pappoose. To this cradle a sling is attached, which passes over the squaw's neck, the back of the babe being placed to the back of the mother, and its face outward. The first thing a squaw does on entering a house, is to release herself from her burden, and place it up against the wall, chair, chest, or any thing that will support it, where the passive prisoner stands looking not unlike a mummy in its case.

The squaws are most affectionate in their treatment of their little ones. Indeed, gentleness and good humor appear to be distinguishing traits in the tempers of the female Indians; but whether this be natural to their characters, the savage state, or the softening effects of Christianity, I cannot determine.

The squaws are very ingenious in much of their handiwork. We find their birch-bark baskets very convenient for a number of purposes. My bread-basket, knife-tray, and sugarbasket, are all of this humble material. When ornamented and wrought in patterns with dyed quills, I can assure you they are by no means inelegant.

They manufacture vessels of birch-bark so well, that they will serve for many useful household purposes, such as holding milk, soup, water, or any other liquid; they are sewed, or rather stitched together with the tough roots of the tamarack or larch, or else with strips of cedar-bark. They also weave very useful baskets from the inner rind of the basswood and white ash. Some of these baskets, of a coarse kind, are used for gathering potatoes, Indian corn, and turnips; the settlers finding them very good substitutes for the osier baskets used for the same purpose in the old country. The Indians are acquainted with a variety of dyes, with which they stain the more elegant fancy baskets and porcupine quills. Our parlor is ornamented with several very pretty specimens of their ingenuity in this way, which answer the purpose of note and letter-cases, flower-stands, and work-baskets.

They appear to value the useful rather more highly than the merely ornamental articles which are shown them. They

are very shrewd and close in all their bargains, and exhibit a surprising degree of caution in their dealings. The men are much less difficult to trade with than the women, who display a singular pertinacity in some instances. If they have fixed their mind on any one article, they will come to you day after day, refusing any other you may offer to their notice. One of the squaws fell in love with a gay chintz dressing-gown belonging to my husband; and though I resolutely refused to part with it, all the squaws in the wigwam came by turns to look at "gown," which they pronounced with their peculiarly plaintive tone of voice; and when I said, "No gown to sell," they uttered a melancholy exclamation of regret, and went away.

They will seldom make any article you want on purpose for you. If you express a desire to have baskets of a particular pattern which they do not happen to have ready made, they give you the usual reply of, "By-and-by." If the goods you offer them in exchange for theirs do not answer their expectations, they give a sullen and dogged look or reply, “Car-car" (no, no,) or “ Carwin," which is a still more forcible negative. But when the bargain pleases them, they signify their approbation by several affirmative nods of the head, and a noise not much unlike a grunt; the ducks, venison, fish, or baskets are placed beside you, and the articles of exchange transferred to the folds of their capacious blankets, or deposited in a sort of wallet made of rushes, not unlike those straw baskets in which English carpenters carry their tools.

The women imitate the dresses of the whites, and are rather skilful in applying their purchases. Many of the young girls can sow very neatly. I often give them bits of silk, and velvet, and braid, for which they appear very thankful.

LESSON XV.

Canadian Indian Encampment. BACKWOODS OF Canada.

FEELING Some desire to see these singular people in their winter encampment, I expressed my wish to a friend, who happens to be a great favorite with the Indians, who, as a mark of distinction, have bestowed upon him the title of Chippewa, the name of their tribe. He was delighted with the opportunity of doing the honors of the Indian wigwam, and it was agreed that he, with some of his brothers and sisters-inlaw, should accompany us to the camp in the woods.

We were a merry party that sallied forth that evening into the glorious starlight. The snow sparkled as with a thousand diamonds on its frozen surface; and truly, never did I look upon a lovelier sight than the woods presented. There had been a heavy fall of snow the preceding day; and, owing to the extreme stillness of the air, not a particle of it had been shaken from the trees. The evergreens were bending beneath their brilliant burden; every twig, every leaf and spray, was covered, and some of the weak saplings actually bowed down to the earth with the weight of snow, forming the most lovely and fanciful bowers and arcades across our path. As you looked up towards the top of the trees, the snowy branches seen against the deep-blue sky, formed a silvery veil, through which the bright stars were gleaming with a chastened brilliancy.

Leaving the broad road, we struck into a by-path, deeptracked by the Indians, and soon perceived the wigwam by the red smoke that issued from the open basket-work top of the little hut. This is first formed with light poles, planted round, so as to enclose a circle of ten or twelve feet in diameter; between these poles are drawn large sheets of birchbark, both within and without, leaving an opening of the bare

poles at the top, so as to form an outlet for the smoke; the outer walls are also banked up with snow, so as to exclude the air entirely from beneath.

Some of our party ran on before, so that when the blanket, that served the purpose of a door, was unfastened, we found a motley group of the dark skins and the pale faces reposing on the blankets and skins that were spread round the walls of the wigwam.

The swarthy complexions, shaggy black hair, and singular costume of the Indians, formed a striking contrast with the fair-faced Europeans who were mingled with them, seen as they were by the red and fitful glare of the wood fire, that occupied the centre of the circle. The deer-hounds lay stretched in indolent enjoyment, close to the embers; near to which three or four dark-skinned little urchins were playing with each other.

There was a slight bustle among the party when we entered, one by one, through the low blanket door-way. The merry laugh rang round among our friends, which was echoed by more than one of the Indian men, and joined by the peculiar half laugh or chuckle of the squaws. "Chippewa" was directed to a post of honor beside the hunter Peter; and squaw Peter, with an air of great good humor, made room for me on a corner of her own blanket; to effect which, two pappooses and a hound were displaced.

The most attractive persons in the wigwam were two Indian girls, one about eighteen-Jane, the hunter's eldest daughter, and her cousin Margaret. I was greatly struck with the beauty of Jane; her features were positively fine, and though of gypsy darkness, the tint of vermilion on her cheek and lip rendered them, if not beautiful, very attractive. Her hair was of jetty blackness, soft and shining, and neatly folded over her forehead; not hanging loose and disorderly, in shaggy masses, as is generally the case with the squaws. Jane was evidently aware of her superior charms, and might be

considered as an Indian belle, by the peculiar care she dis played in the arrangement of the black cloth mantle, bound with scarlet, that was gracefully wrapped over one shoulder, and fastened on the left side by a gilt brooch. Margaret was younger and of lower stature, and though lively and rather pretty, yet wanted the quiet dignity of her cousin she had more of the squaw in face and figure. The two girls occupied a blanket by themselves, and were busily engaged in working some most elegant shades of deer-skin, richly wrought over with colored quills and beads, which they kept in a small tin pan on their knees; but the old squaw held her porcupine quills in her mouth, and the fine dried sinews of the deer, which they make use of instead of thread, in work of this sort, in her bosom.

On my expressing a desire to have some of the porcupine quills, she gave me a few of different colors, with which she was working a pair of moccasons, but signified that she wanted "bead to work moccason," by which I understood I was to give some in exchange for the quills. Indians never give away any thing when they have learned to trade with white

men.

She was greatly delighted with the praises I bestowed upon Jane. She told me Jane was soon to marry the young Indian who sat on one side of her, in all the pride of a new blanket coat, red sash, embroidered powder-pouch, and great gilt clasps to the collar of his coat, which looked as warm and as white as a newly-washed fleece. The old squaw evidently felt proud of the young couple, as she gazed on them, and often repeated, with a good-tempered laugh," Jane's husband; marry by-andby." We had so often listened with pleasure to the Indians singing their hymns on a Sunday night, that I requested some of them to sing to us. The old hunter nodded assent, and, without removing his pipe, with the gravity and phlegm of a Dutchman, issued his commands, which were as instantly obeyed by the younger part of the community, and a chorus