proportioned. Their skins were red, or of a copperbrown; their eyes black, their hair long, black, and coarse. In constitution, they were firm and vigorous, capable of sustaining great fatigue and hardship.

As to their general character, they were quick of apprehension, and not wanting in genius. At times, they were friendly, and even courteous. In council, they were distinguished for gravity and eloquence; in war, for bravery and address. When provoked to anger, they were sullen and retired; and when determined upon revenge, no danger would deter them; neither absence nor time could cool them. If captured by an enemy, they never asked life; nor would they betray emotions of fear, een in view of the tomahawk, or of the kindling fagot.

They had us or written literature, except rude hieroglyphics; and education among them was confined to the arts of war, hunting, fishing, and the few manufactures which existed among them, most of which every male was more or less instructed in. Their language was rude, but sonorous, metaphorical, and energetic. It was well suited to the purposes of public speaking; and, when accompanied by the impassioned gestures, and uttered with the deep guttural tones of the savage, it is said to have had a singularly wild and impressive effect. They had some few warsongs, which were little more than an unmeaning chorus; but, it is believed, they had no other compositions which were preserved. Their arts and manufactures were confined to the construction of wigwams, bows and arrows, wampum, ornaments, stone hatchets, mortars for pounding corn; to the dressing of skins, weaving of coarse mats from the bark of trees, or a coarse sort of hemp, &c.

Their agriculture was small in extent, and the articles they cultivated were few in number. Corn, beans, peas, potatoes, melons, and a few others of a similar kind, were all.

Their skill in medicine was confined to a few simple prescrip tions and operations. Both the cold and warm bath were often applied, and a considerable number of plants were used with success. For some diseases they knew no remedy, in which case they resorted to their powow, or priest, who undertook the removal of the disease by means of sorcery.

It may be remarked, however, that the diseases to which the Indians were liable, were few, compared with those which preJail in civilized society.

The employments of the men were principally hunting, fishing, and war. The women dressed the food, took charge of the domestic concerns, tilled their narrow and scanty fields, and performed almost all the drudgery connected with their household

affairs.

The amusements of the men were principally leaping, shooting at marks, dancing, gaming, and hunting, in all of which they made the most violent exertions. Their dances were usually per formed round a large fire. In their war-dances, they sung or recited the feats which they or their ancestors had achieved; represented the manner in which they were performed, and wrought themselves up to an inexpressible degree of martial enthusiasm. The females occasionally joined in some of these sports, bu' had none peculiar to themselves.

Their dress was various. In summer, they wore little besides a covering about the waist; but in winter, they clothed themselves in the ski & of wild beasts. They were exceedingly fond of ornaments. On days of show and festivity, their sachems wore mantles of deer-skin, embroidered with white beads, or copper; or they were painted with various devices. Hideousness was the object aimed at in painting themselves. A chain of fish-bones about the neck, or the skin of a wild-cat, was the sign of royalty. For habitations, the Indians had weekwams, or wigwams, as

of ten or twelve feet, other poles were driven obliquely into the ground, and fastened to the centre pole at the top. Their coverings were of mats, or barks of trees, well adjusted so as to render them dry and comfortable.

Their domestic utensils extended not beyond a hatchet of stone; a few shells and sharp stones, which they used for knives; stone mortars for pounding corn, and some mats and skins upon which they slept. They sat, and ate, and lodged, on the ground. With shells and stones they scalped their enemies, dressed their game, cut their hair, &c. They made nets of thread, twisted from the bark of Indian hemp, or of the sinews of the moose and deer. For fish-hooks, they used bones which were bent.

Their food was of the coarsest and simplest kind-the flesh, and even the entrails, of all kinds of wild beasts and birds; and, in their proper season, green corn, heans, peas, &c. &c., which they cultivated, and other fruits, which the country spontaneously produced. Flesh and fish they roasted on a stick, or broiled on the fire. In some instances, they boiled their meat and corn by putting hot stones in water. Corn they parched, especially in the winter; and upon this they lived in the absence of other food.

The money of the Indians, called wampum, consisted of small beads wrought from shells, and strung on belts, and in chains. The wampum of the New England Indians was black, blue, and white. That of the Six Nations was of a purple color. Six of the white beads, and three of black, or blue, became of the value of a penny. A belt of wampum was given as a token of friendship, or as a seal or confirmation of a treaty. There was little among them that could be called society. Except when roused by some strong excitement, the men were generally indolent, taciturn, and unsocial. The women were too degraded and oppressed to think of much besides their toils. Removing, too, as the seasons changed, or as the game grew scarce, or as danger from a stronger tribe threatened, there was little opportu nity for forming those local attachments, and those social ties, which spring from a long residence in a particular spot. Their language also, though energetic, was too barren to serve the purposes of familiar conversation. In order to be understood and felt, it required the aid of strong and animated gesticulation, which could take place only when great occasions excited them. It seems, therefore, that they drew no considerable part of their enjoyments from intercourse with one another. Female beauty had little power over the men; and all other pleasures gave way to the strong impulses of public festivity, or burning captives, or seeking murderous revenge, or the chase, or war, or glory.

War was the favorite employment of the savages of North America. It roused them from the lethargy into which they fell when they ceased from the chase, and furnished them an oppor

tunity to distinguish themselves to achieve deeds of glory, and taste the sweets of revenge. Their weapons were bows and arrows headed with flint or other hard stones, which they discharged with great precision and force. The southern Indians used targets made of bark; the Mohawks clothed themselves with skins, as a defence against the arrows of their enemies. When they fought in the open field, they rushed to the attack with incredible fury; and, at the same time, uttered their appal ling war-whoop. Those whom they had taken captive they often tortured with every variety of cruelty, and to their dying agonies added every species of insult. If peace was concluded on, the chiefs of the hostile tribes ratified the treaty by smoking, in succession, the same pipe, called the calumet, or pipe of peace.

The government of the Indians, in general, was an absolute mon archy, though it differed in different tribes. The will of the sachem was law In matters of moment, he consulted his counsellors; but his decisions were final. War and peace, among some tribes, seem to have been determined on in a council formed of old men, distinguished by their exploits. When in council, they spoke at pleas ure, and always listened to the speaker with profound and respectful silence. "When propositions for war or peace were made, or treaties proposed to them by the colonial governors, they met the ambassadors in council, and, at the end of each paragraph or proposition, the principal sachein delivered a short stick to one of his council, intimating that it was his peculiar duty to remember that paragraph. This was repeated, till every proposal was finished; they then retired to deliberate among themselves. After their deliberations were ended, the sachem, or some counsellors to whom he had delegated this office, replied to every paragraph in its turn, with an exactness scarcely exceeded in the written correspondence of civilized powers. Each man actually remembered what was committed to him, and, with his assistance, the person who replied remembered the whole."

The religious notions of the natives consisted of traditions, mingled with many superstitions. Like the ancient Greeks, Romans, Persians, Hindoos, &c. they believed in the existence of two gods, the one good, who was the superior, and whom they styled the Great or Good Spirit; the other evil. They worshipped both; and of both formed images of stone, to which they paid religious homage. Besides these, they worshipped various other deities-fire, water, thunder-any thing which they conceived to be superior to themselves, and capable of doing them injury. The manner of worship was to sing and dance round large fires. Besides dancing, they offered prayers, and sometimes sweetscented powder. In Virginia, the Indians offered blood, deer's suet, and tobacco. Of the creation and the deluge, they had distinct traditions.

Marriage among them was generally a temporary contract.