748

Our Western Border,

ANECDOTES OF INDIANS.

   An Indian chief, on being asked whether his people were free, answered, "Why not, since I myself am free, although their king?"

   An Indian having been found frozen to death, an inquest of his countrymen was convened to determine by what means he came to such a death. Their verdict was, " Death from the freezing of a great quantity of water inside of him, which they were of opinion he had drunken for rum."

   A white man, meeting an Indian, accosted him as "brother." The red man, with a great expression of meaning in his countenance, inquired how they came to be brothers ; the white man replied, "Oh, by way of Adam, I suppose." The Indian added, " Me thank him Great Spirit we no nearer brothers."

   About 1794 an officer presented a western chief with a medal, on one side of which President Washington was represented as armed with a sword, and on the other an Indian was seen in the act of burying the hatchet. The chief at once saw the wrong done his countrymen, and very wisely asked, " Why does not the President bury his sword, too?"

,   An Ottawa chief, known to the French by the name of Whitejohn, was a great drunkard. Count Frontenac asked him what he thought brandy to be made of? He replied that it must be made of hearts and tongues. " For," said he, "when I have drunken plentifully of it, my heart is a thousand strong, and I can talk, too, with astonishing freedom and rapidity."

   A chief of the Five Nations, who fought on the side of the English in the French wars, chanced to meet, in battle, his own father, who was fighting on the side of the French. Just as he was about to deal a deadly blow on his head, he discovered who he was, and said to him, " You have once given me life, and now I give it to you. Let me meet you no more, for I have paid the debt I owed you."

   When any of the Indians come into our towns, our people are apt to crowd around them, gaze upon them and incommode them, when they desire to be private; this they esteem great rudeness, and the effect of the want of instruction in the rules of civility and good manners. "We have," say they, "as much curiosity as you, and when you come into our towns we wish for opportunities of looking at you ; but for this purpose we hide ourselves behind bushes where you are to pass, and never intrude ourselves into your company."