—and hold it flat against a flint; then strike across the edge with a steel ring, and put the ignited punk on or in the pipe.
The proceedings of the first day among the Indians were witnessed by Thoreau, however, and thus are related by him in the long letter already quoted, and he sometimes dwelt upon them in conversation with his friends Channing and Daniel Ricketson, whom he visited for the last time at New Bedford after his return to Concord, and before the summer of 1861 was ended. He says:
A regular council was held at Redwood with the Indians, who had come in on their ponies; and speeches were made on both sides through an interpreter, quite in the described mode; the Indians, as usual, having the advantage in point of truth and earnestness, and therefore of eloquence. The most prominent chief was named Little Crow. They were quite dissatisfied with the white man's treatment of them, and probably have reason to be so. This council was to be continued for two or three days,—the payments
[ 55 ]
