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The Indian includes all savage beasts within the number of his enemies. This is by no means a metaphorical or figurative expression, but is used in a literal sense, as will appear from what I am going to relate.

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A Delaware hunter once shot a huge bear and broke its back bone. The animal fell and set up a most plaintive cry, something like that of the panthered when he is hungry. The hunter, instead of giving him another shot, stood up close to him, and addressed him in these words: "Hark ye! bear; "you are a coward, and no warrior as you pretend "to be. Were you a warrior, you would shew it

by your firmness, and not cry and whimper like an "old woman. You know, bear, that our tribes are "at war with each other, and that yours was the "aggressor*. You have found the Indians too "powerful for you, and you have gone sneaking

about in the woods, stealing their hogs; perhaps

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at this time you have hog's flesh in your belly. "Had you conquered me, I would have borne it .. with courage and died like a brave warrior; but you, bear, sit here and cry, and disgrace your tribe by your cowardly conduct." I was present at the delivery of this curious invective; when the hunter had despatched the bear, I asked him how

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Probably alluding to a tradition which the Indians have of a very,

ferocious kind of bear, called the naked bear, which they say once existed, but was totally destroyed by their ancestors. The last was killed in the New York state, at a place they called Hoosink, which means the or more properly the Kettle. Basin,

he thought the poor animal could understand what he said to it?" Oh!" said he in answer, "the bear "understood me very well; did you not observe how "ashamed he looked while I was upbraiding him?"

Another time I witnessed a similar scene between the falls of the Ohio and the river Wabash. A young white man, named William Wells*, who had been when a boy taken prisoner by a tribe of the Wabash Indians, by whom he was brought up, and had imbibed all their notions, had so wounded a large bear that he could not move from the spot, and the animal cried piteously like the one I have just mentioned. The young man went up to him, and with seemingly great earnestness, addressed him in the Wabash language, now and then giving him a slight stroke on the nose with his ram-rod. I asked him, when he had done, what he had been saying to this bear? I have," said he, " upbraided him for act

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ing the part of a coward; I told him that he knew "the fortune of war, that one or the other of us "must have fallen; that it was his fate, to be con

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quered, and he ought to die like a man, like a "hero, and not like an old woman; that if the case "had been reversed, and I had fallen into the power "of my enemy, I would not have disgraced my na"tion as he did, but would have died with firm"ness and courage, as becomes a true warrior."HECKEWELDER.

* The same whom Mr. de Volney speaks of in his excellent "View of the Soil and Climate of United States." Supplement, No. V1 page 356. Philadelphia Edition, 1804.

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SUICIDE.

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Suicide is not considered by the Indians either as act of heroism or of cowardice, nor is it with them a subject of praise or blame. They view this deperate act as the consequence of mental derangement, and the person who destroys himself is to them an object of pity. Such cases do not frequently Between the years 1771 and 1780, four

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Indians of my acquaintance took the root of the

ma

apple, which is commonly used on such oc

casions, in order to poison themselves, in which they

all

me

on

Succeeded, except one. Two of them were young

who had been disappointed in love, the girls whom they had fixed their choice, and to whom they were engaged, having changed their minds and married other lovers. They both put an end to their existence. The two others were married men. Their stories, as pictures of Indian manners, will not, perhaps, be thought uninteresting.

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One of these unfortunate men was a person of an excellent character, respected and esteemed by all who knew him. He had a wife whom he was very fond of and two children, and they lived very happily, together at the distance of about half a mile from the place where I resided. He often came to visit me, and as he was of a most amiable disposition, I pleased with his visits, and always gave him a

was

without

hearty welcome. When I thought he was too long coming, I went myself to the delightful spot which he had judiciously selected for his dwelling.

Here I always found the family cheerful, sociable and happy, until some time before the fatal catastrophe happened, when I observed that my friend's countenance bore the marks of deep melancholy, of which I afterwards learned the cause. His wife had received the visits of another man; he foresaw that he would soon be obliged to separate from her, and he shuddered when he thought that he must also part from his two lovely children; for it is the custom of the Indians, that when a divorce takes place between husband and wife, the children remain with their mother, until they are of a proper age to choose for themselves. One hope, however, still remained. The sugar-making season was at hand, and they were shortly to remove to their sugar camp, where he flattered himself his wife would not be followed by the disturber of his peace, whose residence was about ten miles from thence. But this hope was of short duration. They had hardly been a fortnight in their new habitation, when, as he returned one day from a morning's hunt, he found the unwelcome visiter at his home, in close conversation with his faithless wife. This last stroke was more than he could bear; without saying a single word, he took off a large cake of his sugar, and with it came to my house, which was at the distance of eight miles from his temporary residence. It was on a Sunday, at about ten o'clock in the forenoon, that he entered my door, with sorrow strongly depicted on his manly countenance, As he came in he presented me

with

"hav

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his cake of sugar, saying," My friend! you many a time served me with a good pipe of

tobcco, and I have not yet. done any thing to

plez

"nes

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ase you. Take this as a reward for your goodS, and as an acknowledgment from me as your friend." He said no more, but giving me with both is hands, a warm farewell squeeze, he departed and returned to the camp. At about two o'clock in the forenoon a runner from thences passing through the town to notify his death at the village two miles farther, informed us of the shocking event. He had immediately on his return, remained a short time in his house, indulging in the last caresses to his dear innocent children gothen retiring to some distance, had eaten the fatal root, and before relief could be administered by some persons who had observed him staggering from the other side of the river, he was on the point of expiring, and all succours were vain. The last whom I have to mention, was also a married man, but had no children. He had lived happy with his wife, until one day that she fell into a passion and made use to him of such abusive language as he could not endure Too high-minded to quarrel with a woman, he resolved to punish her by

putting a

J

an end to his existence. Fortunately he was

seen in the first stage of his fits, and was brought into a horse,

lukewarm

throat. H не

was

again

where a strong emetic diluted in

water, was forcibly poured down his recovered after some time, but never

the strong healthy man he had been

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