could never procure a translation of one of them: on my pressing this
Indian to translate one into French for me, he told me with a haughty
air, the Indians were not us'd to make translations, and that if I
chose to understand their songs I must learn their language. By the
way, their language is extremely harmonious, especially as pronounced
by their women, and as well adapted to music as Italian itself. I must
not here omit an instance of their independent spirit, which is, that
they never would submit to have the service of the church, tho' they
profess the Romish religion, in any language but their own; the women,
who have in general fine voices, sing in the choir with a taste and
manner that would surprize you, and with a devotion that might edify
more polish'd nations.

The Indian women are tall and well shaped; have good eyes, and
before marriage are, except their color, and their coarse greasy black
hair, very far from being disagreeable; but the laborious life they
afterwards lead is extremely unfavorable to beauty; they become coarse
and masculine, and lose in a year or two the power as well as the
desire of pleasing. To compensate however for the loss of their charms,
they acquire a new empire in marrying; are consulted in all affairs of
state, chuse a chief on every vacancy of the throne, are sovereign
arbiters of peace and war, as well as of the fate of those unhappy
captives that have the misfortune to fall into their hands, who are
adopted as children, or put to the most cruel death, as the wives of
the conquerors smile or frown.

A Jesuit missionary told me a story on this subject, which one
cannot hear without horror: an Indian woman with whom he liv'd on his
mission was feeding her children, when her husband brought in an
English prisoner; she immediately cut off his arm, and gave her