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pline and learning: men who though not perhaps trained to the exceeding thoroughness of European scholars, are yet in their refinement, gentleness, purity, and accurate scholarship, and we will add business habits-fair memorials and specimens of what such studies can do, and strong arguments for the extension and continuance of that system of culture which has done so much for them.

As men of gallantry, we feel more interest in what is said of our women than of ourselves. The following are some of the judgments of our author, of the attainments and accomplishments of the females of our country.

"The accomplishments of the American ladies are also very different from those of the fair sex in England. This difference may be traced partly to their education, and partly to the customs that prevail in society. The great majority of young ladies in the United States are brought up at schools; many of these are seminaries for the instruction both of boys and girls, until they attain the age of ten or twelve years. I have more than once been told by a young lady in reply to my inquiry whether she were acquainted with some particular young man whose name had accidentally been mentioned. 'Oh, yes; I used to know him very well; we were school-fellows!' An answer which surprised me very much at the time.

After leaving these early schools the girls are sent to academies, exclusively devoted to French education: these academies so far resemble the American colleges, that they embrace a very wide range of acquirement, and therefore have a strong tendency to give a superficial knowledge of the variety of subjects presented at once to minds, which cannot be expected to be disposed for laborious study. The result is such as might be expected the American ladies are more conversant with metaphysics, and polemical and speculative writings than Englishwomen. In history and geography their acquirements are more upon a par; but in those accomplishments which are considered in Britain more peculiarly feminine they are less advanced, namely, dancing, drawing, music, and needle-work, as well as in the modern languages. It must be remembered, however, that in these last, and also in some of the other branches abovementioned, it would not be fair to institute a comparison, because they have not the same advantages of instruction from the best masters that Europe can produce.

Young ladies in the United States 'come out,' or 'enter company,' at seventeen or eighteen years of age; sometimes even before they have left school. This last practice I cannot help

considering extremely pernicious; it distracts the young mind from all study, and introduces similar subjects of conversation among still younger girls who are not destined to go out into the world for two or three years to come. A young lady whom I knew in one of the Atlantic cities, the daughter of a gentleman in a high situation, and remarkable herself for naiveté and quickness, told me, that when she was at school, some of the elder scholars used to go out frequently to evening parties, and when they returned, they described to the younger ones the partners whom they had danced with, and whatever had afforded them food for observation and amusement. The accuracy of the account given to me was indubitable; for my clever informant mentioned to me the sobriquets by which several of the young men in society were known among her school-companions, and they were droll, but faithfully descriptive. This system may be considered harmless by some people and dangerous by others without investigating the subject too minutely, I think all must agree that it has a tendency to unsettle the mind for serious study.

Young ladies enjoy much greater liberty in America than in England or France; they walk unattended by a servant, and frequently receive the visits of gentlemen in the drawing-room during the morning: thus, either in the house, or in walking, or in riding, a young lady can enjoy as much of the society of an agreeable friend as their mutual inclinations may dictate, without the restraints of the presence of a mother or any other third party. This habit of life gives an independence to the character which forms its most striking feature in the eye of a foreigner. Neither are their opinions nor their studies subject to very severe maternal scrutiny: I have, upon several occasions, heard a young lady openly maintain Unitarian opinions with a Calvinistic mother in the room, and discuss some of the doctrines of Hobbes or Voltaire with much quickness and freedom."

The reasons which led Mr Murray to sojourn among the Pawnees, we do not very distinctly learn from these volumes. Perhaps it was a Highlander's love of freedom, or a fondness, for the excitement of adventure, and buffalo hunting; but whatever it was, it has gained for us much valuable information respecting the habits of our frontier Indians. His residence there was not very agreeable, though he seems to have borne its dangers, privations and disgusts with Indian fortitude. We quote some passages relating to the character and education of these strange beings.

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"Every hour that I spent with the Indians, impressed upon me the conviction that I had taken the only method of becoming acquainted with their domestic habits and their undisguised character. Had I judged from what I had been able to observe at Fort Leavenworth, or other frontier places, where I met them, I should have known about as much of them as the generality of scribblers and their readers, and might, like them, have deceived myself and others into a belief in their 'high sense of honor their hospitality-their openness and love of truth, and many other qualities which they possess, if at all, in a very moderate degree; and yet it is no wonder if such impressions have gone abroad, because the Indian, among whites, or at a garrison, trading-post, or town, is as different a man from the same Indian at home as a Turkish Mollah' is from a French barber. Among whites, he is all dignity and repose; he is acting a part the whole time, and acts it most admirably. He manifests no surprise at the most wonderful effects of machinery—is not startled if a twenty four pounder is fired close to him, and does not evince the slightest curiosity regarding the thousand things that are strange and new to him; whereas at home, the same Indian chatters, jokes, and laughs among his companions-frequently indulges in the most licentious conversation; and his curiosity is unbounded and irresistible as that of any man, woman, or monkey on earth.

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Truth and honesty (making the usual exceptions to be found in all countries) are unknown, or despised by them. A boy is taught and encouraged to steal and lie, and the only blame or disgrace ever incurred thereby is when the offence is accompanied by detection. I never met with liars so determined, universal, or audacious. The chiefs themselves have told me repeatedly the most deliberate and gross untruths, to serve a trifling purpose, with the gravity of a chief-justice; and I doubt whether Baron Munchausen himself would be more than a match for the great chief of the Pawnees. Let them not dispute the palm-each is greatest in his peculiar line-one in inventive exaggeration, the other in plain unadorned falsehood. from all these charges I most completely exonerate my old chief, Sâ-nî-tsa-rish; Nature had made him a gentleman, and he remained so, in spite of the corrupting examples around him."

'I must now turn to the male portion of the commonwealth, and record a few particulars regarding them. As soon as the boys are able to run about they begin to practise the bow and arrow; and in the barren prairies, where neither bird nor flower offers itself as a mark, their constant occupation is shooting at an arrow previously shot by one of the little party. This they

perform (to use a vulgar phrase) turn about:-A shoots an arrow into the ground, about ten or fifteen yards off; B shoots at it; then B sends one for A to aim at; and so forth. Until they attain the age of ten or eleven they remain more or less under their mother's control, and are made to help her in carrying water, and in catching or leading horses; but about that discreet time of life they begin to feel the dignity of their sex, and to perform such menial offices with repugnance; and I have often observed with surprise and indignation, that if I gave a gun-case or any kind of package to one of them to carry during a march, before ten minutes he would transfer it to his already overloaded and submissive mother, and return to his bow and arrow with his companions. They delight, also, while they are lads, to follow their elder brother or father to the buffalo hunt, during which they keep a respectful distance in the rear; but as soon as the game is killed, they assist at the dissection, and the horse on which they rode is used to carry the meat to the camp. About the age of twenty they are allowed to hunt, and seek other opportunities for distinction. This epoch answers to the Oxonian's first appearance in London life after taking his B. A. degree. I have seen some dandies in my life-English, Scotch, French, German, aye and American dandies too; but none of them can compare with the vanity or coxcombry of the Pawnee dandy. Lest any of the gentry claiming this distinction, and belonging to the abovementioned nations, should doubt or feel aggrieved at this assertion, I will faithfully narrate what passed constantly before my eyes in our own tent; namely, the manner in which Sa-ni-tsá-rish's son passed the days on which there was no buffalo hunt.

He began his toilet, about eight in the morning, by greasing and smoothing his whole person with fat, which he rubbed afterwards perfectly dry, only leaving the skin sleek aud glossy; he then painted his face vermilion, with a stripe of red also along the centre of the crown of the head; he then proceeded to his 'coiffure,' which received great attention, although the quantum of hair demanding such care was limited, inasmuch as his head was shaved close, except one tuft at the top, from which hung two plaited tresses.' (Why must I call them 'pigtails?'*) He

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The fashion of wearing the hair varies in every tribe, and in every individual of the tribe, according to the fancy of the person; but the method here described is the most prevalent among the Pawnees. The Ricaras plait a long stream of horse-hair with their crown-tuft, which floats wildly in the breeze as they gallop, and gives them a terrible and picturesque appearance. I have also been informed by many of the Rocky Mountain traders, that some of the Crow chiefs (a nation to the north-west of the Ricara) wear hair of seven and eight feet long; and a gentleman of charac

then filled his ears, which were bored in two or three places, with rings and wampum, and hung several strings of beads round his neck; then, sometimes painting stripes of vermilion and yellow upon his breast and shoulders, and placing armlets above his elbows and rings upon his fingers, he proceeded to adorn the nether man with a pair of moccasins, some scarlet cloth leggins fastened to his waist-belt, and bound round below the knee with garters of beads four inches broad. Being so far prepared, he drew out his mirror, fitted into a small wooden frame, (which he always, whether hunting or at home, carried about his person,) and commenced a course of self-examination, such as the severest disciple of Watts, Mason, or any other religious moralist, never equalled. Nay more, if I were not afraid of offending the softer sex by venturing to bring man into comparison with them in an occupation which is considered so peculiarly their own, I would assert that no female creation of the poets, from the time when Eve first saw that smooth watery image,' till the polished toilet of the lovely Belinda, ever studied her own reflected self with more perseverance or satisfaction than this Pawnee youth. I have repeatedly seen him sit, for above an hour at a time, examining his face in every possible position and expression now frowning like Homer's Jove before a thunderstorm; now like the same god, described by Milton, smiling with superior love;' now slightly varying the streaks of paint upon his cheeks and forehead, and then pushing or pulling each particular hair' of his eye-brows into its most becoming place! Could the youth have seen anything in that mirror half so dangerous as the features which the glassy wave gave back to the gaze of the fond Narcissus, I might have feared for his life or reason; but, fortunately for these, they had only to contend with a low receding forehead, a nose somewhat simious,* a pair of small sharp eyes, with high cheek-bones, and a broad mouth, well furnished with a set of teeth, which had at least the merit of demolishing speedily everything, animal, or vegetable, that came within their range.

His toilet thus arranged to his satisfaction, one of the women or children led his buffalo-horse before the tent; and he proceeded to deck his steed, by painting his forehead, neck, and shoulders with stripes of vermilion, and sometimes twisted a few feathers into his tail. He then put into his mouth an oldfashioned bridle, bought or stolen from the Spaniards, from the

ter and education assured me that he had measured the hair of one of them nine feet. Like the faithful old Herodotus, I add 'these things I have not seen, but give them as they were told me.'

I believe I can justly claim the invention or anglicising of this word. If I can, I consider the republic of letters under deep obligation to me.

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