596 TRIBES OF THE UPPER MISSOURI [ETH. ANN. 46 



and actions with circumstances as they arise, exhibited in overwhelm- 

 ing demonstrations of grief or joy, in seriousness in business, cere- 

 monies, and worship, excessive gayety in their amusements and 

 lighter conversation, with earnestness in matters of personal inter- 

 est. They have strong powers of memory and forecast, are of a re- 

 flective habit, their physical propensities predominating over the 

 moral, in their general conduct grave, can be and are very gay on 

 occasions, but upon the whole are rather of a cold than a fervid 

 temperament. We are unable to say whether their reasoning powers 

 are brought out or strengthened by education, never having witnessed 

 its application to any of these tribes, but see no reason why they 

 should not be as capable of improvement in these respects as any 

 other race of people. Their ideas are by no means groveling, nor 

 is their form of government to be derided. Neither can we conscien- 

 tiously assign to them a lower place in the scale of creation; per- 

 haps not so low as any other race of uneducated sentient beings. 



We are not well enough acquainted with the capacity and history 

 of the oriental stock to say whether these assimilate in any great 

 degree ; most likely the inference can be drawn from what has been 

 written in these pages. 



We may state that as yet no person has appeared among them noted 

 for his natural or acquired powers as a real physician, though many 

 have risen to eminence in this department from their supposed super- 

 natural powers in curing the sick. Neither does their history produce 

 any person who has evinced ability as a linguist, 33 moralist, or in the 

 cultivation of any of the exact, or moral sciences. 



They use no studied maxims of expression in conversation, nor are 

 there observed any compositions partaking of the nature of laments, 

 unless the speeches made to departed spirits and the universal monot- 

 onous mourning chant S4 would be construed in that light. Their 

 ordinary talk is pretty much the same as that of other men, though 

 perhaps the Indians use fewer words in conversation, selecting only 

 those which have a direct reference to the subject. They do not 

 evince a quickness in repartee, even in their jokes, and all conversa- 

 tion, except the obscene, is carried on more deliberately and concisely 

 than among other races. The effect of their oratory is a great deal 

 enhanced by the position, bearing, and gesticulation of the speaker, 

 yet it is not without its merits; simplicity, clearness, and strength of 

 language are its distinguishing traits. We have heard and under- 

 stood some hundreds of speeches on every subject of interest among 

 the Sioux. Assiniboin, and Cree Nations, and must confess we can not 



s3 Denig seems to refer here to grammatic analyses rather than to the mere learn- 

 ing of languages. 



24 The song for the dead contains a few words suitable to the occasion. 



