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before; his wife however, took warning from this desperate act, and behaved better ever after.HECKEW ELDER.

DRUNKENNESS.

An Indian who had been born and brought up at Minisink, near the Delaware Water Gap, and sto whom the German inhabitants of that neighbourhood had given the name of Cornelius Rosenbaum, told me near fifty years ago, that he had once, when under the influence of strong liquor, killed the best Indian friend he had, fancying him to be his worst avowed enemy. He said that the deception was complete, and that while intoxicated, the face of his friend presented to his eyes all the features of the man with whom he was in a state of hostility. It is impossible to express the horror with which he was struck when he awoke from that delusion; he was so shocked, that he from that moment resolved never more to taste of the maddening poison, of which he was convinced that the devil was the inventor for it could only be the evil spirit who made him see his enemy when his friend was before him, and produced so strong a delusion on his bewildered senses that he actually killed him. From that time until his death, which happened thirty years afterwards, he never drank a drop of ardent spirits, which he always called " the Devil's blood," and was firmly› persuaded that the Devil, or some of his inferior spirits, had a hand in preparing it.

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Once in my travels, I fell in with an Indian and his son; the former, though not addicted to drinking, had this time drunk some liquor with one of his acquaintances, of which he now felt the effects. As he was walking before me, along the path, he at once flew back and aside, calling out "O! what a monstrous snake!" On my asking him where the snake lay, he pointed to something and said " Why, there, across the path!" "A snake!" said I, "it "is nothing but a black-burnt sapling, which has "fallen on the ground." He, however, would not be persuaded; he insisted that it was a snake, and could be nothing else; therefore, to avoid it, he went round the path, and entered it again at some distance further. After we had travelled together for about two hours, during which time he spoke but little, we encamped for the night. Awaking about midnight, I saw him sitting up smoking his pipe, and appearing to be in deep thought. I asked him why he did not lay down and sleep? To which he replied, "O my friend! many things have crowded " on my mind; I am quite lost in thought!"

Heckew." And what are you thinking about?" Indian,-"Did you say it was not a snake of which I was afraid, and which lay across the path?"

Heckew." I did say so; and, indeed, it was nothing else but a sapling burnt black by the firing of the woods."

Indian," Are you sure it was that?"

Heckew.-"Yes; and I called to you at the time "to look, how I was standing on it; and if you have

"yet a doubt, ask your son, and the two Indians "with me, and they will tell you the same."

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Indian," O strange! and I took it for an uncom"monly large snake, moving as if it intended to "bite me! I cannot get over my surprise, that the liquor I drank, and, indeed, that was not much, "should have so deceived me! but I think I have now discoveréd how it happens that Indians so " often kill one another when drunk, almost without knowing what they are doing; and when after"wards they are told of what they have done, they "ascribe it to the liquor which was in them at the

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time, and say the liquor did it. I have thought "that as I saw this time a living snake in a dead piece of wood, so I might, at another time, take a human being, perhaps one of my own family, for a bear or some other ferocious beast and kill him. "Can you, my friend, tell me what is in the beson* "that confuses one so, and transforms things in that "manner? Is it an invisible spirit? It must be

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something alive; or have the white people sorcer"ers among them, who put something in the liquor "to deceive those who drink it? Do the white people drink of the same liquor that they give to the "Indians? Do they also, when drunk, kill people, " and bite noses off, as the Indians do? Who taught "the white people to make so pernicious a beson ?”

I answered all these questions, and several others that he put to me, in the best manner that I could,

This word means liquor, and is also used in the sense of a medicinal draught, or other compound potion.

to which he replied, and our conversation continued as follows:

Indian," Well, if, as you say, the bad spirit can“not be the inventor of this liquor; if, in some cases "it is moderately used among you as a medicine, "and if your doctors can prepare from it, or with "the help of a little of it, some salutary besons, still, "I must believe that when it operates as you have "seen, the bad spirit must have some hand in it, "either by putting some bad thing into it, unknown “to those who prepare it, or you have conjurers who "understand how to bewitch it.-Perhaps they only. "do so to that which is for the Indians; for the devil "is not the Indians' friend, because they will not "worship him, as they do the good spirit, and there"fore I believe he puts something into the beson, for "the purpose of destroying them."

Heckew." What the devil may do with the liquor "I cannot tell; but I believe that he has a hand in every thing that is bad. When the Indians kill "one another, bite off each other's noses, or com

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mit such wicked acts, he is undoubtedly well satis"fied; for, as God himself has said, he is a destroyer

and a murderer.”

Indian, now, we think alike, and hence

as forth he

t

Well,

100 never again deceive me, or entice

shall never again

me to drink his beson."

In the year 1769, an Indian from Susquehannah hav. ing come to Bethlehem with his sons to dispose of his peltry, was accosted by a trader from a neighbourFing town, who addressed him thus: "Well! Thomas,

"I really believe you have turned Moravian." Mo"ravian!" answered the Indian, "what makes you "think so?"" Because," replied the other, " you "used to come to us to sell your skins and peltry, "and now you trade them away to the Moravians." "So!" rejoined the Indian, "now I understand you “well, and I know what you mean to say. Now "hear me.-See, my friend! when I come to this place with my skins and peltry to trade, the peo

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Iple are kind, they give me plenty of good victuals "to eat, and pay me in money or whatever I want, "and no one says a word to me about drinking "rum-neither do I ask for it! When I come to હૃદ your place with my peltry, all call to me: Come, "Thomas! here's rum, drink heartily, drink! it will "not hurt you.' All this is done for the purpose of cheating me. When you have obtained from me "all you want, you call me a drunken dog, and kick me out of the room.-See! this is the manner in "which you cheat the Indians when they come to "trade with you. So now you know when you see "me coming to your town again, you may say to one another: Ah! there is Thomas coming again! "he is no longer a Moravian, for he is coming to us "to be made drunk-to be cheated-to be kicked

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out of the house, and be called a drunken dog!" HECKEWELDer.

FRIENDSHIP.

In the year 1779, the noted Girty with his murdering party of Mingoes, nine in number, fell in

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