the old, as well as the young, smear their faces, belly and back with
this curious paint; after which they trim their hair shorter, some of
one side of the head, some of the other; some leave only a small tuft on
the crown of their head; others cut their hair entirely off on the left
or right side of it; some again leave nothing on it but a lock, just on
the top of their forehead, and of the breadth of it, that falls back on
the nape of the neck. Some of them bore their ears, and pass through the
holes thus made in them, the finest fibril-roots of the fir, which they
call _Toobee_, and commonly use for thread; but on this occasion serve
to string certain small shells. This military masquerade, which they use
at once for terror and disguise, being compleated, all the peltry of the
beasts killed in the enemy's country, is piled in a heap; the oldest
_Sagamo_, or chieftain of the assembly gets up, and asks, "What weather
it is? Is the sky clear? Does the sun shine?" On being answered in the
affirmative, he orders the young men to carry the pile of peltry to a
rising-ground, or eminence, at some little distance from the cabbin, or
place of assembly. As this is instantly done, he follows them, and as he
walks along begins, and continues his address to the sun in the
following terms:

"Be witness, thou great and beautiful luminary, of what we are this day
going to do in the face of thy orb! If thou didst disapprove us, thou
wouldst, this moment, hide thyself, to avoid affording the light of thy
rays to all the actions of this assembly. Thou didst exist of old, and
still existeth. Thou remainest for ever as beautiful, as radiant, and as
beneficent, as when our first fore fathers beheld thee. Thou wilt always
be the same. The father of the day can never fail us, he who makes every
thing vegetate, and without whom cold, darkness, and horror, would every
where prevail. Thou knowest all the iniquitous procedure of our enemies
towards us. What perfidy have they not used, what deceit have they not