It must have been mortifying to his spirit to leave his captive
associates in comfortable habitations and among a civilized people at
Detroit, while he, the single white man of the company, was obliged to
accompany his red masters through the forest in a long and painful
journey of fifteen days, at the close of which he found himself again at
Old Chillicothe, as the town was called.
This town was inhabited by the Shawnese, and Boone was placed in a most
severe school, in which to learn Indian modes and ceremonies, by being
himself the subject of them. On the return of the party that led him to
their home, he learned that some superstitious scruple induced them to
halt at mid-day when near their village, in order to solemnize their
return by entering their town in the evening. A runner was despatched
from their halting place to instruct the chief and the village touching
the material incidents of their expedition.
Before the expedition made the triumphal entry into their village, they
clad their white prisoner in a new dress, of material and fashion like
theirs. They proceeded to shave his head and skewer his hair after their
own fashion, and then rouged him with a plentiful smearing of vermilion
and put into his hand a white staff, gorgeously tasselated with the
tails of deer. The war-captain or leader of the expedition gave as many
yells as they had taken prisoners and scalps. This operated as
effectually as ringing a tocsin, to assemble the whole village round
the camp.
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