e condition of their bows and casse-tetes[A], and painted themselves
with the ochre of wrath[B], and sang with a hollow and sepulchral voice
their songs of war, and killed the fat dog, sacred to Areskoui[C], for
they knew that the keen look of the Spirit-wife upon the instruments of
death boded victory and glory to those who should employ them in the
strife of warriors. On the contrary, if, tired with a long peace, one
rose with the string of wampum(1) in his hand, and said to his brothers,
"The blood of him whom our foes slew in such or such a moon is not yet
wiped away; his corpse remains above the earth unburied; I go to wash
the clotted gore from his breast, to give him the rites of sepulture,
and to eat up the nation(2) by whom the base wrongs were done him"--if,
having spoken thus, the Spirit-wife but cast her meek blue eye upon him,
and suffered a sigh to pass her beautiful bosom, the speaker rose, and
washed off the black paint, and effaced from his cheeks all traces of
the bloody design by which he had been actuated, and declared that a
kind bird had whispered in his ear that the "enemy were gone to the
mountain streams for sturgeon," or, "to the plains of the Osage to
gather bitter snow[D]," or, "to the prairies of the Wisconsan to hunt
the buffalo," or, "to the stormy lake of Michabou(3) to take the fish
wherewith the god had so plentifully stocked it." The assembled
warriors, knowing that he had a sufficient motive for changing his mind,
would follow his example, and lay by the weapons of war to resume those
of peace, without any inquiry why he had changed his mind. And thus,
more by soft persuasion, and kind entreaties, and wise prophecies, than
by stern commands, and bitter denunciations, the beautiful Spirit-wife
ruled the Burntwood Tetons to their glory and happiness.

[Footnote A: The war-clubs.]

[Footnote B: Black paint, as I have before observed, the symbol among
the Indians of belligerent intentions.]

[Footnote C: A fat dog is the chief and sometimes the only dish at the
feast, preparatory to a war expedition. This animal is sacred to
Areskoui, or the God of War.]

[Footnote D: Salt.]

Yet, with all her love for her husband, and her children, of whom in ten
springs ten stood in their father's cabin, she appeared at times to be
far from happy. It was observed that nothing could induce her to go
abroad after darkness had veiled the earth. When the robe of night was
thrown over the face of things