Sketches in Canada, and rambles among the red menJameson, Mrs. (Anna)
History
Sketches in Canada, and rambles among the red men
Jameson, Mrs. (Anna)
Indians of North America -- Canada; Ontario -- Description and travel
Nearly opposite to me was a famous Pottowottomie chief and conjuror,
called the Two Ears. He was most fantastically dressed, and hideously
painted, and had two large clusters of swan's down depending from each
ear--I suppose in illustration of his name. There were three men with
their faces blacked with grease and soot, their hair dishevelled, and
their whole appearance studiously squalid and miserable: I was told they
were in mourning for near relations. With these exceptions the dresses
were much what I have already described; but the chief whom I
immediately distinguished from the rest, even before I knew his name,
was my cousin, young Waub-Ojeeg, the son of Wayish,ky; in height he
towered above them all, being about six feet three or four. His dress
was equally splendid and tasteful; he wore a surtout of fine blue cloth,
under which was seen a shirt of gay colours, and his father's medal hung
on his breast. He had a magnificent embroidered belt of wampum, from
which hung his scalping-knife and pouch. His leggings (metasses) were of
scarlet cloth beautifully embroidered, with rich bands or garters
depending to his ankle. Round his head was an embroidered band or
handkerchief, in which were stuck four wing-feathers of the war-eagle,
two on each side--the testimonies of his prowess as a warrior. He held a
tomahawk in his hand. His features were fine, and his countenance not
only mild, but almost femininely soft. Altogether he was in dress and
personal appearance the finest specimen of his race I had yet seen; I
was quite proud of my adopted kinsman.
He was seated at some distance; but in far too near propinquity, for in
truth they almost touched me, sat a group of creatures--human beings I
must suppose them--such as had never been seen before within the lines
of civilisation. I had remarked them in the morning surrounded by a
group of Ottawas, among whom they seemed to excite as much wonder and
curiosity as among ourselves: and when I inquired who and what they
were, I was told they were _cannibals_ from the Red River, the title
being, I suspect, quite gratuitous, and merely expressive of the
disgust they excited. One man had his hair cut short on the top of his
head, and it looked like a circular blacking-brush, while it grew long
in a fringe all round, hanging on his shoulders. The skins thrown round
them seemed on the point of rotting off; and their attitude, when
squatted on the ground, was precisely that of the larger ape I have seen
in a menagerie. More hideous, more pitiable specimens of humanity in its
lowest, most degraded state, can hardly be conceived; melancholy,
squalid, stupid--and yet not fierce. They had each received a kettle and
a gun by way of encouragement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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