and the present business appeared most distasteful to him; but he was obliged to obey the order from the head of his department.

:

The Indians themselves make witty jests on the bad faith of the "Big Knives."* "My father!" said a distinguished Pottowattomie chief at the treaty of Chicago-"my father, you have made sev eral promises to your red children, and you have put the money down upon the table but as fast as you put it upon the top, it has slipped away to the bottom, in a manner that is incomprehensible to us. We do not know what becomes of it. When we get together, and divide it among ourselves, it is nothing! and we remain as poor as ever. My father, I only explain to you the words of my brethren. We can only see what is before our eyes, and are unable to comprehend all things." Then pointing to a newspaper which lay on the table-" You see that paper on the table before you-it is double. You can see what is upon the upper sheet, but you cannot see what is below. We cannot tell how our money goes!"

On the present occasion, two orators spoke, and the council lasted above two hours: but I left the room long before the proceedings were over. I must needs confess it to you-I cannot overcome one disagreeable obstacle to a near communion with these people. The genuine Indian has a very peculiar

* The Indians gave the name of Cheemokomaun (Long Knives, or Big Knives,) to the Americans at the time they were defeated by General Wayne, near the Miami river in 1795, and suffered so severely from the sabres of the cavalry.

odour, unlike anything of the kind that ever annoyed my fastidious senses. One ought to get over these things; and after all, it is not so offensive as it is peculiar. You have probably heard that horses brought up in the white settlements can smell an Indian at a great distance, and show evident signs of perturbation and terror whenever they snuff an Indian in the air. For myself, in passing over the place on which a wigwam has stood, and whence it has been removed several hours, though it was the hard pebbly beach on the water edge, I could scent the Indian in the atmosphere. You can imagine, therefore, that fifty of them in one room, added to the smell of their tobacco, which is detestable, and the smoking and all its unmentionable consequences, drove me from the spot. The truth is, that a woman of very delicate and fastidious habits must learn to endure some very disagreeable things, or she had best stay at home.

In the afternoon, Mr. Johnson informed me that the Indians were preparing to dance, for my particular amusement. I was, of course, most thankful and delighted. Almost in the same moment, I heard their yells and shrieks resounding along the shore, mingled with the measured monotonous drum. We had taken our place on an elevated platform behind the house-a kind of little lawn on the hill side;—the precipitous rocks, clothed with trees and bushes, rose high like a wall above us: the glorious sunshine of a cloudless summer's day was over our heads-the dazzling blue lake and its islands at our feet. Soft 17*

VOL. II.

and elysian in its beauty was all around. And when these wild and more than half-naked figures came up, leaping, whooping, drumming, shrieking, hideously painted, and flourishing clubs, tomahawks, javelins, it was like a masque of fiends breaking into paradise! The rabble of Comus might have boasted themselves comely in comparison, even though no self-deluding potion had bleared their eyes and intellect.* It was a grotesque and horrible phantasmagoria. Of their style of clothing, I say nothing-for, as it is wisely said, nothing can come of nothing :-only if "all symbols be clothes," according to our great modern philosophert-my Indian friends were as little symbolical as you can dare to imagine :-passons par là. If the blankets and leggings were thrown aside, all the resources of the Indian toilette, all their store of feathers, and bears' claws, hawks' bells, vermilion, soot, and verdigris, were brought into requisition as decoration; and no two were alike. One man wore three or four heads of hair, composed of the manes and tails of animals; another wore a pair of deers' horns; another was coiffé with the skin and feathers of a crane or some such bird-its long bill projecting from his forehead; another had the shell of a small turtle suspended from his back, and dangling behind; another used the skin of a polecat for the same purpose. One had painted his right leg with red bars,

"And they, so perfect is their misery,

Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,

But boast themselves more comely than before."

+ Sartor Resartus.

COMUS.

and his left leg with green lines: particoloured eyes and faces, green noses, and blue chins, or vice versa, were general. I observed that in this grotesque deformity, in the care with which everything like symmetry or harmony in form or colours was avoided, there was something evidently studied and artistical. The orchestra was composed of two drums and two rattles, and a chorus of voices. The song was without melody-a perpetual repetition of three or four notes, melancholy, harsh, and monotonous. A flag was stuck in the ground, and round this they began their dance-if dance it could be called-the movements consisting of the alternate raising of one foot, then the other, and swinging the body to and fro. Every now and then they paused, and sent forth that dreadful, prolonged, tremulous yell, which re-echoed from the cliffs, and pierced my ears and thrilled along my nerves. The whole exhibition was of that finished barbarism, that it was at least complete in its way, and for a time I looked on with curiosity and interest. But that innate loathing which dwells within me for all that is discordant and deformed, rendered it anything but pleasant to witness. It grated horribly upon all my perceptions. In the midst, one of those odd and unaccountable transi. tions of thought caused by some mental or physical re-action—the law which brings extremes in contrast together-came across me. I was reminded that even on this very day last year I was seated in a box at the opera, looking at Carlotta Grisi and Perrot dancing, or rather flying through the galoppe in "Benyowsky." The oddity of this sudden asso

ciation made me laugh, which being interpreted into the expression of my highest approbation, they be came every moment more horribly ferocious and animated; redoubled the vigour of their detestably awkward movements and the shrillness of their savage yells, till I began involuntarily to look about for some means of escape-but this would have been absolutely rude, and I restrained myself.

I should not forget to mention that the figures of most of the men were superb; more agile and ele. gant, however, than muscular-more fitted for the chase than for labour, with small and well formed hands and feet. When the dance was ended, a young warrior, leaving the group, sat himself down on a little knoll to rest. His spear lay across his knees, and he reposed his head upon his hand. He was not painted, except with a little vermilion on his chest-and on his head he wore only the wing of the osprey : he sat there a model for a sculptor. The perfection of his form, the graceful abandon. ment of his attitude, reminded me of a young Mercury, or of Thorwaldsen's "Shepherd Boy." went up to speak to him, and thanked him for his exertions in the dance, which indeed had been conspicuous and then, for want of something else to say, I asked him if he had a wife and children? The whole expression of his face suddenly changed, and with an air as tenderly coy as that of a young girl listening to the first whisper of a lover, he looked down and answered softly, "Kah-ween!"-No, indeed! Feeling that I had for the first time embar. rassed an Indian, I withdrew, really as much out of

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