The league of the Iroquois and other legends : from the Indian muse

NOTES. 305
who are early accustomed to carry burdens on their backs ;
but the beauty of the
countenance was so extraordinary that I cannot but think that if such a face were
to be seen in one of the drawing-rooms of the fashionable world, it would there
be regarded as the type of a beauty hitherto unknown. It was the wild beauty of
the forest, at the same time melancholy and splendid."
Mrs. Jamison also speaks in high terms of Indian women she met. Of Mrs.
Schoolcraf t she " says
: Her genuine refinement and simplicity of manners, and
native taste for literature, are charming. * * * While in conversation with her,
new ideas of the Indian's character suggest themselves. * * She is proud of her
Indian * *
origin. But there is a melancholy and pity in her voice when speaking
of them [her people], as if she did indeed consider them a doomed race."
Of another Indian woman she " says
: Though now no longer young, and the
mother ol twelve children, she is one of the handsomest Indian women I have
yet seen. * * Her daughter, Zah-gah-see-ga-quay the sunbeams breaking
through a cloud is a very beautiful girl, with eyes that are a warrant for her
poetic name."
Note 25. "As youth and maiden may, did seek Page 74.
Some token of her happier fate."
" Even the Indian girls dream at times that they will become mighty runners,
and evince a pride in excelling in this art, like the men. A case occurred during
my stay at La Poiiite. A warlike maiden suddenly appeared, who boasted of
having taken a Sioux scalp, and she was led in triumph from lodge to lodge.
" I was told that a superannuated female had appeared to this girl, who was
now nineteen, during the period of her great fasts and dreams of life, who
prophesied to her that she would become the greatest runner of her tribe, and
thus gain the mightiest warrior for husband.
" I must remark here, as indeed every reader will easily conjecture, that the
fasting dreams of the Indian girls chiefly allude to the subject of marriage.
Thrice so said the prophetic voice she would join in an expedition against the
Sioux, and thrice save herself by her speed of foot. In running home, the warriors
of her tribe would strive U outstrip her, but she would in two first campaigns
outstrip everybody. * * On the return from the third campaign, however,
a young Ojib-wa would race with her, and conquer her, and she would then
be married to him.
" The girl had made her first war expedition this year. She had proceeded
with the warriors of her tribe into the enemy's camp, raised the scalp of a
wounded Sioux on the battle-field, and had run straight home for several days,
ihus bringing the first news of the victory, which greatly augmented her renown.
* * She was pointed out to every one as the heroine of the day and of the island ;
and probably ere this some young warrior has run a race with her, in which she
was only too ready to be defeated." Kitchi Garni, p. 125.