136 EXPEDITION TO THE 



sible, by intoxication, in which case it becomes incohe- 

 rent and unintelligible. The only musical instruments 

 which they use, are the drum, rattle, and a kind of flage- 

 let. They have various kinds of dances known by the 

 name of the war dance, medicine dance, Manito or spirit 

 dance, wabano, metawee, mewicine, and beggar's dance. 

 Their games are numerous and diversified ; they resemble 

 many of those known to civilized men ; such as gymnastic 

 exercises, battledore, pitching the bar, ball, &c. tennis and 

 cup-ball, for which they use the spur of the deer with a 

 string attached to it. They are fond of games of chance, 

 particularly cards, which they have received from traders, 

 &c. 



The Potawatomis are for the most part well proportion- 

 ed, about five feet eight inches in height, possessed of much 

 muscular strength in the arm, but rather weak in the back, 

 with a strong neck, endowed with considerable agility. 

 Their voice is feeble and low, but when excited very shrill ; 

 their teeth are sound and clean, but not remarkable for re- 

 gularity. In persons of feeble habits, or of a scrophulous 

 tendency, the teeth are found to decay much faster than in 

 others. Dentition is said to be a painful process among 

 Indian children, a circumstance which we had not expect- 

 ed. Their complexion is very much darkened by expo- 

 sure to the sun and wind, while those parts which are 

 kept covered, are observed to retain their native bright- 

 ness. Children are red when new-born, after a few years 

 they assume the yellow colour. Their sight is quick and 

 penetrating, but blindness is frequent from the intense ap- 

 plication of the eye in still hunting, and from exposure to 

 the alternate, and, in some cases, united action of the sun 

 and snow ; doubtless also on account of the constant smoke 

 in their huts. Their hearing is usually good when young ; 



