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Show IQOO] FUTURE OP THE INDIANS 265 sullen individual. On the contrary, he is in his ordinary life a cheerful, talkative, gossipy person, with a great fondness for society. It is a matter of Indian training and social convention to be dignified and deliberate on all occasions of a public character, and as meetings with whites have most frequently been of that nature, the popular error arose, and persists in spite of the abundant testimony to the contrary from competent observers. The stoicism with respect to pain which has been celebrated for centuries was simply another example of this conventional training, v In his home life the Indian often exhibits the most childish behavior over physical pain, while he would submit to public torture without a moan. In his nervous make- up he is very hysterical, and the suggestive phenomena of religious excitements as witnessed in Indian gatherings are the counterparts of those seen on similar occasions among the negroes and certain elements of our own white population. It has already been remarked that this suggestibility is the secret of the success and influence of the medicine- man, or shaman. 1 It also explains the presence of many disorders admirably adapted to suggestive treatment. Many observers have remarked the ease with which the Indian succumbs to disease and misfortune, and the hysterical temperament is undoubtedly the chief factor in this weakness. 1 See above, chap. xvi. |