264 A SPORTING PARADISE 



1791), " pay little attention to the rising or setting 

 sun, which at first surprised me, because I won- 

 dered by what method they travel from place 

 to place, without any material aberration : but 

 this they soon explained, by assuring me that 

 they had not the least difficulty in going from 

 one spot to another, being guided by the moss 

 on the trees, which always remains on the north 

 side, but on the south it wastes and decays : they 

 remark also that the branches are larger, and 

 the leaves more luxuriant on the south than on 

 the north side of the tree. The most enlightened 

 part of mankind, I am persuaded, cannot be more 

 exact in their mode of judging, nor more attentive 

 to works of Nature. 



" To prove further," he adds, " that the Indians 

 possess strong natural abilities, I shall relate a 

 story from Kalin's Travels. 



" ' An old American savage being at an inn 

 at New York, met with a gentleman who gave 

 him some liquor, and being rather lively, boasted 

 he could read and write English. The gentleman, 

 willing to indulge him in displaying his knowledge, 

 begged leave to propose a question, to which the 

 old man consented. He was then asked, who 

 was the first circumcised ? The Indian imme- 



