Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

nations of Europe, we must refer to this work. We are so accus tomed to form our conceptions of the "garb of old Gael" from mere outline sketches, destitute of the advantages of colour, that such a plate, for instance, which represents Caractacus in Rome attired in the scarlet and pink braccæ or "trews" gives us a most lucid idea of the dress of this mythical representative of the Siluri. The change which has taken place in the colour of the costume of males in Europe during the last few hundred years is difficult to be accounted for on artistic grounds, though susceptible of easy explanation from the utilitarian point of view. The vivid colours which bedecked the courtier or the cavalier, the superabundance of ornament and decoration which characterised the fashions of the Tudor or the Caroline kings, have long since passed away, and the prevailing sombre tint of man's clothing in the nineteenth century, whilst it is far more convenient and economical, is far less picturesque.

The perusal of this work by anthropologists will originate many suggestive ideas as to the dress of the historical characters of England, and we doubt not that the second volume, which will treat of a subsequent period of English history, will be equally interesting.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES EXTRACTED FROM THE NEW YORK STATE DOCUMENTS.

By GEORGE E. ROBERTS, F.G.S., Hon. Sec. A.S.L.

Ir may easily be supposed that the persons officially connected with the state of New York during the earliest years of its colonisation did not pass over in complete silence the natural characteristics of the aboriginal people with whom they had dealings. And although the scientific leanings of these governors and their staffs of officials were certainly not specially directed in the interests of anthropological science, yet I have been rewarded somewhat for my trouble in wading through 7,000 quarto pages of "Public Records" by the discovery of more than one note having a significant bearing upon the races of Indians which, at the commencement of the white invasion, were lords of the North American continent. The notes I have met with I propose to give as simple extracts, adding a line or two of explanation where needed, feeling sure that to enshrine them in the Anthropological Review will be of interest to its readers, and possibly of use to the science.

I may first remark that these archives chiefly consist of the reports of the Dutch, English, and French governors of the various provinces to their respective governments; these have been collected, grouped, and published in ten (?) quarto volumes, under an act of the American legislature passed in 1839. I have only been able to examine eight of these volumes; but as the one (or two) to which I am unable to refer contains documents subsequent to 1770, I do not think that notes of anthropological value would be met with in them.

During the earlier years of the Dutch occupation of the state, from the first settlement on Manhattan Island in 1626 to about the year 1650, the study of the character of the red man was undertaken mainly to assist the padroons (colonists) in "taking and possessing" the land, and swindling the aboriginal man of all his rights thereto; the Incorporated West India Company agreeing to allot to each padroon "twelve black men and women out of the prizes in which negroes shall be found, for the advancement of the colonies of New Netherland." (MS. undated, File West Indie, 1630-35, Archives at the Hague.) Very naturally the Indians objected to being cheated, and a series of cruel conflicts took place, in one of which an act of barbarity was perpetrated by the colonists which even exceeds the tragedy of the caves of Deira. I note it, as it exemplifies the wonderful stoicism and contempt of pain possessed by the red man. A body of Indians, five hundred in number according to one account, seven hundred according to another, being hard pressed by the Dutch soldiers, retreated to their huts, and these being set on fire with a view of dislodging them, preferred to remain therein and be burnt rather than come out and be killed by their enemies. "What was most wonderful," says the States Document, describing this barbarous act, "is, that among this vast collection of men, women, and children, not one was heard to cry or to scream." No wonder that it passed for a common saying among the tribes, "even our devils will have nothing to do with the Dutch!"

The earliest description of the natives which I find occurs in a MS. preserved in the Royal Library at the Hague, written about 1641. "The Indians are of ordinary stature, strong, and broad-shouldered, olive colour, light and nimble of foot, subtle in disposition, of few words, which they previously well consider, hypocritical, treacherous, vindictive, brave, and pertinacious in self-defence, in time of need resolute to die. They have hardly any notion of God, no divine worship, no law, no justice; the strongest does what he pleases, and the young men are masters." I need scarcely remark that some parts of the above description have been proved incorrect by more friendly relationships; their ideas of justice we may admit as considerable,

without regarding the red man as that epitome of human virtue which Mr. Fenimore Cooper once would have us believe.

The States General of the United Provinces, in an Act dated 1661, make mention of the red man in a way which characteristically combines the acute trader with the propagandist-"great profit to be derived from traffique with the natives," reads this document, "who are naturally a mild people, very capable (and by the grace of God) to be drawne out of their blind ignorance to the saving light by Jesus Christ." But the governors of the British provinces held during the seventeenth century lived in far too brittle tenements to justify them in casting stones at the rule of their neighbours the Dutch or the French. Wars with the Indians were the rule rather than the excep tion during the history of their governance, and various were the reports and conjectures as to the causes of them. A very curious and lengthy report, by Edward Randolph, to the Council of Trade (A.D. 1676) gives some few of the opinions held. "Some impute it (the war) to an imprudent zeal in the magistrates of Boston to christianise those heathens before they were civilised;" and then the report proceeds to mention the puritanical decision of the government of Massachusetts, that the "barbarous heathen had commission of God to rise against them," by reason of the "great and provoking evils" of "men wearing long hair, and periwigs made of woman's hair; for women wearing borders of hair, and for cutting and laying out their hair, and disguising themselves by following strange fashions in their apparel; for profaneness in the people not frequenting the meetings, and others going away before the blessing is pronounced." (For this report, in extenso, see Hutchinson's Coll. Orig. Papers, Boston, 1769, p. 477.)

A curious journal is that of Mr. Wentworth Greenhalgh, who "made observations upon the Indians of western New York during a journey begun May 28th, 1677, and ended July 14th following," visiting the natives in their "stockaded towns," and taking divers notes of what he saw. What corn they have, and how many fighting men, appear to have been pet subjects with our old traveller, though he now and then notes social customs, e. g.-"Canagorah: here ye Indians (Senecques, Seneca tribe) were very desirous to see us ride our horses, wch we did; they made feasts and dancing, and invited us yt when all ye maides were together both wee and our Indyans might choose such as lyked us to ly with." At another village of the Seneca Indians, Tiotehatton, an important one, by reason of the number and size of the "houses" (lodges), Mr. Greenhalgh saw fifty prisoners brought in from the south-west, the result of an engagement with a neighbouring tribe, and "this day," he writes, were

66

burnt of them two women and a man, and a child killed with a stone; all night we heard a great noyse, as if ye houses had all fallen, butt itt was only ye inhabitants driving away ye ghosts of ye murthered." And next day, going to Canagaroh (another Seneca camp), "wee overtook other prisoners, and when ye soldiers saw us they stopped each his prisoner and made him sing, and cutt off their fingers, and slasht their bodys wth a knife, and when they had sung each man confessed how many men in his tyme hee had killed; that day at Canagorah there were most cruelly burned four men, four women, and one boy, the cruelty lasting about seven hours, and afterwards taking the hearts of such as were dead to feast upon."

(To be continued.)

ORGANIC PHILOSOPHY.*

A VERY diligent perusal of the above work has failed to imbue our mind so thoroughly with its precise object as to enable us to review it critically. The scheme of the volume is so vast, and so little defined in its objects and principles; and the methods of thought which the author follows are so little laid down, that it will be very difficult to criticise him from the standpoint of inductive science. Nor can we see the bearing on "man's true place in nature" of many of the "epicosmological" subjects on which Dr. Doherty treats. Discussions on the "geospheric" realm, on "geodynamic factors", on "cryptogamic unity", or the "isomeric forms of common minerals”, no doubt have their value in a treatise on "Organic Philosophy"; we scarcely, however, regret that the objects of our review preclude the consideration of these topics with Dr. Doherty.

Although our author protests against the materialism of Comte, and against most theological systems, excepting his own peculiar faith, which occasionally verges on the incomprehensible, the appli cation of the transcendental method he adopts to modern zoology and anthropology leads to some very curious results. We can scarcely, however, use the term "transcendental" to adequately designate Dr. Doherty's conclusions; his "vernunft" is wholly distinct from that of Schelling or of Oken.

Let us follow him throughout the mammalian series, in the hopes of being guided by the light of "epicosmology" to man's true place

* Organic Philosophy; or Man's true Place in Nature. Vol. i: Epicosmology. By Hugh Doherty, M.D. London: Trübner and Co., Paternoster Row.

in nature. We are met with a remarkable classification, which we mnst abridge from the 166th and 167th pages of his work:

VII. Simial order (comprising bats and monkeys!)

[blocks in formation]

I.

Pachydermal order (including cetacea and sirenia!)

Dr. Doherty, after penning the above, kindly remarks, "Professional naturalists may possibly not admit our views of method and arrangement. We do not admit theirs." We are glad to perceive that Dr. Doherty has no intention to employ the weapons of persecution against the ill-fated "professional naturalists"-poor working men who are content to labour in the search of facts, and to leave " epicosmology" to be expounded by the "reasoner". But we venture, as anthropologists, to offer one feeble petition to our author not to classify mankind between the kangaroo and the horse. The relations of man to the ape may be denied successfully by Dr. Doherty; but we fear that his too close proximity to the opossum and the Shetland pony would be equally as offensive to man's moral nature. Still less are the European races to be conciliated by the pretty epithet "mediumistic" applied to them; although we can assure our readers that it bears no reference whatever to M. de Quatrefages' papers Sur l'influence des Milieux, nor to any previous literature we have read.

Turning to Dr. Doherty's anatomy, we are gravely told that "the mouth, pharynx, and œsophagus inosculate with the stomach; the duodenum links the stomach with the small intestines; the anus and the rectum inosculate with the large bowel; and the chief digestive gland ducts inosculate with the mouth and the duodenum." The marvellous agapemone which man's viscera seems thus to be is slightly past our precise comprehension. No bowels of mercy are however shewn by him to the unfortunate "taxionomist" (sic), because he states, "Nor does it matter, as a point of natural distinction in each case, whether analogies or correspondency of any kind be evident or not."

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »