the two parietal bones bulge out very much; and, from the inequality of the pressure, the symmetry of the head is destroyed. The capacity of skull, however, is little altered; and the distortion does not seem to have any effect on their intellectual powers."-All the various tribes have a close resemblance in their dress, which consists entirely of furs and hides; one piece being fastened round the waist, and reaching to the middle of the thigh, and another larger piece thrown over the shoulders. Their legs are protected by skins fitted to the shape of the leg, and ornamented with porcupine quills; their shoes or sandals are made of the skin of the deer, elk, or buffalo, dressed with the hair on, and made to fasten about the ankles. The women have their bodies covered from the knees upwards. Their shifts cover the body, but not the arms, and their under-garments reach from the waist to the knees. Their shoes and stockings are not different from those of the men. Those men who wish to appear very gay, pluck all the hair from their heads, leaving only a round spot of about two inches diameter on the crown of the head, on which are fastened plumes of feathers, with quills of ivory or silver. The peculiar ornaments of this part, are the distinguishing marks of the different nations. They sometimes paint their faces black, but oftener red; they bore their noses and slit their ears; and in both they wear various ornaments. The higher ranks of women dress their hair with silver ornaments in a peculiar manner; and sometimes paint it. They have generally a large spot of paint near the ear, on each side of the head; and, not unfrequently, a small spot on the brow.

Habitations.] Their tents or huts are composed of poles meeting in a point at the top: these are covered sometimes with skins, sometimes with bark, and sometimes with mats made of rushes. They are without windows, and have for chimnies a small opening left at the top. The same skins which by day serve them for seats, supply them with beds by night, when they are spread on the ground, round the fire which is in the centre of the apartment. As their habitations are thus rude, their domestic utensils are few in number, and plain in their formation. They have pots of black stone or clay, in which they boil their meat; and bowls made of the knotty parts of a tree; their spoons are made of a wood resembling boxwood, and they roast their meat on wooden spits.

son.

Marriage.] None of the North American tribes, however rude, are unacquainted with the institution of marriage. They generally are contented with one wife; sometimes they take two, but seldom more than three. The women are under the direction of their fathers in the choice of husbands, and very seldom express a predilection for any particular perTheir courtship is short and simple. The lover makes a present, generally of game, to the head of the family to which the woman he fancies belongs. Her guardian's approbation obtained, he next makes a present to the woman; and her acceptance of this signifies her consent. The contract is immediately made, and the match concluded. All this is transacted without ceremony, without even a feast. The husband generally carries his wife among his own relations, where he either returns to the tent which he formerly inhabited, or constructs a new one for their own use. They sometimes, but seldom, remain among the wife's relations. These contracts are binding no longer than during the will of both parties. If they do not agree, the woman returns to her relations, and, if they have any children, she takes them along with her; but after they have children, a separation very seldom takes place. If a woman be guilty of adultery,

and her husband be unwilling to divorce her, he cuts off her hair, which is considered the highest disgrace which can be put upon a female. The husband employs himself only in the chase. On the woman is devolved every domestic charge. She erects the tent, procures fuel, manages the agricultural affairs, dresses the provisions, catches fish, and makes traps for small animals.

Diseases and Burials.] An Indian is free from those distempers which are generated by luxury or sloth; but is subject to others, frequently not less fatal. The excessive fatigue he often undergoes, and his severe fasts followed by voracious intemperance, are often productive of consumptive and pleuritic complaints. Their chief remedy and preventive, in all kinds of distempers, is sweating. They construct a stove for this purpose. It is a small tent, closely covered, into which the patient enters; water is then thrown on heated stones placed on the floor, which soon produces violent perspiration. The invalid then plunges himself into cold water, and a cure is often effected by such rude means. In fevers, they make use of decoctions and lotions of herbs. Their physicians are well-skilled in the cure of wounds, fractures, and bruises. They have much knowledge of the medicinal virtues of herbs, and often apply them with great effect; but to magnify themselves and their skill in the esteem of their tribe, they accompany all their applications with ceremonies and incantations. An Indian is never afraid of dying; he hears the physician pronounce his disease mortal with indifference. If he has a family, he gives them his advice for their conduct after his death, and regulates all things for the approaching event with composure. When dead, he is placed in a sitting posture, dressed in his usual habits, with his arms beside him. His relations sit round him, and address themselves to him, as if he still heard them. Their orations on that occasion are commonly panegyrical. Some of the nations are said to have no particular burying-place; others have one common to several tribes. Along with their dead, they inter all their weapons used either in hunting or war, with their clothes, paints, and domestic utensils, from a persuasion that they may be of use to them in another life, where their enjoyments and occupations are supposed not to be different in kind from those in which they have here been employed.

Hunting.] Hunting is the chief employment of every male Indian ; and in it they display much dexterity, and no less sagacity. Their hunting-parties are fixed in a general assembly of the chiefs of their tribes. For these expeditions they prepare themselves by severe fasts, during which they endeavour to discover, by their dreams, in what direction they are most likely to meet with plenty of game. A dexterous and resolute hunter is held nearly in as great estimation as the most distinguished warrior. Scarcely any device which the ingenuity of man has discovered for ensnaring or destroying those animals that supply them with food, or whose skins are valuable to Europeans, is unknown to them. When they hunt the bear, they endeavour to discover his winter-retreat; the whole troop then surrounds it in a circle, and proceeding equally towards the centre, seldom fail to despatch their prey. A herd of buffaloes is surrounded in a similar manner; they drive them inwards by setting fire to the grass, and of the number thus surrounded few are ever permitted to escape. The elk is traced in the snow, which retards his usual speed. Sometimes they conceal themselves behind a tree, and shoot their game as it chances to pass; at other times one party embark in canoes, while another, forming a semicircle, drive the enclosed game towards the lake

or river, where they are soon destroyed. This employment is far from being free from danger. The elk, the buffalo, and the moose, when wounded, are not only furious but of great strength; they turn with impetuosity on the hunters, and if not speedily despatched, or dextrously avoided, destroy their assailants. Among the northern tribes, hunting the beaver is a favourite employment. Sometimes these animals are caught in traps placed in the paths which they make into the woods; sometimes a hole is made in the ice on their dams, to which the beaver comes for fresh air, and where he is soon despatched by those who watch for that purpose; sometimes the hunters destroy the beavers' houses, and drive them into a net previously placed for them in the deepest part of their dam. Whatever is caught in hunting is divided with the greatest impartiality and none are ever heard to murmur or insinuate that their share is less than their merits.

Religion.] The religion of the Indians is simple; they have few articles of belief, and fewer ceremonies. They believe that there are beings superior to themselves, who manage, by their power and wisdom, the affairs of this world; that these beings are all subjected to one Great Spirit, who is superior to every existing creature; and that this Great Spirit is of infinite power, and of a benevolent disposition. Their misfortunes, therefore, they imagine to proceed, not from him, but from an inferior spirit to whom they ascribe a disposition purely malevolent. They sometimes are prompted by gratitude to perform an act of devotion to the Great Spirit; but they much more frequently adore the malevolent being, that he may remove the evils by which they are oppressed, or avert those by which they are threatened. They believe in a future state, in which they are to enjoy, in a more complete manner, those pleasures which they pursued in this life, with the advantages of a mild climate and a fertile soil abounding with game, whose flesh never cloys the appetite, nor surfeits by excess. They have priests, or men who are accounted proper persons, either to conciliate the favour of their deities, or to avert their wrath. But, as the American Indians seldom engage in solemn religious ceremonies, the priests cannot, from this source, secure their maintenance. To the office of the priesthood, they have therefore annexed those of prophet and physician; and the offices of priest, physician, and prophet or conjurer, are for the most part hereditary. They seldom make any formal offering to the Great Spirit; but to the malevolent spirit an offering is sometimes made. When attacked by any general calamity, such as scarcity or sickness, they take a victim, generally a dog, and having tied his mouth, without killing him, they singe him at a fire, and then affix him to a pole, with a bundle of beaver-skins, after which the priest addresses the spirit, deprecates his wrath, and implores a mitigation of their troubles.

Government.] The Indians are divided into nations, and subdivided into tribes. Both the nations and the tribes have particular symbols by which they distinguish themselves. These symbols are generally animals, such as the tiger, the snake, the wolf, the buffalo. In the same manner individuals are distinguished. Every Indian accounts himself as entirely independent, and accountable to no one for his actions. Their submission is wholly voluntary; their chiefs may persuade, but have no power to enforce obedience. At ordinary times, therefore, they live in a state of the greatest equality. In times of difficulty, however, when any plan is to be formed that requires sagacity, those naturally possessed of superior abilities, or who have acquired wisdom through length of days, naturally claim the

superiority. The civil and military departments are, for the most part, managed by different persons. The former is under the direction of a chief, whose office is hereditary, assisted by the elders of the tribe; the latter is managed by a warrior chief, who is the bravest of the tribe, and one who has oftenest successfully attacked his enemies. The elders, along with the hereditary chief, determine when they are to make war. To the warrior chief is committed the sole direction of it. The former of these chiefs is called their king; the latter, for the most part, is termed their captain; but when the hereditary chief or king is a man of known courage, he is often made chief warrior, and unites both these dignities in his own person. The objects of Indian government are generally the foreign concerns of the tribe, war, peace, treaties, and alliances; it seldom or never intermeddles with domestic concerns, farther than to regulate a general hunting-party. Within his own family each man follows his own inclinations. Even public resolutions are never delivered in the form of commands; they proceed no farther than advice, yet are not on that account the less effectual. Private wrongs are retaliated by those who have suffered them; murder is avenged by the nearest relations of the murdered person. The elders, or sachems, are chosen not only for their age, but their abilities in speaking. Each family generally appoints one. These debate on all public concerns; seated in a circle, each, in his turn, speaks his opinion, in concise and nervous language; and without their general concurrence, nothing of importance is ever undertaken.

War.] The youth of these various tribes are much addicted to war. Accustomed to hear the exploits of their forefathers related with admiration, they become impatient to signalize themselves in the same career. The usual avowed causes of war, among the Indians, are to secure their right of passing through certain tracts of country; to assert their right of hunting within certain bounds; to maintain their claims to their own territories; or to avenge the death of such of their tribe as may have fallen in former conflicts. Every tribe has a band of warriors. Their arms were bows and arrows, and a war-club; but, since their intercourse with Europeans, they have substituted the musket for their bows and arrows, and the tomahawk for their war-club; and to these have added a scalping-knife and a dagger. When the Indians set out on their march, a mat is all they take besides their arms. They maintain themselves on their way by hunting. If not near the enemies' country they move quite unguarded, separating into small parties during the day, for the convenience of hunting; but taking care at night, to return to their camp, which is always pitched before sunset. By the sun, and their knowledge of the country, they direct their different routes so well, that they never fail of meeting at the appointed place. When they have entered the enemy's country, they conduct their march with the greatest secrecy; the game is no longer pursued ; fires are not lighted; they are not even permitted to speak, but converse only by signs. The sagacity which they evince under such circumstances can scarcely be conceived by civilized nations. At a very great distance they will discover habitations by the smell of the fire; they will perceive the track of a foot on the smoothest grass, and on the hardest substance; and from this track they can discover, with amazing certainty, the nation, the sex, the stature of the person who has passed, and the time that has elapsed since the track was formed. It is not easy to avoid an enemy so sagacious, and it becomes the great concern of both parties, therefore, to conceal their own traces, and discover those of their

opponents. To effect this they use all precautions: they follow each other in a single line, each treading in the footsteps of those before him, while the last carefully conceals their track by strowing leaves upon it, and if they discover a rivulet in their way, they march in it, the more effectually to deceive their enemies: they march only during the night, during the day they form a continual ambuscade. When they succeed in discovering their enemies, they immediately hold a council, in which they plan the dreadful scene which is soon to be acted. Immediately before day-break, at the moment when their adversaries are supposed to be immersed in their soundest sleep, they approach on their hands and knees, till within bow-shot; the chief then gives a signal, whereat they start up with a horrid yell and discharge their arrows, and taking advantage of the confusion, rush forwards, and, with their tomahawks, complete the carnage. Without some evident advantage of this kind, an Indian seldom engages: for he expects no praise for a victory, which is purchased with the lives of any of his own party. Having secured the victory, and despatched all who would be troublesome to them on their return, they make the rest prisoners. They then scalp the dead and wounded; twisting the hair round their left hand, and setting their foot in the person's neck, with a few strokes of the scalping-knife, they dexterously separate the scalp from the head, and preserve it as a monument of their victory. When they approach their own tents, they announce their arrival by different cries: the, number of war-whoops indicates how many prisoners they have taken, the number of death-cries, how many of their companions they have lost. A council is immediately held, at which the fate of each prisoner is soon determined. A prisoner is no sooner condemned than he is led to execution. While they are binding him to the stake, he sings his death-song, and expires with ferocious courage. If he be a chief, who has given proofs of his prowess in former engagements with his enemies, they frequently put his fortitude to a severe trial, by the infliction of the most dreadful torments; but the victim usually glories in his sufferings, as unequivocal marks of the opinion entertained of him by his tormentors. He boasts of the victories he has obtained over their nation; he enumerates the scalps which he possessed; he recapitulates the manner in which he has treated his prisoners, and reproaches them with ignorance in the art of torture. This scene, it is said, sometimes continues, with little intermission, for several days; till the prisoner, exhausted, but not humbled, expires without a sigh; or till his taunts provoke his tormentors to frustrate their own designs, by putting a speedy end to his existence. Burning is the general way of putting their prisoners to death, but few of them suffer even in this manner. A great part are delivered to the chief of the nation, and being distributed to those who have lost their husbands, sons, or other relations, in the war, they are by them generally adopted into their respective families, and, if they conduct themselves properly, experience all that tenderness and regard which belonged to those whose places they fill. They have no inducement to return to their own tribe; for the Indians esteem all who permit themselves to be made prisoners, as being unworthy of life, and would not receive them, could they make their escape. The prisoners who are not adopted into some family, are made slaves, and are often disposed of to the Europeans for spirituous liquors.

The animosity of savages is hereditary, and can seldom be extinguished; when peace becomes necessary, therefore, it is not easy to bring about the