“casual observers have been misled by the absence of those artificial expressions of courtesy which have descended to us from the time of chivalry, and which, however gracious and pleasing to witness, are, after all, merely signs of condescension and protection from the strong to the weak"[220]

—­surpasses all understanding.  It is a shameful perversion of the truth, as all the intelligent and unbiassed evidence of observers from the earliest time proves.

HOW INDIANS ADORE SQUAWS

Not content with maltreating their squaws, the Indians literally add insult to injury by the low estimation in which they hold them.  A few sample illustrations must suffice to show how far that adoration which a modern lover feels for women and for his sweetheart in particular is beyond their mental horizon.

“The Indians,” says Hunter (250), “regarding themselves as the lords of the earth, look down upon the squaws as an inferior order of beings,” created to rear families and do all the drudgery; “and the squaws, accustomed to such usage, cheerfully acquiesce in it as a duty.”  The squaw is not esteemed for her own sake, but “in proportion to the number of children she raises, particularly if they are males, and prove brave warriors.”  Franklin says (287) that the Copper Indians “hold women in the same low estimation as the Chippewayans do, looking upon them as a kind of property which the stronger may take from the weaker.”  He also speaks (157) “of the office of nurse, so degrading in the eyes of a Chippewayan, as partaking of the duties of a woman.”  “The manner of the Indian boy toward his mother,” writes Willoughby (274), “is almost uniformly disrespectful;” while the adults consider it a disgrace to do a woman’s work—­that is, practically any work at all; for hunting is not regarded as work, but is indulged in for the sport and excitement.  In the preface to Mrs. Eastman’s book on the Dakotas we read: 

“The peculiar sorrows of the Sioux woman commence at her birth.  Even as a child she is despised, in comparison with her brother beside her, who is one day to be a great warrior.”

“Almost everything that a man owns is sacred,” says Neill (86), “but nothing that the woman possesses is so esteemed.”  The most insulting epithets that can be bestowed on a Sioux are coward, dog, woman.  Among the Creeks, “old woman” is the greatest term of reproach which can be used to those not distinguished by war names.  You may call an Indian a liar without arousing his anger, but to call him a woman is to bring on a quarrel at once. (Schoolcraft, V., 280.) If the Natchez have a prisoner who winces under torture he is turned over to the women as being unworthy to die by the hands of men. (Charlevoix, 207.) In many cases boys are deliberately taught to despise their mothers as their inferiors.  Blackfeet men mourn for the loss of a man by scarifying their legs; but if the deceased is only a woman, this is never done.  (Grinnell, 194.) Among all the tribes the men look on manual work as a degradation, fit only for women.  The Abipones think it beneath a man to take any part in female quarrels, and this too is a general trait.  (Dobrizhoffer, II., 155.)[221] Mrs. Eastman relates (XVII.) that