The conduct of the sufferer is no less extraordinary. In the intervals of torture, he smokes too, and converses with his tormentors; or he defies their cruelty, and chaunts his death-song, scorning to complain. He en dures without a groan, or a look of impatience, what it seems almost impossible for human nature to bear. He rcisvom us utu, t.Itit uuskilluiness in the art of ; tccouuts Lis OWII exploits, and threatens ith a ret e lige Iron' the tribe out of which he has het n taken. I le even points out to them more exquisite ;nodes of giN ing hint pain. " I brat e and intrepid," he exclaims, " i do not Car death, nor any kind or tor tures: those who tear them are cowards; they are less than women. Life is nothing to those who are possessed of courage. May my enemies be confounded y, ith de spair and rage. 0 that I could (I( your them ! I would drink their blood to the very last drop. Forbear," said an aged chic! of the Iroquois, " forbear these stabs of your knife ; and rather let me die by fire, that those dogs, your allies, from beyond the sea, may learn, by my ex ample, to suffer like men." Those who have contemplated the rude inhabitants of the American continent with a philosophic eye, have been at a loss to account for the extraordinary fortitude displayed by the sufferers amidst the tortures which we have now described. The women possess this fortitude, in some degree, as well as the men; though their op portunities of chewing it are happily fewer. Some have referred it to a peculiarity of constitution, and ascribed it to a certain thickness of the skin, and rigidity of the muscular fihres: and it has been thought that this is proved by the numerous cases of insensibility to pain, where the sufferer could have no such motives to dis play his fortitude, as he may be supposed to have when he defies the rage of his enemies, and threatens them with awful retaliation from the community to which he belongs. An Indian was under the necessity of being cut for the stone. This operation, which, in ordinary cases, lasts but a few minutes, was, from particular cir ( umstances, protracted for nearly half an hour. Yet, during all this time, he exhibited no symptoms of the acute pain tt hich generally attends that hazardous ope ration. The Indians of North America can bear the se verities of their climate with scarcely any covering ; and follow the chacc with undiminished activity amidst the utmost rigour of winter. It is said also, that the thorns and briars slide smoothly over their bodies as they pass through the woods, and that they are seldom or never lacerated as Europeans would be in similar circumstan ces. From all this it has been inferred, that the extra ordinary patience in suffering, which characterizes the inhabitants of the New World, depends on the thick ness of their skins, and a comparative torpor of the ner vous system. To this opinion, however, there are seve ral objections. That the skins of the Americans arc thicker and harder than those of Europeans, may be allowed, because anatomists tell us that they have found them so. (.l'ot(cias .17nrricanas, pp. 313, 314.) But the facts which been mentioned, are not sufficient to v. arrant the conclusion which has been drawn from them, rt the insensibility of the Indians to pain. The operation of lithotomy is often performed in Europe, without a groan on the part of the individual who is ?.bliged to submit to it. Besides, in the case of the .avage alluded to, a desire to maintain the reputation for suffering manfully, on which all his countrymen are known to pride themselves, may be conceived to have had its influence in exciting his fortitude. The power of habit, in enabling the human body to endure the se verities of winter, may be learned from the circum stance, that in Lapland, in Iceland, and in Greenland, one part of the boe y. the face, is exposed, without any •overing, to all the intenseness of the cold in the lati tudes of these countries. And as to the last, of the In dians escaping NI ith salety from the thorns and briars, as they pass through the woods, it may be explained !rum their known practice of smearing themselves with un guents and gums, as well as from the thickness of their skins.
Those SI ho hate had opportunities of examining the American Indians, and of attending to them in different combinations of ( ircumstances, inform us, that their per ception of insults is unusually quick ; and that their sensations of pleasure are more lively and acute than those of the polished nations in the ancient world. Their joy lives in their countenances and lightens from their eyes. It displays itself in every part of their bo dies. They spring from their mats to engage in the dance, and show the tumultuous rapture which fills their breasts, by a thousand wild and irregular contor tions. Without going to America, we know that the man w ho is most alive to sensations of pleasure, is also most alive to sensations of pain. Joy is counter balanced by sorrow. He who in the morning is full of life and activity, may in the evening be sunk in gloom and silence, a stranger to comfort, and the prey of des pondency. It. is so with the Indians of the western hemisphere. Their fortitude and patience must there fore be derived from other sources than their insensi bility. We must deduce it from their education, which is chiefly of a military nature ; and an essential part of which consists in training the youth to suffer with mag nanimity. We must refer it ultimately to the power of habit.
That the influence of habit is great, will appear when we consider that our forefathers marched to the combat, and fought, under a load of armour which an European of our own times would not be able to support for half an hour. The Hindoos subject themselves to the most ex cruciating tarieties of penance, not only without mur muring, but even with satisfaction, though a native of Great Britain would rather (lie than submit to what they voluntarily endure. It is the first and the last study of the American Indians, to acquire the faculty of suffer ing with an obstinate and heroic courage, when their fortitude is put to the proof. They harden their fibres by repeated trials, and accustom themselves to endure the most tormenting pain without a groan or a tear. In the northern division of the continent, a boy and a girl will put a flaming coal between their naked arms, and vie with one another in maintaining it in its place. (Charict.oix,iii. 307.) The probation of a warrior who ;Aspires to the rank of a leader, does not consist in feats of courage and hardy adventure, but in displays of forti tude, and in trials of patience : he must prove that he is able to suffer ; and rigorous fasting and severe flagella tion are among the means by which his virtues are as certained. He is suspended in his hammock, and ants, whose bite occasions the most exquisite pain, are thrown upon him : a fire of stinking herbs is kindled below, and he is scorched with the heat, and almost suffocated with the smoke ; while the judges of his merit, standing at a convenient distance, examine his looks and motions, any one of which, indicative of impatience or sensibility, would exclude him for ever from the honour to which he aspires. These trials are so severe, that many perish while they submit to them: but those who pass them with approbation or applause, are invested at once with the ensigns of dignity, and are regarded as men of known fortitude, and undoubted resolution. This dreadful prd% bation is most common in the southern regions of Ame rica; though in the more northern provinces likewise, the constancy of the warrior, ambitious of distinction. or of the youth desirous to march against the enemies of his country, is proved by blows and by lire ; or by in sults and taunts, often less easily borne than any corpo real infliction. The point of honour too, among the in habitants of the American continent, is placed in suffer ing with magnanimity. Of the few ideas u hick influence their minds, this is the chief; and it operates with an immediate and a decisive effect. Unbroken and inflexi ble constancy is with them the noblest distinction, and the highest glory of a warrior; and he who yields under pain, or shrinks from the trial of his fortitude, is looked upon as one who has fidlen from the perfection of 11,s na ture; and is degraded to a level with Europeans, Who know not how to suffer.