Matilda Montgomerie; Or, The Prophecy FulfilledRichardson, Major (John)
History
Matilda Montgomerie; Or, The Prophecy Fulfilled
Richardson, Major (John)
United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Fiction
The chief Split-log, who indeed should rather have been named Split-ear,
as we shall presently show, was afflicted with an aldermanic rotundity
of person, by no means common among his race, and was one, who from his
love of ease and naturally indolent disposition, seemed more fitted to
take his seat in the council than to lead his warriors to battle. Yet
was he not, in reality, the inactive character he appeared, and more
than once subsequently he was engaged in expeditions of a predatory
nature, carrying off the customary spoils. We cannot impart a better
idea of the head of the warrior than by stating, that we never recall
that of the gigantic Memnon, in the British Museum, without being
forcibly reminded of Split-log's. The Indian, however, was notorious for
a peculiarity which the Egyptian had not. So enormous a head, seeming to
require a corresponding portion of the several organs, nature had, in
her great bounty, provided him with a nose, which, if it equalled not
that of Smellfungus in length, might, in height and breadth, have
laughed it utterly to scorn. Neither was it a single, but a double
nose--two excrescences, equalling in bulk a moderate sized lemon, and of
the spongy nature of a mushroom, bulging out, and lending an expression
of owlish wisdom to his otherwise heavy features. As on that of the
Memnon, not a vestige of a hair was to be seen on the head of Split-log.
His lips were, moreover, of the same unsightly thickness, while the
elephantine ear had been slit in such a manner, that the pliant
cartilage, yielding to the weight of several ounces of lead which had
for years adorned it, now lay stretched, and coquetting with the brawny
shoulder on which it reposed. Such was the Huron, or Wyandot Chief,
whose cognomen of Split-log had, in all probability, been derived from
his facility in "suiting the action to the word;" for, in addition to
his gigantic nose, he possessed a fist, which in size and strength might
have disputed the palm with Maximilian himself; although his practice
had chiefly been confined to knocking down his drunken wives, instead of
oxen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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