| OF THE INDIAN MIND. 259
out Sustenance, and nights without any covering
but bushes and snow.
TEE TACITURNITY OF THE INDIANS
The extreme taciturnity of the Indians was one
of their most striking characteristics. We shall
explain it in different ways according as we sup-
pose, that the Indian was made to fit the circum-
stances in which he was to be placed, or that he
was made like other men, and that the circum-
stances changed him. On the latter supposition
he has learned to be silent, from the fact that
silence is so necessary for him while prowling
through the woods in search of game, or watching
against an ambuscade on the part of an enemy.
But talkativeness is the result of a peculiar
mental organization, leading to a lively and rapid
flow of ideas,, ardent sensibilities, and
a quick and ready action of the nerves and muscles that are
connected with the organs of speech. All this nice
mechanism would be out of place, in a great meas-
ure, with these children of the forest; and, indeed,
would be worse than out of place, for it might
be, necessarily for aught we know, connected with
greater sensibility to pain, which to the Indian
would be a very serious evil.
We might suppose, it is true, that the inward
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