rkneymen and Canadian
half-breeds of the establishment, in their Sunday jackets and capotes;
while here and there the dark visage of an Indian peered out from among
their white ones. But round the stove--which had been removed to one
side to leave space for the dancers--the strangest group was collected.
Squatting down on the floor, in every ungraceful attitude imaginable,
sat about a dozen Indian women, dressed in printed calico gowns, the
chief peculiarity of which was the immense size of the balloon-shaped
sleeves, and the extreme scantiness, both in length and width, of the
skirts. Coloured handkerchiefs covered their heads, and ornamented
moccasins decorated their feet; besides which, each one wore a blanket
in the form of a shawl, which they put off before standing up to dance.
They were chatting and talking to each other with great volubility,
occasionally casting a glance behind them, where at least half a dozen
infants stood bolt upright in their tight-laced cradles. On a chair, in
a corner near the stove, sat a young, good-looking Indian, with a fiddle
of his own making beside him. This was our Paganini; and beside him sat
an Indian boy with a kettle-drum, on which he tapped occasionally, as if
anxious that the ball should begin.

All this flashed upon our eyes; but we had not much time for
contemplating it, as, the moment we entered, the women simultaneously
rose, and coming modestly forward to Mr Wilson, who was the senior of
the party, saluted him, one after another! I had been told that this
was a custom of the _ladies_ on Christmas Day, and was consequently not
quite unprepared to go through the ordeal. But when I looked at the
superhuman ugliness of some of the old ones--when I gazed at the
immense, and in some cases toothless, chasms that were pressed to my
senior's lips, and that gradually, like a hideous nightmare, approached
towards me--and when I reflected that these same mouths might have, in
former days, demolished a few children--my courage forsook me, and I
entertained for a moment the idea of bolting. The doctor seemed to
labour under the same disinclination as myself; for when they advanced
to him, he refused to bend his head, and, being upwards of six feet
high, they of course were obliged to pass him. They looked, however, so
much disappointed at this, and withal so very modest, that I really felt
for them, and prepared to submit to my fate with the best grace
possible. A horrible o