Invitations to Indians to come and worship in the

spring are made in the following form:

"The Great Medicine Lodge will be ready in eight days."

"Ye who live in the woods and near the Lakes and by streams of water, come with your canoes or by land to the worship of the Great Spirit."

In the above, the wigwam and the medicine pale or worship, represent the depositories of medicine, record and work. The Lodge is represented with men in it; the dots above indicate the number of days.

These picture representations were used by the Ojibways until the introduction of European manners among them. When this occurred, they neglected in a great degree their correspondence with other nations, except by special messengers, and became very cautious in giving information respecting their religious worship to the whites, because they, the whites, ridiculed it. It is

worthy of remark in this place, that however ridiculous the simple rites and ceremonies by which the untutored Indian showed his faith in the Great Spirit may have appeared, they were dear and sacred to him, and ridicule should never have been used to disabuse his mind of his long formed opinions. It was a fruitless way to reclaim him, by the attempt to do so by ridicule; and man could never by such means imbue his mind with the principles of true worship.

In times of danger or in the progress of a war, beads and shells were used for the purpose of conveying a message, and this custom is yet in vogue.

These beads and shells were colored, and each had a meaning, according to its place on the string. Black indicated war or death- White, peace and prosperity— Red, the heart of the enemy would represent-Partial white or red, or both intermixed, the beginning of peace or the commencement of war.

Numerals are marked on the shell. The knot gives information of its starting point, or the name of the person sending it. In stringing the shells or beads, the end of the sentence is strung first, so that the first word of the message is in the person's hand. This manner of correspondence is the most common.

Three hundred years ago the Delawares sent com

munications in this way to the Shawnees in Sandusky, Lake Erie; and they to the Ojibways in Superior and Huron.

This mode was practised by Pontiac in his appeals to the Indians of Michigan, Huron, and the prairies of the West, during the wars. The Indians say that these beads cannot give false stories, for it is not possible for the man who takes it to alter or add to them, during his journey.

CHAPTER XI.

THEIR GOVERNMENT.

"Each state must have its pallaces; Kingdoms have edicts; cities have their charters; Even the wild outlaw in his forest walk

Keeps yet some touch of civil discipline."

POPE.

THE rulers of the Ojibways were inheritors of the power they held. However, when a new country was conquered or new dominions annexed, the first rulers were elected to their offices. Afterwards the descendants of these elected chiefs ruled the Nation, or tribe, and thus the power became hereditary. On the death of the chief ruler, should the son be under age, the brother of the deceased rules in his stead, until the youth becomes a man, when after the display of much ceremony, he takes his seat at the head of the Council of the Nation.

These young rulers are apt to be more cautious in the