sistently blackmailed them.
"Surely now {303} my time has come," the friar said to himself.
Instead, to his great surprise, he was immediately adopted by his new
master as a son, to replace the one whom the Miamis had lately killed,
a procedure quite in accordance with Indian custom. Hennepin thus
found himself separated from his two countrymen, who had other masters,
much to the relief of Accau, who heartily hated him.

The friar was now conducted by his adopted father to his lodge, which
stood on an island in a lake, was introduced as his son to some six or
seven of his wives, was given a platter of fish and a buffalo-robe, and
altogether was treated quite as a member of the family.

Now he had a period of rest in the Sioux village. The Indians
subjected him, greatly to his advantage, to a treatment such as seems
to have been in very general use on this continent and to have been the
most rational feature of Indian medical practice, which relied mainly
on charms and incantations. It was administered by placing the patient
in a tightly closed lodge and pouring water on heated stones, thus
producing a dense vapor which induced copious sweating, after which he
was vigorously rubbed.

The Sioux had a certain respect for him, on {304} account of magic
powers which he was supposed to possess, and his pocket-compass
inspired them with unbounded awe. On his side, he made himself useful
in various ways, such as shaving the children's heads and bleeding the
sick. The children had good reason to be thankful for having the friar
for their barber, since the native method, he says, was "by burning off
the Hair with flat Stones, which they heat red-hot in the Fire."

"Many a melancholy Day," says Hennepin, "did I pass among these
Savages." His coarse, filthy food was often of the scantiest, and his
work, which he was compelled to do with squaws and slaves--for, of
course, no warrior would stoop to labor--was of the hardest. Besides
his useful services, one thing that helped greatly to keep him alive
was the superstition of his masters. One of his belongings inspired
them with wholesome dread. "I had," he says, "an Iron Pot about three
foot round, which had the Figure of a Lion on it, which during our
Voyage served us to bake our Victuals in. This Pot the Barbarians
durst never so much as touch, without covering their Hands first in
something of Castor-Skin. And so great a Terror was it to the women,
{305} that they du