3d.  The Indian tribes in this vicinity call themselves Ojibwaeg.  This expression is in the plural number.  It is rendered singular by taking off the g.  The letter a, in this word, is pronounced like a in hate, or ey in obey.  Chippewa—­often written with a useless terminal y—­is the Anglicized pronunciation.  The meaning of this seems obscure.  The final syllable wae, in compound words, stands for voice.  In the ancient Massachusetts language, as preserved by Eliot, in his translation of the Bible, as in Isaiah xi. 14, Chepwoieu means the east.

What a curious subject for speculation the Indian language presents!  Since I began to dip into this topic, I have found myself irresistibly carried forward in the inquiry, and been led to resume it, whenever the calls of business or society have been intermitted.  I have generally felt, however, while pursuing it, like a mechanist who is required to execute a delicate and difficult work without suitable implements.  Technical words may be considered as the working tools of inquiry, and there seems to be a paucity of terms, in our common systems, to describe such a many-syllabled, aggregated language as the Indian.  I have been sometimes half inclined to put my manuscripts in the fire, and to exclaim with Dryden, respecting some metaphysical subject—­

     “I cannot bolt this matter to the bran.”

It is not, however, the habitual temper of my mind to give up.  “The spider,” it is said, “taketh hold with her hands, and is in king’s palaces;” and should a man have less perseverance than a spider?

4th.  A meteor, or fire-ball, passed through the village at twilight this evening.  The weather, which has been intensely cold for the last three days, indicates a change this evening.  Meteoric phenomena of a luminous character were universally referred to electricity, after Franklin’s day.  Chemistry has since put forth reasons why several of these phenomena should be attributed to phosphorus or hydrogen liberated by decomposition.

5th.  The Chippewa jugglers, or Jassakeeds, as they are called, have an art of rendering their flesh insensible, probably for a short time, to the effects of a blaze of fire.  Robert Dickson told me that he had seen several of them strip themselves of their garments, and jump into a bonfire.  Voltaire says, in his Essay on History, that rubbing the hand for a long time with spirit of vitriol and alum, with the juice of an onion, is stated to render it capable of enduring hot water without injury.

7th.  Acting as librarian for the garrison during the season, I am privileged to fill up many of the leisure hours of my mornings and evenings by reading.  The difficulty appears to be, to read with such reference to system as to render it profitable.  History, novels, voyages and travels, and various specific treatises of fancy or fact, invite perusal, and like a common acquaintance, it requires some moral effort to negative their claims.  “Judgment,” says a celebrated critic, “is forced upon us by experience.  He that reads many books must compare one opinion, or one style with another, and when he compares must necessarily distinguish, reject, prefer.”