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RICE UNIVERSITY STUDIES
true story, when I myself was in America and in the region
described. It caught my interest by virtue of its genuine, purely
primitive humanity which so rarely gains anything through our
higher civilization. Although several similar stories are known, I
still did not wish to suppress it here” (W, VII, 351, 352, fn. 2).
Another poem, also in this Rousseauesque vein, called “Der Geburts-
tag,” appeared first in Friedrich Bouterwek’s Neue Vesta.22 It
had originally been planned as part of a larger poem to be named
“Astrâa” (HW, X, 213 fn.). Its setting, too, is in a primitive society
which Seume had come to know among the Indians in Canada.
In his autobiography, in the passages dealing with his experi-
ences of the North American Indian, Seume quotes from memory
a poem which he had composed in 1782 (W, I, 86). It is reprinted
in his volume of poetry under the title of “Die Natur (Fragment).”
The last strophe reads :
Yet perhaps an Indian Iein Wilder] can listen in,
Who sharpens his crooked knife for the kill,
So that with a rapid rustling sound
He could snatch the scalp from our sculls . . . (W, VII, 273).
This is an aspect of primitive Indian culture on which Seume
also dwells in his memoirs. He says : “The scalping by the Indians
is sufficiently well-known; and one tells dreadful stories of it.
No such case became known to me at that time. They took their
scalps honestly from their enemies ; and our Indians were thorough-
ly friendly people” (W, I, 86-87). His account of the Indians is
quite detailed and betrays his sympathy for them. Perhaps not too
well known is a statement he makes in his first printed article,
the above mentioned “Schreiben.” In speaking of the Hurons and
“Mahoks” (sic), he writes: “A journeyman weaver from Berlin
has held the position of such a majesty [chief] not far from here
for eighteen years; he is completely assimilated by them, and is
said to enjoy also a great reputation among the other tribes.”
Later references to the Indians appear even in a footnote to his
partial translation of Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War, in which
he draws attention to the Abbe RaynaFs statements about their
advanced civilization (W, III, 224). Finally, the “friendly Hurons”
are mentioned in his poem uAbschiedsschreiben an Miinchhausen"
(W, VII, 26). It is apparent that Seume only learned about the
Indians in a relatively casual manner; he did not spend much
time with them or delve too deeply into their affairs. He remarks,
however, on the fact that the English, unlike the French, did not
send missionaries to the natives (W, I, 90).