INDIAN NOTICES. 153 



and lower range of benches round both sides, on which the 

 senators recline during counsel. It is kept by two old women, 

 who cook on days of meeting. At the time of our visit they 

 were in the act of churning*, and I sipped a little of the but 

 termilk. The butter was particularly white in colour. I 

 also partook of bread made from Indian corn meal, mixed 

 with a few unhusked French beans, which looked like raisins 

 in a cake. The bread was soft and damp, and seemed to have 

 been prepared by boiling. To me it was unpalatable, al 

 though some of my friends did not dislike it. The roof was 

 hung with ears of Indian corn, considered public property, 

 which are contributed by individuals in years of abundance, 

 and reserved for times of scarcity. The Council-house is also 

 used for dancing, and contained a number of ornaments worn 

 on such occasions, consisting of strings of bones for fixing on 

 different parts of the body, and prized for the clattering they 

 make when in motion. 



On our return, a young Indian, of fifteen or sixteen years of 

 age, shot a small bird with an arrow from a common bow, and 

 on being requested to try and strike the bird when dead, 

 he placed it on the trunk of a tree, and missed it twice. Five 

 small boys were shooting birds with a blow-gun, and amused 

 me by their manner of stealing up to the object of their at 

 tack. The blow-gun is a long narrow wooden tube, with a 

 small arrow, on the end of which is a quantity of thistle down 

 neatly dressed, and which fills the tube, so as to give effect 

 to the arrow, which is discharged from the gun by the breath 

 of the sportsman. It is little better than a child s toy. 



Having a desire to see the lands which Government had 



obtained from the Indians, Mr C and I set out next day at 



seven A.M., furnished with horses, through the kindness of 



friends, to visit Mr B . We had not, however, gone far when 



his horse became so lame that he returned, and I proceeded 

 alone, down the banks of the river, which I lost sight of, and 

 after a long ride came to a settled part of the country, where 

 I found myself on the road to Cranberry, and four miles from 

 the river. On learning the direction of the river, I entered 

 the woods with a tired horse, which I led in my hand, and 

 after a tedious walk, gained the river two miles below where 



