and negligent description which was to be expected from the indolent character of the Indians, it being entirely entrusted to the squaws, the men considering labor beneath their dignity.  The object was attained, if the plants were sufficiently protected against the encroaching weeds to enable them to overtop the latter, after which they were left to take care of themselves.  Yet, notwithstanding all this negligence, prodigal Nature rendered a rich return.  It has been said (with what truth we know not) that the weeds of a soil depend upon the race which cultivates it—­they which spring from the sweat of an Indian being different from those which embarrass the toil of the white man or the negro.  If it be so, then have we perhaps another proof of the kind accommodation of mother Earth to her children, excusing for the reluctant Indian that labor which she exacts from the hardier white and black man.

As Arundel passed by the bark wigwams, he was able to form some opinion of the mode of life of the Taranteens.  Indolently thrown upon the ground in front of his lodge, in the soft summer morning, he beheld its master inhaling the fumes of that pernicious but seductive plant, which is one of the few gifts the North American savage has transmitted to his conquerors, that promise to perpetuate his memory.  Little children, of whom seldom more than two or three were to be seen in any wigwam, played around him, now and then obtaining a word of notice, while the patient squaws were either engaged in ordinary culinary preparations, or, if more than one wife were in the lodge, dividing their labors among themselves, the one cooking, a second mending moccasons or robes, and a third preparing to start with her agricultural tools, made of Quohaug shells, (a large kind of clam,) for the maize field.  Here and there he could see young men armed with bows and arrows, leaving for the surrounding woods, in pursuit of that game on which was their principal dependance for food.  Only one old person did he behold, whence he inferred that their precarious life was unfavorable to longevity.  He lounged throughout the whole encampment without interruption, sometimes regarded with a frown, sometimes with a smile, but for the most part treated with indifference.

The monotony of Indian life affords little to interest during the week spent by Sir Christopher and Arundel among the Taranteens.  It was passed by the latter in daily hunts with some young Taranteens, with whom he had contrived to ingratiate himself, and to whom his gun was no unwelcome assistant in the chase.  The Knight had assured him of the absence of all danger from the Indians, but even without such assurance, Arundel would have preferred to encounter some peril rather than submit to the tedium he must otherwise have endured.