78 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 



Island in the Massabesic, and this is altogether likely. The sole 

 indication of a burial place in this immediate vicinity, which has 

 come to our knowledge, was the finding of human bones sup- 

 posed to be those of Indians, in the grading of Penacook street, 

 about 1875. 



The only approach to a permanent settlement was that around 

 the home of the chief. More than forty wigwams were scattered 

 over this picturesque knoll, a fine view of the Merrimack being 

 afforded from the willow palisades surrounding the village. It 

 is quite certain that numerous temporary wigwams were erected 

 at or near the more important points above mentioned, on both 

 sides of the Merrimack, some of which may have been perman- 

 ent. From the well-known roving character of the Indian it is 

 likely that in the summer months at least they grew like the 

 mushroom in a single night and as soon vanished. 



The traditional, dark-red, fawn-like Indian maiden was not of 

 the Nipmucks. She is the creation of a diluted sentimentality, 

 a mere dream of a class of poets too lazy to saw wood but able 

 to invent aboriginal lies by the gross. The bewitching squaw 

 who leaped for love from the top of Rock Rimmon was not after 

 mayflowers ; it is much more likely that she was overloaded with 

 muskrats and lost her way. The noble Nipmuck lover was also 

 an invention, patented by Cooper. If these romantic types ever 

 existed it was before the era of discovery. In contact with the 

 white man the Indian adopted only his vices ; these, superadded 

 to savage traits, could not well produce heroes either in love or 

 war. We have ransacked the records of the past, turned to the 

 testimony of the dead, and listened to the lies of the living, but 

 have failed utterly to discover proof of greatness, or even the 

 dawn of a progressive and civilizing instinct among either the 

 Nipmucks or Penacooks. 



The red man was fond of fishing and hunting, but he killed 

 solely to obtain food, clothing, or materials to give him shelter, 

 and was not ennobled by the zest of sportsmanship. In him the 

 instinct of self-preservation scarcely rose above the level of the 



