The new era., 1860-07-26

Their cradle was board, to which
they were bound by a narrow bandage
of cloth as soon as they sere born
They slept always on the ground, and
with very little bed under them but the
earth. They were always in the open
air, often with no covering over them in
summer or winter, but the canopy Of
heaven, and the single blanket in which
they rolled themselves. They were ac-
customed TO the coarsest diet, and often
very scantily supplied, and affording
very little variety. By these habits,
continued from generation to generation,
they can endure exposure and undergo
hardships almost equal to the cattle.
Their eyes are black and piercing,
indicating an active and penetrating
mind Their complexion is dark, near
ly brown, owing in some measure to
tl-eir living SO much in the open air, IN
protected from the rays of the sun, and
in the smoke oftheir camp fires. Their
hair is uniformly black and coarse, and
both men and women wear it long,
bIaided or tied, and hanging down the
shoulders and back. The cheek bone
is high, the forehead full, the face rath-
er broad, the nose Of moderate size, the
eyebrows black, ard the general feat
ures coarse. A very short acquaint-
ance with them will convince a person
that they are shrewd and observing
From their mode Of life and habits,
as we have described item, it could
hardly be expected that they should ex-
hibit many marks Of mental cultivation
Such a wandering, precarious, savage
life as they live is unfavorable for i'm
proving and polishing the mind or awak :
ening its activities. Like a rich soil
covered with brush and rubbish, its ca
pabiliies are hardly suspected till it is
aroused, cleared of the encumbrauces
and clogs which hundred generations
Of heathenish ba-barism has heaped
upon it. You may walk on the sand or
plow the hillside where there are rich
deposits Of gold, and not suspect a treas
ure concealed there: you may climb
the bare and sterile cliff withou suspect
ing that untold wealth lies covered by
its unsightly rocks. You look for moth
ing valuable here. Bat when search
is made, there is treasure underdeath. =
So it is with the human mind Its i'm
mense powers and sensibilities and ac-
tivites are not suspected often, till they
are developed and called into activity
by some new circumstances which awake
them up. The Ojibwa has had little TO
arouse him from his lethargy, and call
forth the energies Of his mind He has
lived far away from the society and in
huences Of civilized man. He has had
but little acquaintance with the arts Of
civilized life. What little he has seen
of civilization he could not appreciate
| His own mode Of life looked the best for
him. 1t was easier for him, and indi-
Gated, in his view, more feedom and
independence, to take his net, and his
spear, and his gun, and furnish himself
with his daily allowance of food, which
costs hlm but a few hours labor, than to
work like the white man day after day
in the field or in the shop, the year
round, though he might feast on the lux
uries of life as the reward Of such toll.
1t suited him better to kill few mar
tins and beavers with which he procur-
ed his blanket and leggins, than to
spend one or two months in steady hard
labor to procure the means of dressing
like the white man. 1t suited his su-
pineness better to lie by his fire in his
wigwam, than to build him a house,
which it would cost him days of hard
labor to erect, and require more wood
to keep warm, though he might find ii
more comfortable And then, he could
not carry it with him as he moved from
place to place. To him to break "
his long cherished habits Of rowing anc
instability was to acquire a new ma
ture.
There was but little stimulous from
without to arouse his mind to activity
His country was SO isolated from tn,
rest of the world, so remote and mac
cessible, that he had little to fear from
foreign foes He had always bee
friendly to the whites and never though
Of defending himself frem their aggrcs