avourite fashion, of
scarlet cloth. Over all I was to wear a scarlet blanket or mantle, and
on my head a large bunch of feathers. I parted, not without some
regret, with the long hair which was natural to it, and which I
fancied to be ornamental; but the ladies of the family, and of the
village in general, appeared to think my person improved, and now
condescended to call me handsome, even among Indians."

[Footnote 5: Shell beads.]

He then went away to live with his protectors, and with them passed a
by no means unhappy autumn, winter, and spring, hunting and fishing.

Here are some of his adventures at this period.

"To kill beaver, we used to go several miles up the rivers, before the
approach of night, and after the dusk came on, suffer the canoe to
drift gently down the current, without noise. The beavers, in this
part of the evening, come abroad to procure food, or materials for
repairing their habitations, and as they are not alarmed by the canoe,
they often pass it within gunshot.

"On entering the River Aux Sables, Wawatam took a dog, tied its feet
together, and threw it into the stream, uttering, at the same time, a
long prayer, which he addressed to the Great Spirit, supplicating his
blessing on the chase, and his aid in the support of the family,
through the dangers of a long winter. Our 'lodge' was fifteen miles
above the mouth of the stream. The principal animals, which the
country afforded, were red deer (wapiti), the common American deer,
the bear, racoon, beaver, and marten.

"The beaver feeds in preference on young wood of the birch, aspen, and
poplar tree[6]; but, in defect of these, on any other tree, those of
the pine and fir kinds excepted. These latter it employs only for
building its dams and houses. In wide meadows, where no wood is to be
found, it resorts, for all its purposes, to the roots of the rush and
water lily. It consumes great quantities of food, whether of roots or
wood; and hence often reduces itself to the necessity of removing into
a new quarter. Its house has an arched dome-like roof, of an
elliptical figure, and rises from three to four feet above the surface
of the water. It is always entirely surrounded by water; but, in the
banks adjacent, the animal provides holes or _washes_, of which the
entrance is below the surface, and to which it retreats on the first
alarm.

"The female beaver usually produces two young at a time, but not
unfrequently more. During the first y