[22] Mestang, a horse bred between the wild and the tame breeds: they are sometimes to be met with among the traders to Santa Fé.
[23] The Pawnee nations have of late years fixed their winter villages on the banks of the Nebraska, or Platte river, many hundred miles to the N. W. of the spot named in the text; but at the date of our narrative they dwelt on the banks of the Konsas, where the ruins of their principal village are still faintly to be discerned.
[24] The name of Tamenund is doubtless familiar to all Americans who have taken the slightest interest in the history of the Indian tribes, as well as to that more numerous class who have read the graphic and picturesque descriptions penned by the great American novelist: nevertheless, it may be necessary, for the information of some European readers, to state that Tamenund was an ancient Lenapé chief, whose traditionary fame is so great in the tribe, that they have from time to time given his name to chiefs, and even to white men whom they desired especially to honour. At the time of the revolutionary war, so numerous were the traditions and legends respecting this hero, that he was in some quarters established as the patron saint of America, under the name of St. Tammany; and hence arose the Tammany societies and Tammany buildings in various parts of the Union.—See Heckewalder’s Historical Account of the Indian Nations, chap. xl., and The Last of the Mohicans, vol. iii. p. 152, &c.
[25] The tribe called by white men “the Foxes,” who inhabit chiefly the region between the Upper Mississippi and Lake Michigan.
[26] In describing the manners and distinctions of rank among the Indians of the Missouri plains, it is necessary to adopt the terms in common use among the guides and traders, however vague and unsatisfactory those terms may be. In these tribes the chieftainship is partly hereditary and partly elective: there is usually one Great Chief, and there are also chiefs of a second degree, who are chiefs of different bands in the tribe; next to these in rank are the “Braves,” the leading warriors of the nation; and in order to be qualified for admission into this rank, an Indian must have killed an enemy or given other sufficient evidence of courage and capacity. When a war–council it held, the opinion of the principal Brave is frequently preferred before that of the chief.
[27] “Medicine–men.” This term (commonly used by traders among the Indians beyond the Mississippi) signifies the “priests,” or “mystery–men,” who are set apart for the celebration of all religious rites and ceremonies. They are the same class as those who were described by Charlevoix, and other early French writers, as “Jongleurs,” because they unite medical practice to their sacerdotal office, and, more especially in the former, exercise all manner of absurd mummery. Their dress, character, and habits vary according to the tribe to which they belong; but they are genuine “Jongleurs” throughout.
[28] See Schiller’s “Bride of Messina.”
[29] Every warrior belonging to the Lenapé, Saukee, and all the branches of the great Chippewyan tribe, believes himself to be under the mysterious guardianship of some spirit, usually represented under the form of an animal. This is called his “totem,” and is held sacred by him: thus, a warrior whose totem is a tortoise, or a wolf, or even a snake, will cautiously abstain from injuring or killing one of those animals.
[30] Anglicè, “the pipe.”
[31] An allusion to the fondness of bears for honey occurs more than once in this tale, and will be met with in some shape or other in most works which treat of that animal’s habits and propensities: that such is the case in Europe, as well as in North America, may be gathered from the fact that, in the Russian tongue, a bear is called “Med–vede,” which word is thus formed: med, honey; vede, who knows: “He who knows honey.”