James Fenimore Cooper and Berlioz

'GREAT chief! We are pledged to exchange tomahawks. Here is mine. It is rough-hewn. Yours too is plain. Only squaws and palefaces love ornate weapons. Be my brother; and when the Great Spirit sends us to hunt in the land of souls, may our warriors hang our tomahawks side by side at the door of the council chamber.' – Berlioz exchanges conductors' batons with Mendelssohn in 1843.

Mendelssohn died four years later, at the early age of 38. Berlioz, six years his senior, died in 1869, aged 66. James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans was published in 1826 and had achieved enormous success across the world. Berlioz knew about squaws and tomahawks, and clearly Mendelssohn did too; they may even have discussed the book together when they met in Rome.