of its leaves, and the dismantling of its smaller, but not
its larger limbs. Not the mighty animal which strode down from the
mountains of thunder to slaughter the buffaloes of the prairies[C],
was at all to be compared with him for size. At least, so said the
woman, who followed the Child of the Hare into the deep dell at early
nightfall.

[Footnote A: Ginseng, called by the Potowatomies _Abesoatchenza_,
which signifies a child. I presume it has acquired its name rather
from the figure of its root than from the tradition. They make great
use of it in medicine.]

[Footnote B: The implements of writing, especially paper, are esteemed
by the Indians as medicines, or spirits, of great power. Books are
viewed in the same light. Singing hymns from a book delights them
much, as they conceive, that the book is a spirit, which teaches the
singer to sing for their diversion.]

[Footnote C: The Mammoth. See note, vol. ii, p. 111.]

"What brought you here?" demanded one of the Elks, a very elderly one,
who was named the Broadhorns, of the woman, as she approached the
outside of the circle. "Do you not know that it is death for any one
to come into the camp of the Great Chief of the Elks, unless he is
sent for? What brought you here?"

"I followed the Child of the Beaver."

"Oho, and so you have come to the marriage, but you are too late."

"What marriage?" demanded the woman, straining her eyes still wider
than my pale-faced brother does at this moment. "Who? How? What! Who's
to be married?"

"Oh, you know nothing of the matter I see," answered the Elk
Broadhorns. "Why, the youth, whom the Ottawas call the Child of the
Hare, but whom the Elks call the Pig-faced Boy of the Ottawas, has
married the daughter of a wise old man, who is akin to the Great Elk."

"Oho, and is that the cause of the hubbub?" demanded the woman.

"Not altogether," answered the Broadhorns; "you see gathered together
but the usual number that attend the steps of our great chief, running
of his errands, and doing him homage. But, come along, you must go and
spread the blanket of friendship before the great man, whom all the
Elks, no matter where found, as well as the inhabitants of the valley,
worship and obey."

With that, the old Elk, who appeared to be an Elk of authority, spoke
to the crowd, commanding them to make way for the woman who had come
from the camp of their friends, the Ottawas, to visit the Great Chief.
Immediately an opening was