LOUISIANA. 163 



faithful in all his accounts. It appears that 



there was more vanity in his undertaking, 



than true zeal in making profelytes in A- 

 mtrica, 



Whilfl t was at the Koakias^ fome Indians of 

 the nation of Ofages arrived there ; their Mani*^ 

 tou, or falfe deity, was a dri^d ferpeht, of a 

 monftrous fizev Thefe people faid that this 

 prodigious animal had committed great devaf* 

 tations in their country, that it fwallowed a 

 tyger-cat all at once -, that confequently they had 

 declared war againft it^ and were gone to attack 

 It. They followed it by the track, but neither 

 balls nor arrows could penetrate its body, which 

 was covered with very hard fcales, like thofe of 

 a crocodile. They fucceeded at laft in putting 

 it to death by fliooting balls and arrows at it, 

 which blinded it. He* that had killed it carried 

 the mark or imprefHon of it on his body, in the 

 fame manner as the Akanzas imprinted the 

 roe-buck on my thigh. They make this lad- 

 ing mafk in the following manner. They firfl 

 draw with black, or with gUn*powder the 

 figure of the animal or obje6t they mean to re- 

 prefent, on the flefli -, after Which they fling the 

 fkin in the out-line, with one or more needles 

 to the blood ; the figure is then flighily wafhed 



M 2 over 



