The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories About Indians, by Rufus Merrill

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Title: Stories About Indians

Author: Rufus Merrill

Release Date: July 12, 2010 [EBook #33142]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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STORIES
ABOUT
INDIANS.

CONCORD, N. H.
RUFUS MERRILL.

STORIES
ABOUT
INDIANS.

[Illustration]

CONCORD, N.H.:
PUBLISHED BY MERRIAM & MERRILL
1854.

[Illustration: The above picture represents Indians hunting Buffalo.]

STORIES ABOUT INDIANS.

The Indians were formerly lords of the soil we now occupy, and
obtained a subsistence principally by hunting and fishing.

They generally lived in villages, containing from fifty to five
hundred families. Their houses, called _wigwams_, were usually
constructed of poles, one end being driven into the ground, and the
other bent over so as to meet another fastened in like manner; both
being joined together at the top, and covered with the bark of trees.
Small holes were left open for windows, which were closed in bad
weather with a piece of bark. They made their fire in the centre of
the wigwam, leaving a small hole for a chimney in the top of the roof.

[Illustration: Indian Village.]

They had no chairs, but sat upon skins, or mats, spread upon the
ground, which also served them for beds. Their clothes were
principally made of the skins of animals, which in winter were sewed
together with the fur side turned inwards.

The Indians were very fond of trinkets and ornaments, and often
decorated their heads with feathers, while fine polished shells were
suspended from their ears.

A PAWNEE BRAVE.

The following anecdote is related of a Pawnee brave, or warrior, (son
of Red Knife).

At the age of twenty-one, the heroic deeds of this brave had acquired
for him in his nation the rank of the bravest of the braves. The
savage practice of torturing and