hed and fevered lips of a dying
man.

When taking vengeance of an enemy, there is no cruelty which can be
exercised, no species of torture, which their ingenuity can devise,
too severe to be inflicted. To those who have excited a spirit of
resentment in the bosom of an Indian, the tomahawk and scalping knife
are instruments of mercy. Death by the faggot--by splinters of the
most combustible wood, stuck in the flesh and fired--maiming and
disemboweling, tortures on which the soul sickens but to reflect, are
frequently practiced. To an enemy of their own color, they are perhaps
more cruel and severe, than to the whites. In requiting upon him,
every refinement of torture is put in requisition, to draw forth a
sigh or a groan, or cause him to betray some symptom of human
sensibility. This they never effect. An Indian neither shrinks from a
knife, nor winces at the stake; on the contrary he seems to exult in
his agony, and will mock his tormentors for the leniency and mildness
of their torture.[2]

[30] Drinking and gambling are vices, to which the Indians, as well as
the whites, are much addicted. Such is their fondness for spirit of
any kind that they are rarely known to be sober, when they have it in
their power to be otherwise. Neither a sense of honor or of shame has
been able to overcome their propensity for its use; and when drunk,
the ties of race, of friendship and of kindred are too weak, to bind
their ferocious tempers.

In gambling they manifest the same anxiety, which we see displayed at
the card table of the whites. The great difference seems to be, that
we depend too frequently on sleight and dexterity; whereas while they
are shaking their gourd neck of half whited plumbstones, they only use
certain _tricks_ of conjuration, which in their simplicity they
believe will ensure them success. To this method of attaining an
object, they have frequent recourse. Superstition is the concomitant
of ignorance. The most enlightened, are rarely altogether exempt from
its influence--with the uninformed it is a master passion, swaying and
directing the mind in all its operations.

In their domestic economy, Indians are, in some respects, like the
rude of all countries. They manifest but little respect for the
female; imposing on her not only the duties of the hut, but also the
more laborious operations of husbandry; and observing towards them the
hauteur and distance of superior beings.

There are few things, indeed,