Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/313

Rh the pure, Quaker style of beauty—she appeared really splendidly handsome in that showy costume, and the Feather-cloud seemed to have great pleasure in seeing her in it. But the handsome, young white lady had not, after all, the wonderful, mystic beauty of Feather-cloud. There was between them the difference of the primeval forest and the drawing-room.

I observed in the conversations of these Indians many of those sounds and intonations which struck me as peculiar among the American people; in particular there were those nasal tones and that piping, singing or lamenting sound which has often annoyed me in the ladies. Probably these sounds may have been acquired by the earliest colonists during their intercourse with the Indians, and thus have been continued.

Whilst I am with the Indians I must tell you of a custom among them which appears to me singular; it refers to their peculiar names and their mode of acquiring them. When the Indians, either man or woman, arrive at maturity they go out into some solitary place and remain there fasting for several days. They believe that the Spirit which has especial guardianship over them will then reveal itself; and that which during these days strongly attracts their sight or affects their imagination is regarded as the image or token by means of which their guardian-angel reveals itself to them, and they adopt a name derived from that object or token. When they have obtained the wished-for revelation, they return to their family, but under a kind of higher guidance, and with a greater right of self-government.

From a list of Indian names I select the following:—

Horn-point; Round-wind; Stand-and-look-out; The Cloud-that-goes-aside; Iron-toe; Seek-the-sun; Iron-flash; Red-bottle; White-spindle; Black-dog; Two-feathers-of-honour; Grey-grass; Bushy-tail; Thunder-face; Go-on-the-burning-sod; Spirits-of-the-dead.