She asked me
by a gesture, to let her take my sun-shade, and then to show her how to
open it. Then she put it into her baby's hand, and held it over its
head, looking at me the while with a sweet, mischievous laugh, as much
as to say, "you carry a thing that is only fit for a baby;" her
pantomime was very pretty. She, like the other women, had a glance, and
shy, sweet expression in the eye; the men have a steady gaze.
That noblest and loveliest of modern Preux, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who
came through Buffalo to Detroit and Mackinaw, with Brant, and was
adopted into the Bear tribe by the name of Eghnidal, was struck, in the
same way, by the delicacy of manners in the women. He says,
"Notwithstanding the life they lead, which would make most women rough
and masculine, they are as soft, meek and modest, as the best brought up
girls in England. Somewhat coquettish too! Imagine the manners of Mimi
in a poor _squaw_, that has been carrying packs in the woods all her
life."
McKenney mentions that the young wife, during the short bloom of her
beauty, is an object of homage and tenderness to her husband. One Indian
woman, the Flying Pigeon, a beautiful, an excellent woman, of whom he
gives some particulars, is an instance of the power uncommon characters
will always exert of breaking down the barriers custom has erected round
them. She captivated by her charms, and inspired with reverence for her
character, her husband and son. The simple praise with which the husband
indicates the religion, the judgment, and the generosity he saw in her,
are as satisfying as Count Zinzendorf's more labored eulogium on his
"noble consort.
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