“Nothing can awaken in the breast more melancholy feelings than the funeral chants of these people. They are sung by a whole chorus of females of all ages, and the effect produced upon the bystanders by this wild music is indescribable.”
Many of the Australian words given by Colonel Grey will readily be recognized among the terms collected from the languages of the other Four Continents in Appendix A; as for example: Nganga, Ngon-ge, Tin-dee, Tiendee, “The Sun” and “The Stars.” (See App. A, p. 26.) Yanna, “To go,” and Tjênna, Tinna, “The Foot.” (74.) Tullun, Tdallung, Tadlanga, “The Tongue.” (72.) Nago, “To see.” (42, 43.) Mena, “The Eye.” (14.) Poou, Puiyu, Poito, Booyoo, “Smoke,” and Bobun, “To blow.” (21.)
In the construction of their canoes, the inhabitants of some of the most barbarous islands of the Pacific, exhibit an originality and a variety of conception of precisely the same nature as is displayed in those mechanical inventions by which the sum of European civilization is progressively extended!
But in relation to the subject more immediately under examination, far the most valuable and instructive information occurs in Mr. Catlin’s account of his residence among the North American Indian Tribes, a work, admirable alike as a living picture of Indian manners and sentiments, and also as an earnest and simple minded, and for that reason an eminently touching and eloquent appeal, on behalf of one of the noblest, though one of the most unfortunate families of the Human Race!
“I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,” says the writer, “visiting and associating with some three or four hundred thousand of these people, under an almost infinite variety of circumstances; and from the very many and decidedly voluntary acts of their hospitality and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature, a kind and hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their country, and treated to the best that they could give me, without any charges made for my board; they have often escorted me through their enemies’ country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in passing mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all these circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a blow, or stole from me a shilling’s worth of my property that I am aware of.
