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The party embarked in canoes, and ascended the Allegany river, as far as a small Indian town about forty miles above fort Du Quesne. There they abandoned their canoes, and striking into the woods, travelled in a western direction, until they arrived at a considerable Indian town, in what is now the state of Ohio. This village was called Tullihas-and was situated upon the western branch of the Muskingum. During the whole of this period, Smith suffered much anxiety, from the uncertainty of his future fate, but at this town all doubt was removed. On the morning of his arrival, the principal members of the tribe gathered around him--and one old man with deep gravity, began to pluck out his hair by the roots, while the others looked on in silence, smoking their pipes with great deliberation. Smith did not understand the design of this singular ceremony, but submitted very patiently to the man's labours, who performed the operation of "picking" him with great dexterity, dipping his fingers in the ashes occasionally, in order to take a better hold. In a very few moments Smith's head was bald, with the exception of a single long tuft upon the centre of his crown, called the "scalp lock." This was carefully plaited in such a manner, as to stand upright, and was ornamented with several silver brooches. His ears and nose were then bored with equal gravity, and ornamented with ear-rings and nose-jewels. He was then ordered to strip-which being done, his naked body was painted in various fantastick colours, and a breech-cloth fastened around his loins. A belt of wampum was then placed around his neck, and silver bands around his right arm. To all this Smith submitted with much anxiety, being totally ignorant of their customs, and dreading lest, like the British prisoners, he had been stripped and painted for the stake, His alarm was increased, when an old chief arose, took him by the arm, and leading

the arrival of Braddock in the evening, as the hour | their homes, as is usual with them after a great and which was to deliver him from the power of the In- decisive battle. Young Smith was demanded of the dians. In the afternoon, however, an Indian runner French by the tribe to whom he belonged, and was arrived with far different intelligence. The battle immediately surrendered into their hands. had not yet ended when he left the field; but he announced that the English had been surrounded, and were shot down in heaps by an invisible enemy; that instead of flying at once or rushing upon their concealed foe, they appeared completely bewildered, huddled together in the centre of the ring, and be fore sun-down there would not be a man of them alive. This intelligence fell like a thunderbolt upon Smith, who now saw himself irretrievably in the power of the savages, and could look forward to nothing but torture or endless captivity. He waited anxiously for further intelligence, still hoping that the fortune of the day might change. But about sunset, he heard at a distance the well-known scalp halloo, followed by wild, quick, joyful shrieks, and accompanied by long-continued firing. This too surely announced the fate of the day. About dusk, the party returned to the fort, driving before them twelve British regulars, stripped naked and with their faces painted black! an evidence that the unhappy wretches were devoted to death. Next came the Indians displaying their bloody scalps, of which they had immense numbers, and dressed in the scarlet coats, sashes, and military hats of the officers and soldiers. Behind all came a train of baggagehorses, laden with piles of scalps, canteens, and all the accoutrements of British soldiers. The savages appeared frantick with joy, and when Smith beheld them entering the fort, dancing, yelling, brandishing their red tomahawks, and waiving their scalps in the air, while the great guns of the fort replied to the incessant discharge of rifles without, he says, that it looked as if the lower regions had given a holiday, and turned loose its inhabitants upon the upper world. The most melancholy spectacle was the band of prisoners. They appeared dejected and anxious. Poor fellows! They had but a few months before left London, at the command of their superiours, and we may easily imagine their feel-him out into the open air, gave three shrill whoops, ings, at the strange and dreadful spectacle around them. The yells of delight and congratulation were scarcely over, when those of vengeance began. The devoted prisoners-British regulars-were led out from the fort to the banks of the Allegany, and to the eternal disgrace of the French commandant, were there burnt to death one after another, with the most awful tortures. Smith stood upon the battlements and witnessed the shocking spectacle. The prisoner was tied to a stake with his hands raised above his head, stripped naked, and surrounded by Indians. They would touch him with redhot irons, and stick his body full of pine splinters and set them on fire-drowning the shrieks of the victim in the yells of delight with which they danced around him. His companions in the meantime stood in a group near the stake, and had a foretaste of what was in reserve for each of them. As fast as one prisoner died under his tortures, another filled his place, until the whole perished. All this took place so near the fort, that every scream of the victims must have rung in the ears of the French commandant!

Two or three days after this shocking spectacle, most of the Indian tribes dispersed and returned to

and was instantly surrounded by every inhabitant of the village-warriours, women and children. The chief then addressed the crowd in a long speech, still holding Smith by the hand. When he had ceased speaking, he led Smith forward, and delivered him into the hands of three young Indian girls, who grappling him without ceremony, towed him off to the river which ran at the foot of the hill, dragged him in the water up to his breast, and all three suddenly clapping their hands upon his head, attempted to put him under. Utterly desperate at the idea of being drowned by these young ladies, Smith made a manful resistance the squaws persevered and a prodigious splashing in the water took place, amidst loud peals of laughter from the shore. At length, one of the squaws became alarmed at the furious struggles of the young white man, and cried out earnestly several times," No hurt you! no hurt you!" Upon this agreeable intelligence, Smith's resistance ceased, and these gentle creatures plunged him under the water, and scrubbed him from head to foot with equal zeal and perseverance, As soon as they were satisfied, they led him ashore, and presented him to the chief-shivering with cold, and dripping with water. The Indians then dressed him in a

veins.

which are of considerable size, though small in comparison with full-grown crocodiles, prey upon small animals in shady places by the sides of the water, and occasionally upon fishes; yet they have not the strength nor the ferocity of the crocodiles.

ruffled shirt, leggins, and moccasins, variously orna- | to be considered as properly land animals, and not mented, seated him upon a bear-skin, and gave him aquatick ones. Many of them can swim, and do a pipe, tomahawk, tobacco, pouch, flint and steel. take to the water; and some of the larger of these, The chiefs then took their seats by his side, and smoked for several minutes in deep silence, when the eldest delivered a speech, through an interpreter, in the following words: "My son, you are now one of us. Hereafter, you have nothing to fear. By an ancient custom, you have been adopted in the room of a brave man, who has fallen; and every drop of white blood has been washed from your We are now your brothers, and are bound by our law to love you, to defend you, and to avenge your injuries, as much as if you were born in our ribe." He was then introduced to the members of the family into which he had been adopted, and was received by the whole of them with great demonstrations of regard. In the evening, he received an invitation to a great feast-and was there presented with a wooden bowl and spoon, and directed to fill the former from a huge kettle of boiled corn and hashed venison. The evening concluded with a war-dance, and on the next morning, the warriours of the tribe assembled, and leaving one or two hunters, to provide for their families in their absence, the rest marched off for the frontiers of Virginia.

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The distinguishing characters of the lizards are: the tongue slender, extensile, and forming two filaments or branches at the point; as in various kinds of serpents, they all move with rapidity, though in this respect there are considerable differences between them; they have five toes on each of their feet, three to their bases of unequal length, more especially on the hind feet, and all furnished with claws. Their bodies are lengthened; and their scales on the belly and tail are ranged in transverse bands. The tympanum is on the same level with the head, or only a little raised; a production of the skin, in which there is an opening, which acts as a sphincter, protects the eye by acting something in the manner of a third eyelid. The false ribs do not extend entirely round the body so as to form a complete circle. The opening of the ear is oval, and very conspicuous; but there is not an elevated crest either on the head or along the back. The tail is, at least, as long as the body. It is of a cylindrical form, and composed of jointed rings, and without upper crests. The feet are all nearly of equal length; and under each thigh there is a range of small porous scaly tubercles. There are five distinct toes on each foot, terminated by crooked claws. A good many of the species are found in woody situations, where they seek their food among the foliage, or in the underwood. This food consists chiefly of insects. Others inhabit ruinous buildings; and they are even met with near the habitations of man, subsisting partly on insects and partly on vegetables. A few others are found frequenting marshes, ponds, or lakes, where they prey on the small animals which inhabit them. The lizards are, generally speaking, active, lively reptiles. and, all circumstances considered, may be reckoned the least repulsive of all the saurian tribes. They

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are perfectly innocent in their manners; and not a few of them are of an agreeable form, and beautifully coloured, constituting pleasing objects in the scenery of tropical countries. This is especially the case with many of the smaller ones, which reside in dry places, and resort to the trees, among which their motions are often so rapid that they bear no inconsiderable resemblance to finely-coloured birds.

short time. Lizards are monogamous, and always found in pairs; they are strictly land animals in their haunts, and never by any chance take to the water. They are found in most warm and dry countries, and in many parts of those which are temperate. In the latter they hibernate; and it is possible that in all countries they pass some considerable portion of the year in a dormant state. When excited by the heat of the sun they are exceedingly active, and have all the energies of life remarkably strong about them; but they can subsist for a very they live for many years; and indeed long life is a very general attribute of those animals which enjoy a seasonal repose in the course of the year. It is easy to see why this should be the case; for the awakening from this repose bears some resemblance to a regeneration of the animal into young life. Perhaps lizards are more susceptible to changes of the atmosphere than any other vertebrated animals ; and therefore they may be taken as good indications of the characters of climates. They all live upon insects, and such small prey; and none of them possesses any poisonous quality, or shows any disposition to attack a warm-blooded animal, or, generally speaking, a reptile; but many of them when attacked de fend themselves with great resolution, and bite much more keenly than one would be apt to suppose. It is indeed doubtful whether some of the larger species do not prey on the smaller, and also upon the more minute of the serpent tribes. They are abundant in some of the warmer parts of Europe. We shall notice one or two of the species.

Though the true lizards have not the ferocious disposition of the crocodiles, and few or none of them give out those poisonous, or otherwise offen-long time without any food. It is also probable that sive secretions which are given out by some other saurians, yet there are sometimes prejudices against them merely on account of their form, though others are highly esteemed in consequence of real or supposed services which they render to mankind by destroying animals more offensive than themselves. The lizards, properly so called, are natives of the eastern continent, and as many of them are interesting, we shall give a brief enumeration of their general characters and the means by which they can be distinguished from those other saurians with which they have been so frequently confounded. The tongue differs little from that of the rest of the family; but the palate is furnished with two rows of teeth. A transverse band of broad scales forms a collar on the under part of the neck; while the part of the neck above and also the belly, or breast immediately below this collar, is covered with small scales. The body is lengthened, and never furnished with wings or flying membranes of any description. The feet have five toes on each, armed with claws, and grasping toward the centre, so as to take a firm hold of even a slight projection; but they are never so formed as to oppose each other in grasping. The bones of the upper part of the head project over the orbits of the eyes and temples, so as to form a sort of canopy, which is either covered with large scales, or consists of one entire plate of scaly matter. The eyes are like those of the rest of the family; and under each thigh there is a row of little rough scaly projections containing pores. The scales on the belly are placed in transverse rows; and those on the back have slight keels; but they do not overlap each other so as to be imbricated like the tiles on a roof. The tail is composed of a great number of articulated joints; and it is round, and without any crest. This tail is exceedingly brittle, and a portion of it can be separated by almost the slightest touch; but it has the property of reproduction in a very

The Great Green Lizard. This is one of the most gayly-coloured of the whole family; and it is also the largest of all the true lizards. It occurs in all those parts of Europe which abut upon the Mediterranean, and have the climate and the soil war. It is not found in the central parts of France, though it often is in the warm and sandy plains of Languedoc, where it pursues its trade of insect-catching with great assiduity during the summer months. The fact of its hybernating does not confine it so closely to tropical latitudes as many other animals which are less sensitive to cold; for it is met with in some places far to the north, or otherwise having the winter very severe. Linnæus enumerates it among the animals of Sweden, and Captain Cook found it in Kamtschatka, where the winter is exceedingly cold, though the summer, both there and in Sweden, is very hot. It is doubtful, however,

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whether there may not be several species confound- and their summer in joint activity. The eggs are ed in the older descriptions; as spotted, streaked, round, about a third of an inch in diameter; and and gray lizards have been sometimes confounded though it is not understood that any incubation is under the general name of agile or nimble lizards, practised by either parent, yet both are attentive to which is a property common to them all. It is the young, seeking food for them, carrying them out rather a bold animal; and it is sometimes said to to the sun when it is clear and warm, and removing swallow mice and other small animals. When at- them to shelter when it is dark and cold. These tacked it defends itself with great resolution; if its attentions are continued until the young have acswiftness is not sufficient for enabling it to escape quired sufficient strength to enable them to provide the danger, it will snap and bite readily at a stick; for themselves; and whenever this takes place, and when a dog attempts to seize it, it will bound they are expelled from the paternal abode, and sent upward, and fasten on the nose of the dog during to seek habitations of their own. They have not its descent. In many places it is supposed to be long, however, to continue this operation during the poisonous; and in not a few it is looked upon as en- first year of their lives; for the time of hybernating dowed with supernatural powers of mischief. It is comes on soon after they come to maturity. however perfectly innocent both as to the poison Such is a slight outline of the natural history, and to the league with the powers of darkness, and and a brief notice of some of the leading species carries on all its operations by mechanical action, of what may, perhaps, be regarded as the most inand in the light of the sun. The species and va-teresting of all the families which compose the class rieties (for the one is not clearly distinguished from of reptiles. the other) are however very many; and the manners of all are so much alike, that we must pass them over. There is, however, one of which some notice may be given, inasmuch as it occurs more abundantly in Europe than any of the others. This is

The Lacerta Scincus, the first one shown in our article, is a species of lizard found in Arabia, Nubia, and Abyssinia. It is remarkable for the readiness with which it forces its way into the sand when pursued, a proof of its strength and activity, which seem to be intimated in the Hebrew name Coach, force and prowess. There is another species of scincus, the Sc. Cyprius, which is of a very large

smooth scales. This was perhaps included under the common term Coach.

The Lacerta Gecko, the one on the opposite page, is a species of lizard found in countries bordering on the Mediterranean; it is of a reddish gray spotted with brown. It is thought at Cairo to poison the victuals over which it passes, and especially salt provisions, of which it is very fond. It has a voice resembling somewhat that of a frog, which is intimated by the Hebrew name, importing a sigh or a groan.

The Nimble Lizard. This species is exceedingly numerous in France, Austria, and other parts of the Continent, in some of which its flesh is in much request as an article of food; and was once pre-size, and abounds in the Levant; it is green, with scribed on account of supposed medicinal qualities, which of course it does not possess. It is so abundant in the neighbourhood of the Austrian capital, that Laurenti recommends it as food for the poor, and says that during the season of its appear ance, it would furnish by no means a scanty supply. It is usually termed the gray lizard of the walls, because it is seen very much upon dry walls in gardens during the summer months. In length it varies from five to six inches. The scales on the upper part are of small size and six-sided; the neck is nearly of the same thickness as the body; and the tail tapers to a point. This is a very lively and at the same time a most inoffensive animal, and there is something not unpleasant in the account given of its domestick economy. The couple remain for a long time together, passing their winter in one sleep,

The Stellio Spinipes, as seen in the engraving below, has a swollen body; it is entirely of a beautiful green, with small spines upon its thighs, and upon the ridge of the tail. It is found in the deserts about Egypt.

The Lacerta Stellio, a beautiful little lizard of

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Arabia, is noted for bowing its head, insomuch that the followers of Mohammed kill it, because they say it mimicks them in the mode of repeating their prayers. It is about a foot in length, and of an olive colour shaded with black.

THE OSPREY, OR FISH-HAWK.

THIS is the proper fishing-eagle of the European shores, and also the fishing-hawk of America, which is so well described by Wilson. It has also been described as a buzzard, and named the bald buzzard, from the white upon the head. It is smaller than the eagles which are called so par excellence.

part of the neck are streaked with the same colour, passing into lighter on the breast. The rest of the under part is dull white, passing into pale gray on the vent and tail. The coverts are pale brown, and the quills darker; sometimes relieved with a paler teint on the margins of the feathers, but never possessing any of the rich and warm browns of the land eagles. Three feathers in the middle of the tail are brown, and all the others have white bars on their inner webs. The outer tail-feathers, and first quills of the wings, have their webs very narrow and exceedingly stiff, so that they cannot be ruffled but with the greatest difficulty. The under sides of the wings, and the whole of their marginal parts, as also the plumage on the under parts of the body, are remarkably close and compact, and do not suffer the least injury by being immersed in water. The thighs are feathered down to the articulations of the tarsi; their colour is pure white; but the feathers bear more resemblance to the hair of aquatick animals, than to the feathers of ordinary birds. The young birds have their colours more broken than the old ones; and in very mature age the colours may be stated as being uniform brown on all the upper part except the head, and white on the under part.

The length of the osprey is about two feet, and the extent of its wings not less than five feet and a half, so that it is better winged in proportion than even the most powerful of the falcons, and may rank among the most aërial of all the birds of prey. The beak of this bird is powerfully formed, very much bent at the tip, furnished with a rudiment of a tooth, and of that dark colour which is always an indication of strength in this order of birds. The tarsi are, like those of the true eagles, very short and strong, but, instead of being feathered as in these, they are covered with reticulated scales, and thus bear some resemblance to those of the wading birds. The claws are very large, more especially that on "The fish-hawk is migratory, arriving on the the outer toe, which is reversible. They are, how-coasts of New York and New Jersey, about the ever, without any ridges or grooves on their under twenty-second of September. Heavy equinoctial sides, and thus they are clutching claws, and not storms may vary these periods of arrival and detearing ones. parture a few days, but long observation has ascertained that they are kept with remarkable regularity.

The cere, the tarsi, and the toes of the osprey, are grayish blue, the under parts of the toes being abundantly furnished with pads or tubercles. The irides are yellow. The prevailing colour on the upper part is blackish brown, with the exception of the hind part of the head, and part of the neck, which is whitish. A streak of deep brown passes down each side of the neck; and the chin and fore

The following is Wilson's very graphick description of this bird as it appears on the American waters, where, from the deep embayment of the shores, and the vast extent of broad waters, it is a highly interesting bird :

"On the arrival of these birds in the northern parts of the United States, in March, they sometimes find the bays and ponds frozen, and experience a difficulty in procuring fish for many days. Yet there is no instance on record of their attacking birds, or inferiour land-animals, with intent to feed on them; though their great strength of flight, as well as of

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