"The interpreter had incidentally mentioned that the reason the chiefs had
to go home so soon, was that they always _sacrificed a white dog on the
death of a great man_. I turned this fact to the account of the
argument, and endeavored to connect it with, and explain by it the
doctrine of atonement, by the blood of Christ, and also pressed him on the
questions, how can this _please_ the Great Spirit on _your_ plan?
Why do you offer such a _sacrifice_, for so it is considered? And
_where_ they got such a rite from? He attempted no definite reply.
Many other topics were talked over. But these specimens suffice to
illustrate his views, and mode of thinking.
"At the close of the conversation he proposed giving me a _name_, that
henceforth I might be numbered among his friends, and admitted to the
intercourse and regards of the nation. Supposing this not amiss, I
consented. But before he proceeded he called for some whiskey. He was at
this time an intemperate man, and though perfectly sober on that occasion,
evidently displayed toward the close of the interview, the need of
stimulus, which it is hardly necessary to say, we carefully kept from him.
But he _insisted_ now, and after some time a small portion was sent to
him in the bottom of a decanter. He looked at it, shook it, and with a
sneer said, 'why here is not whiskey enough for a name to float in.' But
no movement being made to get more, he drank it off, and proceeded with a
sort of pagan orgies, to give me a name.
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