It seems to me worthy of observation that these Indians believe that every animal has a great original prototype or type from which it is descended; hence all beavers are descended from the great beaver, which lives somewhere forever under the water; all bluebirds from the great bluebird, which flies invisibly above the clouds in the immeasurable heights of space. The great beaver is the great brother of all beavers, the great bluebird is the brother and protector of all bluebirds.

They seek to propitiate Manitou by gifts and sacrifices, which are often bloody and cruel. The mediators between themselves and Manitou are their so-called medicine-men; men who, by means of the knowledge of the mysteries of nature and the power of magic, are considered able to invoke spirits, to avert misfortune, to heal sickness, and obtain the fulfillment of human wishes. These men are highly esteemed among the Indians, and are both their priests and physicians.

You behold at the fall of night fires flaming upon the prairie-hills on the banks of the Mississippi, and a crowd of Indians, men and women, assembled around them, making the most extraordinary gestures. Let us approach nearer. Copper-colored men and women, to the number of about one hundred, are dancing around, or rather hopping, with their feet close together and their arms hanging straight down, to the unmelodious music of a couple of small drums and some dried gourds, which, being filled with small stones, make a rattling noise when they are shaken. The musicians are seated upon the green-sward. The dancing men are painted in their grandest, but yet most hideous manner, tawdry and horrible; and several women, also, are plentifully covered with silver rings, and with little silver bells hanging to their ears and to their moccasins, and which they shake with all their might as they hop along.

Every one has a little medicine-bag made of skin.

These are all medicine-men and women; and around them is a ring of spectators, men, women, and children.

After a couple of old men have seated themselves in the ring and talked for a little while, a march commences, in which the whole circle is included, during which first one and then another individual steps out of the procession, and takes his stand a little apart from the circle. A medicine-man then, having blown into his medicine-bag, springs forward with a shrill resounding cry, and holds it before the mouth of one of the patients standing in the outer circle, who on that falls down insensible, and lies on the ground for a time with quivering limbs. Thus falls one after another of the assembly. An old Indian stands smiling with a cunning expression, as if he would say, "They'll not so soon catch me !" At the first application of the medicine-bag, therefore, he merely staggers forward a few paces; after the second, bursts into an hysterical laugh, and it is not until the third mystical draught that he falls down with convulsed limbs. In a little while the fallen again rise and reunite themselves to the procession, which is continued until all its members have gone through the medicine-process, the unmelodious music sounding without intermission. The old men seem more amused by this scene than the young.

The medicine-dance is one of the chief festivities of the Indians of Minnesota, and lasts for several days. They have also other dances, among which the war-dance is most known. Men alone take part in this. They paint their faces and bodies in the most horrible manner, and their dance consists of the wild gestures and threatening demonstrations which they make against each other. I have seen a painting of the scalp-dance of the women, which is danced when the men return from war with the

scalps of their enemies. These scalps, being placed on tall poles, are held by women, who, with their female compeers, dance, or rather hop round, very much in the man

ner of geese with their feet tied, and with about as much grace. The beating of drums, songs, and wild cries accompany the dance. The men stand round with eagles' feathers in their hair contemplating this dance, which is a greater delight, both to their eyes and their ears, than probably any which the genius of Bournonville could create, or the skill of Taglioni or Elsler perform. «

But I must yet add a few facts regarding the past and present state of this savage people, which I obtained from trustworthy sources, partly from books, partly from oral communications, as well as from my own observations.

When the Europeans first penetrated that portion of America lying east of the Mississippi, a great deal was said about vast stretches of desolate country; and since a more accurate knowledge has been obtained of the Indian tribes from Canada in the North, to Florida and Louisiana in the South, and their population has been estimated, it appears that the whole Indian race, east of the Great River, amounts to about 180,000 souls. The tribes or families into which they are divided all greatly resemble each other in physiognomy and manners, although some of them are more warlike and cruel, and others more peacefully disposed. The principal tribes have lived, for the most part, in a state of bloody hostility with each other from time immemorial.

Research into the languages of the various Indian tribes has proved that, however numerous the tribes may be, there exist but eight radically distinct languages; and of these five only are now spoken by tribes of eminence, the other three having died out, and the languages of the remainder of the tribes appear to be dialects of some one or other of the principal languages. These languages have a definite form and construction; they are affluent in definitions, and the definitions of individual beings, but are deficient in terms for the general idea. They indicate a popular mind which has not advanced beyond the realm

of experience into that of reflection. Thus, for example, they have names for the various kinds of oak, but not for the genus oak; they speak of a holy man, but they have no word for holiness; they could say our father, mine or thy father, but they have no word for father. There is nothing in their language which indicates a higher degree of cultivation among them as a people than they are at present in possession of. They love to speak in a symbolical manner, all their symbols being derived from the realm of nature; and their writings and their art speak also by means of such. I have seen a buffalo-hide covered with figures, in the style of children's drawings, which represented battles, treaties of peace, and other such events; the sun and the moon, trees, and mountains, and rivers, fish and birds, and all kinds of animals, having their part in the delineations; men and horses, however, in the most distorted proportions, being the principal actors. I have also seen Indian songs inscribed upon trees and bark in similar hieroglyphics.

The religious culture of the Indian has adopted the same symbolic characters derived from natural objects. They constitute a living hieroglyphic writing. They have no sense of the worship of God in spirit and in truth, or in the influence of love. But they have many religious festivals; the Indians of Minnesota more than ten, at which they offer sacrifices to the sun and the moon, trees, rivers, stones, serpents-nay, indeed, to all things and all animals, to propitiate their spirits or their divinities. The festival of the sun is celebrated by day, that of the moon by night. One festival is for their weapons of war, which they regard as sacred, or as being possessed of an innate divine power. At all these festivals they have dancing and the beating of drums, as well as singing and many ceremonies. The principal transaction on these occasions, however, seems to be feasting; and as the Indians appear to consider it a duty to eat every thing which is set before

them, frequently more than they are able, they are sometimes obliged to take medicine that it may be possible for them to pursue their eating. At the Feast of the Spirits, if the guest fails to eat all that is placed before him, he must redeem himself by the forfeit of a buffalo or beaver skin. Great quantities of provisions, especially of venison, are collected for these festivities. In the mean time they are often famished with hunger.

Their medical knowledge, even if classed with superstitious usages, is not to be despised, and they have large acquaintance with healing herbs and the powers of nature. A lady of Philadelphia, who resided many years among the Indians, in order to gain a knowledge of their various remedies, drew up, on her return, an Indian materia-medica, which became much celebrated, and many new curative means have thus enriched the American pharmacopoia. Women are also, among the Indians, esteemed as physicians and interpreters of dreams; and the Winnebago Indians, who dwell by Lake Superior, in the northeastern part of Minnesota, have now, singularly enough, two queens whom they obey-the one for her wisdom, the other for her courage and bravery. Otherwise, women among the Indians are, as is well known, servants who -do all the hard work, as well without as within the house. They dig the fields (pieces of land without form or regularity), sow and reap, gather wild rice, berries, roots, and make sugar from the juice of the sugar-maple. When the man kills a deer, he throws it down for the woman, who must prepare it for household use.

"What estimate may be given of the morals and character of the Indian women in this neighborhood?" inquired I from a lady of St. Paul's, who had resided a considerable time at this place.

"Many are immoral, and can not be much commended; but others, again, there are who are as virtuous and blameless as any of us."