ks an explanation of the singular custom, he gets only the one short,
unvarying answer--"These are the Devil's Frills!"

ADVENTURES IN LOUISIANA.

PART II.

THE BLOCKHOUSE.

Supper over, and clenched by a pull at Nathan's whisky flask, we
prepared for departure. The Americans threw the choicest parts of the
buck over their shoulders, and the old squatter again taking the lead,
we resumed our march. The way led us first across a prairie, then
through a wood, which was succeeded by a sort of thicket, upon the
branches and thorny shrubs of which we left numerous fragments of our
dress. We had walked several miles almost in silence, when Nathan
suddenly made a pause, and let the but-end of his rifle fall heavily on
the ground. I took the opportunity to ask him where we were.

"In Louisiana," replied he, "between the Red River, the Gulf of Mexico,
and the Mississippi; on French ground, and yet in a country where French
power is worth little. Do you see that?" added he suddenly, seizing my
arm, and pulling me a few paces aside, while he pointed to a dark
object, that at the distance and in the moonlight, had the appearance of
an earthen wall. "Do you know what that is?" repeated the squatter.

"An Indian grave, perhaps," replied I.

"A grave it is," was the answer; "but not of the Redskins. As brave a
backwoodsman as ever crossed the Mississippi lies buried there. You are
not altogether wrong, though. I believe it was once an Indian mound."

While he spoke we were walking on, and I now distinguished a hillock or
mound of earth, with nearly perpendicular sides, on which was erected a
blockhouse, formed of unhewn cypress trunks, of a solidity and thickness
upon which four-and-twenty pounders would have had some difficulty in
making an impression. Its roof rose about ten feet above a palisade
enclosing the building, and consisting of stout saplings sharpened at
the top, and stuck in the ground at a very short distance from each
other, being moreover strengthened and bound together with wattles and
branches. The building had evidently been constructed more for a refuge
and place of defence than an habitual residence.

A ladder was now lowered, by which we ascended to the top of the mound.
There was a small door in the palisades, which Nathan opened and passed
through, we following.

The blockhouse was of equal length and breadth, about forty feet square.
On entering it we found nothing but the bare walls, with