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408
great measure, the sensation of pain, and wholly
deprives it of those additional terrors with which a
timid imagination invests it.
Our savages understaning the hardships of their
own lot, and foreseeing the trials to which their for-
titude may probably be exposed by the chances of
war, make it a principal object of their early disci.
pline to inure their youth to fatigue, and sufferings,
and deprivations of every kind. Even their amuse-
ments partake of the same intention. Among all
nations, their customary diversions are relative to
their manners. In the warlike ages of Greece and
Rome the amusements of those martial people con-
sisted in leaping, running, wrestling, and throwing
the discus, or the spear, to fit them for the com-
bat. After the model of nature, likewise, the Ame-
rican indians havedrawn their amusements from their
state, and make diversions themselves prepare them
for suffering. Besides shooting the arrow, and
throwing the tomahawk to qualify them for the ac-
tive operations of hunting, and of war, their chil-
dren frame diverting subjects of contest with one an-
other, in trying who shall endure the deepest punc-
tures, or the hardest blows without complaining; or
who shall hold a burning brand in their hands with


409
the most persevering steadiness, and for the longest
time. Sometimes they single out objects of their
rude wit upon whom to try the force of their ridi-
cule, who are forever disgraced if they discover any
temper or impatience under all the jests and teazings
of their companions. Thus do they prepare them-
selves, by continual exertions of patience, even in
their sports, for that last and great trial of it, when
they shall be called to endure the most cruel tortures
of enraged enemies, and to suffer from them every
species of insult and contempt, often more difficult
to be borne than tortures.
Their religious ideas contribute also, in some de-
gree, to sustain that amazing fortitude, and patience
in enduring torture which is one of the principal dis-
tinctions of their race. It is not my intention to en-
ter into any extensive delineation of their system of
superstition : but only to suggest a single reflection
as it is relative to their extraordinary fortitude in
death.--Virtue, in their esteem, consists entirely
in those elevated and enterprizing qualities which are
associated with the idea of heroism. An expiring
warrior, therefore, is never affected with those fears
of futurity which, to the disciples of a purer religion,
3 c

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-05 18:37:12