adles, are suspended from
the boughs of trees beyond the reach of wild animals, in baskets woven
of twigs of the willow, when they can be easily procured: the motion,
which is a kind of circular swing, is far more pleasant than that of the
cradle in use among civilized nations.

(4) _Moon alive_.--p. 189.

The astronomical knowledge of the Indians is very small, and they
entertain singular ideas respecting the heavenly, bodies. When the sun
sets they imagine it goes under water. When the moon does not shine,
they suppose she it dead; and some call the three last days before the
new moon, the _naked days_. Her first appearance after her last quarter
is hailed with great joy. If either sun or moon is eclipsed, they say
the sun or moon is in a swoon. I have mentioned before their opinion of
the cause of shooting-stars. Adair, who was acquainted only with the
Florida Indians, says that when it thundered and blew sharp for a
considerable time, they believed that the beloved or holy people were at
war above the clouds; and they believed that the war was hot or
moderate, in proportion to the noise or violence of the storm. Of all
the writers who have ever written on the Indians, Adair, with the usual
exception of La Hontan, is the worst. He wrote with a preconceived
determination to make them a portion, or "the remnant," of the ten
tribes of Israel, to whom they bear about the same resemblance that an
Englishman bears to an Otaheitean.

(5) _Mortals go in clay._--p. 192.

The Indian mode of worship is wild and singular in the extreme. Nutall,
a judicious and scientific traveller, thus describes the solemnity:

"This morning, about day-break, the Indians, who had encamped around us,
broke out into their usual lamentations and complaints to the Great
Spirit. Their mourning was truly pathetic, and uttered in a peculiar
tone. The commencing tone was exceeding loud, and gradually fell off
into a low, long continued, and almost monotonous bass; to this tone of
lamentation was modulated the subject of their distress or petition.
Those who had experienced any recent distress, or misfortune previously
blackened their faces with coal, or besmeared them with
ashes."--_Nutall_, p. 190.

I will quote one more extract from a favourite author for the benefit
of those who may wish to view the Indian as a worshipper of the Eternal
Being whom they are early taught to worship. "From the age of about five
years," says Long, "to that of ten