304 INDIAN CHARACTER. wonderful effects of machinery is not startled if a twenty-four-pounder is fired close to him, and does not evince the slightest curiosity regarding the thousand things that are strange and new to him; whereas at home, the same Indian chatters, jokes, and laughs among his companions - frequently indulges in the most licentious conversation; and his curiosity is as unbounded and irresistible as that of any man, woman, or monkey, on earth. Truth and honesty (making the usual exceptions to be found in all countries) are unknown, or despised by them. A boy is taught and encouraged to steal and lie, and the only blame or disgrace ever incurred thereby is when the offence is accompanied by detection. I never met with liars so determined, universal, or audacious. The chiefs themselves have told me repeatedly the most deliberate and gross untruths to serve. a trifling purpose with the gravity of a chief-justice; and I doubt whether Baron Munchausen himself would be more than a match for the great chief of the Pawnees. Let them not dispute the palm- each is greatest in his peculiar jine -one in inventive exaggeration, the other in plain unadorned falsehood. But from all these charges I most completely exonerate my old chief, Sâ-ní-tsă-rish; Nature had made him a gentleman, and he remained so, in spite of the corrupting examples around him. A FEAST.-CURIOSITY. 305 To give some idea of their "want of curiosity," I will merely relate the circumstances usually attending a feast, to which I, or any of our party of four, was invited. On entering the lodge, I found a vacant place near the owner, who made signs that I should occupy it if others were invited, we waited till all arrived. A bowl, either of Indian corn or buffalo meat, was then placed in the centre; the guests sitting cross-legged, like tailors, around it. There was a horn-spoon for each person; and at the word, "Lô," or "Lô-wa," we all fell to work. This word comprises their whole vocabulary of "assent," "satisfaction," and "compliment:" it invariably begins and concludes a feast, each guest saying it as he enters and leaves the tent. As the giver of the feast never eats with his guests, his occupation generally was to scrutinize me. He would first pass his hand all over my coarse blue checked shirt (or jacket); then he would take up my knife-open and shut it twenty times – ask as many questions about it, then pass it on to another: he would next take up, or take off, my hat, and place it on his own greasy head, first cocking it on one side, then on the other all the time admiring himself in a pocket-mirror. While he was thus employed, another would pounce upon my red-silk pocket-handkerchief, and wind it like a turban round the unwashed, uncombed, and thickly-peopled head of VOL. I. X some half-pleased, half-frightened child; and a third, in the mean time, would dive to the bottom of every one of my pockets, and submit every thing therein contained-coins, copper-caps, pencil, &c. to the same diligent inspection. After being among them some little time, I determined to put a stop to this nuisance, and whenever they touched my hat, knife, or anything else belonging to me, I quietly removed their hand, and told them gravely they must not do so. They soon found out I was in earnest, and they ceased from annoying me. I am not sure whether they thought me a "sulky fellow" or a "great chief" in consequence of this conduct, but I rather believe the latter, as they treated me with more respect; whereas my white companions pursued a less determined (perhaps, a more good-natured) course; and I saw my friend V's and my servant's hat, and other articles, making the tour of heads and hands as long as we remained among them. As to their begging, I was obliged very early to put a stop to that; for there was not a single thing in my possession that they did not ask for, even till I was tired of repeating “Kâ-ki,” No. CHAPTER XVI. Indian Women. Children. - Nursery Discipline.-Girls. - An IT may seem unpardonable that I have so long deferred any mention of the appearance, manners, dress, and condition of the "ladies" in this community. The delay has been occasioned by the best of motives, namely, a hope that longer experience might enable me to find some exceptions to such a general description as truth would oblige me to give. I waited long, and found none; and am now under the unpleasant necessity of declaring that, among the Pawnee females, I never saw one instance of beauty, either in face or figure of neatness in dress-cleanliness in appearance, or of any one of those graceful and attractive attributes which generally characterise the softer sex.* Their life is one of perpetual degradation and slavery; and, in spite of their slovenly appearance, I could not * I did afterwards see two or three pretty girls, but so few in number that I did not think myself justified in altering the text. 308 INDIAN CHILDREN. withhold my admiration at the good-humour with which they perform labours unequalled by those of any free servant or slave. In their infancy and early childhood they are completely spoilt. Some authors have pretended that Indian children never cry: this is as true as many other parts of their absurd histories; I never was among children so given to cry and scream. I have seen them repeatedly do so (when they wanted any trifle which was refused them), with such incessant violence, that they ended by coughing most horribly and spitting blood; then the alarmed mother would leave her work, and, instead of a good whipping, give them whatever they asked for. Among other instances of foolish maternal indulgence, and its corresponding effects on a child, the following is not among the least ludicrous : In our tent was a little girl, nearly two years old, so dreadfully affected by the hooping-cough, that it frequently caused me to lie awake half the night, and I hourly expected it to break a bloodvessel and die. This poor little wretch's temper was as bad, and as badly nursed, as her health; she governed the whole tent; and I cannot conceive how she survived a week, considering that her mother and aunts used all the means in their power to kill her, short of a "lethal weapon." I have seen her in the course of one morning (she being only two years old!) eat a good bowl of halfboiled maize-then enough green grapes and plums |