and the
loathsome festival of the exhumation of the dead. Yet, in
the intervals of war and hunting, these multiform
occupations would often fail; and, while the women were
toiling in the cornfields, the lazy warriors vainly sought
relief from the scanty resources of their own minds, and
beguiled the hours with smoking or sleeping, with gambling
or gallantry."

A glimpse of Indian winter life:

"But when winter descends upon the north, sealing up the
fountains, fettering the streams, and turning the
green-robed forests to shivering nakedness, then, bearing
their frail dwellings on their backs, the Ojibwa family
wander forth into the wilderness, cheered only, on their
dreary track, by the whistling of the north wind, and the
hungry howl of wolves. By the banks of some frozen stream,
women and children, men and dogs, lie crouched together
around the fire. They spread their benumbed fingers over the
embers, while the wind shrieks through the fir-trees like
the gale through the rigging of a frigate, and the narrow
concave of the wigwam sparkles with the frostwork of their
congealed breath. In vain they beat the magic drum, and call
upon their guardian manitoes;--the wary moose keeps aloof,
the bear lies close in his hollow tree, and famine stares
them in the face. And now the hunter can fight no more
against the nipping cold and blinding sleet. Stiff and
stark, with haggard cheek and shrivelled lip, he lies among
the snow drifts; till, with tooth and claw, the famished
wildcat strives in vain to pierce the frigid marble of his
limbs. Such grim schooling is thrown away on the
incorrigible mind of the northern Algonquin. He lives in
misery, as his fathers lived before him. Still, in the brief
hour of plenty he forgets the season of want; and still the
sleet and the snow descend upon his houseless head."

Here another leaf from Penn's laurels:

"It required no great benevolence to urge the Quakers to
deal kindly with their savage neighbors. They were bound in
common sense to propitiate them; since, by incurring their
resentment, they would involve themselves in the dilemma of
submitting their necks to the tomahawk, or wielding the
carnal weapon, in glaring defiance of their pacific
principles. In paying the Indians for the land