104 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



istence with, the depersonified rainbow, or reduce it to the state 

 of a thing, but even then invest it with a marvelous function. 

 Some have made of it a celestial bow, which they place in the 

 hands of a god ; with the Lapps, it was the bow of the god of the 

 thunder, by means of which he shot off his arrows of fire ; with 

 the Australians, it was the phallus of the god of the sky, which 

 grazed the earth as it passed ; with the Samoyeds and the Kam- 

 tchatdales, it was the hem of the clothing of Billoukai, the god 

 of the thundering sky ; and among the classic ancients, it was 

 the scarf of Iris, the fair messenger of the gods. In Polynesia and 

 with the Germans, Hindoos, Persians, and Arabs, the rainbow 

 was regarded as a bridge uniting the abode of the gods with that 

 of men ; the road over which souls traveled ; with the Jews, it 

 symbolized the alliance of God and man ; with the Greeks and 

 Romans, it was a sign of war or of storms. — Translated for the 

 Popular Science Monthly from del et Terre. 



THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN. 



By THOMAS J. MAYS, M. D. 



IT is quite evident that the history of the American people 

 would be very different from what it is, or from what it 

 will be, had they not on the very threshold of their existence en- 

 countered a race of warlike savages, and had not their stability 

 been still further threatened by a later introduction of slave 

 labor from Africa. Had the immigration to this country been 

 strictly confined to members of the Caucasian family, there 

 would undoubtedly exist a mutual feeling of physiological and 

 social harmony — since they all stand on a plane of civilization 

 which is common to the American; but so soon as the latter 

 came in contact with races which were aliens and strangers to 

 the Anglo-Saxon blood, and which were several thousand years 

 behind it in point of civilization, an inevitable clashing of inter- 

 ests began which prevails to this day, and which will continue 

 until the race differences are eradicated. No one, however, who 

 has given serious attention to the political and social questions 

 of this country can fail, even at this day, to perceive that, in 

 spite of statutes and of prejudices, there are influences at work 

 which tend to fuse our heterogeneous population into one com- 

 mon whole. Whether these influences are active so far as the 

 colored or negro race is concerned is not very readily deter- 

 mined, since accurate statistics bearing on this point are want- 

 ing ; yet indirect evidence, inconclusive as it may be, strongly 

 favors such a view. The remarks in this paper will, therefore, 



