Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/310

Rh seemed to me so unusually handsome that I wished to make a sketch of her. I also wished to take the portraits of a couple of Indians, and requested Governor Ramsay to prefer my request. He therefore, by means of the interpreter, Mr. Prescott, stated to an old chief named Mozah-hotah (Grey Iron), that I wished to take the likenesses of all great men in this country, to show to the people on the other side of the great water; and therefore that I requested him to sit to me a short time for that purpose.

The old chief, who is said to be a good and respectable man, looked very grave, listened to the proposal attentively, and gave a sort of grunting assent. He then accompanied us to the house of the interpreter, from the doors and windows of which peeped forth many little faces with their Indian features and complexion, for Mr. Prescott has an Indian wife, and many children by her.

I was soon seated in the house with the old chief before me, who expressed some annoyance because he was not in grand attire, having merely a couple of eagle's feathers in his hair, and not being so splendidly painted as he ought to have been. He wore under his white woollen blanket a blue European surtout which he appeared anxious to have also included in the portrait. He evidently considered this as something out of the common way. He seemed a little uneasy to sit, and not at all comfortable when the interpreter was out of the room. The Indians universally believe that a likeness on paper takes away from the life of the person represented, and on that account many Indians will not allow their portraits to be taken.

The young Indian woman followed the old chief; she came attired in her wedding dress of embroidered scarlet woollen stuff, and with actual cascades of silver rings, linked one within another, and hanging in clusters