On the present occasion, two orators spoke, and the council lasted above two hours: but I left the room long before the proceedings were over. I must needs confess it to you--I cannot overcome one disagreeable obstacle to a near communion with these people. The genuine Indian has a very peculiar odour, unlike anything of the kind that ever annoyed my fastidious senses. One ought to get over these things; and after all it is not so offensive as it is peculiar. You have probably heard that horses brought up in the white settlements can smell an Indian at a great distance, and show evident signs of perturbation and terror whenever they snuff an Indian in the air. For myself, in passing over the place on which a lodge has stood, and whence it has been removed several hours, though it was the hard pebbly beach on the water edge, I could scent the Indian in the atmosphere. You can imagine, therefore, that fifty of them in one room, added to the smell of their tobacco, which is detestable, and the smoking and all its unmentionable consequences, drove me from the spot. The truth is, that a woman of very delicate and fastidious habits must learn to endure some very disagreeable things, or she had best stay at home. [Footnote 32: The picture by Weir, in the possession of Samuel Ward, Esq., of New York, which see--or rather see the beautiful lines of Halleck:-- "If he were with me, King of Tuscarora! Gazing as I upon thy portrait now, In all its medalled, fring'd, and beaded glory, Its eyes' dark beauty and its tranquil brow-- Its brow, half martial, and half diplomatic, Its eye, upsoaring like an eagle's wings-- Well might he boast that we, the democratic, Outrival Europe, even in our kings!"] [Footnote 33: Since my return to England I found the following passage in the Morning Chronicle, extracted from the American papers:----"The Indians of Michigan have committed several shocking murders, in consequence of the payments due to them on land-treaties being made in goods instead of money. Serious alarm on that subject prevails in the State." The wretched individuals murdered were probably settlers, quite innocent in this business, probably women and children; but such is the _well-known_ Indian law of retaliation.] [Footnote 34: The Indians gave the name of Cheemokomaun (Long Knives, or _Big Knives_) to the Americans at the time they were defeated by General Wayne, near the Miami river, in 1795, and suffered so severely from the _sabres_ of the cavalry.] THE INDIAN DANCE.