e savages also call the
Pleiades 'the Dancers,' and Hygin tells us that they were thus called by
the ancients, because they seem, from the arrangement of their stars, to
be engaged in a circular dance."--Lafitau, vol. ii., p. 236. Hygin.,
lib. ii., art. Taurus.]

[Footnote 239: "Even at the present time" (1720), Lafitau writes, "these
three stars are called in Italy, _i tre cavalli_"--the three knights--on
the celestial globe of Caronelli.]

[Footnote 240: See Appendix, No. L. (see Vol II)]

[Footnote 241: Charlevoix says that the eloquence of the savages was
such as the Greeks admired in the barbarians, "strong, stern,
sententious, pointed, perfectly undisguised."

Decanesora's oratory was greatly admired by the most cultivated among
the English: his bust was said to resemble that of Cicero. The
celebrated address of Logan is too well known to be cited here. Mr.
Jefferson says of it, "I may challenge the whole orations of Demosthenes
and Cicero, and of any other more eminent orator, if Europe has
furnished more eminent, to produce a single passage superior to the
speech of Logan." An American statesman and scholar, scarcely less
illustrious than the former, has expressed his readiness to subscribe to
this eulogium.--Clinton's _Historical Discourse_, 1811.]

[Footnote 242: Catlin gives the following account of a native preacher,
known by the name of the Shawnee Prophet: "I soon learned that he was a
very devoted Christian, regularly holding meetings in his tribe on the
Sabbath, preaching to them, and exhorting them to a belief in the
Christian religion, and to an abandonment of the fatal habit of
whisky-drinking. I went on the Sabbath to hear this eloquent man preach,
when he had his people assembled in the woods; and although I could not
understand his language, I was surprised and pleased with the natural
case, and emphasis, and gesticulation which carried their own evidence
of the eloquence of his sermon. I was singularly struck with the noble
efforts of this champion of the mere remnant of a poisoned race, so
strenuously laboring to rescue the remainder of his people from the
deadly bane that has been brought among them by enlightened Christians.
It is quite certain that his exemplary endeavors have completely
abolished the practice of drinking whisky in his tribe."--Catlin, vol.
ii., p. 98.]

[Footnote 243: "Whatever may be the estimate of the Indian character in
other respects, it is with me an undoubting c