Nor did the walls alone reflect back the picture of savage
ingenuity, for on the various tables, the rude polish of
which was hid from view by the simple covering of green
baize, which moreover constituted the garniture of the
windows, were to be seen other products of their art.
Here stood upon an elevated stand a model of a bark canoe,
filled with its complement of paddlers carved in wood
and dressed in full costume; the latter executed with
such singular fidelity of feature, that although the
speaking figures sprung not from the experienced and
classic chisel of the sculptor but from the rude scalping
knife of the savage, the very tribe to which they belonged
could be discovered at a glance by the European who was
conversant with the features of each: then there were
handsomely ornamented vessels made of the birch bark,
and filled with the delicate sugars which the natives
extract from the maple tree in early spring; these of
all sizes, even to the most tiny that could well be
imagined, were valuable rather as exquisite specimens of
the neatness with which those slight vessels could be
put together, sewn as they were merely with strips of
the same bark, than from any intrinsic value they possessed.
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