Congress respecting the History, A ntiquities, Languages, Ethnology, Pictography, Kites, and Superstitions of the Indian tribes of the United States. Congress having granted the copyright to the A uthor, he is enabled to present a private edition, with all the original opulence of type and illustration. -I npreparing it for this purpose, some generalizations were required. A title, more expressive of the research necessary to promote the general object of the inquiry, has been prefixed. Full indices are given. The volumes of Information laid before the National Legislature, were prepared under official requirements, which are, in a measure, no longer imperative. These initial inquiries, embracing the first series of five volumes, were necessarily devoted to Tribal Histories, the traditions of particular families and tribes, dialects and languages, their vital and industrial statistics. Other traits invited study. Their manners and customs, although often described, were often described inaccurately. Their oral imaginative legends, prior to the Algic Eesearches, were untouched. Their pictography and mnemonic symbols, so much used in their inscriptions and secret societies, were a sealed record. Their rites and cere monies, superstitious and religious, constituted subjects of which the rationale has not even been attempted. To accumulate facts on these topics is to present the man in a new light. Why an Indian acts, in peace and war, contrary to the plainest maxims of European induction, could scarcely be guessed at, without a careful examination of these subjects. They disclose his theory of the effects of necromancy on the world of matter and mind his ideas of the nature and mode of action of a Deity, and of the admitted power and influence of their prophetic and forest priesthood.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is