ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS. 



375 



word, they ascribe a power to this medicine, like 

 that, which more refined imaginations have attrib- 

 uted to the arrows of Cupid. The young women, 

 also, employ many other magical arts, to accom- 

 plish the same object. — A woman who is fond of 

 her husband, and who supposes that he has little 

 affection for her, will rub a certain medicine in the 

 palm of her hand, as she is going to bed ; and af- 

 ter he falls asleep, she will lay her hand on his 

 heart ; and the medicine, she thinks, possesses the 

 power of uniting their hearts together, and of 

 causing their affection, ever afterward, to be re- 

 . ciprocal. 



The Indians have no professional mechanicks 

 among them. Every man is his own artificer, 

 and is able to construct the few domestick man- 

 ufactured articles, which he uses. Some persons 

 among them, more ingenious than the rest, are 

 frequently applied to, to execute some things 

 which require considerable skill, such as putting 

 a stock to a gun ; but they take no compensa- 

 tion, for such a service. Their bows and arrows 

 are neatly constructed. In order to make their 

 arrows round and straight and smooth, after they 

 have been reduced nearly to their proper size 

 with a knife, they use the following method. 

 They take two pieces of wood, of suitable thick- 

 ness, which are seVeral inches long, and cut in 



