It will be interesting, perhaps, to notice the particulars, as to physical
conformation, in which the Indian differs from his white brother.
He maintains a higher average as to height, to fix which at five feet
ten would, I think, be a just estimate. It is rare, however, to find
him attain the exceptional stature, quite commonly observed with the
white, though, where he yields to the latter in this respect, there is
compensation for it in the way of greater breadth and compactness. There
are, of course, isolated cases, in which he is distinguished by as great
height as has ever been reached by ordinary man, and, in these instances,
I have never failed to notice that his form discloses almost faultless
proportions, the Indian being never ungainly or gaunt. I think, on the
whole, that I do no injustice to the white man, when I credit the Indian
with a better-knit frame than himself.
I am disposed to ascribe, in great measure, the evolving of the erect
form that the Indian, as a rule, possesses, to the custom in vogue of
the mother carrying her child strapped across the back, as well as to
the fact of her discouraging and interdicting any attempts at walking
on the part of the child, until the muscles shall have been so developed
as to justify such being made. To this practice, at least, I am safe in
attributing the rarity, if not the positive absence, with the Indian, of
that unhappy condition of bow-leggedness, of not too slight prevalence
with us, and which renders its victim often a butt for not very charitable
or approving comment.
The Indian is built more, perhaps, for fleetness than strength; and
his litheness and agility will come in, at another place, for their due
illustration, when treating of certain of his pastimes.
The Indian has a large head, high cheek bones, in general, large lips
and mouth; a contour of face inclining, on the whole, to undue breadth,
and lacking that pleasantly-rounded appearance so characteristic of the
white. He has usually a scant beard, his chin and cheeks seldom, if ever,
asserting that sturdy and bountiful growth of whisker and moustache, in
such esteem with adults among ourselves, and which they are so careful
to stimulate and insure. Indeed, it is said that the Indian holds rather
in contempt what we so complacently regard, and will often testify to
his scorn by plucking out the hairs which protrude, and would fain lend
themselves to his adornment.
The Indian, normally, has a stolid expression, redeemed slightly, perhaps,
by its exchange often for a lugubrious one. I should feel disposed to
predict for him the scoring of an immense success in the personation
of such characters as those of the melancholy Dane; or of Antonio,
in the Merchant of Venice, after the turn of the tide in his fortunes,
when the vengeful figure of the remorseless Shylock rests upon his life
to blight and to afflict it.
He is easily-moved to tears, though, perhaps, his facile transition from
the condition presented in the foregoing allusion, into a positively
lachrymose state, will be readily conceived of, without proclaiming
specially, the fact. He will maintain a mien, which shall consist
eminently with the atmosphere of the house of mourning; in truth, as an
efficient mourner, the Indian may be freely depended upon.
It is contended that the complexion of the Indian has had the tendency to
grow darker and darker, from his having inhabited smoky, bark wigwams,
and having held cleanliness in no very exceptional honor; and the
contention is sought to be made good by the citing of a case of a young,
fair-skinned boy, who, taking up with an Indian tribe, and adopting in
every particular their mode of life, developed by his seventieth year
a complexion as swarthy, and of as distinctively Indian a hue, as that
of any pure specimen of the race.
If we accept this as a sound view, which, however, carried to its logical
sequence, should have evolved, one would imagine, the negro out of the
Indian long are this, why may we not, in the way of argument, fairly and
legitimately provoked by the theory, look for and consider the converse
picture (now that the Indian lives in much the same manner as the ordinary
poor husbandman, and now that we have certainly no warrant for imputing
to him uncleanly habits) the gradual approach in his complexion to the
Anglo-Saxon type? If we entertain this counter-proposition, it will then
be a question between its operation, and his marriage with the white,
as to which explains the fact of the decline now of the dark complexion
with the Indian.
The custom of piercing the nose, and suspending nose-jewels therefrom,
has fallen into disrepute, the Indian, perhaps, having been brought to
view these as contributing, in a questionable way, to his adornment.
The Indian woman has a finer development, as a rule, than the white
woman. We may, in part, discover the cause for this in the prevalence
of the custom, already alluded to, of the mother carrying her offspring
on her back, which, with its not undue strain on the dorsal muscles,
no doubt, promotes and conserves muscular strength. The Indian woman
being commonly a wife and mother before a really full maturity has been
reached, or any absolute unyieldingness of form been contracted, the
figure yet admits of such-like beneficent processes being exerted upon it.
In making mention of this custom, and, in a certain way, paying it honor,
let me not be taken as wishing to precipitate a revolution in the accepted
modes, with refined-communities, of bringing up children. To a community,
however, like that of which we are treating, such plan is not ill-suited,
the Indian mother being secure against any very critical observation of
her acts, or of the fashion she adopts. Let the custom, then, continue,
as it can be shown, I think, to favour the production of a healthier
and stronger frame both in the mother and in the child. A good figure is
also insured to the Indian woman, from her contemning, perhaps at the bid
of necessity, arising from her poverty, though, I verily believe, from
a well-grounded conception of their deforming tendencies, the absurdly
irrational measures, which, adopted by many among ourselves to promote
symmetry, only bring about distortion.
The Indian has very symmetrical hands, and the variation in size,
in this respect, in the case of the two sexes, is often very slight,
and, sometimes, scarce to be traced. The compliment, in the case of the
man, has, and is meant to have, about it a quite appreciable tinge of
condemnation, as suggesting his self-compassionate recoiling from manual
exertion; and the explanation of the near approach in the formation of the
hand of the woman to that of the man, may be found in the delegating to
her, by the latter, in unstinted measure, and in merciless fashion, work
that should be his. It is rare, also, to find a really awkwardly shaped
foot in an Indian. The near conformity to a uniform size in the case of
the two sexes, which I have noticed as being peculiar with the hand,
may also be observed with the foot. I would sum up my considerations
here with the confident assertion that the examination of a number of
specimens of the hand or foot in an Indian, would demonstrate a range
in size positively immaterial.
The Indian woman keeps up, to a large extent, the practice of wearing
leggings and moccasins.
I should be disposed to think that the blood coursing through the Indian's
frame is of a richer consistency, and has, altogether, greater vitalizing
properties than that in ourselves, since on the severest day in winter
he will frequently scorn any covering beyond his shirt, and the nether
garments usually suggested by its mention, and, so apparelled, will not
recoil from the keenest blast.