He supposes that it arose
from their habit of using the pipe while deliberating in council.

(2) _Assume the part and situation of the woman_.--p. 94.

This signifies the _disarming of a man_, who thenceforth may become a
mediator or peace-maker, and is never allowed to resume the weapons or
practices of warfare. In addition to this, the "metaphorical woman" is
liable to be called to take part with the real woman in the labours of
the field and the cabin.

THE MARRIAGE OF THE SNAIL AND THE BEAVER.

If my brother knows anything of the Osages, as they are called by the
people of his nation, but by themselves, and all the neighbouring
tribes, the Wasbashas, he knows that they live on the banks of the large
and beautiful river, the Osage, which empties itself into the Missouri,
at the distance of a hunter's journey of three suns from its mouth. Once
the people of my nation were all united like a family of children which
have but one mother, but subdivisions of the original stock have taken
place, and they are now divided into three tribes, the Great Osages and
the Little Osages, who have raised their cabins on the south bank of the
river, and the sister's sons who broil their meat on the banks of the
stream which our white brother calls the Vermilion. Are we brave and
valiant? Ask the nations around us. Behold the Dahcotah scalps drying in
the smoke of our cabins! Are we strong? Here is the bow of an Osage
boy--bend it. Are our women beautiful? Look at them, and be convinced.

The story which our fathers told us of our origin is this, and they
believed it, for their lips never dealt in falsehood, nor were their
tongues forked. The father of our nation was a SNAIL. It was when the
earth was young and little: it was before the rivers had become wide and
long, or the mountains lifted their peaks among the clouds, that this
snail found himself passing a quiet existence on the banks of our own
beloved river. His wants and his wishes were but few and well supplied,
and as quiet and rest, and the freedom to move neither often nor much,
were to him the height of happiness, he was happy. He seldom hunted,
and, when he did, it was in the immediate neighbourhood of his lodge,
never moving unless at the call of hunger, and then according to his
nature he satisfied his appetite upon whatever was nearest at hand,
rather than take the chance of faring better by going further. And thus
lived our great forefather, the snail.