o
Indian boys paddled us, while others made a great fire on the cliff
above, which illuminated the scene. Other Indian youths jumped into the
water and swam about and skylarked, whooping wildly. It reminded me
strangely of the Blue Grotto of Capri, where our boatmen jumped in and
swam in a sulphur-azure glow, only that this was red in the firelight.

Our whisky ran short--it always does on all such excursions--and our
drivers in consequence became very "short" also, or rather unruly. But
_bon chemin_, _mal chemin_, we went on, and the ladies, as I had
predicted, pulled through merrily.

One day, at a halt, I found, with the ladies, in the woods by a stream, a
pretty sight. It was a wigwam, which was very open, and which had been
made to look like a bower with green boughs. When I was in the artillery
I was the only person who ever thus adorned our tent in Indian style. It
is very pleasant on a warm day, and looks artistic. In the wigwam sat a
pretty Indian woman with a babe. The ladies were, of course, at once
deeply interested, but the Indian could not speak English. One of the
ladies had a common Japanese fan, with the picture of a grotesque god,
and I at once saw my way to interest our hostess.

I once read in the journal of a missionary's wife in Canada that she had
a curious Malay or Cingalese dagger, with a curved blade and wooden
sheath, while on the handle was the figure of an idol. One day she
showed this to an Indian, and the next day he came with five more, and
these again with fifteen, till it seemed as if the whole country had gone
wild over it. Very much alarmed at such heathenism, the lady locked it
up and would show it no more. Ere she did so, she asked an old Indian
how it was possible to make a scabbard of one piece of wood, with a hole
in it to fit the blade. This man, who had been one of the most devoted
admirers of the deity on the handle, saw no puzzle in this. He explained
that the hole was burned in by heating the blade.

I showed the god on the fan to the Indian woman, and said,
"_Manitu_--_ktchee manitu_" ("a god--a great god"). She saw at once that
it was heathen, and her heart went out unto it with great delight. With
a very few Chippeway words and many signs I explained to her that forty
days' journey from us was the sea, and forty days beyond another country
where the people had this _manitou_. I believe that the lady gave her
the fan, and it may be that she worships it