EAGIE. 
389 
ed ; and, if accepted, the weapons of destruction 
instantly drop from their hands, and a truce en- 
sues. It seems the sacrament of the Savages, for no 
compact is ever violated ; which is confirmed by a 
whiff from this holy reed. The Dance of the Calu- 
met is a solemn rite which always confirms a peace 
or precedes a war. It is divided into three parts : 
the first appears an act of devotion, danced in mea- 
sured time ; the second is a true representation of 
the Pyrrhic dance ; the third is attended with songs 
expressive of the victories they had obtained, the 
nations they had conquered, and the captives they 
had made. 
An immense bird, which is called th e bearded eagle, 
from the tuft of very narrow feathers like hairs which 
hangs beneath the throat, forms his nest in the 
highest parts of the Alps, where he dwells without 
the reach of man, and preys securely on the wild 
hares, kids, marmots, and chamois, which inhabit 
those almost inaccessible mountains. One of these 
terrible birds is said to have been caught in the 
canton of Glarus, which measured from the tip of 
the beak to the extremity of the tail nearly seven 
feet, and eight feet and a half from tip to tip of its 
wings. The account which Gesner gives, on the 
authority of Fabricius, of the bearded eagle, ap- 
pears to be greatly exaggerated. He tells us that 
“some peasants between Miessen and Brisa, cities in 
Germany, losing every day some of their cattle, 
which they sought for in the forests in vain, ob- 
served by chance a very large nest resting on three 
