one, for a father to transmit them to his son,
unadulterated, such in fact, as he had received them from his ancestors.
It is same case with the Indians, who have remained stationary for a
long period. It is in the long evenings of February, during the hunting
season, that the elders of the tribe will reveal to young warriors all
the records of their history; and were a learned European to assist at
one of these "lectures upon antiquity," he would admit that, in harmony,
eloquence, strength of argument, and deduction, the red-coloured orator
could not be surpassed.

The Shoshones have a clear and lucid recollection of the far countries
whence they have emigrated. They do not allude to any particular
period, but they must have been among the first comers, for they relate
with great topographical accuracy all the bloody struggles they had to
sustain against newer emigrants. Often beaten, they were never
conquered, and have always occupied the ground which they had selected
from the beginning.

Unlike the great families of the Dahcotahs and Algonquins who yet retain
the predominant characteristics of the wandering nations of South-west
Asia, the Shoshones seem to have been in all ages a nation warlike,
though stationary. It is evident that they never were a wealthy people,
nor possessed any great knowledge of the arts and sciences. Their
records of a former country speak of rich mountainous districts, with
balmy breezes, and trees covered with sweet and beautiful fruits; but
when they mention large cities, palaces, temples, and gardens, it is
always in reference to other nations, with whom they were constantly at
war; and these traditions would induce us to believe that they are
descendants of the Mancheoux Tartars.

They have in their territory on both sides of the Buona Ventura river
many magnificent remains of devastated cities; but although connected
with a former period of their history, they were not erected by the
Shoshones.

The fountains, aqueducts, the heavy domes, and the long graceful
obelisks, rising at the feet of massive pyramids, show indubitably the
long presence of a highly civilised people; and the Shoshones' accounts
of these mysterious relics may serve to philosophers as a key to the
remarkable facts of thousands of similar ruins found everywhere upon the
continent of America. The following is a description of events at a
very remote period, which was related by an old Shoshone sage, in their