sions*. Before that time he had been conspicuous as a warrior and a counsellor, and in oratory it is said he never was surpassed. This man, having joined the French in the year 1754 or 1755, in their war against the English, and being at that time out with a party of Frenchmen, took among other prisoners, a young woman, named Rachel Abbott, from the Conegocheague settlement, who had at her breast a sucking babe. The incessant cries of the child, the hurry to get off, but above all, the persuasions of his white companions, induced him, much against his inclination, to kill the innocent creature; while the mother, in an agony of grief, and her face suffused with tears, begged that its life might be spared. The woman, however, was brought safe to the Ohio, where she was kindly treated and adopted, and some years afterwards was married to a Delaware chief of respectability, by whom she had several children, who are now living with the Christian Indians in Upper Canada.

"Glikhican never forgave himself for having committed this crime, although many times, and long before his becoming a Christian, he had begged the woman's pardon with tears in his eyes, and received her free and full forgiveness. In vain she pointed out to him all the circumstances that he could have alleged to excuse the deed; in vain she reminded him of his unwillingness at the time, and his having been in a manner compelled to it by his French asso

Loskiel, p. 3. ch. 3.

by those who pretended to be Christians and civilized men, but who were worse savages than those whom, no doubt, they were ready to brand with. that name.

"When hostile governments give directions to employ the Indians against their enemies, they surely do not know that such is the manner in which their orders are to be executed; but let me tell them and every government who will descend to employing these auxiliaries, that this is the only way in which their subaltern agents will and can proceed to make their aid effectual. The Indians are not fond of interfering in quarrels not their own, and will not fight with spirit for the mere sake of a livelihood which they can obtain in a more agreeable manner by hunting and their other ordinary occupations. Their passions must be excited, and that is not easily done when they themselves have not received any injury from those against whom they are desired to fight. Behold, then, the abominable course which must unavoidably be resorted to-to induce them to do what?-to lay waste the dwelling of the peaceable cultivator of the land, and to murder his innocent wife and his helpless children! I cannot pursue this subject further, although I am far from having exhausted it. I have said enough to enable the impartial reader to decide which of the two classes of men, the Indians and the whites, are most justly entitled to the epithets of brutes, barbarians, and savages. It is not for me to anticipate his decision*.”

See Heckewelder, chap. 44.

93

CHAPTER VIII.

VANITY AS TO DRESS, AND OTHER PERSONAL
DECORATION.

THE warriors and chiefs are distinguished by their ornaments. The present dress of the Indians is well known to consist in blankets, plain or ruffled shirts and leggings for the men, and cloth petticoats for the women, generally red, blue, or black. The blankets are sometimes made of feathers. This

manufacture requires great patience, being a very tedious kind of work; yet the Indians do it in a most ingenious manner. The feathers (generally those of the turkey and goose) are curiously arranged and interwoven together with a sort of thread or twine, which they prepare from the rind or bark of the wild hemp and nettle. The wealthy adorn themselves with ribands or gartering of various colours, beads, and silver broaches. They wear, moreover, broad rings or bands on their arms, fingers, and round their hats; these ornaments are highly valued if of silver, but if only plated they are despised, and would hardly be worn. I have seen in young children, three rings in each ear. These decorations are arranged by the women, who, as well as the men, know how to dress themselves in style. Those of the men consist in the painting of themselves (their head and face principally), wearing gaudy garments, with silver arm spangles and

breast-plates, and a belt or two of wampum hanging to their necks. The women, at the expense of their husbands or lovers, line their petticoat and blanket with choice ribands of various colours, or with gartering, on which they fix a number of silver broaches or small round buckles. They adorn their leggings in the same manner; their mock sens are neatly embroidered with coloured porcupine quills, and are besides, almost entirely covered with various trinkets; they have also a number of little bells and brass thimbles fixed round their ankles, which, when they walk, make a tinkling noise, which is heard at some distance; this is intended to draw the attention of those who pass by, that they may look at, and ad

mire them.

The women make use of vermilion in painting themselves for dances; but they are very careful and circumspect in applying the paint, so that it does not offend or create suspicion in their husbands; there is a mode of painting which is left entirely to loose women and prostitutes.

The following diverting anecdote is told by my old friend the Moravian missionary :--

"As I was once resting in my travels at the house of a trader who lived at some distance from an Indian town, I went in the morning to visit an Indian acquaintance and friend of mine. I found him engaged in plucking out his beard, preparatory to painting himself for a dance which was to take place the ensuing evening. Having finished his head-dress, about an hour before sunset, he came up, as he said, to

see me, but I and my companions judged that he
came to be seen. To my utter astonishment, I saw
three different paintings or figures on one and the
same face. He had, by his great ingenuity and
judgment in laying on and shading the different
colours, made his nose appear, when we stood di-
rectly in front of him, as if it were very long and
narrow, with a round nob at the end, much like the
upper part of a pair of tongs. On one cheek there
was a red round spot, about the size of an apple,
and the other was done in the same manner with
black. The eye-lids, both the upper and lower
ones, were reversed in the colouring. When we
viewed him in profile on one side, his nose repre-
sented the beak of an eagle, with the bill rounded
and brought to a point, precisely as those birds have
it, though the mouth was somewhat
open. The eye
was astonishingly well done, and the head, upon
the whole, appeared tolerably well, shewing a great
deal of fierceness. When we turned round to the
other side, the same nose now resembled the snout of
a pike, with the mouth so open, that the teeth could
be seen. He seemed much pleased with his execu-
tion; and having his looking-glass with him he con-
templated his work, seemingly with great pride and
exultation. He asked me how I liked it? I answered
that if he had done the work on a piece of board,
bark, or any thing else, I should like it very well,
and often look at it. But,' asked he,
'But,' asked he, why not so

as it is? Because,' said I, I cannot see the face that is hidden under these colours, so as to