the more
winning deportment of always affecting to treat his opinions and
counsels with deference. The chief, on his part, often took occasion to
speak of Boone as a most consummate proficient in hunting, and a warrior
of great bravery. Not long after his residence among them, he had
occasion to witness their manner of celebrating their victories, by
being an eye witness to one which commemorated the successful return of
a war party with some scalps.

Within a day's march of the village, the party dispatched a runner with
the joyful intelligence of their success, achieved without loss. Every
cabin in the village was immediately ordered to be swept perfectly
clean, with the religious intention to banish every source of pollution
that might mar the ceremony. The women, exceedingly fearful of
contributing in any way to this pollution, commenced an inveterate
sweeping, gathering up the collected dirt, and carefully placing it in a
heap behind the door. There it remained until the medicine man, or
priest, who presides over the powow, ordered them to remove it, and at
the same time every savage implement and utensil upon which the women
had laid their hands during the absence of the expedition.

Next day the party came in sight of the village, painted in alternate
compartments of red and black, their heads enveloped in swan's down, and
the centre of their crown, surmounted with long white feathers. They
advanced, singing their war song, and bearing the scalps on a verdant
branch of evergreen.

Arrived at the village, the chief who had led the party advanced before
his warriors to his winter cabin, encircling it in an order of march
contrary to the course of the sun, singing the war song after a
particular mode, sometimes on the ten or and sometimes on the bass key,
sometimes in high and shrill, and sometimes in deep and guttural notes.
The _waiter_, or servant of the leader, called _Etissu_, placed a couple
of blocks of wood near the war-pole, opposite the door of a circular
cabin, called the _hot-house_, in the centre of which was the council
fire. On these blocks he rested a kind of ark, deemed among their most
sacred things. While this was transacting the party were profoundly
silent. The chief bade all set down, and then inquired whether his cabin
was prepared and every thing unpolluted, according to the custom of
their fathers? After the answer, they rose up in concert and began the
war-whoop, walking slowly round the