does not prevail with the Indian Councils.




HIS ORATORY.


As it is at his meetings of Council, and during the discussions that
are there provoked, that the Indian's powers of oratory come, for the
most part, into play, and secure their freest indulgence, that will
appropriately constitute my next head.

We are permitted to adjudge the manner and style of the Indian's oratory,
whether they be easy or strained; graceful or stiff; natural or affected;
and we may, likewise, discover, if his speech be flowing or hesitating;
but it is denied to us, of course, to appreciate in any degree, or to
appraise his utterances. I should say the Indian fulfils the largest
expectations of the most exacting critic, and the highest standard of
excellence the critic may prescribe, in all the branches of oratory that
may (with his province necessarily fettered) fitly engage his attention,
or be exposed to his hostile shafts.

The Indian has a marvellous control over facial expression, and this,
undeniably, has a powerful bearing upon true, effective, heart-moving
oratory. Though his _spoken_ language is to us as a sealed book,
his is a mobility of countenance that will translate into, and expound
by, a language shared by universal humanity, diverse mental emotions;
and assure, to the grasp of universal human ken, the import of those
emotions; that will express, in turn, fervor, pathos, humor; that,