•7®+’ alone, towards the Indians, but perceiving that they retired
December. . ° •
v-— as I advanced, I made ligns that one of them mould come
R‘ ay 2I' near: as it happened, my fignals were underftood, and one
o f them, who afterwards appeared to be a Chief, came
towards m e : he was of a gigantic ftature, and feemed to
realize the tales o f monfters in a human fhape: he had the
Ikin o f fome wild beaft thrown over his fhoulders, as a
Scotch Highlander wears his plaid, and was painted fo as to
make the moil hideous appearance I ever beheld:: round one
eye was a large circle o f white, a circle o f black furrounded
the other, and the reft of his face was ftreaked with paint
o f different colours; I did not meafure him, but i f I may
judge o f his height by the proportion of his ftature to my
own, it could not be much lefs than feven feet. When this
frightful Coloffus came up, we muttered fomewhat to each
other as a falutation, and I then walked with him towards
his companions, to whom, as I advanced, I made iigns that
they ihould fit down, and they all readily complied: there
were among them many women, who feemed to be pro-
portionably la rg e ; and few o f the men were lefs than the
Chief who had come forward to meet me. I had heard their
voices very loud at a diftance, and when I came near, I perceived
a good number o f very old men, who were chanting
fome unintelligible words in the moft doleful cadence I ever
heard, with an air o f ferious folemnity, which inclined me
to think that it was a religious ceremony: they were all
painted and clothed nearly in the fame manner; the circles
round the two eyes were in no inftance o f one colour, but
. ‘ hey were not univerfally black and white, fome being white
and red, and fome red and black ; their teeth were as white
as ivory, remarkably even and well le t ; but except the
Ikins, which they wore with the hair inwards, moft o f them
were naked, a few only having upon their legs a kind of
boor,
boot, with a Ihort pointed flick fattened to each heel, which
ferved as a fpur. Having, looked round upon thefe enormous >-— .— j
goblins with no fmall aftoniftiment, and with fome difficulty
made thofe that were ftill galloping up fit down with the
reft, I took out a quantity o f yellow and white beads, which
I diftributed among, them, and which they received with
very ftrong exprefiions o f pleafure’:* I then took out a whole
piece of green, filk riband, and giving the end o f it into the
hands o f one o f them, I made the perfon that fat next take
hold o f it, and fo on as far as it would reach | a ll this while-
they fat very quietly, nor did any of thofe that held the
riband attempt to pull it from the reft, though I perceived
that they were ftill more delighted with it, than with the’
beads. While the riband was thus extended, I took out a
pair o f fciffars, and cut it between each two of the Indians
that held it, fo that I left about a yard in the poffeffion o f
every one, which I afterwards tied about their heads, where
’ they fuffered it to remain without fo much as touching it
while I was with them. Their peaceable and orderly behaviour
on this occafion certainly did them honour, efpecially
as my prefents could not extend to the whole company p
neither impatience to fhare the new finery, nor curiofity to-
gain a nearer view o f me and what I- was doing, brought
any one of them, from the ftation that I had allotted him. It
would be very natural for thofe who have read Gay’s Fables,,
if they form an. idea of an Indian- almoft naked, returning:
to his fellows in the woods adorned with European trinkets,,
to think o f the monkey that had feen the w orld; yet before-
we defpife their fondnefs for glafs, beads, ribands, and
other things, which- among us are held in no eftimation, we
fhould confider that, in themfelves, the ornaments of favage
and Civil life are equal, and that thofe who live nearly in a<
ftate of nature, have nothing that refembles glafs, fo mu ch 5 ft