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mirthful sally or good-natured evasion, always leaving the door of hope wide open, and, as I thought, rather encouraging than repelling my desires. Still, I made no visible progress in her affections, and was still, again and again, left to hope on and trust in Providence.

I have already told you that on this eventful night she looked prettier than ever; and I may add that, with the combined effects of the cold, bracing air and the excitement of the ride, as we bounced over the unbroken and unequal road, as she appeared in the broad moonlight, her beauty was increased to a perfect loveliness. I could have devoured her with kisses; but my earnest looks found no response in her coquettish eyes, and I dared not venture. My soul, however, was too full to be thus restrained; again it spoke the story of my love in a strain of earnest pleading, and again received the usual non-committal reply, with no recom

pense.

Half vexed at her coyness, which I began to attribute to either affectation or genuine coquetry, my heart grew heavy, my spirits suddenly fell down to the freezing-point, and I said but little. Earnestly wishing that our ride was ended, and resolved to shorten it, I struck into a bye-road, which, by a cross-cut, would lead us nearer home than the road first contemplated. My patience had been drawn to its full tension, my spirit was mortified, and I thought I had made up my mind that, after leaving Mercy at her father's house that night, I never would seek her presence more.

An exclamation of surprise arose from our companions in the rear as they saw me leave the high road; but I heeded them not, and drove on; they followed. My partner in the ride knew too well the cause, to question me on the subject, and we continued in silence. Mercy grew evidently uneasy, from what cause I cannot pretend to say, because I never after questioned her upon the subject; but, from certain unequivocal demonstrations, it was plain she was conscious that something was wrong. Neither of us uttered

a syllable for a distance of at least two long and tedious miles.

It may be that I had become less careful than usual of my duties as a driver; very likely that was the case, for I confess that my mind was in no small degree mystified, and I had little conception of where we were going, whether up hill, down hill, over a gully, or round a corner; or it may have been that both my horse and myself were traversing a road, with the various windings and turnings of which we were unfamiliar. Be that as it may, certain it is that, in the midst of a most ill-natured reverie, I suddenly found myself and my companion flying in the air over a short precipice, and the vehicle in which we had been riding, broadside uppermost, gliding away at the rate of ten knots an hour. In plain parlance, our cutter was upset, and we were thrown neck and heels from a promontory.

True to the instincts of nature, prompted by its first law, the lady, on discovering the eccentric motion of the vehicle, had thrown a delicate arm about my neck, with which she clung to me for dear life. Of course, I lost no time in returning the compliment with interest, and, clasping her gentle form in both my arms, in this posture we went together down a flight of some ten feet, full length, into an accommodating snow-bank. The slight exclamation of fright that escaped the lips of the lady was smothered, half uttered, by a mouthful of the frigid moisture; for, be it understood, our descent was not ended until we had penetrated a distance of at least two feet into the very bowels of the

snow.

I satisfied myself in an instant that neither of us had received bodily injury, and then and there, under that bank of snow, clasped as we were in each other's arms, face to face, and quite secure from the prying eyes of the outer world, I first yielded to temptation, and inflicted on her rosy and unresisting lips a kiss, warm and ardent enough to melt a snow-bank as tall as Vesuvius. I will not tell how many times the process was repeated, nor how I wished that the snow might

cover us for an indefinite period; but, in less than one minute, we were interrupted, and four stout pairs of hands were busily engaged in the unthankful employment of digging us out. In less than five minutes we were all again safely on the road. My pony, like a well-bred fellow as he was, stopped, according to custom, whenever he discovered any thing wrong; and the cutter having been placed once more on its runners, we blew the snow out of our mouths, and resumed our seats and journey.

I need not say that the accident was the means of restoring the faculty of speech, which a transient taciturnity had interrupted. Moreover, I felt within me a renewed soul; the sweets of a daring indulgence were burning on my lips, and I determined at once to place my destiny on the hazard of a die. The work must be done, thought I, now or

never, once for all; and, without waiting for reflection to cool my resolve, I at once insisted, tenderly and respectfully, yet earnestly, on a categorical answer to my offer of marriage. Mercy hesitated a moment, but at length, in a timid voice, expressed the opinion that "matters had gone too far now to recede; and on the whole, she was sorry that she hadn't said so before, for she had long wanted to, but didn't know how to go about it."

Reader, you may as well take it for granted that we were not long in making up a wedding party after that; for I can state, without the fear of contradiction, that there are four bouncing witnesses of the fact; and I can further assure you that I never behold a regular down-east snow-storm without thinking with gratitude of my "first kiss and last time of asking." God bless the snow!

THE SUNNY SOUTH.

BY C. D. STUART.

I LOVE the North, the snowy North-was born and nurtured there;
My sports were o'er its valleys green, its mountains bleak and bare;
And still I love the sunny South, more beautiful and rare,
Where balm is on the wavy woods, and fragrance in the air.

I would not leave my mountain home, its altars old and drear,

Illumed by many a cherished smile, bedewed by many a tear;
And still my heart takes wing at times for skies more deep and clear,
Where orange bowers and jasmine leaves are green through all the year.

The snowy North, my fatherland, I fondly cling to thee;
Bright eyes are thine, warm hearts and hands, and spirits true and free!
And yet I love the sunny South, where friends have greeted me
With hands as warm and eyes as bright as I shall ever see.

No stain is on our Northern hills, our valleys broad and green,
Beside the blood our fathers shed when tyranny grew keen;

And though the sunny South be marred by spots that shade her sheen,
The blood she mingled with our sires should blot them out, I ween!

The snowy North, the sunny South-the oak tree and the vine-
Still may the Oak be firm of root, the Ivy round it twine;
And on them both let Freedom's sun for ever brightly shine!
I love them both-they both have won this yielding heart of mine.

THE ABORIGINALS OF NORTH AMERICA.

UTHENTIC records and descriptions of the race of men who alone inhabited this portion of the American continent at the time of the discovery by Columbus, are so rare, that we are induced to present the following interesting article on that subject. It was originally written for Mellen's Book of the United States, by a gentleman whose statements are not drawn from hearsay, nor brief and transient glimpses of the people he describes, but from the experience of several years of intimate association with various tribes. As the race of Red Men declines, our interest towards it increases.

"There are few topics on which so much has been written, and to so little purpose, as the character, manners, habits, and origin of the aborigines of North America. Novelists, poets, travelers, and philosophers, have all failed to convey an adequate idea of them. This arises, in our opinion, in a great measure from the modern propensity to generalization. A writer who has been present at an Indian council, has seen the nonchalant demeanor of the chiefs, and has heard the tropes and metaphors with which they garnish their discourse, gravely states that the self-possession of all Indians can never be disturbed by any circumstances, and that the refinements of poetry and oratory are as familiar in their mouths as household words. Another, who sees the women performing the hard labor of their families, while the men stand idly by, pronounces that squaws are regarded as slaves. Now our experience assures us that the premises on which such general conclusions are based are almost always fallacious.

"Two great families of Indians seem, from time immemorial, to have occupied the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic, viz.: the Dahcotahs, and the Chippeway or Algonquin race. The former are divided into a great number of independent tribes, whose origin may be traced by similarity of language, habits, and manners. The parent stock is divided into several septs, which are again subdivided into a great many minor hordes. The principal divisions are these: Munday Wawkantons, Sussetons, Wakhpaytons, Wawkhpaykootays, Yanktows, and Tetons. These last live high up on the Missouri, and have little intercourse with the rest. The Assinneboins, a numerous and powerful tribe, who roam over the prairies between the Missouri and the Saskatchawayn, seceded from the Dahcotahs little more than a century ago, and a bloody war was long waged between them and the parent race. A woman was the canse of quarrel. The Winnebagoes and Otoes, renowned for desperate bravery, the Ioways, the Osages, the Omahaws, and many other western tribes, claim affinity with the Dahcotahs, and speak dialects of their tongue. The tradition concerning their origin, to which we give most credit, says, that they all came from Mexico at the time of the invasion of Cortez. The Winnebagoes hold the Spaniards in abhorrence to this day. Such of these tribes as inhabit the prairie region are vagrant, and live mainly by hunting the buffalo. A description of one will be a description of all of them. They are, generally, of the middle stature of mankind, and it is rare to see a Dahcotah who much exceeds or falls short of it, or who is in any wise deformed. They are beautifully formed; it is as rare to see an ill-made Dahcotah as a well-made white man. They are not muscular, nor are they

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so agile as whites commonly are; but in recompense, their powers of endurance are very great. They seem utterly insensible of fatigue, and patient of hunger, pain, and all other hardships.

them no harm. They people all animated nature with inferior spirits, and to these they offer prayers and sacrifices. Their supersti tions are numberless. They believe in a future state, and the world of spirits is, in their opinion, a fine hunting-ground, where the vexations and sufferings of this life will be unknown. Each man has what he calls his medicine; that is, he thinks fit to consider his fate and fortunes dependent on some animal, and that animal he will neither kill, eat, nor treat with disrespect. In short, they have an infinite variety of such observances, and there is little uniformity in the belief of individuals.

"Neither these, nor any other Indians with whom we are acquainted, are at all remarkable for gravity in their social intercourse. They are more taciturn, indeed, than the whites; but this is the result rather of circumstance than of education. Spending much time alone, they acquire a habit of silence; having fewer ideas than civilized men, they have fewer inducements to discourse. The conversation that does take place among them, however, is by no means characterized by reserve or by the absence of hilarity. In councils and on solemn occasions, it is judged decorous and proper to give no indication of feeling, and hence an apathetic gravity has long been. thought a distinguishing attribute of the Indian character. Even were the assump-rattle tion just, the aborigines would be no more remarkable in this respect than most modern Asiatic nations.

"The character of Indians in general seems to have been viewed by most writers through a false medium, and their qualities have been inferred from the nature of their intercourse with white men. This is a false standard; to know them, one should live long among them and watch their social relations. Thus seen, they appear to much greater advantage than when hanging upon the frontiers, doing or suffering wrong, and debasing themselves by theft, beggary, and intemperance.

"It will not be denied by any who know them, that those Indians who have not been corrupted by the whites are sincerely pious. They universally believe in one all-wise, benevolent, and powerful God, to whom, however, they never pray; for, they say, he knows better what is good for them than they do themselves. Nothing shocks them more than to hear his name mentioned with irreverence by the whites. They also believe in an evil principle, whom they pray to do

"Their priests are mere jugglers, who practise various mummeries, and are also, as is common among savages, physicians and surgeons, and, indeed, they mix medicine and religion together. A cure is effected by songs and superstitious rites as well as by the use of simples. The juggler's voice and

are seldom still near the couch of a sick man. We are yet to learn that these quacks are much respected in their sacerdotal character, or that any great importance is attached to their ceremonies by the majority of the laity. One merit they have, and that is their skill in rough surgery. We have seen them effect astonishing cures. It may not be amiss to mention one, by way of example. A hunter was grappled by a bear that he had wounded, and dreadfully lacerated. His arm was broken in several places, and all who saw it thought he must die or submit to amputation. An Indian surgeon, however, undertook the cure and effected it. It is true that he was three years about it, and perhaps the abstemious habits of the patient were a main cause of his recovery.

"As to government, the Dahcotah race have no king, and every man does what seems right in his own eyes. They have chiefs, indeed, who have, by tacit consent, the power of making treaties, and of transacting the business of their followers. Sometimes they lead in war, but, save on such occasions, authority they have none. They may advise, but cannot command.

They receive no reward for their services, nor do they wear any badge of their rank. Indeed, they are usually worse dressed and provided than other individuals, because it is considered peculiarly the duty of chiefs to be generous. The office is hereditary in families, but not in the direct line of descent. If the heir-apparent be notoriously ineligible, he is set aside, and a more worthy kinsman takes his place. Highly distinguished warriors become war-chiefs through the respect paid to their valor. Each village has one of these, who is called the war-chief, to distinguished him from the hereditary leader. He rules in war, but not in civil affairs. Sometimes a chief acquires absolute power, but of that kind which strong minds gain over weak ones, and it behooves every leader to bear his faculties meekly.

"Laws the Dahcotahs have none; but they have customs which have the force of laws, and which are seldom broken. Thus a man may have as many wives as he can maintain. Adultery is punished by cutting off the nose of the offending wife; the wife cuts the clothes of the offending husband to pieces. Life is taken for life, unless the homicide can appease the friends of the dead by the payment of a ransom. The murderer invariably gives himself up to punishment, for to fear death is considered the acme of dishonor. When minor offenses are committed, the injured party kills the dogs and horses of his enemy, or destroys his tent before his eyes, and in such cases no resistance is offered. Divorces are at the option of the husband. Theft is not regarded as a crime; indeed, property is nearly in common among them, so that no theft can be committed. They apply this standard of morals to the whites, and so get the reputation of thieves, while themselves are unconscious of wrong-doing. It is, in our opinion, this very community of goods that is the principal obstacle to their civilization and improvement; for it cannot be expected that one man will sow for all the world to reap, or that he will weary his limbs in the chase to obtain what will not

belong to him or his family. Those tribes who hold the right of property in most esteem, as, for example, the Saques and Foxes, have made the greatest advances in civilization.

"Another obstacle to the civilization of our aborigines is their unconquerable indolence. The savage is content with the bare necessaries of life; he neither knows nor cares for its luxuries and superfluities. Necessity only will compel him to exertion. Tribes whose limits have been so circumscribed by the whites that they cannot live by the chase, have resorted to labor for subsistence; but we think no other force of reason or circumstance will bring about such a result.

"However strange such an assertion may appear, we confidently affirm that Indians are not more revengeful than other people. They have the same feelings and passions as other men, neither stronger nor weaker. They are kind to each other. Every offense but murder is readily forgiven, and even that crime seldom finds its due punishment. Nine murderers out of ten among them, go down to the grave in peace. An Indian rarely goes much out of his way for revenge. Time and opportunity being ministered, an individual will wreak a long-smothered resentment, and so, we presume, would any other man, if freed from the restraints of law. We take it upon us to say, that murders are not so frequent among them as with ourselves, and that these, as well as all minor injuries, are not so often or so fearfully avenged by Indians as by white men. As it regards wrongs committed by enemies of the tribe, the case is different. These, the savage is taught, it is his duty to requite upon any member of the hostile nation. Such vengeance it is his glory to take, and it is one of the first requisitions of his moral code.

"The courage of Indians is not to be measured by our standard. In a mere clan, the loss of an individual is severely felt. It subtracts largely from the strength of the band and the happiness of his family. Dis

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