Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/185

Rh And as for high-sounding titles, where among our aborigines shall we outmatch those of “August,” or “Most Christian Majesty,” and their “High Mightinesses” of Holland? What effrontery would be shown by a European tradesman who should presume to dun a Continental petty prince, whose title is “His Most Serene Highness”! What more of significance is there in the Emperor of China assuming his title from the whole heaven, than in the Indian chieftain's contenting himself with appropriating a half-moon?

The Canoe, the Moccason, the Snow-Shoe, and the Wigwam, — these four words suggest to us the most characteristic and distinctive objects identified with the Indian and his life. They mark the quality of his inventiveness and the measure of his skill in adapting himself to his conditions, and in turning to use the materials at his hand. Stress, too, is to be laid on this fact, — that these four devices of the American savage were original inventions of his own, and that he has learned nothing from the white man which has helped him to improve upon them, so perfect are they in themselves.

What the horse is to the Arab, the dog to the Esquimaux, and the camel to the traveller across the desert, the canoe was and is to the Indian. It was most admirably adapted to the two requisite uses which it must serve, — for it was to meet two exigencies, and in no other case of a vehicle invented by man have the two conditions been realized. The canoe was intended both for carrying its owner and for being carried by him. Incidentally, also, it served a third use, affording a temporary roof or covert from the sun and storm by day or night on land. The Indian ventured far out into the open water of our bays, as he ventured in calm weather to cross our sea-like lakes in this frail bark. But its chief and constant and most apt service was for the Indian's transport with his furs and commodities, as he traversed the curiously veined and