" [Footnote: Emma H. Blair,
"Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley," 1:310.] At another time
he said: "I am the dawn of that light, which is beginning to appear in
your lands," and having learned by experience the true Indian eloquence,
he proceeded in his oration with most impressive pauses: "It is for these
young men I leave my gun, which they must regard as the pledge of my
esteem for their valor. They must use it if they are attacked. It will
also be more satisfactory in hunting cattle and other animals than are all
the arrows that you use. To you who are old men I leave my kettle (pause);
I carry it everywhere without fear of breaking it" (being of copper or
iron instead of clay). "You will cook in it meat that your young men bring
from the chase, and the food which you offer to the Frenchmen who come to
visit you." [Footnote: Blair, "Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi
Valley," 1:330, 331.] And so he went on, throwing iron awls to the women
to be used instead of their bone bodkins, iron knives to take the place of
pieces of stone in killing beavers and cutting their meat, till he reached
his peroration, which was punctuated with handfuls of round beads for the
adornment of their children and girls.
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