The young girl and her mother, those
who had paddled the canoe the day she was carried away to the island,
showed her much kindness in a quiet way. The young squaw was granddaughter
to the old chief, and seemed to be regarded with considerable respect by
the rest of the women; she was a gay lively creature, often laughing, and
seemed to enjoy an inexhaustible fund of good humour. She was inclined to
extend her patronage to the young stranger, making her eat out of her own
bark dish, and sit beside her on her own mat. She wove a chain of the
sweet-scented grass with which the Indians delight in adorning themselves,
likewise in perfuming their lodges with bunches or strewings upon the
floor. She took great pains in teaching her how to acquire the proper
attitude of sitting, after the fashion of the Eastern nations, which
position the Indian women assume when at rest in their wigwams. The Indian
name of this little damsel signified the Snow-bird. She was, like that
lively restless bird, always flitting to and fro from tent to tent, as
garrulous and as cheerful too as that merry little herald of the spring.
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