ern and eastern portion of the continent, south of the Arctic tribes.

As the glaciers disappeared from the lake country of the north and the New England seaboard, a region especially favorable to the sustentation of man was rendered accessible, and was gradually taken possession of by advancing tribes. These tribes probably came from the West, and if we follow westward the lines most available to sustain a migratory people in their wanderings, we shall reach a vast region on the Pacific coast, embracing the valley of the Columbia and adjoining territory, possessing all the requisites for sustaining a large population; indeed, when we study this region, where coast and stream still yield fish in marvellous abundance, and where thick forests stretching east still shelter vast numbers of fur-bearing animals, we may reasonably entertain the belief that here, for a long period, was the initial point, the nursery, so to speak, from which migration south and east set out.

We are not to suppose that these migrations were the result of caprice. On the contrary, they were movements inspired by purpose and guided by natural law, and would continue under the influence of physical causes alone, until the confines of the continent were reached. We should expect the advancing tribes to follow those lines most accessible to the regions which would furnish them with game and fish, upon which, especially the latter, they depended for subsistence.

Hence we

should expect to find them following the more fertile valleys and gathering about the lakes, along the streams, and upon the seaboard, especially in the neighborhood of extensive forests, which would afford a haunt for game; and as these movements would occupy long periods of time, and tribes of the same original stock would become so widely separated as to have no intercourse together, we should expect changes to take place between them, which would constitute noticeable differences in customs, habits of life, and especially in language; and in this we shall not be disappointed. When the early European colonists began to occupy the eastern shores of the continent, they found it in the possession of various tribes of people, having similar physical characteristics, manners, and customs. Their complexion was uniformly of a coppery brown hue; their hair,

black, straight and lank, differing, as is now known, from the hair of the European in structure, having its coloring matter in the cortex instead of a central duct. Their eyes were black and piercing; their noses aquiline; their mouths large and their faces beardless, owing to a custom prevalent among them of plucking the hair from their faces, whenever it appeared. Physically they were tall, muscular, lithe and active, and could endure severe hardship without apparent inconvenience. Further study of these tribes revealed the fact that they belonged to one great family, though their speech had so changed that tribes living remote from one another could not hold converse together. Moreover, they were in continual strife, frequently engaging in wars which caused the destruction of whole tribes.

This great family, to which the French gave the title Algonkin, stretched along the Atlantic seaboard from Labrador to South Carolina, and westward to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, occupying very nearly the country which had been covered by the glacial flood, except where into its territorial domain another powerful family had thrust itself like an immense wedge, the head of which rested on Southern Canada, between Lake Champlain and Lake Huron, while its point penetrated Virginia, separating the tribes on the Atlantic seaboard from the western tribes, and harassing them with destructive wars. These intruders, to whom the French gave the title of Iroquois, were fiercer than the Algonkins, whom they most bitterly hated, being feared and as bitterly hated in return. By tradition they held that they once occupied the region along the St. Lawrence as far east as Gaspé Bay, but had been driven westward by the Algonkins, who had invaded their territory from the east. This tradition will be noticed later. When discovered by Europeans, the Algonkin tribes on the Atlantic seaboard had become stationary within limited areas, while the tribes to the west were still in movement. Observation has shown that the nomadic. condition is unfavorable to the cultivation of the arts which tend to the development of man's higher faculties; hence in settled communities agriculture thrives and competition stimulates the people to improvement in manners, as well as in handiwork.

This settled condition had but partially obtained among the Algonkins of the Atlantic seaboard. They had, it is true, their settled villages and cultivated lands, but these villages were of an unstable character and were not unfrequently abandoned for localities supposed to possess greater advantages. In spite of this, the .semisettled condition of these Atlantic tribes conduced to more gentle manners, and stimulated them in some degree to imitate their European neighbors. This was especially noticeable in the Narragansetts, a tribe which had advanced beyond all the others in the manufacture of those implements which were necessary to savage life, and whose productions were eagerly sought by even remote tribes. Upon the introduction of the more elegant products of English workmanship, these people at once began to improve their own work, and in some cases succeeded in producing articles of considerable elegance, which found a ready market in the shops of London.

The Algonkin tribes possessed certain useful arts. They understood the fashioning of domestic utensils of clay, rudely ornamented and hardened by fire, the manufacture of a great variety of implements in wood, stone, and bone, of rope and twine for nets from filaments of bark, of hand weaving from the same material into various articles of ornament and use, and from reeds and osiers into baskets, the making of boats, the canoe of birch bark and the dug-out of wood, and the construction of musical instruments, the primitive pipe and drum. Moreover, they employed the ideographic method of recording thought. These arts were possessed by all the Algonkin tribes in greater or less perfection, but the more stationary tribes, like the Narragansetts, excelled the others in their practice.

Having thus briefly given a general description of the Algonkin family, we may properly examine one of its most interesting branches, the Abnakis of New England, whose chief seat was within the limits of the present state of Maine. While possessing the general physical characteristics of the great family to which they belonged, the Abnakis were more gentle in manners and more docile than their western congeners - the result, perhaps, of more settled modes of life. They were hunters, fishermen, and agriculturists,

if their rude methods of cultivating the maize, the squash, the bean, and a few other esculents entitle them to the latter term. At all times they appear to have depended largely upon fish for subsistence, though maize furnished them with an important winter diet; indeed, we are told that they undertook long journeys through the snow, with nothing to sustain them but parched maize pounded to a powder, three spoonfuls of which sufficed for a meal. In their agriculture they used fish, of which there was a wonderful abundance, to fertilize their crops, one or two fish being placed near the roots of the plant. Their dwellings were not constructed with a view to permanence, but frequently exhibited considerable taste in arrangement and decoration. They were usually of bark, fastened to poles in a pyramidal form and covered with woven mats, which rendered them impervious to wet, and when furnished with abundance of skins were comfortable for habitation. Their villages were enclosed for protection with palings set upright in the earth. Each village had its council lodge of considerable size, oblong in form and roofed with bark, and similar structures were made use of by male members of the village, who preferred to club together in social fellowship. They were hospitable to a fault, and delighted to entertain strangers in their rude fashion, generously sharing with them. their food, even when the supply was scanty. They possessed no articles of furniture, using skins to sit upon as well as for beds, and mother earth served for a table upon which to spread their simple. viands. Their costume was of the simplest kind. In summer they went naked, with the exception of a breech cloth fastened about the waist and hanging down before and behind like a double apron; but in winter they wore leggins of dressed buckskin reaching to their feet, which were shod with moccasins, usually of moose hide, which they skilfully tanned, the upper part of their bodies being protected by loose mantles made of the skins of wild beasts. Like all untutored people, they delighted in ornaments, and decked themselves gayly with bracelets, ear pendants, and curiously wrought chains, or belts, all of which were usually formed of carved shells, bones, and stones. They also painted their faces and, according to

Wood, imprinted figures with a scarring iron upon their bodies, perhaps, as he suggests, "to blazon their antique Gentilitie"; for, he says, "a sagamore with a Humberd in his eare for a pendant, a black hawke on his occiput for his plume, Mowhackies for his gold chaine, good store of Wampompeage begirting his loynes, his bow in his hand, his quiver at his back, with six naked Indian splatterdashes at his heeles for his guard, thinkes himself little inferior to the great Cham; hee will not stick to say, hee is all one with King Charles."

Father Vetromile asserts, that "their sentiments and principles of justice had no parallel amongst the other tribes," and that they were never known to have been "treacherous nor wanting in honor or conscience in fulfilling their word given either in public or private treaty." While we may properly regard this as too great praise, we must admit that they possessed a nobility of character remarkable in a savage people. It is certain that the missionaries found them more tractable and more ready to listen to their teachings than any other branch of the Algonkin family with which they came in contact. Although dignified and taciturn in council and among strangers, when free from restraint they were social and always ready to join in amusements among themselves. They favored athletic sports, and engaged freely in competitive trials of skill in wrestling, running, swimming, and dancing. Their most exciting game was foot-ball, which they played on immense courses, with goals a mile apart, a single game continuing sometimes for two days. They also indulged in games of chance, two of which Wood has graphically described to us under the names of Puim and Hubbub, which he says are not much unlike Cards and Dice"; and he asserts that they would often become so bewitched by these games, that they would lose at a sitting "Beaver, Moose, Skinnes, Kettles, Wampompeage, Mowhackies, Hatchets, Knives," in fact, everything which they possessed; and yet we are assured that, however fierce the competition in these games might become, they never quarrelled, nor harbored feelings of anger on account of losses, nor even of injuries received in athletic sports, but as friends would "meete at the kettle."

Their domestic relations were sacred.

Polygamy was but little practised by them. Courtship was simple, and the initiatory act was the bestowal of a present upon the parents of the girl sought in marriage. If the present was received, the marriage was consummated without ceremony, and the contract was held by the parties inviolable. The life of the woman, however, was one of hardship. She was expected to construct the covering of the dwelling, to braid the nets, to cultivate the garden, and to prepare the meals, of which it was not considered proper for her to partake until her husband and guests had regaled themselves. In spite of this, the affection which these rude parents exhibited for their children was considerable. The children were reared with care, and as soon as they were able to walk the boys were taught the use of weapons, especially of the bow, with which they became remarkably expert, and the girls the art of basket making and other domestic employments. Especial pride was taken by parents in the exploits of their sons, and the first game which they secured was publicly exhibited and afterwards devoted to a feast for their friends.

Both men and women are uniformly described as being modest, and perhaps the most remarkable thing to be recorded in favor of the Abnaki warrior is the fact that no female prisoner ever had occasion to complain of him in this respect.

Vetromile records the important fact that the Abnakis, and they alone of the Algonkin family, possessed the art of chirography, and he gives specimens of the characters employed by them, which strikingly remind one of the ancient phonetic script of Egypt and Phoenicia. He farther states that the people were accustomed to send missives to one another written upon birch bark, and the chiefs to despatch written circulars of the same material to their warriors, asking for advice. Indeed, the Abnakis asserted that their method of writing expressed ideas as fully and freely as that employed by Europeans. Their government was autocratic. The king held absolute rule, and at his death was succeeded by his oldest son. If childless, the queen assumed authority. If he left neither son nor consort to succeed him, then his office was assumed by his nearest relative.

To understand a people, it is necessary

to study their religious beliefs, since these often furnish motives for actions in themselves unintelligible. The Abnaki believed in the existence of an unseen world and of unseen beings by whom it was peopled, and with whom his priests could commune. These priests or, as rudely translated into English, medicine men, performed the threefold function of priest, prophet, and physician, and they often practised an asceticism as severe as that of the ascetic priests of India. To the ignorant child of the forest, they possessed miraculous power, beholding the hidden things of a supernatural sphere, which rendered them capable of forecasting the future. We should not regard them as impostors. Reared from childhood in the belief of supernatural existences, which found embodiment in the surrounding forms of nature, subject to long fasts and solitary communings with imaginary beings, they held themselves to be akin to the mysterious powers to whose service they were devoted, and acceptable mediums of communication between them and the common people. These men therefore exercised a controlling influence upon the tribes, as men exercising the priestly function have done in all ages and among all races of men. To them the proudest chiefs bowed submissively, and obeyed without question their mysterious utter

ances.

In common with other tribes of the Algonkin family, and in striking correspondence with Oriental beliefs, the Abnakis held that the world was under the influence of dual powers, beneficent and maleficent, and that there was one Great Spirit who held supreme rule, but at the same time did not interfere with these ever-conflicting powers. Upon this conception of deity their entire system of religious belief necessarily hinged; hence their belief in guardian spirits, which they denominated manitos, took a peculiar form: a belief which perhaps exercised greater influence upon their daily actions than any other doctrine which they cherished in the gloom of their unillumined minds. In order to come into true relationship with his manito, the youth, when he reached the age of puberty, subjected himself to a painful fast, which induced dreams. In this state he believed that his manito presented himself in the form usually of some bird or beast

of which he dreamed, and this animal became his manito and was adopted as his totem or crest. Thenceforward he was under the influence and guardianship of his manito, but it might be either good or evil, and subject to a more powerful manito possessed by another member of his tribe, which often caused him anxiety.

That they believed in a future existence, old writers generally testify. Wood, who was a close observer, quaintly says that "they hold the immortality of the never-dying soule, that it shall passe to the South-west Elysium, concerning which their Indian faith jumps much with the Turkish Alchoran, holding it to be a kinde of Paradise, wherein they shall everlastingly abide, solacing themselves in oderiferous Gardens, fruitfull Corn-fields, greene Medows, bathing their twany hides in the coole streames of pleasant Rivers, and shelter themselves from heate and cold in the sumptuous Pallace framed by the skill of Nature's curious contrivement; concluding that neither care nor paine shall molest them, but that Nature's bounty will administer all things with a voluntary contribution from the store-house of their Elysian Hospitall, at the portali whereof they say, lies a great Dogge, whose churlish snarlings deny a Pax intrantibus, to unworthy intruders: Wherefore, it is their custome, to bury with them their Bows and Arrows, and good store of their Wampompeage and Mowhackies; the one to affright that affronting Cerberus, the other to purchase more immense prerogatives in their Paradise. For their enemies and loose livers, who they account unworthy of this imaginary happiness, they say, that they passe to the infernall dwellings of Abamocho, to be tortured according to the fictions of the ancient Heathen."

A

The doctrine of metempsychosis, in an obscure form, seems to have been held by these people, and also that of the duality of the soul, which is said to have been the reason for their custom of burying domestic utensils and other articles with the dead, and of placing food upon their graves. singular statement is made by Mather, that they called the constellation of Ursa Major by a word in their language which possessed the same signification. In common with many other races of mankind, they regarded the serpent as being the embodiment of supernatural power, superior in

wisdom and cunning- in fact, a manito which demanded their reverence. Charlevoix tells us that they painted the figures of serpents upon their bodies, and that they possessed the power, so noted among the natives of India, of charming them.

Believing in the constant nearness of supernatural agencies, we cannot wonder that they beheld in every object in nature a form with which such an agency could mask itself. The wind, invisible to the eye, but announcing unmistakably its presence to the ear, formed to them the truest symbol of spiritual power, as it ever has with civilized man. The fire, whose beneficent heat was so necessary to them; the waters which yielded them subsistence; the animals which haunted the woodland glooms; aye, the very trees and rocks, and above all the great luminaries of night, whose movements they could not comprehend, prefigured to them mysteries which they strove in vain to grasp.

These people have left behind no monuments to excite the admiration of the archæologist; nothing, in fact, but implements in stone and bone to testify to their former existence. Along the shores of bays, islands, and river estuaries, where fish most abounded, may be seen slight elevations, usually of a more vivid green than the surrounding land. To the inexperienced eye these are but knolls, the common handiwork of nature; but if examined more closely, they are found to be composed of comminuted shells. These are the kitchen middens of the Abnakis, and when opened reveal objects of interest. At first we are likely to come upon ashes and blackened embers, among which are stones that bear the marks of burning, and with emotions akin to awe, we realize that we are invading the fireside of an ancient people, to whom the surrounding landscape, wood, stream, and rocky shore were familiar and beloved objects. With care we examine the mingled shells and earth which the spade exposes to view, among which are the bones of birds and beasts, the remnants of former feasts, as are, indeed, the shells, the extent and depth of which reveal a long-continued occupation of the spot. Often our search is rewarded by the discovery of fragmentary vessels of burnt clay, bearing the indented ornamentation familiar to archæologists, and implements of bone and stone upon which

time has wrought no change. The axe, which was used for a variety of purposes, was commonly formed from a stone of convenient size and form, by bringing to a cutting edge one end, and working about the other a deep groove, by which it could be hafted, by attaching to it a cleft stick, with the end wound with a leathern thong, or two sticks, one placed on each side of the grooved stone, and held together by being wound the entire length with a similar thong. These axes were of various forms and made of many varieties of stone, some made of slate or stone, which lent itself readily to lapidarian art, being of elegant shape and finish. Stone axes have been found a foot in length, and more than half as wide, but specimens five or six inches in length are more common. The smaller axes were probably used in war, and known in Indian parlance as tomahawks.

Another form of stone implement found in the middens is the celt or chisel. These are slender stones of some length, with one end worked to a straight cutting edge, and were probably used by being fixed into a horn, or cylindrical handle of wood, of suitable size, which would permit the ex-. posure of the cutting edge. Some of these stones are grooved in the form of a gouge, and served the purpose of the modern implement of that character. Occasionally one comes upon an implement which probably served as a hammer. It is usually an oval stone with a groove worked around it, by which it could be hafted. A rarer implement is semi-lunar in form, and was used for cutting purposes. It was five or six inches in length, the rounded edge being ground thin, the straight side being held in the palm of the hand. Doubtless many chipped flint stones, with sharp edges, which are mistaken for spear heads, were used as knives. Sometimes we come upon an implement resembling an imperfect arrow head, but with a long and slender point. This was used for drilling holes, and served the purpose of the modern drill or awl. Oblong stones more or less finished were more common. Some of these were used in dressing the skins of beasts, and others as pestles for pulverizing maize. A common boulder having a depression upon its surface often served for a mortar, but sometimes a mortar neatly wrought from a stone of convenient size