508 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



figures as the hero. I omit all books of travel, works on geography, 

 ethnology, and history with regard to the Indian and his surround- 

 ings, however great the merit of some of these works may be, and 

 confine myself to purely literary works only. My standpoint, how- 

 ever, is not that of a literary reviewer but of an ethnologist and 

 geographer who by personal experience is more or less familiar with 

 the Indian and his country. Although the scientific standpoint pre- 

 vails, I can not wholly ignore the literary merits which some of the 

 books under attention undoubtedly possess. Literary works of par- 

 ticular value for the knowledge of the Indian and his surroundings 

 have, of course, been more carefully reviewed than those of little or 

 no scientific value. This review is far from exhaustive, particularly 

 with regard to Central and South America. Moreover, several 

 writers, old and modern, had to be omitted or simply mentioned, as 

 their works were not available at the time of writing the paper. 

 For instance, James Hall, Thorpe, Murray, Ruppius, Lummis, and 

 a few others had to be passed over in silence. A certain class of 

 popular writers was intentionally ignored because their books are 

 absolutely valueless, or even misleading, from the ethnologist's point 

 of view. So far as European authors are concerned, the review is 

 fairly complete. It covers a period of about 120 years (1799-1916). 

 Any older works are not taken into consideration. 



North and South America I have treated separately. The North 

 American Indian has been much oftener the subject of novelists 

 and poets than his southern brother. 



Although the Eskimo are not Indians, they nevertheless belong to 

 the American natives, and, besides, they have several traits in com- 

 mon with the Indians. For this reason the poem of Emil Bessels, 

 on account of its considerable scientific value, could not well be 

 omitted. 



Nearly half of the 37 writers here noted are born or naturalized 

 North Americans. Only 1 is of South America. 



So far as possible, the review is arranged according to the chrono- 

 logical order in which the different works appeared, but, for obvious 

 reasons, this principle could not always be followed. 



I. 



The first American novelist of note who wrote about Indians 

 seems to have been Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) in Edgar 

 Huntley, which book appeared in 1799. From the ethnologic point 

 of view it is of no importance. Brown patterned his Indians after 

 the more or less degenerate Indian loafers then to be found in the 

 vicinity of certain New England towns. But Brown brought some- 



