86 
AMERICANS. 
proceed on the expedition. Every nation has its peculiar ensign or 
standard, which is generally some beast, bird, or fish. Those among 
the Five Nations are the bear, otter, wolf, tortoise, and eagle, and by 
these means the tribes are usually distinguished. They have the 
figures of those animals printed and painted on several parts of their 
bodies, and when they march through the woods, they commonly, at 
every encampment, clit the representation of their ensign on trees, 
especially after a successful campaign, marking at the same time the 
number of scalps or prisoners they have taken. 
Their military dress is extremely singular. They cut off or pull off 
part of their hair, except a spot about the breadth of two English 
crown-pieces, near the tops of their heads, and entirely destroy their 
eye-brows. The lock left upon their head is divided into several par- 
cels, each of which is stifi'ened, and adorned with wampum beads, 
and - feathers of various kinds, the whole being twisted into a form 
much resembling the modern pompoon. Their heads are painted 
red down to the eye-brows, and sprinkled over with white down. 
The gristles of their ears are split almost quite round, and distended 
with wires or splinters, so as to meet, and tie together on the nape of 
the neck. These are also hung with ornaments, and generally bear 
the representation of some bird or beast. Their noses are likewise 
broad and hung with trinkets of beads, and their faces painted with 
various colours so as to make an awful appearance. Their breasts 
are adorned with a gorget or medal of brass, copper, or some other 
metal ; and that dreadful weapon, the scalping knife, hangs by a string 
from their neck. 
The great qualities in an Indian w'arrior are vigilance and attention, 
to give and to avoid a surprise, and indeed in these they are superior 
to all the nations in the world. Accustomed to continual wandering 
in the forests, having their perceptions sharpened by keen necessity, and 
livitjg in every respect according to nature, their external senses have 
a degree of acutenes which at first view appears incredible. They 
can trace out their enemies at an immense distance by the smoke of 
their fires which they smell, and by the tracks of their feet on the 
ground, imperceptible to an European eye, but which they can count 
and distinguish with the utmost facility. They can even distinguish 
the different nations with whom they are acquainted, and can deter- 
mine the precise time when they passed, where an European could 
not, w ith his glasses, distinguish footsteps at all. These circumstances 
however, are of no small importance, because their enemies are equally 
acquainted with them. When, they go out, therefore, they take care 
to avoid making use of any thing by which they might run the dan- 
ger of a discovery. They light no fire to warm themselves or to 
prepare their victuals ; they lie close to the ground all day, and travel 
only in the night; and marching along in lines, he that closes the 
rear diligently covers with leaves the tracks of his own feet and of 
those who preceded him. When they halt to refresh themselves, scouts 
are sent out to reconnoitre the country, and beat up every place where 
they suppose an enemy to be concealed. In this manner they enter 
iinaw'ares the villages of their foes ; and while the flower of the nation 
are engaged in hunting, masacre all the women, children, and helpless 
