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
Section 2. _The Literary Faculty in the Native Mind_.
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.
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