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INDIANA UNIVEESITY STUDIES 



the fate of the aged Ziini Ahiiitzotl, last king of Anahnac, the 

 last of the Azteks, in his grotto in the Casas Grandes, also harks 

 back to 'The Last of the Mohicans.' 



Mollhausen s novels contain many bits of splendid realism. 

 However, many of his prominent characters are purely romantic 

 in nature, and frequently enough suggest the Cooperian character. 

 Such are the half-breed Indian maid Coralle, the foster-daughter 

 of Miss Lonesome, the proprietress of a frontier store in Mis- 

 souri in the novel 'Die Einsiedlerinnen ' (1873) ; Lilac, the Indian 

 girl who dies of unrequited love in 'Die Tochter des Konsuls' 

 (188U) ; the white child Charitas in 'Der Leuchtturm am Michi- 

 gan' (1883) ; and Taito, the stolen white child adopted by the Ki- 

 oways in 'Die Trader' (1884). Some of these characters also bear 

 strong traces of Rousseauisni. 



In the story 'Der Hornfroscli in Reli(|uien' (1865) Mollhau- 

 sen seems to aim at a realistic effect by placing a Cooperian In- 

 dian in contrast. In this story is Oglala, an Indian warrior, who 

 "durch seine aussere Erscheinung nicht wenig an die romanti- 

 schen Gestalten Cooper's erinnerte." 



In 'Der Talisman' (1894) Jurassic, the daughter of the natur- 

 alist Bloomfield, a breezy Amazon-like maid, is kidnapped and 

 held for ransom by some Western ruffians in complot Avith the 

 Indians, an episode which may have been suggested by the kid- 

 napping of Laura in 'The Last of the Mohicans.' 



Cooper's Natty Bumpo, one of the most original creations 

 in American fiction, is a character Avhich few writers of Indian 

 tales have been able to resist. The trapper or guide of "Western 

 America is a favorite character with Mollhausen, and appears 

 again and again in his works. In 'Der Halbindianer (1861) ap- 

 pears the fine old trapper and guide Lefevre with his characteris- 

 tic expressions "mile tonnere," "sacre tonncrre," and "sapristi. " 

 One of the best characters in 'Der Majordomo' (1863) is the old 

 backwoodsman and trapper Gale, who lives in the Tulare Valley 

 and cannot tell a book from a hoe-cake. In 'Der Talisman' 

 (1894) we meet the old guide Vilanderie, " Fallensteller und 

 Fahrtensucher" (elsewhere the usual translation for "Pathfinder" 

 is "Pfadfinder"). In the same novel is introduced the Canadian 

 trapper Laboux, He is described as follows: "Er war ein langer, 

 hagerer Mann, von dem man hatte behaupten mogen, dass die von 

 der Prarie hereinwehende Luft eine ahnliche Wirkung auf ihn 

 ausiibte, wie auf einen gefallenen Biiffel, der von den Wolf en 

 verschont geblieben, allmahlich zu einer Mumie ausdorrt. Mit 



