150 INSESSORES. 



growth of timber, and an underwood of canes and 

 other evergreens ; while the descent into these slug- 

 gish streams is often ten or fifteen feet perpendicu- 

 lar, into a bed of deep clay. In some of the worst 

 of these places, where I had, as it were, to fight my 

 way through, the Paraquet frequently escaped from 

 my pocket, obliging me to dismount and pursue it 

 through the worst of the morass before I could re- 

 gain it. On these occasions I was several times 

 tempted to abandon it; but I persisted in bringing it 

 along. When at night I encamped in the woods, I 

 placed it on the baggage beside me, where it usually 

 sat with great composure, dozing and gazing at the 

 fire till morning. In this manner I carried it up- 

 wards of a thousand miles in my pocket, where it 

 was exposed all day to the jolting of the horse, but 

 regularly liberated at meal times, and in the evening, 

 at which it always expressed great satisfaction. In 

 passing through the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, 

 the Indians, wherever I stopped to feed, collected 

 around me, men, women, and children, laughing and 

 seeming wonderfully amused with the novelty of my 

 companion. The Chickasaws called it in their lan- 

 guage ' kilinky ;' but when they heard me call it 

 Poll, they soon repeated the name ; and wherever I 

 chanced to stop among these people, we soon became 

 familiar with each other through the medium of Poll. 

 On arriving at Mr. Dunbar's, below Natchez, I pro- 

 cured a cage and placed it under the piazza, where, 

 by its call, it soon attracted the passing flocks ; such 

 is the attachment they have for each other. Numer- 



