Source: Amy Notes (ID702)
Author: Howard, Amy (ID633)
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The head-men reward the worthy with titles of honour, according to their merit in speaking, or the n
The head-men reward the worthy with titles of honour, according to their merit in speaking, or the number of enemies scalps they bring home.
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Indian warriors value only virtue, war heroics, and liberty
Date Created: 2023-10-12 20:56:17
Source: The History of the American Indians (ID 298)
Author: Adair, James (ID 213)
Content_id: 21091
Probably, different parties, and even nations, were formed at first, either by caprice, differences, or the fear of punishment for offences. The demon of persecution however was never among them -- not an individual durst ever presume to infringe on another's liberties. They are all equal -- the only precedence any gain is by superior virtue, oratory, or prowess; and they esteem themselves bound to live and die in defence of their country. A warrior will accept of no hire for performing virtuous and heroic actions; they have exquisite pleasure in pursuing their own natural dictates. The head-men reward the worthy with titles of honour, according to their merit in speaking, or the number of enemies scalps they bring home. Their hearts are fully satisfied, if they have revenged crying blood, enobled themselves by war actions, given cheerfulness to their mourning country, and fired the breasts of the youth with a spirit of emulation to guard the beloved people from danger, and revenge the wrongs of their country. Warriors are to protect all, but not to molest or injure the meanest. If they attempted it, they would pay dear for their folly. The reason they are more earnest than the rest of mankind, in maintaining that divine law of equal freedom and justice, I apprehend, is the notion imbibed from their (supposed) Hebrew ancestors of the divine theocracy, and that inexpressible abhorrence of slavery, which must have taken place after their captivity by the Assyrians, or the Babylonians. Every warrior holds his honour, and the love of his country, in so high esteem, that he prefers it to life, and will suffer the most exquisite tortures ather than renounce it: there is no such thing among the Indians as desertion in war, because they do not fight like the Swiss for hire, but for wreaths of swan-feathers. If the English acted on that noble principle, or were encouraged by an able, public-spirited ministry, to cherish it, Britannia need neither sue, nor pay any of the German princes for protection, or alliances.