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ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS AND THEIR PRODUCTIONS;
ESPECIALLY THOSE IN THE NATIVE LANGUAGES.
A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE.
BY DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D.,
Member of the American Philosophical Society; the American Antiquarian
Society; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, etc.; Vice-President
of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, and of the
Congres International des Americanistes; Delegue-General de l'Institution
Ethnographique for the United States, etc.; Author of "The Myths of the
New World;" "The Religious Sentiment;" "American Hero Myths," etc.
NEW INTRODUCTION
Aboriginal American Authors, published by the Anthropologist Daniel G.
Brinton in 1883, is a work that is particularly appropriate for our own
times. The native American movement has stressed the need for history
written from the Indian point of view. Interest in native American
literature has become an important component in reinforcing a sense of
identity among American Indians today.
Brinton's work is a good summary of the better known traditional
writings of Indians from many regions of the Western hemisphere. This
bibliographical survey provides information on tribal histories that
would be particularly useful for Indian Study Programs in the states of
Oklahoma, New York and Wisconsin.
Brinton was aware of the 19th century racism of many who wrote about the
American Indian and reacted against it in his writings by taking a
stance which in some ways anticipates Ruth Benedict's involvement in
similar questions half a century later. Aboriginal American
Authors is written as an early attempt at placing the literature of
the American Indian with the other great literary traditions of the
world; that is why its usefulness endures.
John Hobgood
Social Science Department
Chicago State College
1970
PREFACE.
The present memoir is an enlargement of a paper which I laid before the
_Congres International des Americanistes_, when acting as a delegate to
its recent session in Copenhagen, August, 1883. The changes are material,
the whole of the text having been re-written and the notes added.
It does not pretend to be an exhaustive bibliographical essay, but was
designed merely to point out to an intelligent and sympathetic audience
a number of relics of Aboriginal American Literature, and to bespeak the
aid and influence of that learned body in the preservation and
publication of these rare documents.
_Philadelphia, Nov. 1883._
CONTENTS.
Section 1. _Introductory_
Section 2. _The Literary Faculty in the Native Mind_
Vivid imagination of the Indians.
Love of story telling.
Appreciation of style.
Power and resources of their languages.
Facility in acquiring foreign languages.
Native writers in the English tongue.
In Latin.
In Spanish.
Ancient books of Aztecs.
Of Mayas, etc.
Peruvian Quipus.
Section 3. _Narrative Literature_
Desire of preserving national history.
Eskimo legends and narratives.
The _Walum Olum_ of the Delawares.
The Iroquois _Book of Rites_.
Kaondinoketc's Narrative.
The National Legend of the Creeks.
Cherokee writings.
Destruction of Ancient Literature.
Boturini's collection.
Historians in Nahuatl.
The Maya _Books of Chilan Balam_.
Other Maya documents.
Writings in Cakchiquel.
_The Memorial de Tecpan Atitlan_.
Authors in Cakchiquel and Kiche.
The _Popol Vuh_.
Votan, the Tzendal.
Writers in Qquichua.
Letters, etc., in native tongues.
Tales and stories of the Tupis and other tribes.
Section 4. _Didactic Literature_
Progress of natives in science.
Their calendars and rituals.
Their maps.
Scholastic works.
Theological writers.
Sermons in Guarani.
_Las Pasiones_.
Section 5. _Oratorical Literature_
Native admiration of eloquence.
The Oratorical style.
Custom of set orations.
Specimens in the Nahuatl tongue.
Ancient prayers and rhapsodies.
Section 6. _Poetical Literature_
Form of the earliest poetry.
Unintelligible character of primitive songs explained.
A Chippeway love song.
A Taensa epithalamium.
Montaigne on Tupi poetry.
Ancient Aztec poetry.
Maya and Peruvian poems.
Tupi songs.
Section 7. _Dramatic Literature_
Development of the dramatic art in America.
Origin of the serious and comic dramas.
The Qquichua drama of Ollanta.
The Kiche drama of Rabinal Achi.
The Comic Ballet of the Gueegueence.
The _Logas_ of Central America.
Dramas of the Mangues.
Section 8. _Conclusion_
Ethnological value of literary productions.
Their general interest to scholars.
_Footnotes_
_Index_
[Transcriber's Note: Footnotes have been moved from inline to end-of-text,
and the above "Footnotes" section added.]
ABORIGINAL AMERICAN AUTHORS.
* * * * *
Section 1. _Introductory_.
When even a quite intelligent person hears about "Aboriginal American
Literature," he is very excusable for asking: What is meant by the term?
Where is this literature? In fine, Is there any such thing?
To answer such inquiries, I propose to treat, with as much brevity as
practicable, of the literary efforts of the aborigines of this
continent, a chapter in the general History of Literature hitherto
wholly neglected.
Indeed, it will be a surprise to many to learn that any members of these
rude tribes have manifested either taste or talent for scholarly
productions. All alike have been regarded as savages, capable, at best,
of but the most limited culture.
Such an opinion has been fostered by prejudices of race, by the jealousy
of castes, and in our own day by preconceived theories of evolution.
That it is erroneous, can, I think, be easily shown.
Let us first inquire into the existence of