Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 6).djvu/128

 They display considerable ingenuity and taste in their works of art: this observation applies to all the American nations, from the Mexicans to the most savage. Their arms, household utensils, and their dresses, are admirably made. I saw a gun which had been completely stocked by an Indian. A curious instance of native ingenuity which came under my notice, ought not to be omitted. I was told one day, of an old Indian who was making a blanket; I immediately went to see him. To my surprise, I found an old man, perfectly blind, seated on a stool before a kind of frame, over which were drawn coarse threads, or rather twists of buffaloe wool, mixed with wolf's hair; he had already made about a quarter of a yard of a very coarse rough cloth. He told me that it was the first he had attempted, and that it was in consequence of a dream, in which he thought he had made a blanket like those of the white people. Here are the rudiments of weaving. They make beautiful {154} jugs, or baskets, with osier, so close as to hold water.

I observed some very old men amongst them—from the purity of the air, and the healthiness of the climate it is not surprising that human life should be drawn out to a great length. The ravages of the small pox, that dreadful scourge to the Indians, has been felt by these people in all its severity. These villages are the remains of seventeen distinct tribes. One day, in passing through the village, I saw something brought out of a lodge in a buffaloe robe, and exposed to the sun; on approaching, I discovered it to be a human being, but so shrivelled up, that it had nearly lost the human physiognomy: almost the only sign of life discernible, was a continual sucking its hands, and feeble moan like that of a young infant. On inquiring of the chief, he told me that he had seen it so ever since he was a boy. He appeared to be at least forty-five. It is