514 ANNUAL IlEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



not know; 1 mention it only because of a curious blunder made by 

 the great poet, who speaks of an Indian following; the trail of the 

 Eennthier (caribou) on the prairie in the Sioux country, which, of 

 course, is absurd. Chamisso's Indian subjects have no connection 

 whatever with his visits to the American coast. They date from 

 1828-1830, and bear the titles of Rede des alten Kriegers Bunte — 

 Schlange im Rathe der Creek — Indianer, and Das Mordthal. The 

 former poem is possibly based on history, for Spotted Snake com- 

 plains in it of the unjust and cruel treatment of the Creeks by the 

 whites. The latter poem refers to a tale which appeared in the North 

 American Review. 



I shall speak later on of Chamisso's poetical rendering of another 

 South American tragedy, the best of the three he wrote. 



When such a poet as Lenau visited the United States in 1832 it was 

 but natural that the sea, the forest, Niagara Falls, and the tragical 

 fate of the Indian appealed to him, and that he chose them as sub- 

 jects for his songs. Der Indianerzug and Die drei Indianer deserve 

 to be mentioned. With regard to the former poem, " Indianer sind's, 

 die von der Heimath scheiden," the forest along the Susquehanna 

 River resound with laments as the Indians are forced by the white 

 settlers to leave their country. After their first halt under the 

 high oaks, at dawn a red glare can be seen at the far horizon, for 

 the forests, left only yesterday, are on fire. The white intruder has 

 begun his work of devastation. 



The second poem is even more sad. Three Indians, an old man 

 and his two sons, robbed of everything by the whites except " im 

 Herzen todlich bittres Hassen," while singing their death song com- 

 mit suicide by throwing themselves with their canoe into the thunder- 

 ing falls of Niagara. 



III. 



Of a very different class of writers on Indian subjects are those 

 often called, more or less justly, writers of fiction for the young. 

 They are comparatively quite numerous, and some of them have been 

 (and some perhaps are still in Europe) as popular as Fenimore 

 Cooper. The best known are Gustave Aimard, Gabriel Ferry, Bene- 

 dict Henry Revoil, de Wogan, Mayne Reid, Gerstaecker, Armand, 

 Ruppius, and Mollhausen. Taken collectively, they were especially 

 in vogue between the years 1850-1870. On the whole, the literary 

 merits of these novelists are rather slight. Ferry and Mayne Reid 

 are among the best. From the ethnological and geographical stand- 

 point most of these books are absolutely worthless, even misleading, 

 and the rest of little value. It seems doubtful to me whether some 

 of these nine men reallv visited the Far West and the Indians thev 

 describe. 



