These belts are also the records of former transactions, and being worked in particular forms, are easily deciphered by the Indians, and referred to in every treaty with the white people. When a string or belt of wampum is returned, it is a proof that the proposed treaty is not accepted, and the negotiation is at an end. But to return from this digression. When the pipe has gone round, a sweating house is prepared with six long poles fixed in the ground, {48} and pointed at the top; it is then covered with skins and blankets to exclude the air, and the area of the house will contain only three persons. The person to be adopted is then stripped naked, and enters the hut with two chiefs; two large stones made red hot are brought in, and thrown on the ground; water is then brought in a bark dish, and sprinkled on the stones with cedar branches, the steam arising from which puts the person into a most profuse perspiration, and opens the pores to receive the other part of the ceremony. When the perspiration is at the height, he quits the house, and jumps into the water; immediately on coming out a blanket is thrown over him, and he is led to the chief’s hut, where he undergoes the following operation. Being extended on his back, the chief draws the figure he intends to make with a pointed stick, dipped in water in which gunpowder has been dissolved; after which, with ten needles dipped in vermilion, and fixed in a small wooden frame, he pricks the delineated parts, and where the bolder outlines occur, he incises the flesh with a gun flint; the vacant spaces, or those not marked with vermilion, are rubbed in with gunpowder, which produces the variety of red and blue; the wounds are then seared with punk wood, to prevent them from festering. This operation, which is performed at intervals, lasts two or three days. Every morning the parts are washed with cold water, in which is infused an herb called Pockqueesegan, which resembles English box, and is mixed by the Indians with the tobacco they smoke, to take off the strength. During the process, the war songs are sung, accompanied by a rattle hung round with hawk bells, called chessaquoy, {49} which is kept shaking, to stifle the groans such pains must naturally occasion.[53] Upon the ceremony being completed, they give the party a name; that which they allotted to me, was _Amik_, or Beaver.