and, neither on land nor in
the water, in field or forest, was there a woman to be found. Vain
things were plenty--there was the turkey, and the swan, and the blue
jay, and the wood-duck, and the wakon bird; and noisy, chattering,
singing creatures, such as the daw, and the thrush, and the rook, and
the prairie-dog, abounded--indeed there were more of each than was
pleasing to the ear--but of women, vain, noisy, laughing, chattering
women, there were none. It was, indeed, quite a still world to what it
is now. Whether it is better and happier, will depend much upon the
opinion men entertain of those, who have changed its character from
calm and peaceable to boisterous and noisy. Some will think it is much
improved by the circumstance which deprived the Kickapoos of their
tails--while others will greatly deplore its occurrence.

At the time of which I am telling my brother, the Kickapoos, and
indeed all red men, wherever found--and at that time there were none
but red men in the world--were furnished with long tails like horses
and buffaloes. It was very handy to have these appendages in a country
where flies were numerous and troublesome, as they were in the land of
the Kickapoos--tails being much more sudden in their movements than
hands, and more conveniently situated, as every body must see, for
whisking off the flies which light upon the back. Then they were very
beautiful things, these long tails, especially when handsomely painted
and ornamented, as their owners used to ornament them, with beads, and
shells, and wampum--and being intended as a natural decoration to the
creature, the depriving him of it may well have produced, as it did, a
great deal of sport and merriment among the other animals, who were
not compelled to submit to the deprivation. The fox, who is rather
impudent, for a long time after they were chopped off, sent to the
Kickapoos every day to enquire "how their tails were;" and the bear
shook his fat sides with laughter at the joke, which he thought a very
good one, of sending one of his cubs with a request for a "dozen spare
tails."

I have said, that throughout the land there were no women. There were
men--a plenty, the land was thronged with them--not born, but created
of clay--and left to bake in the sun till they received life--and
these men were very contented and happy. Wars were very few then, for
no one need be told that half the wars which have arisen have grown
out of quarrels on acco