time we lived
entirely with the Indians, when not in some inhabited region, by
ourselves, which we often were, for a trapper penetrates and brings to
light hidden resources, of which the Indian never dreams. During one of
these excursions, we had been struck with the singular appearance of an
old man, tottering with age, who belonged to the wigwam of the Indian
chief with whose people we were trading. His thin hair, falling from
the lower part of his head, was long, curling and white, leaving the
top bald, and the scalp glossy. His beard was very heavy, parting on
the upper lip, and combed smoothly and in waving masses, fell on his
breast. His must have been a powerful, athletic frame in his manhood,
for when I saw him he was over seven feet high, and though feeble and
tottering, his frame was unbent, and his eye was blue and glittering,
with a soul his waning life could not subdue. His features, as well as
complexion, were totally unlike the rest of the tribe. His forehead was
broad and high, his chin wide and prominent, his lips full, with a
peculiar cast about them I had never seen on any other human being,
giving the impression of nobleness mingled with a hopeless agony and
sorrow. Such, at least, was the impression made on my mind, which time
has never effaced. He was a strange old man, with such a form and face,
and so unlike any other human being, that his very presence inspired
the heart with feelings of reverence. The Indians have no beard. This
fact impressed us with the idea that he was a white man; but when I
compared him to the white race, he was as unlike them as the Indians.
Singular in all his ways and manners, he seemed a being isolated from
every human feeling or sympathy.

"My father said he had known this man for thirty-five years, and when
he first saw him he was old, but then there was a woman with him, whom
he tenderly cherished, and who, but a few years before, died of extreme
old age. Otherwise he knew nothing more of them, as he never sought to
learn farther than what the chief had told him. When he asked who they
were, he was answered that they were all that was left of a nation
their ancestors had conquered so many moons ago, and the chief caught a
handful of sand, to designate the moons by the grains.

"I was more deeply impressed with the sight of this old man than I can
describe; and what I heard of him only deepened the impression, until
it haunted me continually. Who was he? How came he