can’t alwayssepar atefiction from fact; they must go together;
for often, if the fiction or allegory be pulled up, the fact has
no roots to sustain itself.
Philology.— The Seneca language has a masculine, feminine
and neuter gender. It has also an animate and inanimate
gender, making five genders. It has a general and
dual plural. It abounds in compounds descriptiveand derivative
terms, like the Algonquin* They count'by the .decimal
mode. There are names for. the digits to ten. ^.Twenty is
a cqtnpound of two and ten, and thirty ©Ohree and‘ten,^&<5.
The comparison of adjectives is effected by prefixes, not by
inflections, or by changes of the words, as in English. Nouns
have adjective inflections as in the Algonquin. Thus o-a-
deh is a road, o-a-i-yu a good road. The infleetion'in, this
last word, is from uri-yu, good.;
I rving, Mouth of Cattaraugus.^—-This is a fine natural harbor,
and port' of refuge*- Its neglect appears strange, but it
is to be attributed to the influence of capitalists at-Silver
Creek, Dunkirk, Barcelona, &c.
It is a maxim with the Iroquois, that a, chief’s skin should
be thicker tbap that of the thorn locust,. that it may not be
penetrated by the thorns. - Indian speakers never Impugn
each other’s motives when speaking in public council. In
this, they offer an example.
I ndians-in Canada.—Jt is observed by a report of the Canadian
parliament, that the number nf Indians now iii Canada
is 12,000. Of these, 3,301 are residing in Lower Canada,
and the remainder 8,862, in Canada West. The number of
Indians is stated to be on the increase, partly from a ,nu*.
merous immigration of tribes from the United States.' This
report must he taken with allowances. It is, at best, but an
estimate, and in this respect the Canadians, like ourselves,
are apt to over estimate.
The Indian is a man who has eertainly some fine points of
character; one would think a man of genius could turn him
to’account: Why then are Indian tales" and poems failures'?
They fail in exeiting'deep sympathy. Wc do not feel that
he has a heart. .■
. . Th e Indian must- be humanized before he can be loved.
This is the defect- in the attempts of poets and novelists.
They do not show the reader that the red man has a feeling, >
sympathising heart, and feeling and sympathies like his own,
and 'consequently he is not-interested in the tale. It is a tale
ofi .a statue, chid, exact, stiff, bgt without life.-, It is not a
man with man?s. .ordinafy loves and hopes and hates. Hence
the failure of our ' Yam,qyden&, and Ontw^ ^and Escallalas,
-and adozen„of pbems, Which," although having merits, slumT
her in type and sheepskin, on the bookseller’s shelf.- _
Hosts’ Corners, Cattaraugus county.—One seems here, as
if he hadt su d d e r ily p itc h e d into'some of the deep gorges
of; the* Alps, .surrounded with cliffs and rocks and woods, in
alb imaginable wildness.
Conu Alleghany rive^ Sept. 3,—Reached the Indian
villaae on the reservation at this,place, at o’clock in the
'mornipg. Indiums call the place Te-o-mi-gM-o^ or B&-o-nv-
gort-o, which means TJold Spring. Locality of the farmer
employed by Quakers, at the mouth of a. creek, called Tuna-
'mssd'; meansA^'clear stream with a pebbly bed. Alleghany
*Wbr they call OAeo,. making no difference between.it, add the
stream afterjhe Inlet of the Motoongahela. Gov. Blacksnake
absent: other chiefs, withhis son Jacob, meet ip council; business
adjusted' with, readiness, t Alleghany.river low; very
different in its volume' bf water and appearance from what it
.was twenty-seven years before, when I descended it, on my
w'fEy to the‘ west.' Lumbering region; banks lined with
■’shingle!, boards,'"saw-'ld^ Iudians act as’ guides and- lumbermen.
NOt 0 favorable location for the Improvement of
the Senedal* steal their timber; cheat them in bargains;
sell ^tskby lb them, Had the - imagiaativd Greeks lived in
Alleghany dl6nty,they would have pictured the Genesee and
Alleghany-rivers, as twp girls," who having shaken Hands, part-
• 59 1