, evidently imbued with the idea that they are deriving from the
ceremony a vast amount of edification--an idea which is helped out,
doubtless, by the appearance of the women and children, who surround the
enclosure, and gaze at the proceedings with looks of awe-struck
seriousness that are quite solemnising to behold.

The chief then makes a speech relative to the circumstance which has
called them together; and which is always more or less interlarded with
boastful reference to his own deeds, past, present, and prospective,
eulogistic remarks on those of his forefathers, and a general
condemnation of all other Indian tribes whatever. These speeches are
usually delivered with great animation, and contain much poetic allusion
to the objects of nature that surround the homes of the savage. The
speech being finished, the chief sits down amid a universal "Ho!"
uttered by the company with an emphatic prolongation of the last
letter--this syllable being the Indian substitute, we presume, for
"rapturous applause."

The chief who officiated on the present occasion, having accomplished
the opening ceremonies thus far, sat down; while the pipe-bearer
presented the sacred stem to the members of the company in succession,
each of whom drew a few whiffs and mumbled a few words.

"Do as you see the redskins do, Mr Charles," whispered Jacques, while
the pipe was going round.

"That's impossible," replied Charley, in a tone that could not be heard
except by his friend. "I couldn't make a face of hideous solemnity like
that black thief opposite if I was to try ever so hard."

"Don't let them think you are laughing at them," returned the hunter;
"they would be ill pleased if they thought so."

"I'll try," said Charley, "but it is hard work, Jacques, to keep from
laughing; I feel like a high-pressure steam-engine already. There's a
woman standing out there with a little brown baby on her back; she has
quite fascinated me; I can't keep my eyes off her, and if she goes on
contorting her visage much longer, I feel that I shall give way."

"Hush!"

At this moment the pipe was presented to Charley, who put it to his
lips, drew three whiffs, and returned it with a bland smile to the
bearer.

The smile was a very sweet one, for that was a peculiar trait in the
native urbanity of Charley's disposition, and it would have gone far in
civilised society to prepossess strangers in his favour: but it lowered
him considerably in the estim