The cloud hovered over for about an hour, but at last, one after another, a few rays were seen shooting out their bright lines from behind the dark curtain, and playing upon the tops of the distant trees. Finally the ragged masses rolling together slowly floated off to the eastward, until their dark forms were lost below the horizon, and the heaven was left in its sea of pure and spotless blue. CHAP. III. SHAWANESE AND THE DELAWARES. In an hour, we had left the house of the blacksmith, and were dashing through the moist and glistening grass of the prairie, in front of one of the villages of the Shawanese. It consisted of about a dozen houses or cabins, grouped together upon the top of a hill, and looking on a ragged little prairie. There was but little attraction in its appearance, and withal a most philosophic indifference to cleanliness or comfort. Our approach was announced by about twenty half-starved dogs, who set up a yell which brought to the doors every inhabitant of the place, old enough to be tormented with curiosity. Presently two of them came forward to meet us. The first was a fat wheezing Indian of about fifty; he was dressed partly after the fashion of the whites, and partly in his own native style. He wore a broad-brimmed black hat, ornamented with several bands of tin; a pair of large black-rimmed spectacles; a blue calico shirt, and a pair of blue cloth pantaloons, secured close to his legs by several bands of yellow riband. His companion, who was a little herring of a fellow, retained more of the Indian in his dress and appearance. His head was shaved, with the exception of a single lock[C], which luxuriated upon the top of his crown, surrounded by a little pallisado of stiff bristles, left standing at its root amid the general harvest. His face and head had been painted with vermilion, and at a distance bore a strong resemblance to a large red potatoe. A shirt of calico was the only article of civilised manufacture about him. His leggings were of deerskin, the edges of which were cut into a rough border; and his mocassins were made of the same material. [C] It is customary with all the Indian tribes, when shaving their heads (as is the almost universal practice with the uncivilised tribes), to leave a single, long, thin lock of hair upon the crown, to aid their enemies in removing their scalp. From this it received the appellation of “scalp lock.” It is considered a point of chivalry among them, to leave this unshorn. Great care is frequently bestowed upon it, and it is usually adorned with plumes of the eagle, the feathers of birds, or ornaments of deer’s hair.