. Forrester's pictorial miscellany for the family circle . nd scalping hisadversary, captures Llo medicine bag, and brings it home in triumph. My young friends may be inclined to laugh at these foolish fan-cies, and well they may; but they must not forget, in their mirth,the ignorance of these savages. Perhaps, if they had the advantagesand the knowledge of those who read my Miscellany and Maga-zine, they would be as free from these laughable superstitions ascivilized people are. But their minds are in darkness, and yet Ihave never seen the slightest reason to doubt, that they were sincere o »
. Forrester's pictorial miscellany for the family circle . nd scalping hisadversary, captures Llo medicine bag, and brings it home in triumph. My young friends may be inclined to laugh at these foolish fan-cies, and well they may; but they must not forget, in their mirth,the ignorance of these savages. Perhaps, if they had the advantagesand the knowledge of those who read my Miscellany and Maga-zine, they would be as free from these laughable superstitions ascivilized people are. But their minds are in darkness, and yet Ihave never seen the slightest reason to doubt, that they were sincere o »/ in the belief that their medicine bag contained their Good Spirit, orprotector. I have knowTn them to go fasting for several days, and topunish themselves in various ways, to appease their medicine bag,which they imagined they had in some way or other to return to my narrative. We had not waited long before a slight and mysterious rattle gavenotice that the medicine man was approaching, and presently, an A RESIDENCE AMONG THE INDIANS. 319. opening having been made for his entrance, he crept cautiouslyalong, during the most profound silence of the spectators, towardsthe wounded man, who was even now in the agonies of death. Iwill give you a picture of thiscurious looking individual. On his head was the skin of an enor-mous bear, the head of whichserved him as a mask. At-tached to this, on every side,were the skins of various kindsof animals, and to each of thesean immense number of his hands he carried a spear,gaudily trimmed, and a rattlesomewhat like the head of adrum, which he alternately shookover the dying man, dancingabout from side to side, and occasionally uttering the most horriblenoise, and chanting, in a peculiar style, an address to the GoodSpirit for the safety and life of the sufferer. In a few minutes theman died, and the medicine doctor bounded away to his tent, and nomore was seen of him. Thus ended one of the most ridiculous per-f
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