170 PEIM1TIVE AGKICULTUKAL KAC^S 



plains than anywhere else except possibly Brazil. ' As all nations 

 of the Indians in their .natural condition ', says Catlin, ' are 

 unceasingly at war with the tribes that are about them, for the 

 adjustment of ancient and never ending feuds, as well as from 

 a love of glory, to which in Indian life the battlefield is almost 

 the only road, their warriors are killed off to that extent, that in 

 many instances two and sometimes three women to a man are 

 found in a tribe.' l Another author, himself a member of the 

 tribe, describes the manner in which the young Ojebway Indian 

 is brought up to regard war as his chief object in life. ' When 

 they are young a spirit of war is instilled into their bosom ; and 

 in order to excite them to courage and ambition, the parents 

 and the old wise men recount to them the wonderful exploits of 

 the braves in former days, such as a single warrior stealing up 

 secretly to a village, killing a number of the enemy, taking off 

 their scalps, and making his escape before the remainder were 

 apprised of the slaughter.' 2 So again, ' among the earliest songs 

 to which a Dacotah child listens are those of war. As soon as 

 he begins to totter about, he carries as a plaything a miniature 

 bow and arrow. The first thing he is taught as great and truly 

 noble is taking a scalp, and he wants to perform an act which is 

 so manly. At the age of sixteen he is often on the warpath.' 3 



The neighbouring tribes maintained feuds that must have been 

 the cause of a regular and by no means inconsiderable amount of 

 elimination. The Crows were at war with the Blackfeet, 4 the 

 Sioux with the Ojebway, 5 the Minnetanes with the Shoshones. 6 

 The Sioux are said to have killed women. 7 Farther south the 

 Yuchi and other members of the Creek Confederacy were very 

 warlike. 8 The Pueblo Indians were more peaceful, though they 

 were subject to vigorous and frequent attacks from the Apache 

 and other neighbours. 9 The wars undertaken by the empires of 

 Mexico and Peru were of rather a different nature. Both states 

 pursued a regular policy of aggression towards the less advanced 

 peoples who surrounded them. These wars partook more of the 

 nature of raids upon the weaker nations for the purpose of robbery 



1 Catlin, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 119. * Jones, Ojebway Indians, p. 64. 



8 Neill, History of Minnesota, p. 68. * Catlin, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 42. 



6 Neill, loc. cit., p. 70. 6 Matthews, U.S. Geog. and Geol. Survey, Misc. Pub- 



lications, No. 7, p. 61. For the wars of the Iroquois see Perrot, Memoires, pp. 9 ff. 

 and pp. 78 ff. 7 Long, loc. cit., p. 29. 8 Speck, Univ. of Pennsylvania 



Publications, vol. i, No. 1, p. 84. Russell, loc. cit., p. 200. 



