t whereto parasols and
smart forage-caps intrude not.
I would even include in my denunciation the tower which is now erected
upon the piece of rock that abuts upon the great fall, and standing in
whose gallery you actually hang suspended over the abyss; not but that
the tower is in itself rudely simple, and in good taste perhaps, but
that one feels this place needs no such accessories, and, instead of
deriving advantage from them, is degraded into a mere show by their
presence; and, in saying this much, I feel as though the application of
the term was a profanation.
I only saw three natives near the fall during my stay; but these formed
a little group I would like much to have had Landseer look upon.
I was walking one morning before breakfast about a quarter of a mile
below the fall, when I suddenly came upon a squaw leaning against a
tree: as many of the Tuscaroras understand a few words of English, I
addressed her with "Good morning, good morning!"
With a calm bend of the head she placed her fingers over her lips by
way of return to my salutation, turning herself at the same time a
little away as if to avoid further notice or intercourse: curiosity,
however, overcame good-breeding in me, and mounting the little bank to a
level with the shady tree against which she passively leaned, I
immediately became aware of her object.
Coiled up, on the earth, by her feet lay an Indian, his head and
shoulders wrapped close in his blanket; upon this motionless mass her
eyes were calmly fixed: against the opposite side of the tree sat a very
handsome lad, about eight or nine years old, who never lifted his head
to look on the intruder: near the boy crouched a half-starved hound of
the lurcher kind, a red-coloured, wire-haired brute, with a keen cold
Indian look, and as apparently incurious as the best-taught warrior of
the tribe: there was no wagging of the tail in friendly recognition, as
might be expected from a kindly European dog; neither was there the
warning growl and spiteful show of bristled crest and angry teeth, nor
any suspicious circling round the stranger, with tail tucked close and
thievish scrutiny, so common amongst low-bred white curs; this hound of
the Red-man, on the contrary, deported himself in a manner creditable to
his race, and to the tribe of his adoption: I do not believe his eye was
ever once raised to survey me; or, if it was, the movement was so well
managed that I did not detect it.
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