If we are wise, we shall choose a subject so limited that our description will naturally have unity. The following selection is an excellent illustration of the treatment of a limited subject, and as a character description is well worth careful study.

Mahto-Tatonka

Though he found such favor in the eyes of the fair, he was no dandy. He was indifferent to the gaudy trappings and ornaments of his companions, and was content to rest his chances of success upon his own warlike merits. He never arrayed himself in gaudy blanket and glittering necklaces, but left his statuelike form, limbed like an Apollo of bronze, to win its way to favor. His voice was singularly deep and strong, and sounded from his chest like the deep notes of an organ. Yet, after all, he was but an Indian. See him as he lies there in the sun before our tent, kicking his heels in the air and cracking jokes with his brother. Does he look like a hero ? See him now in the hour of his glory, when at sunset the whole village empties itself to behold him, for to-morrow their favorite young partisan goes out against the enemy. His headdress is adorned with a crest of the war-eagle's feathers, rising in a waving ridge above his brow, and sweeping far behind him. His round white shield hangs at his breast, with feathers radiating from the center like a star. His quiver is at his back; his tall lance in his hand, the iron point flashing against the declining sun, while the long scalp locks of his enemies flutter from the shaft. Thus, gorgeous as a champion in panoply, he rides round and round within the great circle of lodges, balancing with a graceful buoyancy to the free movements of his war horse, while with a sedate brow he sings his song to the Great Spirit. Young rival warriors look askance at him; vermilion-cheeked girls gaze in admiration; boys whoop and scream in a thrill of delight; and old women yell forth his name and proclaim his praises from lodge to lodge.

- Parkman, "The Oregon Trail."

Exercises

519. In studying Burroughs' description of the walk of a crow, ask yourself these questions: Has everything a bearing on the subject? Is the opening sentence a good introduction? Is the closing sentence an emphatic ending? Read these two sentences together, and then write what you consider the main thought of the paragraph.

I have seen no bird walk the ground with just the same air the crow does. It is not exactly pride; there is no strut or swagger in it, though perhaps just a little condescension; it is the contented, complacent, and self-possessed gait of a lord over his domains. All these acres are mine, he says, and all these crops; men plow and sow for me, and I stay here or go there, and find life sweet and good wherever I am. The hawk looks awkward and out of place on the ground; the game birds hurry and skulk, but the crow is at home and treads the earth as if there were none to molest or make him afraid.

- "An Idyl of the Honey-Bee."

520. (1) Make a list of five subjects suitable for imaginative description and so limited that it will be easy to secure unity. (2) Write on one of the subjects that you like best.

521. As you read Hawthorne's description of a room, put yourself in the writer's place. Think of the numerous details he might have included in his picture. From them all he selected a few. Presenting these in an order in which a visitor would naturally see them, he took pains to point out a chair that he wished us particularly to notice.

It was a low-studded room, with a beam across the ceiling, paneled with dark wood, and having a large chimney piece, set round with pictured tiles, but now closed by an iron fire board, through which ran the funnel of a modern stove. There was a carpet on the floor, originally of rich texture, but so worn and faded in these latter years that its once brilliant figure had quite vanished into one indistinguishable hue. In the way of furniture, there were two tables: one, constructed with perplexing intricacy and exhibiting as many feet as a centipede; the other, most delicately wrought, with four long and slender legs, so apparently frail that it was almost incredible what a length of time the ancient tea table had stood upon them. Half a dozen chairs stood about the room, straight and stiff, and so ingeniously contrived for the discomfort of the human person that they were irksome even to sight, and conveyed the ugliest possible idea of the state of society to which they could have been adapted. One exception there was, however, in a very antique elbowchair, with a high back, carved elaborately in oak, and a roomy depth within its arms, that made up, by its spacious comprehensiveness, for the lack of any of those artistic curves which abound in a modern chair.

- "The House of the Seven Gables," chap. ii.

522. With the above description in mind, describe in writing the interior of a room which interests you.

523. Note the simplicity of Scott's plan in this description from "Rob Roy," and with this example in mind describe orally some bit of scenery that has pleased you.

The glorious beams of the rising sun, which poured from a tabernacle of purple and golden clouds, were darted full on such a scene of natural romance and beauty as had never before greeted my eyes. To the left lay the valley, down which the Forth wandered on its easterly course, surrounding the beautiful detached hill, with all its garland of woods. On the right, amid a profusion of thickets, knolls, and crags, lay the head of a broad mountain lake, lightly curled into tiny waves by the breath of the morning breeze, each glittering into its course under the influence of the sunbeams. High hills, rocks, and banks waving with natural forests of birch and oak, formed the borders of this enchanting sheet of water; and, as their leaves rustled to the wind and twinkled in the sun, gave to the depth of solitude a sort of life and vivacity.

524. Suggest improvements in the following storm description:

I went to Nahant yesterday to see the storm. The sea off Nahant point was magnificent. The waves were greater than the waves that run shoreward on the beaches, gathered masses, seas heaped on seas, swinging in unhindered, mountainous, to crush upon the rough rocks that rise seaward abruptly. Far out the sea foamed with whitecaps, but, till they reached the foot of the cliffs themselves, the waves found no shallow, no reef to break them. They did not bend and curl lightly as summer waves; their mass was too great, their march was too solemn. Slowly each mounted shoreward, lifting its swaying crest; halted a moment, gathered its whole strength in one heaped mountainous impulse, and plunged shoreward, leaping - dashing through caverns and crevices, rushing swiftly up the purple slopes of the rocks, flashing up like white flame against the sky, shaking the firm foundations of the land with hollow thunder.

It was a power beyond and above man, a thing irresistible and untamable, to whose crests the heights of the land seemed little. The sense of it was everywhere. The sound of it was everywhere.