Chingachgook

“ It portrays Leatherstocking as a young scout just entering manhood, and embodies some of the author's best work. Perhaps no one was so well-fitted to illustrate the ideal friendship between Deerslayer and Chingachgook as he, who in his boyhood stood many a time beside the lakeside as the shadows fell over the forest, not knowing whether the faint crackling of the bushes meant the approach of the thirsty deer, or signalled the presence of some Indian hunter watching with jealous eye the white intruder. ”

“ In a bark canoe, they were totally without cover, and Indian discretion was entirely opposed to such a sacrifice of life as would most probably follow any attempt to assault an enemy, entrenched as effectually as the Delaware. Instead of following the Ark therefore, these three warriors inclined towards the eastern shore, keeping at a safe distance from the rifles of Chingachgook. ”

“ With all his virtues of hand and head he combines a nobility of spirit which the woods have fostered in a mind never spoiled by contact with human meanness and injustice. He has grown nobler as he has grown more remote from quarreling Otsego, more the poet and the hero as the world in which he moves has become more wholly his own. Chingachgook has undergone even a greater change, has got back all the cunning and pride which had been deadened in that victim of civilization, Indian John. ”

“ As might have been expected, in growing younger Natty has grown theatrical; he appears too exactly at the critical moment to perform the deed of cool bravery expected of him. It could hardly be otherwise; The Last of the Mohicans is80 a romance, and in romances such things must be. Chingachgook, that engaging savage, has for so many years met the romantic ideal of the American Indian that it is unlikely he will ever be disturbed in his place in the reader’s esteem. ”

“ There will be cloudy days in your lodge I suppose, for they happen under all usages, and among all people, but, by keepin' the windows of the heart open there will always be room for the sunshine to enter. You come of a great stock yourself, and so does Chingachgook. It's not very likely that either will ever forget the sarcumstance and do any thing to disgrace your forefathers. Nevertheless, likin' is a tender plant, and never thrives long when watered with tears. Let the 'arth around your married happiness be moistened by the dews of kindness. ”

“ The Chinook winds were blowing coolly, coming from the Kuro Siwo, or placid ocean-river from Japan; odoriferous, as though spice-laden from the flowery isles of the Yellow Sea. Warm in winter, cool in summer, like the Gulf winds of Floridian shores, the good angel of the Puget Sea territories is the Chinook wind from far Asia, a mysterious country, of which the old chief and his family knew no more than of the blessed isles.
"It is a day of the Great Manitou," said the old chief. "He lights the sun, and lifts his wings for a shadow, and breathes on the earth. He fills our hearts with peace. ”

“ Now it must not be supposed that our giant was one of those ridiculous myths of the nursery, with monstrous heads and savage hearts, who live on human flesh, and finally receive their deserts at the hands of famous giant-killing Jacks. No! Chingatok was a real man of moderate size—not more than seven feet two in his sealskin boots—with a lithe, handsome figure, immense chest and shoulders, a gentle disposition, and a fine, though flattish countenance, which was sometimes grave with thought, at other times rippling with fun. ”

“ Physical Appearance.—"The personal appearances of the Chinook differs so much from that of the aboriginal tribes of the United States, that it was difficult at first to recognise the affinity. Taking them collectively, they are even inferior in stature to the tribes of Interior Oregon; the general form is shorter and more squat, and the face is rounder and broader when viewed in front. Instances occurred of a fairness of complexion, which I have not seen in other parts of aboriginal America; and in young children, the colour was often not strikingly deeper than among Europeans. ”

“ With the exception of Franchere, whose short vocabulary was published by Mr. Gallatin, and Mr. Hale, all the writers mentioned by Ludwig who have given specimens of the Chinook language, have presented it in its Jargon form, more or less mixed with the neighboring ones, and with corruptions of French and English words. Mr. Swan, among others, has been led into this error. The place of his residence, Shoalwater Bay, is common ground of the Chinook and Chihalis Indians, and the degraded remnants of the two tribes are closely intermarried, and use both languages almost indifferently. ”

“ The Chinooks reside chiefly along the banks of a river of the same name, running parallel to the sea-coast, through a low country studded with stagnant pools, and emptying itself into Baker’s Bay, a few miles from Cape Disappointment. This was the tribe over which Comcomly, the one-eyed chieftain, held sway; it boasted two hundred and fourteen fighting men. Their chief subsistence was on fish, with an occasional regale of the flesh of elk and deer, and of wild-fowl from the neighboring ponds. ”

“ A popular term in the Northwest is the word “Chinook.” We find, for example, the “Chinook” wind, the “Chinook” jargon, and “Chinook” salmon. “Chinook” is also applied by Indians and whites to the type of hull just described, and appears in that sense in the works of Swan and Boas. The term, bearing in mind, of course, that it is used in a general sense and is not necessarily to be associated with the Chinook tribe proper, living at the mouth of the Columbia, is distinctive, and has the advantage of usage behind it. Locally, on Puget sound, the model goes commonly by this name. ”

“ The principal contribution of the Chinooks to modern life has been the “Chinook jargon” which has become the trade language of the coast. It is a curious medley of words, and has been recently made the subject of an interesting study by Mr. Horatio Hale. [123]
The Sahaptins or Nez Percés, with their affiliated tribes, occupied the middle and upper valley of the Columbia and its affluents, and also the passes of the mountains. They were in contiguity with the Shoshonees and the Algonkin Blackfeet, thus holding an important position, intermediate between the eastern and the Pacific tribes. ”

“ After a winding course over rocks and shoals, through unexplored Shan States and savage hills where head-hunting is still fitfully pursued, the Chindwin joins the Irrawaddy above Pakôkku. Passing between banks clad with dense forest, we desecrated with steam and smoke silent reaches glamorous with romance. The march of progress is gradually dissipating the mist which yet still clings to this river of ancient story. Here and there a court-house or a military police post marks the advance of civilization. ”

“ The Chinook jargon is employed by the white people in their intercourse with the natives, as well as by the natives among themselves. It is spoken throughout Oregon, Washington Territory, on Vancouver Island, and extends inland into Idaho and some parts of Montana. It is more than probable that, like other languages de convenance, it formed itself gradually, first among the natives themselves, and that in the course of time, in order to facilitate their intercourse with the aborigines, trappers and traders adopted and improved it, until it was finally brought into its present state. ”

“ She had lingered in the doorway for a moment to watch her brothers, who had gone on before her, laughing and shouting as they floundered along, now walking a few steps on top of the snow, now suddenly sinking down, up to the waist, as they chanced to find a spot where the chinook had done more rapid work. As she looked after them, she saw, crossing the road, one of the stray cows that wandered about the town. ”

“ The Chinooks were always a commercial rather than a warlike people, and are excelled by none in their 239 shrewdness at bargaining. Before the arrival of the Europeans they repaired annually to the region of the Cascades and Dalles, where they met the tribes of the interior, with whom they exchanged their few articles of trade—fish, oil, shells, and Wapato—for the skins, roots, and grasses of their eastern neighbors. The coming of ships to the coast gave the Chinooks the advantage in this trade, since they controlled the traffic in beads, trinkets and weapons ”

“ In the nouns derived from the French, the definite article le, la, has almost in every instance been incorporated into the word, and the same has in one or two instances been prefixed to nouns not of French origin. Besides the words created by direct onomatopoeia, there are quite a number which are really Indian, but have their origin in the similarity of sound to sense.
Dr. Scouler's analogy between the Nootkan and "Columbian," or Chinook, was founded on the following words:
English. Tlaoquatch and Nutka. Columbian. plenty, *aya, *haya. no, *wik, *wake. water, tchaak, chuck. ”

“ THE CHINOOKS. Inhabiting the lower parts of the Columbia, are a small tribe, and correctly come under the name of Flat Heads, as they are almost the only people who strictly adhere to the custom of squeezing and flattening the head. Plate 209, is the portrait of a Chinook boy, of fifteen or eighteen years of age, on whose head that frightful operation has never been performed. And in plate 210, will be seen the portrait of a Chinook woman, with her child in her arms, her own head flattened, and the infant undergoing the process of flattening ”

“ As Chins, Kamis, Mros, Chinboks, Chinbons, Yindus, etc., they have been for centuries in occupation of the western uplands, which extend from the north of the Upper Chindwin District (where the Chin merges into the Naga country) along the edge of the Assam uplands— the home of their blood-relatives the Lushais— down to the foot-hills on the fringe of the Irrawaddy delta, and have had time, by union with the plain dwellers, to form hybrid communities— like the Taungthas of Pakôkku and the Chaungthas of Arakan— whose connection with their Chin neighbours is no longer obvious. ”

“ Chinook, a language or jargon, the existence of which few people living east of the Rocky Mountains know of, is the sole medium of communication between the whites and Indians upon the northwest coast of America, from the Columbia River to Alaska, including the tribes scattered over Washington Territory and Oregon. ”

“ The word is neither Chinook nor Chihalis. Dr. Scouler gives nannanitch as Nootka and Columbian. It is possibly tbe former.
~Nau'-its~, adv. Chihalis, NOITSH. Mr. Hale gives this for off shore; on the stream. It means, according to Mr. Anderson, the sea-beach, and is not properly a Jargon word.
~Na-wit'-ka~, adv. Chinook, idem; Klikatat and Yakama, N'WITKA. Yes; certainly; yes indeed; to be sure. Nawitka wake nika kumtuks, indeed I don't know. In answer to a negative question, many Indians use it as affirming the negative. Ex. Wake mika nanitsh? did you not see [it] ? ”

“ This difference was well shown in the case of The Assiniboine and his wife, of whom excellent portraits are given in the Frontispiece.
19 Chinook is a jargon which was invented by the Hudson’s Bay Company for the purpose of facilitating communication with the different Indian tribes. These were so numerous, and their languages so various, that the traders found it impossible to learn them all, and adopted the device of a judicious mixture of English, French, Russian, and several Indian tongues, which has a very limited vocabulary ”

“ Without letters, without laws, without any arbitrary distinctions of rank or wealth, and with a code of morality so simple, that upon that point they are pretty much on a par, it is superior natural gifts, strength, and intelligence, that raise an Indian to distinction and influence. He has not the less to fish for his own dinner, and build his own canoe.
Shinguaconse led a band of warriors in the war of 1812, was at Fort Malden, and in the battle of the Moravian towns. Besides being eloquent and brave he was a famous conjuror. He is now a Christian, with all his family ”

“ As time passed and the white men began to learn something of the Chinook nature, it was discovered that these people, their immediate neighbors, had been telling the more distant Indians that the white men were enemies, just as they had been telling the white people that these distant tribes were enemies. The result of this was that the Chinooks were purchasing furs from the distant tribes and selling them to the traders at a handsome profit. ”

“ South-west of Peking the Great Khingan is continued by the In-shan mountains, which exhibit similar features to those of the Great Khingan, and represent the same terraced escarpment of the Mongolian plateau. Moreover, it appears from the map of the Russian General Staff (surveys of Skassi, V. A. Obruchev, G. N. Potanin, &c.) that similar terrace-shaped escarpments—but considerably wider apart than in Manchuria—occur in the Shan-si province of China, along the southern border of the South Mongolian plateau. ”

“ To kindle a fire the Chinook twirls rapidly between the palms a cedar stick, the point of which is pressed into a small hollow in a flat piece of the same material, the sparks falling on finely-frayed bark. Sticks are commonly carried for the purpose, improving with use. Besides woven baskets, matting is the chief article of Chinook manufacture. ”

“ In Oregon the Chinooks and neighboring people tell of a pre-human demon race, called Ulháipa by the Chinooks, and Sehuiáb by the Clallams and Lummis. The Chinooks say that the human race was created by Italapas, the Coyote. The first men were sent into the world in a very lumpish and imperfect state, their mouth and eyes were closed, their hands and feet immovable. Then a kind and powerful spirit called Ikánam, took a sharp stone, opened the eyes of these poor creatures, and gave motion to their hands and feet. He taught them how to make canoes as well as all other implements and utensils ”