
