We find, as might be expected, that the traditions of the Eastern
tribes, collected as they have occasionally been previous to their
extinction, are trifling and absurd; and why so? because, driven away to
the east, and finding other tribes of Indians, who had been driven there
before them, already settled there, they have immediately commenced a
life of continual hostility and change of domicile. When people have
thus been occupied for generations in continual warfare and change, it
is but natural to suppose that in such a life of constant action they
have had no time to transmit then traditions, and that ultimately they
have been lost to the tribe.

We must then look for records in those quarters where the population has
remained stationary for ages. It must be in the south-west of Oregon,
and in the northern parts of Upper California and Sonora, that the
philosopher must obtain the eventful history of vast warlike nations, of
their rise and of their fall. The western Apaches or the Shoshones, with
their antiquities and ruins of departed glory, will unfold to the
student's mind long pages of a thrilling interest, while in their
metaphors and rich phraseology, the linguist, learned in Asiatic lore,
will easily detect their ancient origin.

It is remarkable to observe, how generally traditions and records will
spread and be transmitted among nations destitute of the benefits of the
art of printing. In Europe, the mass were certainly better acquainted
with their ancient history before this great discovery that they are in
our days, as traditions were then handed down from family to family--it
was a duty, a sacred one, for a father to transmit them to his son,
unadulterated, such, in fact, as he had received them from his
ancestors. It is the same case with the Indians, who have remained
stationary for a long period. It is in the long evenings of February,