instances of daring hearts in delicate frames, and the pioneer woman who
perhaps under softer and safer circumstances would have screamed at a
mouse often shouldered a rifle and bravely joined the frontiersmen in
the defense of the stockade against the most cruel, most wily, most
warlike savage foe that ever a civilized force encountered. Courage, of
all the qualities of the moral panoply, is the least to be reckoned with
by logic. Perhaps after all it is not inherent, even in the nobler
organisms, but evolved by a conscientious sense of responsibility and
the dynamic potencies of emergency. La Bruyère says: "_Jetez-moi dans
les troupes comme un simple soldat, je suis Thersite: mettezmoi à la
tête d'une armée don't j'aie à répondre à toute l'Europe, je suis
Achille_!"
2. _Page_ 114. The chungke stone of this favorite game of the southern
Indians bears a certain resemblance to the ancient discus of the Greek
athlete. This, it will be remembered, fashioned of metal or stone,
circular, almost flat, was clasped by the fingers of one hand and held
in the bend of the forearm, extending almost to the elbow. The genuine
chungke stone is solid and discoidal in shape, beautifully polished,
wrought of quartz, or agate, the most distinctive being concave on both
sides, beveled toward the flat outer edge, and having a depression in
the centre of both surfaces for the convenience of holding it with the
second finger and thumb, the first finger clasping the periphery. Its
usual dimensions are about six or eight inches in diameter. There are
several varieties of these archaic relics, some flat, others lenticular
or of a wedge-shell shape, and others, still, concave on one side and
convex on the other. An absolutely spherical stone, bearing the
extraordinarily high polish that distinguishes these unique objects,
found in an ancient mound and supposed to have relation to the same or a
similar game, calls to mind the globular quoit of the classical athletes
and that "enormous round" described by Homer, "Aëtion's quoit"--to hurl
which bowl they vie, "who teach the disk to sound along the sky."
The exquisite finish of the chungke stone was compassed without the aid
of a single tool, merely by the attrition of one stone upon another,
"from time immemorial rubbed smooth upon the rocks, with prodigious
labor," resulting in an object of such symmetrical beauty that even in
the museums of the present day, out of which it is rarely seen, it
challenges admiration. Antiquaries variously contend that it was hurled
through the air and that it was bowled on the edge along the ground, its
equilibrium being so perfect that on a level space it will roll a great
distance, falling only when its impetus is expended.
The chungke stone is often confounded with the Indian quoit, likewise
circular and fashioned of smoothly wrought stone, but with an orifice in
the centre, rendering it in effect a ring to be flung over a stake at a
distance, or to be caught on the point of a lance.
It has been inferred that Adair is mistaken in his assertion that by the
Indian law the chungke stones were exempt from burial with the effects
of the dead, since certain of the most perfect specimens known to modern
archaeological collections were found in the exploration of mounds in
the valley of the Tennessee River. By many these mounds are supposed to
be prehistoric, and the game is doubtless of an unimaginable antiquity.
As late as his day, among the Cherokees; 1736, the stones were kept with
the "strictest religious care," and were the property of the town where
the game was played.
Adair, despite his roving life, had evidently scant sympathy with
athletics. He may have been growing old and indolent when he speaks of
the game as a "task of stupid drudgery" and opines that instead of a
sport it might "with propriety of language" be described as "running
hard labor." Other eye-witnesses, however, vaunt the great beauty and
grace of the game. Captain Bernard Romany chronicles with relish the
dexterity requisite, the great strength and skill displayed by the
participants in the violent exercise, although demurely moralizing the
while on its perilous fascination to both players and spectators, by
reason of the inordinate temptation presented by its doubtful chances to
the reckless gambler. Lieutenant Timberlake alone calls it
"_nettecawaw_."
As there are moot points concerning the stones themselves and the
conduct of the sport, so the chungke spears differ in the accounts of
the early adventurers in this region. The length is variously given as
eight, ten, twelve feet. The shape is sometimes represented as a lance
or pole heavy in the centre and tapering at both ends to a blunt point,
and others describe an implement resembling a magnified golf club of the
present day.
3. _Page_ 114. This choice decoration, popular though it was, could not
be attained without a penalty commensurate with its valuation. It is
stated by early travelers among the Indian tribes that thirty days were
required to properly heal an ear thus distended _à la mode_. The
patient, if one so prideful might be so called, could only have one ear
in the painful process at a time, in order that he might be able to lie
in sleeping on the other side until such time as his embellished ear
should be again serviceable for this prosaic purpose, and permit the
like decoration of the opposite member.
4. _Page_ 142. An illustration of how the Choctaws profited by these
earnest labors may be given in the fate of a chapel erected for their
benefit at Chickasaha by the French and placed in charge of a Jesuit
missionary. The Choctaws so far accepted Christianity as to be able to
travesty the services and mimic the priest with surprising humor and
verisimilitude when the English came in, and were wont to go to the old
chapel for this profane exhibition to the mingled delight and
reprobation of the military new-comers. The chapel was soon afterward
destroyed, but Captain Romans records that in 1771 he saw the cross
still standing on the site, a melancholy memorial of futile missionary
endeavor.
All the Indians, however, were temperamentally averse to the services
and tenets of the Christian religion, and Timberlake gives an instance
among the Cherokees in 1760 in which a missionary was balked by a unique
interruption. "Mr. Martin, who having preached Scripture till both he
and his audience were heartily tired, was told at last that they knew
very well that if they were good they would go up; if bad, down; that he
could tell no more; that he had long plagued them with what they no ways
understood, and they desired that he would depart the country."
The epitome of theology thus deduced was so far a just conclusion. But
doubtless the Indians labored greatly with imperfect comprehension.
Humboldt describes a service among a South American tribe, in which a
missionary preaching in Spanish was at his wits' end to make his
audience differentiate between _infierno_ and _invierno_. They persisted
in shivering with horror at the picture of the hell of his warnings in
which the wicked were supposed to be subjected to everlasting winter.
One is tempted to think that the end might have justified the means if
the good padre had fallen in with the prejudice against the rainy season
and adopted, in lieu of the fire-and-brimstone of Scripture, as a future
state of punishment, the icy Ninth Circle of Dante's Inferno, where
"_Eran l' ombre dolenti nella ghiaccia,
Mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna_."
5. _Page_ 151. The cultivation of personal pride was an essential
element of training among the Indians. They held the lower ranks of
white people in great contempt, and Timberlake records that in some
athletic diversions at which he and other members of the Virginia
regiment were present they refused to play or to hold conference with
any of the troops except the officers.
6. _Page_ 179. The primary and somewhat complex significance of the word
_ada-wehi_ is suggested by the idea of sorcery,--a man, or animal, or
even element endowed with uncontrolled superlative and supernatural
powers. It has been stated that since the introduction of Christianity
and the printing of the New Testament in the Cherokee typographical
character the word has been utilized with its subtleties of
signification to express spirit or angel. In this story, however, the
scene of which is laid in a period long previous to the conversion of
the tribe, or even the accepted date of the invention of the Cherokee
alphabet, the word is used in its early and original sense to denote a
magician of special and expansive gifts of sorcery.
7. _Page_ 186. Although this officer's name was regularly incorporated
into the Cherokee vocabulary as a synonym of disaster, he seemed to
revolt at the unhappy plight of the people whom in the discharge of his
duty he had succeeded in reducing to so abject a condition of despair
and woe, and has left on record expressions of compassion incongruous
with his deeds and his position as a professed soldier of long
experience. He had served in Flanders and Ireland in his youth as
captain in the Royal Scots before he first came to America as major in
Montgomerie's regiment of Highlanders.
Some adequate idea of the desolation and destitution of the Indians may
be gleaned from the reports to the British government: "The Cherokees
must certainly starve or come into terms, and even in that case Colonel
Grant thinks it is hardly in the power of the provincials to save them.
He proposed in a few days to send for The Great Warrior (Oconostota) and
The Little Carpenter (Atta-Kulla-Kulla) to come and treat for peace, if
they choose to save their nation from destruction. Till he receives
their answer he will endeavor to save the small remains of the Lower
Towns. In the mean time Colonel Grant intends to put Fort Prince George
into repair, and to wait there or at Ninety-Six till he receives orders
from Sir Jeffrey Amherst."
The idea of the pangs of hunger and the sight of starvation and
deprivation may have been the more repugnant to Colonel Grant since he
was himself famous as a _bon vivant_ and gourmet. Indeed, even yet, in
turning old pages we come upon records of his dinners. Bartram, the
Philadelphia botanist, whom the Muscogee Indians quaintly called
_Puc-Puggy_ (the Flower Hunter) details the great size of a rattlesnake,
"six feet long and as thick as the leg of an ordinary man" which he
chanced to kill in his bosky researches near Fort Picolata in Florida,
and not the least surprising feature of the incident was a message from
the commandant inviting both combatants to dinner, "Governor Grant being
very fond of rattlesnake flesh." This officer, at that time Royal
Governor of East Florida, was holding a congress with the Creek Indians
hard by the fort, having come from St. Augustine with a detachment of
its garrison for the purpose. Bartram, dining in company with Grant that
day, saw his enemy served up in several different styles,--and he, too,
must turn softhearted!--he could not partake of the dish,--and "was
sorry after killing the serpent, when coolly recollecting every
circumstance of it." However, neither the rattlesnake nor the Cherokees
were in condition to profit by these belated graces of magnanimity.
Through Grant's scattered correspondence there is a flavor of "vivers."
Frederick George Mulcaster, still with the garrison of St. Augustine, in
a letter addressed to Grant, then in Boston, laughingly alludes to his
constant good cheer. "Captain Urquhart writes to his brother officers
here that '_General Grant lives like a General_!'" And later, in piteous
contrast, "His Excellency (the new Royal Governor) gave a dinner
yesterday to the officers of the Fourteenth and some others. It is the
only dinner he has given since the one he gave to John Stuart (famous as
the survivor of Fort Loudon) upon his arrival here,"--a matter of two
months. He further notes as a point of interest, "Your black man,
Alexander, was with me this instant to inquire after your health, and
has loaded me with _beaucoup de complimens_. He wishes much to come to
make your bread." Doubtless it was well made, for Grant, prospering,
went on from dinner to dinner, from promotion to promotion, attaining
the rank of General in the army and great corpulency, representing
Sutherlandshire in the British Parliament many years, and dying at the
age of eighty-six at his birthplace, Ballindalloch, in the north of
Scotland.
8. _Page_ 212. The "Annual Register" in giving among State Papers the
text of a treaty between Governor Lyttleton of South Carolina,
Captain-General, etc., and Atta-Kulla-Kulla, "deputy for the whole
Cherokee Nation," dated at Fort Prince George, Dec. 26, 1759, adds in a
note: "Atta-Kulla-Kulla, the Little Carpenter, who concluded this treaty
in behalf of the Cherokee Indians, was in England and at court several
times in the year 1730."
9. _Page_ 215. The oratorical gifts of this Indian (under the name
Chollochcullah, supposed to be a phonetic variant of Atta-Kulla-Kulla)
are thus described in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for October, 1755,
chronicling the details of an earlier diplomatic occasion: "The speaker
rose up, and holding a bow in one hand and a sheaf of arrows in the
other, he delivered himself in the following words, with all the
distinctness imaginable, with the dignity and graceful action of a Roman
or Grecian orator, and with all their ease and eloquence."
10. _Page_ 231. Their tribal name, "men of fire," and their great
veneration for that element have given rise to the conjecture that the
Cherokees were originally fire-worshipers, as well as polytheistic. The
interpolation of the intensative syllable "ta" is, according to Adair, a
"note of magnitude," and the title of their prophets, whose functions
are blended as priests, conjurers, physicians, and councilors,--the
cheera-taghe,--signifies "men of divine fire." But Adair protests that
the theistic ideals of the Indians were wholly spiritual, and that they
had no plurality of gods. They paid their devotions merely to the "great
beneficent supreme holy spirit of fire, who resides as they think above
the clouds," and he argues plausibly that if they worshiped fire itself
they would not have willfully extinguished the sanctified element
annually on the last day of the old year throughout the nation, the
invariable custom, before the cheera-taghe of each town kindled the
"holy fire" anew, this being one of their exclusive functions. It may be
that in their ancient rhapsodies (many of which Mr. James Mooney has
collected for the Smithsonian Institution) addressed to bird or flame or
beast the Indians adopted a poetic license no more significant of
polytheism than the flights of fancy of many Christian poets in odes to
the moon, to Fate, "to the red planet Mars," to the "wild west wind."
Mere impersonation and invocation in apostrophe and paeans are not
necessarily worship. Doubtless these spells and charms often arose from
a superstitious half-belief, an imaginative freak, such as possesses the
civilized visionary who shows a coin to the new moon to propitiate its
fancied waxing influence in behalf of a balance at the banker's, or the
Christianized Scotch Highlander of even the early nineteenth century who
threw a piece of hasty pudding over the left shoulder on the anniversary
of _Bealdin_ (the Gaelic for no other than Baal) to appease the spirits
of the mists, the winds, the ravens, the eagles, and thus protect the
crops and flocks. There is a thin boundary line as difficult to define
as "to distinguish and divide a hair 'twixt south and southwest side,"
between true belief and feigned credence.
The veneration of the ancient Cherokees for the element of fire, in
addition to their name, its careful conservation throughout the year,
their addresses to its spirit, _Higayuli Tsunega, hatu ganiga_ (O
Ancient White, you have drawn near to listen), is farther manifested by
its traces found in the exploration of burial mounds, intimating a
ceremonial introduction of the element at the remote period of
interment,--if, indeed, the construction of these mounds can he ascribed
to the Cherokees. Those on which their town houses were erected at a
later date, the clay-covered rotunda forming a superstructure looking
like a small mountain at a little distance, according to Timberlake,
wherein were held the assemblies, whether for amusement or council or
religious observances, served also as a substitute for the modern
bulletin-board. Two stands of colors were flying, one from the top of
the town house, the other at the door. These ensigns were white for
peace, and exchanged for red when war impended. "The news hollow," as
Timberlake phrases the cry, sounded from the summit of the mound, would
occasion the assembling of all the community in the rotunda to hear the
details from the lips of the chief. How much more the: "death hollow,"
harbinger of woe!
11. _Page_ 323. They are hardly to be regarded as myths perhaps, rather
as dislocated relics of fact. In treating of the "Origin of American
Nations," Dr. Barton says: "These traditions are entitled to much
consideration, for, notwithstanding the rude condition of most of the
tribes, they are often perpetuated in great purity, as I have discovered
by much attention to their history." It is generally accepted that the
first historical mention of the Cherokees occurs under the name of
_Chelaque_ in the chronicles of De Soto's expedition in 1540 when they
already occupied the Great Smoky Mountains and the contiguous region,
but the Indians themselves had a tradition, according to Haywood's
_Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee_, which was recited
annually at the Green Corn Dance, in which they claimed that they were
the earlier mound builders on the upper Ohio, whence they had migrated
at a remote date. They can be identified with the ancient Talega or
Tallegwi if the records of the _Walam Olum_ (painted sticks) may be
believed, the wooden originals of which are said to have been preserved
till 1822 and considered inexplicable, till their mnemonic signs and a
manuscript song in the Lenni Lenape language, obtained from a remnant of
the Delaware Indians, were translated by Professor C.S. Rafinesque "with
deep study of the Delaware and the aid of Zeisberger's manuscript
Dictionary in the library of the Philosophical Society."
In this, a dynasty of Lenni Lenape chiefs and the events of their reigns
are successively named, and from the first mention of their encounter
with the warlike Tallegwi or Cherokee to the discovery of Columbus there
is necessarily implied the passage of many centuries. Even the time that
has elapsed since the Tallegwi were overthrown by them is estimated as
somewhat more than a thousand years, thus placing this defeat in the
ninth century. Professor Cyrus Thomas in "The Cherokees of Pre-Columbian
Times" states that he thinks it would be more nearly correct to credit
the event to the eleventh or twelfth century. He quotes in support of
his theory from the _Walam-Olum_ as translated by Dr. Brinton, who
giving the original in parallel pages, with the mnemonic signs, does not
use in the English version the Indian names of the chiefs.
This record of the _Walam-Olum_ is really very curious. After passing
the account of the Creation, the Flood, the Migrations, and entering
upon the Chronicles, the _Walam-Olum_ reads much like a Biblical
genealogy, save that in lieu of scions of a parent tree these are
military successors, war-captains. The following quotations are from the
version given by Squier:
47. _Opekasit_ (East-looking) being next chief, was sad
because of so much warfare.
48. Said let us go to the Sun-rising (_Wapagishek_) and
many went east together.
49. The Great River _(Messussipu)_ divided the land and
being tired they tarried there.
50. _Yagawanend_ (Hut-Maker) was next sakimau, and then
the Tallegwi were found possessing the east.
51. Followed _Chitanitis_ (Strong Friend), who longed for
the rich east land.
52. Some went to the east but the Tallegwi killed a
portion.
53. Then all of one mind exclaimed war, war!
54. The _Talamatan_ (Not-of-themselves) and the Nitilowan
all united (to the war).
55. _Kinnehepend_ (Sharp-looking) was their leader, and
they went over the river.
56. And they took all that was there and despoiled and
slew the Tallegwi.
57. _Pimokhasuwi_ (Stirring About) was next chief, and
then the Tallegwi were much too strong.
58. _Tenchekensit_ (Open Path) followed and many towns
were given up to him.
59. _Paganchihilla_ was chief,--and the Tallegwi all went
southward.
After the earliest mention of the Tallegwi in verse 50 of the First
Chronicle there are about fifty chieftains enumerated, and characterized
with their successive reigns before the entrance of the white
discoverers of the continent at the end of the Second Chronicle. In this
it is stated at verse--
56. _Nenachipat_ was chief toward the sea.
57. Now from north and south came the _Wapagachik_ (white
comers).
58. Professing to be friends, in big birds (ships). Who
are they?
And with this dramatic climax the ancient picture record closes.
What is known as the Modern Chronicle, a fragment, begins with the
answer, "Alas! Alas! we know now who they are, these _Wapinsis_ (East
People) who came out of the sea to rob us of our lands."
And that the modern chronicle shall be certainly correct the successor
of _Lekhibit_ (the compiler of the ancient story) is assisted by
critical philologists, and Rafinesque takes issue with Holm touching a
Swedish suffix in an Indian name. "Mattanikum was chief in 1645. He is
called 'Mattahorn' by Holm, and 'horn' is not Lenapi!"
It is difficult to adjust one's credulity to accept as history this
singular Indian picture-record. Its authenticity is supported by the
great scope of the system and the reputed subtlety and close accuracy by
which abstract ideas, the origin of things, the powers of nature, the
elements of religion, could be expressed and read by those conversant
with the mnemonic signs,--as easily, Heckewelder says, as a piece of
writing. The noted antiquary Squier, however, who in this connection has
lauded Rafinesque's industry, scientific attainments, and eager
researches, states that since writing in this vein he has seen fit to
read this author's _American Nations_ and finds it "a singular jumble of
facts and fancies," and adds that it is unfortunate that the manuscript
in question should fall in this category. To praise, even with
qualifications, the author without reading all his work on the subject,
while certainly more amiable, is hardly more conducive to an impartial
estimate than to disparage on hearsay, according to that travesty of
critical judgment: "'_Que dites-vous du livre d'Hermodore?' 'Qu'il est
mauvais,' répond Anthime ... 'Mais l'aves-vous lu?' 'Non.' dit Anthime.
Quen'ajoute-t-il que Fulvie et Mélanie l'ont condamné sans l'avoir lu,
et qu'il est ami de Fulvie et de Mélanie_?"
In contrast with this method the caution and critical scrutiny with
which Dr. Brinton, in his work on "The Lenape," deliberates upon the
question of the authenticity of the _Walam Olum_ are indeed marked. He
carefully examines all the details both favorable and adverse, and
finally adduces the evidence of the text itself. The manuscript
submitted by him to educated Indians of the Lenni Lenape is pronounced
to be a genuine oral composition of a Delaware Indian in an ancient
dialect, evidently dictated to one not wholly conversant with, all the
terminal inflections of the words, which occasional omissions form the
chief defect of the curious "Red Score."
12. _Page_ 324. Some authorities hold that the _Talamatan_
(Not-of-themselves) mentioned by the _Walam-Olum_ were the Hurons who
allied themselves with the Delawares against the Tallegwi, and that
Heckewelder is mistaken in stating that these confederates were the
Mengwe. This story, however, follows the account of the war and the
subsequent subjection of the Delawares as given by Heckewelder.