An American history . a to house was built of stout saplings, covered with bark or arough mud plaster. Along a central aisle, or radiating from acentral hearth, were ranged the separate family compartments,divided by thin walls. Forty or fifty families usually lived inthe house, sharing their food of corn, beans, pumpkins, wildturkey, fish, bear, and buffalo meat in common. Only theirclothing, ornaments, and weapons were personal property. Thewomen of the tribe prepared the food, tended the children,made the utensils and ornaments of beads, feathers, and skins,and strung the polish
An American history . a to house was built of stout saplings, covered with bark or arough mud plaster. Along a central aisle, or radiating from acentral hearth, were ranged the separate family compartments,divided by thin walls. Forty or fifty families usually lived inthe house, sharing their food of corn, beans, pumpkins, wildturkey, fish, bear, and buffalo meat in common. Only theirclothing, ornaments, and weapons were personal property. Thewomen of the tribe prepared the food, tended the children,made the utensils and ornaments of beads, feathers, and skins,and strung the polished shells or wampum which the Indianused for money and for correspondence. The men were occupiedwith war, the hunt, and the council. In their leisure they repairedtheir bows, sharpened new arrowheads, or stretched the smoothbark of the birch tree over their canoe frames. They had a greatvariety of games and dances, solemn and gay ; and they loved tobask idly in the sun, too, like the Mississippi negro of to-day. h 1 .. Pi:§M^- i ^ 24 The New World 25 In character the Indian showed the most astonishing extremes,now immovable as a rock, now capricious as the April the council fire he was taciturn, dignified, thoughtful,but in the dance he broke into unrestrained and uncontrollableecstasies. He bore with stoical fortitude the most horrible tor-tures at the stake, but howled in his wigwam over an injured fin-ger. His powers of smell, sight, and hearing were incredibly keenon the hunt or the warpath, but at the same time he showed astolid stupidity that no white man could match. The Indian seemsto have been generally friendly to the European on their firstmeeting, and it was chiefly the fault of the white mans crueltyand treachery that the friendly curiosity of the red man wasturned so often into malignant hatred instead of firm alliance. There were probably never more than a few hundred thou- 30. Thesand Indians in America. Their small number perhaps accounts Indians
Size: 1233px × 2027px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthormuzzeydavidsaville187, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910
