In the afternoon Mr. Johnson informed me that the Indians were preparing
to dance, for my particular amusement. I was, of course, most thankful
and delighted. Almost in the same moment, I heard their yells and
shrieks resounding along the shore, mingled with the measured monotonous
drum. We had taken our place on an elevated platform behind the house--a
kind of little lawn on the hill-side;--the precipitous rocks, clothed
with trees and bushes, rose high like a wall above us: the glorious
sunshine of a cloudless summer's day was over our heads--the dazzling
blue lake and its islands at our feet. Soft and elysian in its beauty
was all around. And when these wild and more than half-naked figures
came up, leaping, whooping, drumming, shrieking, hideously painted, and
flourishing clubs, tomahawks, javelins, it was like a masque of fiends
breaking into paradise! The rabble of Comus might have boasted
themselves comely in comparison, even though no self-deluding potion had
bleared their eyes and intellect. It was a grotesque and horrible
phantasmagoria. Of their style of clothing, I say nothing--for, as it is
wisely said, nothing can come of _nothing:_--only if "all symbols be
clothes," according to a great modern philosopher--my Indian friends
were as little symbolical as you can dare to imagine:--_passons par la_.
If the blankets and leggings were thrown aside, all the resources of the
Indian toilette, all their store of feathers, and bears' claws, hawks'
bells, vermilion, soot, and verdigris, were brought into requisition as
decoration: and no two were alike. One man wore three or four heads of
hair, composed of the manes and tails of animals; another wore a pair of
deers' horns; another was _coiffe_ with the skins and feathers of a
crane or some such bird--its long bill projecting from his forehead;
another had the shell of a small turtle suspended from his back, and
dangling behind; another used the skin of a polecat for the same
purpose. One had painted his right leg with red bars, and his left leg
with green lines: parti-coloured eyes and faces, green noses, and blue
chins, or _vice versa_, were general. I observed that in this grotesque
deformity, in the care with which every thing like symmetry or harmony
in form or colours was avoided, there was something evidently studied
and artistical. The orchestra was composed of two drums and two rattles,
and a chorus of voices. The song was without melody--a perpetual
repetition of three or four notes, melancholy, harsh, and monotonous. A
flag was stuck in the ground, and round this they began their dance--if
dance it could be called,--the movements consisting of the alternate
raising of one foot, then the other, and swinging the body to and fro.
Every now and then they paused, and sent forth that dreadful, prolonged,
tremulous yell, which re-echoed from the cliffs, and pierced my ears and
thrilled along my nerves. The whole exhibition was of that finished
barbarism, that it was at least _complete_ in its way, and for a time I
looked on with curiosity and interest. But that innate loathing which
dwells within me for all that is discordant and deformed, rendered it
anything but pleasant to witness. It grated horribly upon all my
perceptions. In the midst, one of those odd and unaccountable
transitions of thought caused, by some mental or physical re-action--the
law which brings extremes in contrast together--came across me. I was
reminded that even on this very day last year I was seated in a box at
the opera, looking at Carlotta Grisi and Perrot dancing, or rather
flying through the galoppe in "Benyowsky." The oddity of this sudden
association made me laugh, which being interpreted into the expression
of my highest approbation, they became every moment more horribly
ferocious and animated; redoubled the vigour of their detestably awkward
movements and the shrillness of their savage yells, till I began
involuntarily to look about for some means of escape--but this would
have been absolutely rude, and I restrained myself.
I should not forget to mention that the figures of most of the men were
superb; more agile and elegant, however, than muscular, more fitted for
the chase than for labour, with small and well-formed hands and feet.
When the dance was ended, a young warrior, leaving the group, sat
himself down on a little knoll to rest. His spear lay across his knees,
and he reposed his head upon his hand. He was not painted, except with a
little vermilion on his chest, and on his head he wore only the wing of
the osprey. He sat there, a model for a sculptor. The perfection of his
form, the graceful abandonment of his attitude, reminded me of a young
Mercury, or of Thorwaldsen's "Shepherd Boy." I went up to speak to him,
and thanked him for his exertions in the dance, which indeed had been
conspicuous; and then, for want of something else to say, I asked him if
he had a wife and children? The whole expression of his face suddenly
changed, and with an air as tenderly coy as that of a young girl
listening to the first whisper of a lover, he looked down and answered
softly, "Kah-ween!"--No, indeed! Feeling that I had for the first time
embarrassed an Indian, I withdrew, really as much out of countenance as
the youth himself. I did not ask him his name, for that were a violation
of the Indian form of good breeding, but I learn that he is called _the
Pouncing Hawk_. West's comparison of the Apollo Belvedere to a young
Mohawk warrior has more of likelihood and reasonableness than I ever
believed or acknowledged before.
A keg of tobacco and a barrel of flour were given to them, and they
dispersed as they came, drumming, and yelling and leaping, and
flourishing their clubs and war hatchets.
* * * * *
In the evening we paddled in a canoe over to the opposite island, with
the intention of landing and looking at the site of an intended
missionary settlement for the Indians. But no sooner did the keel of our
canoe touch the woody shore than we were enveloped in a cloud of
mosquitoes. It was in vain to think of dislodging the enemy, and after
one or two attempts we were fairly beaten back. Mackinaw, as seen from
hence, has exactly the form its name implies, that of a large turtle
sleeping on the water. I believe Mackinaw is merely the abbreviation of
Michilimackinac, _the great turtle_. It was a mass of purple shadow; and
just at one extremity the sun plunged into the lake, leaving its
reflection on the water, like the skirts of a robe of fire, floating.
This too vanished, and we returned in the soft calm twilight, singing as
we went.
* * * * *
July 29.
Where was I? Where did I leave off four days ago? O--at Mackinaw! that
fairy island, which I shall never see again, and which I should have
dearly liked to filch from the Americans, and carry home to you in my
dressing-box, or, perdie, in my toothpick case; but, good lack, to see
the ups and downs of this (new) world. I take up my tale a hundred
miles from it; but before I tell you where I am now, I must take you
over the ground, or rather over the water, in a proper and journal-like
style.