killed into as many pieces as he wishes to send invitationsticks to his friends. Any one who cannot come to the feast sends back the stick with some tobacco or some other small present to smooth over his refusal. Generally the whole village is invited, for each of the inhabitants lives in a continual dread of being poisoned by some jealous neighbor. A savage keenly resents a slight or snub; he is vindictive in the extreme, and vengeance being a virtue, according to his ideas, sooner or later he will find an occasion to vent all his anger upon any one who has dared to scorn him.
The tragic story which I am about to relate is a striking proof of this. I have it from the nephew of Kitchechaonissi himself. One of the finest villages of the Potawatomies, before their emigration to Council Bluffs, was on the point where the Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers unite to form the Illinois. Kitchechaonissi or Great South Wind,
a famous warrior, was their chief. His bravery made him feared; but at the same time, by his fatherly kindness, he had won the esteem and love of all his people. He was so fortunate as to have six sons, brave as himself and excellent hunters. He often gave feasts and entertainments to all his village. Sometimes, however, he dared to brave one or another of his neighbors, neglecting, whether in contempt or for any other cause, to send them invitation sticks.
The Indians carry their knowledge of poisons and of the art of administering them very far; they make use of them with admirable dexterity upon whomsoever displeases them. The five eldest sons of Kitchechaonissi died one soon after another in the course of the same year, victims of the secret vengeance of some envious or vindictive savage. The old man's grief was long and bitter; years passed without his giving a single feast, and he obstinately refused all invitations. His remaining son was his only consolation, his sole hope and the prop of his old age. Endowed with all good qualities in mind and body, brave in war, skillful in the chase, he was especially noted for a filial devotion and submission, until then unequaled among the Indians. Kit-