directed a road to be cut from the cantonment to the hill, sixty feet wide, in order to procure wood from the hill for the garrison.  This road passed over the site of the sacred tree, and the men, without knowing it, removed the consecrated pile of offerings.  It may serve to show a curious coincidence in the superstitions of nations, between whom, however, there is not the slightest probability of national affiliation, or even intercourse, to remark that this sacred manito tree was a very large species of the Scottish rowan or mountain ash.

[Footnote 18:  Wudijoo, a mountain—­ong denotes locality.]

16th.  I this day left the mess-table of my kind friends, the officers of the second infantry, and went to the hospitable domicil of Mr. Johnston, who has the warm-hearted frankness of the Irish character, and offers the civilities of life with the air and manner of a prince.  I flatter myself with the opportunity of profiting greatly while under his roof, in the polished circle of his household, and in his ripe experience and knowledge of the Indian character, manners, and customs, and in the curious philosophical traits of the Indian language.  It is refreshing to find a person who, in reference to this language, knows the difference between the conjugation of a verb and the declension of a noun.  There is a prospect, at least, of getting at the grammatical principles, by which they conjoin and build up words.  It has been intolerable to me to converse with Indian traders and interpreters here, who have, for half their lives, been using a language without being able to identify with precision person, mood, tense, or any of the first laws of grammatical utterance.

17th.  It is customary with the Chippewas at this place, when an inmate of the lodge is sick, to procure a thin sapling some twenty to thirty feet long, from which, after it has been trimmed, the bark is peeled.  Native paints are then smeared over it as caprice dictates.  To the slender top are then tied bits of scarlet, blue cloth, beads, or some other objects which are deemed acceptable to the manito or spirit, who has, it is believed, sent sickness to the lodge as a mark of his displeasure.  The pole is then raised in front of the lodge and firmly adjusted in the ground.  The sight of these manito poles gives quite a peculiar air to an Indian encampment.  Not knowing, however, the value attached to them, one of the officers, a few days after our arrival, having occasion for tent poles, sent one of his men for one of these poles of sacrifice; but its loss was soon observed by the Indians, who promptly reclaimed it, and restored it to the exact position which it occupied before.  There is, in fact, such a subtle and universal belief in the doctrine and agency of minor spirits of malign or benignant influence among the Indians who surround the cantonment, or visit the agency, and who are encamped at this season in great numbers in the open spaces of the village or its vicinity,