The Mingoes, also known as the Cayugas, had a few small villages in Ohio, one near the present site of Steubenville, and others on the Scioto.

reer.

Colonel Morgan, Indian agent, estimated the number of warriors that could speedily be assembled for war in the Northwest in 1778 at 10,600. An interesting statement of the manner of life of the savages of the Muskingum and Tuscarawas Valleys, over a century and a quarter ago, is furnished in a "Narrative" written by James Smith of Pennsylvania, who was captured by the Indians near Bedford, Pa., in 1755, taken west of the Ohio and adopted into their tribe, remaining among them several years. Smith was a remakably courageous backwoodsman, and led a romantic and adventurous caAfter his capture he was taken to Fort Duquesne (afterward Fort Pitt), where he witnessed the barbarous atrocities inflicted upon the white prisoners taken at the scene of Braddock's defeat. Thence he was taken to an Indian town called Tulhillas (otherwise Pluggystown), on White-woman Creek, about twenty miles north of Coshocton, where he remained several months. Later he went into the lake country, and remained for several years among the Indians, hunting and fishing. 1760 he accompanied a war party war party into Canada, was taken prisoner, and after some time exchanged and returned to Pennsylvania. There he became the leader of a lawless band of squatter settlers styled the Black Boys, who, on one occasion, attacked and destroyed the stores of a trading

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party who were crossing the mountains on their way to Fort Pitt. Afterward he and a portion of his Black Boys surprised and captured Fort Bedford, then held by the king's troops.

He accompanied Bouquet as a guide on his expedition to the Muskinguin. He joined the patriot army in the Revolution and became colonel of a Pennsylvania regiment. After the war he settled in Kentucky and served there as a member of the legislature. In his "Narrative," speaking of his being taken to Tulhillas, Colonel Smith says:

"The day after my arrival at the aforesaid town a number of Indians collected about me, and one of them began to pull the hair out of my head. He had some ashes on a piece of bark in which he frequently dipped his fingers, in order to take a firmer hold, and so he went on as if he had been plucking a turkey, until he had all the hair clean out of my head, except a small spot about three or four inches square on my crown; this they cut off with a pair of scissors, excepting three locks, which they dressed up in their own mode. Two of these they wrapped around with a narrow beaded garter made by themselves for that purpose, and the other they plaited at full length, then stuck it full of silver brooches. After this they bored my nose and ears and fixed me off with earrings and nose jewels; then they ordered me to strip off my clothes and put on a breechclout, which I did. They then painted my head, face and body in various colors. They put a large belt of wampum on my neck

and silver bands on my hands and right arm; and so an old chief led me out into the street and gave the alarm halloo, Coo-wigh! several times, repeated quick; and on this all that were in town came running and stood around the old chief, who held me by the hand in their midst. As I at that time knew nothing of their mode of adoption, and had seen them put to death all they had taken, and as I never could find that they saved a man alive at Braddock's defeat, I made no doubt but they were about putting me to death in some cruel manner. The old chief, holding me by the hand, made a long speech, very loud, and when he had done he handed me to three young squaws, who led me by the hand down the bank into the river until the water was up to my middle. The squaws then made signs for me to plunge myself into the water, but I did not understand them. I thought the result of the counsel was that I should be drowned, and that these young ladies were to be the executioners. They all three laid violent hold of me, and I for some time opposed them with all my might, which occasioned loud laughter by the multitude that were on the bank of the river. At length one of the squaws made out to speak a little English (for I believe they began to be afraid of me), and said, 'No hurt you.' On this I gave myself up to their ladyships, who were as good as their word; for though they plunged me under water, and washed and rubbed me severely, I could not say they hurt me much.

"These young women then led me up to the council-house, where some of the tribe were ready with new clothes for me. They gave me a new ruffled shirt, which I put on; also a pair of leggins, done off with ribbons and beads; likewise a pair of moccasins, and garters dressed with beads, porcupine quills and red hair, also a tinsel-laced chapeau. They again painted my head and face with various colors, and tied a bunch of red feathers to one of those locks they had left on the crown of my head, which stood up five or six inches. They reseated me on a bear-skin, and gave me a pipe, tomahawk and polecat-skin pouch, which had been skinned pocket fashion, and contained tobacco, killegenico, or dried sumac leaves, which they mixed with their tobacco; also spunk, flint and steel. When I was thus seated the Indians came in, dressed and painted in their grandest manner. As they came in they took their seats, and for a considerable time there was a profound silence. Everyone was smoking, but not a word was spoken among them. At length one of the chiefs made a speech, which was delivered to me by an interpreter, and was as follows:

and place of a great man. After what has passed this day you are now one of us by an old, strong law and custom. My son, you have nothing to fear; we are now under the same obligation to love, support and defend you that we are to love and defend one another; therefore you are to consider yourself as one of our people.'

"At this time I did not believe this fine speech, especially that of the white blood being washed out of me; but since that time I have found that there was much sincerity in said speech; for from that day I never knew them to make any distinction between me and themselves in any respect whatever until I left them. If they had plenty of clothing, I had plenty; if we were scarce, we all shared alike.

"After this ceremony was over I was introduced to my new kin, and told that I was to attend a feast that evening, which I did. And, as the custom was, they gave me also a bowl and wooden spoon, which I carried with me to the place where there were a number of large brass kettles full of boiled venison and green corn. Everyone advanced with his bowl and spoon and had his share given him. After this one of the chiefs made a short speech, and then we began to eat.

"The name of one of the chiefs in this town was Tecanyaterightigo, alias Pluggy, and the other Asallecoa, alias Mohawk Solomon. As Pluggy and his party were to start the next day to war, to the frontiers of Virginia, the next thing to be per

formed was their war dance and their war songs. At their war dance they had both vocal and instrumental music. They had a short, hollow gun, closed at one end, with water in it, and parchment stretched over the open end thereof, which they beat with one stick and made a sound nearly like a muffled drum. All those who were going on this expedition collected together and formed. An old Indian then began to sing, and timed the music by beating on this drum, as the ancients formerly timed their music by beating the tabor. On this the warriors began to advance or move forward in concert, like well disciplined troops would march to the fife and drum. Each warrior had a tomahawk, spear or war-mallet in his hand, and they all moved regularly toward the east, or the way they intended to go to war. At length they all stretched their tomahawks toward the Potomac, and giving a hideous shout or yell, they wheeled quick about and danced in the same manner back.

"The next was the war song. In performing this only one sang at a time, in a moving posture, with a tomahawk in his hand, while all the other warriors were engaged in calling aloud, He-uh! he-uh! which they constantly repeated while the war song was going on. When the warrior that was singing had ended his song he struck a war-post with his tomahawk, and with a loud voice told what warlike exploits he had done, and what he now intended to do, which was answered by the other warriors with loud shouts of applause.

Some who had not before intended to go to war, at this time were so animated by this performance that they took up the tomahawk and sang the war song, which was answered with shouts of joy as they were then initiated into the present marching company. The next morning this company all collected at one place, with their heads and faces painted various colors, and packs upon their backs. They marched off, all silent except the commander, who in the front sang the traveling song, which began in this manner: Hoo caugh tainte heegana. Just as the rear passed the end of the town they began to fire in their slow manner, from the front to the rear, which was accompanied with shouts and yells from all quarters.

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"That evening I was invited to another sort of dance, which was a sort of promiscuous dance. The yong men stood in one rank and the young women in another, about a rod apart, facing each other. The one that raised the tune or started the song held a small gourd or dry shell of a squash in his hand, which contained beads or small stones which rattled. When he began to sing he timed the tune with his rattle. Both men and women danced and sang together, advancing toward each other, stooping until their heads would be touching together, and then ceased from dancing, with loud shouts, and retreated and formed again, and so repeated the same thing over and over for three or four hours without intermission. This exercise seemed to me at first irrational and

insipid, but I found that in singing their tunes they used ya, ne, no, hoo. wa, ne, etc., like our fa, sol, la, and though they have no such thing as jingling verse, they can intermix. sentences with their notes and say whatever they please to each other and carry on the tune in concert. I found that this was a kind of wooing or courting dance, and as they advanced, stooping with their heads together, they could say what they pleased in each other's ear without disconcerting their rough music and the others, or those near not hear what they said.

"Shortly after this I went out to hunt in company with Mohawk Solomon, some of the Caughnewagas and a Delaware Indian that was married to a Caughnewaga squaw. We traveled about south from this town, and the first night we killed nothing, but we had with us green corn, which we roasted and ate that night. The next day we encamped about twelve o'clock and the hunters turned out to hunt, and I went down the run that we encamped on, in company with some squaws and boys to hunt for plums, which we found in great plenty. On my return to camp I observed a large piece of fat meat; the Delaware Indian that could talk some English observed me looking earnestly at this meat, and asked me, What meat you think that is?' I said I supposed it was bear-meat; he laughed, and said: 'Ho, all one fool you; beal now elly pool,' and pointing to the other side of the camp, he said: Look at that skin; you think that beal-skin? I went and

lifted the skin, which appeared like an ox-hide. He then said: "What skin you think that?' I replied that I thought it was a buffalo-hide. You fool again; you know nothing; you think buffalo that colo'?' I acknowledged that I did not know much about these things, and told him that I never saw a buffalo, and that I had not heard what color they were. He replied: By and by you shall see gleat many buffalo; he now go to gleat lick. That skin not buffaloskin; that skin buck-elk skin.' They went out with horses and brought in the remainder of this buck-elk which was the fattest creature I ever saw of the tallow-kind.

"We remained at this camp about eight or ten days and killed a number of deer. Though we had neither bread nor salt at this time yet we had both roast and boiled meat in great plenty, and they were frequently inviting me to eat when I had no appetite. We then moved to the buffalo lick, where we killed several buffalo, and in their small brass kettles they made about a bushel of salt. I suppose the lick was about thirty or forty miles from the aforesaid town. and somewhere between the Muskingum, the Ohio and the Scioto. About the lick were clear, open woods, and thin whiteoak land, and at that time there were large roads leading to the lick, like wagon roads. We moved from this lick about six or seven miles and encamped on a creek.

"Though the Indians had given me a gun, I had not yet been permitted to go out from the camp to

hunt. At this place Mohawk Solomon asked me to go out with him to hunt, which I readily agreed to. After some time we came upon some fresh buffalo tracks. I had observed before this that the Indians were upon their guard and afraid of an enemy; for until now they and the southern nations had been at war. As we were following up the buffalo tracks, Solomon seemed to be upon his guard, went very slow and would frequently stand and listen and appeared to be in suspense. We came to where the tracks were very plain in the sand, and I said, 'It is surely buffalo tracks.' He said, 'Hush, you know nothing; may be buffalo tracks and may be Catawba!' He went very cautious until we found some fresh buffalo dung. fresh buffalo dung. He then smiled and said, 'Catawba cannot make so.' He then stopped and told me an odd story about the Catawbas. He said that formerly the Catawbas came near one of their hunting camps and at some distance from the camp lay in ambush; and in order to decoy them out, sent two or three Catawbas in the night past their camp, with buffalo hoofs fixed on their feet, so as to make artificial tracks. In the morning those in the camp followed after these tracks, thinking they were buffalo, until they were fired on by the Catawbas and several of them killed. The others fled, collected a party and pursued the Catawbas; but they in their subtlety brought with them rattlesnake poison, which they had collected from the bladder that lies at the roots of the snake's teeth; this they corked up in a short