bird or beast, or the exploits of some potent personage, endowed with
supernatural courage or power. In this era, the earth was also covered
with monsters and giants, who waged war, and drove men into caves and
recesses; until the interposition of the original creative power, for
their relief.

2. THE ANTE-HISTORICAL PERIOD, in which tradition begins to assume the
character of truth, but is still obscured by fable. This period includes
the early discoveries by the Northmen, the reputed voyage of Prince
Madoc, &c.

3. THE PERIOD OF ACTUAL HISTORY, dating from the earliest voyage of
Columbus and his companions.

I have alluded, in a preceding part of this address, to the mode of
studying their early history. Where little or nothing is to be obtained
from books, it requires a cautious investigation of these traditions and
antiquities. Ethnology, in all its branches, has a direct and practical
bearing on this subject. The physical type of man, the means of his
subsistence, the state of his arts, the language he speaks, the
hieroglyphics he carves, the mounds he builds--the fortifications he
erects,--his religion, his superstitions, his legendary lore--the very
geography of the country he inhabits, are so many direct and palpable
means of acquiring historical evidence. It is from the investigation of
these, that tribes and nations are grouped and classified, and the
original stocks of mankind denoted, and the track of their dispersion
over the globe traced. And they constitute so many topics of study and
investigation.

In relating their traditions, our Red Men are prone, to connect, (as if
these were portions of a continuous and consistent narrative) the most
_recent_ and most _remote_ events, which dwell in their memory. And from
their present residence and recent history, to run back, by a few
sentences, into purely fabulous and allegoric periods. Fiction and fact,
are mingled in the same strain. In listening to those relations, it is
important to establish in the mind, historical periods, and to separate
that which is grotesque or imaginative from the narration of real
events. The latter, may be sometimes distorted by this juxtaposition,
but it is, in general, easy to separate the two, and to re-adopt them,
on their own principles. The early nations of Europe and Asia, pursued
the same system. Their men were soon traced into gods, and their gods,
soon ended in sensualists, or demons. Greek and Roman history, before