heads. In this display were two little boys to add to the variety. There was a great deal of grimace in this dance. Those who danced, had a canister with pebbles in it, in one hand, and a pipe in the other. The canister is made to rattle in concert with the drum, and both in exact time with the motions of the body. When a dancer grew tired, he selected his successor, and went up to him with a grimace, and still in time, stamping, and violently exerting himself, and shook his canister in his face. It was received, and shaken back at the giver, when he who received it stepped out into the ring and acted the same kind of buffoonery over again. I noticed one man in his native costume. He was lame, with a bent knee. He had on his head the skin of a raccoon, and wore leggins of tanned leather, and a coat of the same. This constituted his dress-and he was the only man who had on a dress of any kind.

This is not the way in which you, my dear ***, have been spending the day. How happy the lot you enjoy in comparison to these poor, unlettered, and benighted savages! Thermometer, sun-down, 70°.

MY DEAR ***

God bless you-good night.

Monday, July 31, 1826.

Having understood that there was a woman in one of the lodges on the island, who had, when a child, been scalped, and never having seen a head after the scalp had been taken from it, I concluded last night to cross over to the island and ascertain, if I could, her history, and the circumstances attending her misfortune. About nine o'clock, accompanied by the interpreter, and Mr. Agnew, I crossed over, and entered a large oval lodge, in which were about twelve or fourteen Indians, lying around it, and the remains of two fires, one at each end, about which were half a dozen dogs. Two or three of the Indians were sitting up, smoking, and a woman was nursing her child in one of those Indian

cradles which have attracted a good deal of my attention, and a sketch of which I mean to have taken. We sat down, when the interpreter told the Indians that their Father, from towards the rising sun, had come to pay them a visit. To the usual answer, "egh," was added, "We are glad to see him, and that he does not hate our lodge," the meaning of which is, that I respected their lodge. I directed the interpreter to inquire if there was not an old woman there, who, when young, had been sealped by the Sieux? While the interpreter was putting the question, I looked obliquely to my left, across one of the half extinguished fires, and by the light of a flickering flame that rose at the moment, saw a form rising from a reposing position, looming behind the blaze, until by the time it was seated, I fancied myself in the presence of Meg Merrilies-so tall, and so bony was the figure. "I am that person," said this woman. I asked her if she would tell me the circumstances attending her misfortune. After some consultation among themselves, I was told that her cousin, an old man present, who was at the battle, would tell me, and if he omitted any thing, she would make up the deficiency. He proceeded as follows-"Five lodges of our band were near the falls of Chippeway river, (in the direction of Prairie du Chein, I believe,) having gone there to hunt. Altogether, men, women, and children, we numbered about sixty. We had killed a deer, and built a fire early in the morning, about day, to cook it. The old woman's mother went out to get some water-there was snow on the ground, not thick, but frozen-and she heard the Sieux crawling towards the tent-when, soon after, their whole number, about one hundred, rushed down from a height, and fired into the lodges. The battle became general. Fifteen of the Chippeway warriors were killed—all of them except three, and these held out until noon. The old woman, (then a girl about fourteen years of age,) having ran off in a fright, was pursued by a Sienx, who caught and tied her, and was about to carry her off as a captive and slavewhen another Sieux came up at the moment and struck her