ls of the country; on a stand,
where there was a stone basin, the girl turned in the wheat; another
stone, fitting exactly in the basin, was attached to the ceiling by a
long pole; catching hold of this, she gave the stone a rotary motion,
grinding the wheat very fairly.

Suddenly Caper saw in the back part of the room a woman, holding what
seemed a large, red-headed caterpillar, without any fuzz on it; she was
evidently nourishing it in the way represented in that famous painting
'The Roman Daughter,' thus proving that it was a baby. Its resemblance
to the caterpillar arose from the way it was swathed: around all the
Segnian infants they wind a strip of knit or woven cloth, about eight
feet long and four inches wide, fairly mummifying them; then, to crown
the work, they put on their little bullet heads, a scarlet cap with
brilliant flowers and ribbons, making the poor babies resemble anything
but Christian productions. In a neighboring town they hang their babies
up in a wicker basket, resembling the birch-bark contrivances for our
Indian papooses.

Continuing his walk, our artist next came to where they were building a
house; and its future occupant, who was a man of some enterprise and
action, told Caper, with a long face, that he almost despaired of seeing
it completed: the harvest came, and almost every workman went off to the
wheat fields, leaving the house unfinished until they were ready to
recommence work on it, well knowing that there were no other ones in the
town able to do their labor; however, those who mixed mortar, carried
tiles, and stone, and plaster, were hard at work. These laborers were
girls of from twelve to sixteen years old, and one or two of them, spite
of dirt and hard labor, were really handsome, with bright, intelligent
countenances. They earned one paul (ten cents) each a day, and seemed
contented and happy, joking with each other and laughing heartily nearly
all the time. Probably our Chippewa Indians would think twice before
they set the young women of their tribe to hod-carrying as a livelihood;
but then the Chippewas are savages. The hods carried by these girls on
their heads were flat, wooden trays, square at each end: once poised on
the head, they balanced themselves, and were carried around without a
fall. This carrying on the head, by the women, from an eight-gallon
barrel of wine down to a sickle or pocket handkerchief, helps to give
them their straight forms and fine carriage of