ed
some acts of valor, he gains no consideration, but is regarded nearly as
a woman. In their great war-dances all the warriors in succession
strike the post, as it is called, and recount their exploits. On these
occasions their auditory consists of the kinsmen, friends, and comrades
of the narrator. The profound impression which his discourse produces on
them is manifested by the silent attention it receives, and by the loud
shouts which hail its termination. The young man who finds himself
at such a meeting without anything to recount is very unhappy; and
instances have sometimes occurred of young warriors, whose passions had
been thus inflamed, quitting the war-dance suddenly, and going off alone
to seek for trophies which they might exhibit, and adventures which they
might be allowed to relate."]

More than once, in the course of this work, I have endeavored to explain
the prodigious influence which the social condition appears to exercise
upon the laws and the manners of men; and I beg to add a few words on
the same subject.

When I perceive the resemblance which exists between the political
institutions of our ancestors, the Germans, and of the wandering tribes
of North America; between the customs described by Tacitus, and those of
which I have sometimes been a witness, I cannot help thinking that the
same cause has brought about the same results in both hemispheres; and
that in the midst of the apparent diversity of human affairs, a certain
number of primary facts may be discovered, from which all the others
are derived. In what we usually call the German institutions, then, I am
inclined only to perceive barbarian habits; and the opinions of savages
in what we style feudal principles.

However strongly the vices and prejudices of the North American Indians
may be opposed to their becoming agricultural and civilized, necessity
sometimes obliges them to it. Several of the Southern nations, and
amongst others the Cherokees and the Creeks, *n were surrounded by
Europeans, who had landed on the shores of the Atlantic; and who,
either descending the Ohio or proceeding up the Mississippi, arrived
simultaneously upon their borders. These tribes have not been driven
from place to place, like their Northern brethren; but they have been
gradually enclosed within narrow limits, like the game within the
thicket, before the huntsmen plunge into the interior. The Indians
who were thus placed between civilization and death,