3. III.
The conference went on without him, much to
the dissatisfaction of all parties. He was the
spice of the entertainment, the spirit of all frolic;
and though sometimes exceedingly annoying,
even to the Great Manneyto, and never less so
to the rival power of evil, the Opitchi-Manneyto,
yet, as the recognized joker on all hands, no one
found it wise to take offence at his tricks. In
council, he relieved the dull discourse of some
drowsy god, by the sly sarcasm, which, falling
innocuously upon the ears of the victim, was yet
readily comprehended and applied by all the rest.
On the journey, he kept all around him from any
sense of weariness, — and, by the perpetual practical
application of his humor, always furnished
his companions, whether above or inferior to him
in dignity, with something prime, upon which to
make merry. In short, there was no god like
Logoochie, and he was as much beloved by the
deities, as he was honored by the Indian, who
implored him not to turn aside the arrow which
he sent after the bounding buck, nor to spill the
water out of his scooped leaf as he carried it from
the running rivulet up to his mouth. All these
were tricks of the playful Logoochie, and by a
thousand, such as these, was he known to the
Indians.
