Aboriginal Race of America. 195 



not wholly understood, were buried apart from the adult peo- 

 ple of their tribe. 



Thus it is that the American Indian, from the southern ex- 

 tremity of the continent to the northern Umit of his range, is 

 the same exterior man. With somewhat variable stature and 

 complexion, his distinctive features, though variously modified, 

 are never effaced ; and he stands isolated from the rest of 

 mankind, identified at a glance in every locality, and under 

 every variety of circumstance ; and even his desiccated re- 

 mains which have withstood the destroying hand of time, 

 preserve the primeval type of his race, excepting only when 

 art has interposed to pervert it. 



2. Moral Traits. These are perhaps, as strongly marked 

 as the physical characteristics of which we have just spoken ; 

 but they have been so often the subject of analysis as to claim 

 only a passing notice on the present occasion. Among the 

 most prominent of this series of mental operations is a sleep- 

 less caution, an untiring vigilance which presides over every 

 action and masks every motive. The Indian says nothing and 

 does nothing without its influence : it enables him to deceive 

 others without being himself suspected : it causes that pro- 

 verbial taciturnity among strangers which changes to garruli- 

 ty among the people of his own tribe ; and it is the basis of 

 that invincible firmness which teaches him to contend unre- 

 piningly with every adverse circumstance, and even with 

 death in its most hideous forms. 



The love of war is so general, so characteristic, that it 

 scarcely calls for a comment or an illustration. One nation 

 is in almost perpetual hostility with another, tribe against 

 tribe, man against man ; and with this ruling passion are link- 

 ed a merciless revenge and an unsparing destructiveness. The 

 Chickasaws have been known to make a stealthy march of 

 six hundred miles from their own hunting grounds, for the 

 sole purpose of destroying an encampment of their enemies. 

 The small island of JNantucket, which contains but a few 

 square miles of barren sand, was inhabited at the advent of 

 the European colonies by two Indian tribes, who sometimes 



