he models of antiquity, to contemplate
this wronged and humbled people, little would be left for such inferior
artists as ourselves to delineate.

The Indian in question was in every particular a warrior of fine stature
and admirable proportions. As he cast aside his mask, composed of such
party-coloured leaves, as he had hurriedly collected, his countenance
appeared in all the gravity, the dignity, and, it may be added, in the
terror of his profession. The outlines of his lineaments were strikingly
noble, and nearly approaching to Roman, though the secondary features of
his face were slightly marked with the well-known traces of his Asiatic
origin. The peculiar tint of the skin, which in itself is so well
designed to aid the effect of a martial expression, had received an
additional aspect of wild ferocity from the colours of the war-paint.
But, as if he disdained the usual artifices of his people, he bore none
of those strange and horrid devices, with which the children of the
forest are accustomed, like the more civilised heroes of the moustache,
to back their reputation for courage, contenting himself with a
broad and deep shadowing of black, that served as a sufficient and an
admirable foil to the brighter gleamings of his native swarthiness.
His head was as usual shaved to the crown, where a large and gallant
scalp-lock seemed to challenge the grasp of his enemies. The ornaments
that were ordinarily pendant from the cartilages of his ears had been
removed, on account of his present pursuit. His body, notwithstanding
the lateness of the season, was nearly naked, and the portion which was
clad bore a vestment no warmer than a light robe of the finest dressed
deer-skin, beautifully stained with the rude design of some daring
exploit, and which was carelessly worn, as if more in pride than from
any unmanly regard to comfort. His leggings were of bright scarlet
cloth, the only evidence about his person that he had held communion
with the traders of the Pale-faces. But as if to furnish some offset
to this solitary submission to a womanish vanity, they were fearfully
fringed, from the gartered knee to the bottom of the moccasin, with the
hair of human scalps. He leaned lightly with one hand on a short hickory
bow, while the other rather touched than sought support, from the long,
delicate handle of an ashen lance. A quiver made of the cougar skin,
from which the tail of the animal depended, as a characteristic
ornament,