CHAPTER XXV.

Indian arts. Houses. Canoes. Mode of taking fish. Snares. Traps. Cookery. Axes. Hatchets. Chissels. Gouges. Mortars. Pestles. Kettles. Arrow heads. A stone in the shape of a pear. Sculpture. Hearths. Cellars. Tumuli. Old Fields. Wears. Instance of sagacity. Nets. Wampum. Calumet. Ennumeration of arts borrowed from the Indians. Medical knowledge. Antidotes. Superstitions propagated. The comforts of savages few.

THE mechanical productions of the Indians are few and imperfect. They have no structures, no monuments, which exhibit marks of much ingenuity. As they had not the means so they did not appear to possess a taste for the mechanic arts. Their houses were built of light and perishable materials. Some of them were 50 or 60 feet long. They were covered with mats, and warmer than those of the English. No rain, no air penetrated them. These were erected by the women, and capable of being removed with ease, whenever they wished to wander to a new region.

Their canoes were of great use to them. They were of two kinds; one was made out of a large log excavated; the inside burned and wrought by a stone gouge; and the outside shaped by their stone axe. The second kind was made of birchen bark. This was curiously wrought, and so very light as to be easily carried on the shoulders by one or two men. They travel as much as possible by water, and can proceed, when they choose, with great expedition. In gales and storms, they manage these light canoes with surprising art. They take their fish by entangling them in wears, dipping for them with scoop nets, or striking them with spears. Birds were taken in snares, or shot with arrows. Animals were caught in traps. Sometimes, they build two hedges some miles apart at one end, and coming nearly to an angle at the other, where they lay in ambush to kill every animal which should pass. Their terrible snare was a young tree bent down to the ground, which entangling the game sprang

ack with a force sufficient to elevate the largest animals. An English mare being caught in one, the friendly Indians, afraid of her "iron claws,' ran to tell the owners respecting the airy flight of their "squaw horse," not having a word to discriminate the sexes of inferior animals.

Their meat was cooked by broiling it on coals, roasting it on a stick, or broiling it in kettles of stone. Corn was poun

ded in wooden mortars with stone pestles. Bread was bakek on flat stones, or, being enclosed in green leaves, was laid in hot ashes. Clam shells formed convenient spoons, and their fingers made very durable knives and forks. Instead

of butter and lard, they made use of the oil of seals and fish. Unacquainted with our luxuries, they were free from our wants. Ignorant of iron, their hatches and axes were made of stone. Their use dictated a similar shape to ours. young sappling was split near the ground, the head of the axe thrust into it, a handle was formed with very inconsiderable labor.

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Their chissel was of stone, sharpened to an edge. Their gouge differed from it by being hollow at the edge. Canoes, trays and mortars were wrought by the aid of such imperfect tools as these. Fire was employed to effect a part of the operation, and wet clay controlled its extent.

Some of their mortars are made of stone with sufficient excavations; and the pestles of the same materials are formed into the usual shape. If an Indian family go from home, they place the stone or wooden mortar against the door of their wigwam and no one enters it. Their honesty requires no other security. It answers all the purposes of bars, and locks and keys.

Some of their kettles are still dug up, which are nothing more than a large hole in a stone. They cause its contents to boil by putting in succession hot stones into it.

Their arrow heads are found in every part of America. They are formed so as to be let into a shaft. The small ones were designed for children. They are from one to five inches in length. They are generally of the filicious kind of stone; and, with their means, it is surprising, how they cut them with such art and dexterity.

The use of a stone, in the shape of a pear, with a neck to it, is undetermined. If it was suspended from the neck by a string, it was a clumsy ornament. If it served as a weight to sink their nets, too much labor was bestowed upon it. The

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Indians were not ignorant of the art of sculpture. end of a long stone pestle, found at Wells in the district of Maine, there is an imitation of the head of a serpent. Something of this kind is often to be seen on the bowls of their pipes. In New-Hampshire was found a piece of bone, on which is engraven the bust of a man in the agonies of death. The countenance is savage, but the work well executed.

In the places of former habitation, circular hearths of flat stones are sometimes discovered. These were the centres of their wigwams, where their fires were placed, round which they slept with their feet towards them. This mode of sleeping with the feet to the fire is both a preventative and a remedy for a cold.

The cellars, in which they preserved their corn, are often discovered in the new settlements. Their burying grounds are more frequent. The dead were placed in a sitting posture. Relics of ornaments and instruments of defence, which were buried with the bodies as requisites in "the country of souls, are still dug out of the earth. The stone pipe for smoking is usually among them. In a tumulus near Ossapy Ponds are found skeletons buried with the face downward. In other places strings of wampum have been found entire. Old fields, where they planted their corn, the small hills of which are yet visible, are common in all the states. Traces of paths for carrying places between rivers are still to be seen. Specimens of ancient pottery, deemed of a valuable kind, are found in many places.

On the great Ossapy and Winipiseogee rivers are remains of wears, constructed of large stones. At Sanbornton and Hinsdale in New Hampshire are appearances of fortresses; the one at the former place is composed of five distinct walls; but those at the westward are vastly superior to these.

There are some Indian Gazettes. On a tree in Moultonboro' is carved a history of one of their expeditions. The number of the killed and the captivated were represented by so many human figures. The stroke of a knife across the throat designated the killed. Even the sexes had some intelligible marks of distinctions.

The Indians are great observers of every incident. A savage had a piece of dried venison stolen by a white man from the outside of his wigwam, where it had been hung to dry. He pursued the thief by the tracks. Meeting a travel

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ler, he stops to inquire, if he had seen him on the road. The Indian describes the thief whom he had never seen, as an old man, of a short stature, with a long gun, accompanied by a small dog, with a short tail. The traveller is inquisitive to learn, how he obtained such an accurate description of one, who had committed a crime in secret, and whom he had never seen. The Indian replies, that he knew the thief was an old man by the turning in of his toes as he walked; that he was a white man, it was evident from his mode of stepping; he was a short man, because he could not reach the meat without a log to stand on; he had a long gun, because, when he set it against a tree while taking the meat, the upper part of the barrel indented the bark; and he ascertained the size and tail of the dog by the print he made by lying on the sand, while his master committed the crime, for which justice was pursuing him.

The nets of the Californian Indians are superior to any made in Europe. The materials are from plants and a coarse thread of palm. The colors are ingeniously mixed, the workmanship admirable, and a great variety of figures represented. They are not only used for taking fish, but the more curious ones are worn as ornaments for the head and neck, and used for holding fruit.

Wampum is an article of great value to them. It formerly consisted of small shells. It now consists of small cylindrical beads. They are either black or white, of which the former are the most valuable. They are the Indian's money, and are current as gold and silver are with us. They are curiously interwoven into every part of their dress, in a great variety of figures. Their colors and shapes are expressive of things, and serve as writing to record important transactions and to communicate thoughts to each other. As money they hire warriors with them. As writing they record treaties. Nothing very interesting is done, without the intervention of a string of wampum.

The calumet, which is their pipe of peace, is no less revered. The bowl is usually a soft, red stone. The stem is of cane, painted with different colors, and adorned with the feathers of the most beautiful birds. When they treat of war, the pipe and all its ornaments are painted red. This instrument is used whenever they enter into any new engagement, which they deem sacred. To smoke from the calumet is a sign of mutual friendship and peace. With them it is a sa

cred oath, a seal of contract, a pledge of performance of what has been promised. The size of the pipe and the degree of decoration are correspondent to the importance of the occasion, the quality of the persons and the esteem entertained for them.

We have borrowed from them some of their customs and arts. We imitate their canoe, their mode of travelling and taking of fish. We have learned to strike fish with a spear in the night, and to allure them by a torch light placed on the outside of a canoe. The scoop net, suspended to one end of a pole with a wooden bow, was their invention. Frost fish were taken with wooden tongs, and black eels in cylindrical baskets, resembling wire mouse traps. Persons exposed to the open air have learned to lay with their feet to the fire, and vegetables are preserved from the frost by being immerged in the sand. The log trap is the result of their ingenuity, and the dragging of meat on the ground in order to entice the animal to his destiny. They taught us the use of snow shoes in cases when journeying would otherwise be impracticable. They preserved meat by putting it into snow, and prepared it for use by drying it in the smoke.

They had learned to catch ducks in the month of August, when the old ones are unfledged and incapable of making their escape from small creeks. When taken, they can be preserved in smoke or salt for winter. They dress leather in the brains of animals, which give it a peculiar pliancy and softness. Their art of dying hair has not been communicated.

We retain some of their modes of cookery. Their green corn, when either roasted or boiled, is excellent. Their samp and homony consist of corn bruised and soaked or boiled. Their nokehike was parched corn pounded. Suckatash, a mixture of green corn and beans, is become a very common dish. Upaquontop is the head of a bass boiled, and the broth thickened with homony, which is one of their richest delicacies.

They had discovered, that fish was a rich manure. They taught the Europeans how to raise maize, which we call Indian corn, which is a most valuable plant for easy sustentation. Their time to plant was, when the leaves of the white oak were as big as a mouse's ear. We cannot give the natives so much credit for showing us the art of girdling trees.