While the ceremony of spearing had been going on, we watched with some curiosity, to see what all this trouble was to produce; but when the pumpkin made its appearance, the expression of countenances was most ruefully changed. I looked round towards my companions. Their eyes were fixed with silent agony upon the preparing feast. There was no retreat—it must be eaten; and we were the persons who were doomed to do it. I had hoped to derive a little comfort from them. I had hoped too, that they might relish a sodden and water-soaked pumpkin; and that under cover of their appetites, I might escape unobserved. The expression, however, of their faces forbade the idea, and I determined to perform my share of the mastication, in a manner creditable to a civilized man. We fell to desperately, therefore, under the vigilant eye of our fat host, who was continually plying us with fresh pieces, according to the laws of Indian hospitality, and to refuse which would be regarded as a slight. How we managed to get through that vegetable feast, I can hardly say; it was one of the severest trials of the whole of our campaign; yet we did get through with it, and emerged from the lodge in safety. When we returned to the abode of the chief we found it crowded. Groups were squatting in every direction, wrapped in their robes, indulging in a low, muttered conversation. This was occasionally broken by a deep, emphatic exclamation, which always bursts with a convulsive sound from the chest of an Indian, when engaged in a debate of some interest. But upon our return the conversation gradually flagged, and their sole occupation was to sit, with their eyes fastened upon us, as we were collected round the fire. CHAPTER VIII. _The Doctor’s Adventure.—Indian Dirge._ When we had at first collected together in the chief lodge, we found that one of the party, Dr. M——, was not present. There were many conjectures as to his absence, but after a while he made his appearance. He was considerably out of breath, and related to us an adventure which he had just met with, or rather which he had forced himself into. He had remained in the lodge after we left it, to attend at our last feast. Having nothing in particular to employ him, he slapped his white beaver, which turned up all around, upon the top of his head, girded his deer-skin hunting shirt closely around him, and thrusting his hand into his breeches-pocket, set out upon a voyage of discovery. He had not travelled far before his attention was attracted by a low chanting song, proceeding from one of the lodges which stood a little apart from the others, and near the edge of the bluff, overlooking the river. Without a moment’s hesitation, he walked towards it, entered the low, funnel shaped mouth, and peeped over the bear-skin which hung before the inner entrance, opening immediately into the lodge.