The Silent Language

of the North American Indians referred to in our last issue, anent our ethnological studies at Colonel Cody's wonderful exhibition at Earl's Court, has induced a correspondent to write to us on the subject of Indian dialects generally. He informs us that the Indian language is not permitted now in the Government Indian schools—only English is spoken. So far as religious teaching is concerned, lessons are given in the Bible just as in geography. The Indians have no heads for religious matters. Most of the children are Catholic, so far as they are anything. The Indians, we are informed, are badly in need of missionaries of some kind to teach them better morals. There are certain things, our correspondent continues, which tend to show that Indians are of Jewish origin. The Wichita Indians, it is said, operate on their children in a manner supposed to be exclusively Jewish. Then again, Indians wrap their blankets about them in exactly the same manner as the ancient Hebrews, and the blankets bear some resemblance to the Roman toga. At other times our correspondent thinks that they are of Chinese origin.