In Europe, the mass were certainly better acquainted
with their ancient history before this great discovery that they are in
our days, as traditions were then handed down from family to family--it
was a duty, a sacred one, for a father to transmit them to his son,
unadulterated, such, in fact, as he had received them from his
ancestors. It is the same case with the Indians, who have remained
stationary for a long period. It is in the long evenings of February,
during the hunting seasons that the elders of the tribe will reveal to
the young warriors all the records of their history; and were a learned
European to assist at one of these "lectures upon antiquity," he would
admit that, in harmony, eloquence, strength of argument, and deduction,
the red-coloured orator could not easily be surpassed.
The Shoshones have a clear and lucid recollection of the far countries
whence they have emigrated. They do not allude to any particular period,
but they must have been among the first comers, for they relate with
great topographical accuracy all the bloody struggles they had to
sustain against newer emigrants. Often beaten, they were never
conquered, and have always occupied the ground which they had selected
from the beginning.
Unlike the great families of the Dahcotahs and Algonquins, who yet
retain the predominant characteristics of the wandering nations of
South-west Asia, the Shoshones seem to have been in all ages a nation
warlike, though stationary.
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