This faculty is indicated by a vivid imagination, a love of narration,
and an ample, appropriate, and logically developed vocabulary. That, as
a race, the aborigines of America possessed these qualifications to a
remarkable degree, is attested by many witnesses who have lived
intimately among them; and is only denied by those whose acquaintance
with them has been superficial, or derived from second-hand and doubtful
sources.
The red man peoples air, earth, and the waters with countless creatures
of his fancy; his expressions are figurative and metaphorical; he is
quick to seize analogies; and when he cannot explain he is ever ready to
invent. This is shown in his inappeasable love of story telling. As a
_raconteur_ he is untiring. He has, in the highest degree, Goethe's
_Lust zu fabuliren_. In no Oriental city does the teller of strange
tales find a more willing audience than in the Indian wigwam. The folk
lore of every tribe which has been properly investigated has turned out
to be most ample. Tales of talking animals, of mythical warriors, of
giants, dwarfs, subtle women, potent magicians, impossible adventures,
abound to an extent that defies collection.[1]
Nor are these narratives repeated in a slip-shod, negligent style. The
hearers permit no such carelessness. They are sticklers for nicety of
expression; for clear and well turned periods; for vivid and accurate
description; for flowing and sonorous sentences. As a rule, their
languages lend themselves readily to these demands. It is a singular
error, due wholly to ignorance of the subject, to maintain that the
American tongues are cramped in their vocabularies, or that their syntax
does not permit them to define the more delicate relationships of ideas.
Nor is it less a mistake to assert, as has been done repeatedly, and
even by authorities of eminence in our own day, that they are not
capable of supplying the expressions of abstract reasonings. Although
pure abstractions were rarely objects of interest to these children of
nature, many, if not most, of their tongues favor the formation of
expressions which are as thoroughly transcendental as any to be found in
the _Kritik der Reinen Vernunft_.[2]
Their literary faculty is further demonstrated in the copiousness of
their vocabularies, their rare facility of expression, and their natural
aptitude for the acquisition of other languages. Theophilie Gautier used
to say, that the most profitable book for a professional writer to read
is the dictionary; that is, that a mastery of words is his most valuable
acquirement. The extraordinarily rich synonomy of some American tongues,
notably the Algonkin, the Aztec, and the Qquichua, attests how
sedulously their resources have been cultivated. Father Olmos, in his
grammar of the Aztec, gives many examples of twenty and thirty
synonymous expressions, all in current use in his day. A dictionary, in
my possession, of the Maya, one of the least plastic of American
tongues, gives over thirty thousand words, and scarcely a hundred of
them of foreign extraction.
This linguistic facility is shown also in the ease with which they
acquire foreign languages. "It is not uncommon," says Dr. Washington
Matthews, speaking of the Hidatsa, by no means a specially brilliant
tribe, "to find persons among them, some even under twenty years of age,
who can speak fluently four or five different languages."[3] Mr. Stephen
Powers tells us that, in California, he found many Indians speaking
three, four, five or more languages, generally including English;[4] and
in South America, both Humboldt and D'Orbigny express their surprise at
the same fact, which they repeatedly observed.[5]
But the most tangible evidence of both their linguistic and literary
ability is the work some of these natives have accomplished in European
tongues. It does not come within the limits of my plan to enter fully
into an examination of this branch of literature; but it is worth while
mentioning some of the more prominent native writers, who have composed
in European languages, as their productions are an easy test of what the
faculties of the red race are in this direction.
As the colonizers of the New World have been chiefly from Spain and
Great Britain, so naturally the English and Spanish languages have been
brought most widely to the knowledge of the natives. The half-civilized
tribes, within the area of the United States, have produced several
authors of merit. Perhaps the earliest of these was David Cusick, who,
in 1825, printed his _Ancient History of the Six Nations_. He was a
full blood Tuscarora, and his English is far from correct. Yet the
arrangement of his matter is skillful, and some passages quaintly vivid
and forcible. Another member of the Iroquois confederacy, Peter
Dooyentate Clarke, has taken up the _Origin and Traditional History of
the Wyandotts_, and has made a readable little book (published at
Toronto, 1870); while still more lately, Chief Elias Johnson, of the
Tuscaroras, has published a _History of the Six Nations_, very
creditably composed. (Lockport, 1881.)
The tribes of Algonkin lineage can also count some respectable writers.
The Rev. William Apess (or Apes), a member of the Pequod tribe of
Massachusetts, wrote and published five or six small books and
pamphlets, on questions relating to his people, between 1829 and 1837.
The book of George Copway, or Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, a chief of the
Ojibways, on _The Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation_
(London, 1850), is a good authority on the topic, and so well written
that we can scarcely suppose that it was his unaided effort. Of almost
equal merit is the _History of the Ojibway Indians, with especial
reference to their Conversion to Christianity_, by the Rev. Peter
Jones, or Kahkewaquonaby, a full-blood Indian, (London, 1861.)
In the southwest, the _Cherokee Phoenix_ offered a medium through
which the native writers of that tribe frequently published original
contributions; and one of its early editors, Elias Boudinot (named after
the celebrated philanthropist), published separately a number of
addresses and other documents, in English.
But, as we might naturally expect, it is in Spanish that we find the
best work of the native writers. The partly civilized races of Mexico,
Central America and Peru, were much better prepared to receive the
lessons of European teachers than the barbarous hunting tribes. Had they
had any fair chance, they would have soon equaled their teachers. Father
Motolinia, one of the earliest missionaries to Mexico, testifies to the
readiness with which the natives acquired both Spanish and Latin, and
adds that, in the latter tongue, they became skilled grammarians, and
wrote both verse and prose with commendable accuracy.[6] Quite a long
list of such native Latinists, their names and their writings, is given
by Father Augustin de Vetancurt, and he is not sparing in his praise of
the ability they displayed in the use of both Spanish and Latin.[7]
Similar testimony is rendered of the natives of Guatemala, by the
Archbishop Garcia Pelaez. He mentions, by name, several Indians who
became conspicuously thorough Latin scholars, and refers to others who
won honors in all the faculties of the University of Guatemala, and
distinguished themselves in after life by the display of their talents
and education.[8] Nor would it be difficult to find many other such
examples in Peru and Brazil.
The list of native Mexicans who wrote in Spanish is a fairly long one;
and I need only mention the better known names. At the head should be
placed that of Don Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl. He was a lineal
descendant of the sovereigns of Tezcuco, and an ardent student of the
antiquities of his race. Among the many works which he wrote are the
_Relaciones Historicas_ and the _Historia Chichimeca_, which
were published by Lord Kingsborough; a _Historia de la Nueva
Espana_, a _Historia del Reyno de Tezcuco_, and a _Historia de
Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe_, which have not had the fortune to be
printed. Such an excellent critic as Mr. Prescott says of his style:
"His language is simple, and occasionally eloquent and touching. His
descriptions are highly picturesque. He abounds in familiar anecdote;
and the natural graces of his manner in detailing the more striking
events of history and the personal adventures of his heroes, entitle him
to the name of the Livy of Anahuac."
Ixtlilxochitl flourished about the year 1600, and among his
contemporaries was Fernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc, also of native blood,
whose _Cronica Mexicana_ has been preserved, and is considered to
be well written, but less reliable. Of about the same date are the
_Relacion_ of Juan Bautista de Tomar, a native of Tezcuco, in which
he treats of the customs of his ancestors; the _Relaciones_ of Don
Antonio Pimentel, grandson of Nezahualpilli, lord of Tezcuco, an author
quoted and praised by the historian Torquemada; the _Historia de
Tlaxcallan_ of Diego Munoz Camargo, a noble Tlascalan mestizo, of
whose style Prescott remarks that it compares not unfavorably with that
of some of the missionaries themselves; and the _Relacion de los
Dioses y Ritos de la Gentilidad_ of Don Pedro Ponce, the cacique of
Tzumpahuacan. Somewhat later, about 1625, Don Domingo de San Anton Munon
Chimalpain wrote his _Historia Mexicana_ and his _Historia de la
Conquista_, which have been mentioned with respect by various
writers.
Along with these examples of literary culture in Mexico may be named
several native Peruvian writers who made use of the language of their
conquerors; as Don Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui, whose
_Relacion de Antiguedades de Piru_ is a precious document, though
composed in very uncritical Spanish; as Don Luis Inca, whose
_Relacion_, prepared in Spanish, seems now to be lost, but is
referred to, with praise, by some of the older writers; and, above all
others, Inca Garcillasso de la Vega, whose vivid and attractive style,
and numerous historical writings place him easily in the first rank of
Spanish historians of America.
From the above it would seem evident enough that the American aborigines
were endowed, as a race, with a turn for literary composition, and a
faculty for it. They were generally, however, an unlettered race. What
they composed was for oral use only. This might be carefully arranged,
committed to heart, and handed down from generation to generation; but
as for recording it in forms which would convey it to the mind through
the eye, that was a discovery they had but partially made.
I say, "partially," because graphic methods, of some kind, were widely
used. We may as well omit from consideration, in this connection, the
merely pictographic signs of the hunting tribes, although they were used
for mnemonic purposes. Let us rather proceed, at once, to the highest
specimens of the graphic art in ancient America, and inquire their
scope. In Mexico, in Yucatan, in Nicaragua, and in one or two districts
of South America, the early explorers found systems of writing which
seemed to resemble that to which they were accustomed.
The Aztecs manufactured, in large quantities, a useful paper from the
leaves of the maguey, and upon it they painted numerous figures and
signs, which conveyed ideas, and sometimes also sounds. An early
authority informs us that their books were of five kinds. The first
detailed their method of computing time; the second described their holy
days, festivals and religious epochs; the third gave the interpretation
of dreams, omens and signs; the fourth supplied directions for naming
children; and the fifth rehearsed the rites and ceremonies connected
with matrimony.[9] Besides these, we know they wrote out tribute rolls,
the ancient history of their tribes, the fables of their mythology, the
genealogy of their sovereigns, and the geographical descriptions of
territories. Of all these we have examples preserved, and many of them
have been published.
Quite another and a more perfect method of writing prevailed among the
Mayas of Yucatan and Central America. Their books were exceedingly neat,
and strongly resembled an ordinary quarto volume, such as appears on
European bookshelves. I have so lately discussed their manufacture, and
the so-called alphabet in which they were written, and in a work of such
easy access, that it is enough if I quote the conclusions there arrived
at.[10] They are:--
1. The Maya graphic system was recognized, from the first, to be
distinct from the Mexican.
2. It was a hieroglyphic system, known only to the priests and a few
nobles.
3. It was employed for a variety of purposes, prominent among which was
the preservation of their history and calendar.
4. It was a composite system, containing pictures (figuras), ideograms
(caracteres), and phonetic signs (letras).
The ruins of Palenque, Copan, and other Maya cities, abound in such
hieroglyphs.
The natives of Nicaragua, those, at least, of Aztec lineage, made use of
parchment volumes, folded into a neat and portable compass, in which
they painted, in red and black ink, certain figures, "by means of
which," says the chronicler Oviedo, "they could express and understand
whatever they wished, with entire clearness."[11]
In South America the Peruvians had their _quipus_, cords of
different lengths, sizes and colors, knotted in various ways, and
attached to a base cord, an arrangement that was a decided aid to the
memory, though it could not be connected with the sounds of words. There
are also faint traces of figures, with definite meaning, among the
Muyscas of Colombia; and the Moxos of Western Bolivia are said to have
employed, as late as the last century, a method of writing, consisting
of lines traced on wooden slabs.[12]