a groove prepared for it. A spear, fourteen or fifteen feet in length, to which is attached the scalps he possesses, is also commonly used by most tribes. In addition, he sometimes has a rifle, pistol, or even a cavalry sword if he can steal one. (See Plate, p. 97, and engraving, p. 172.)

The men are middle-sized, of a bright copper-coloured complexion, not unintelligent faces, in many cases with more aquiline, nose than those on the Pacific coast, thin lips, little beard, and with the black eyes and long black hair characteristic of their whole race. Their hair is never cut, and on high occasions is ornamented with silver and beads. Some of the men wear it so long as to sweep on the ground, if allowed to fall behind. Everywhere long hair is a mark of elegance. They have often a head-dress of eagle's feathers, or even the horns of the buffalo, scraped as thin as paper, placed on either side of the head; but these latter distinctions are only accorded to very distinguished warriors (see engravings on pages 61 and 93). To kill a grizzly bear is accounted as honourable as to kill a human enemy; accordingly, a hunter decorates himself with the large claws of that most formidable animal of the American wilds. Among some tribes the scars of old wounds are painted red, so as to perpetuate the remembrance of these honourable marks of combat. On their robes, as well as on their wigwams, are painted rude emblematic figures, descriptive of deeds the owner has taken part in, and the check of the other warriors is quite sufficient to prevent the slightest attempt to claim in these picture-writings glory for deeds never performed. (See engraving on p. 169.)

Some of the tribes in the eastern United States and Canada used to decorate themselves with necklaces, or belts, made of wampum, which was composed of bits of a fresh-water shell, carved and perforated like pipe-stems. This was highly valued, and though the wampum is still to some extent used among a few of the tribes which removed from their old nomes to the west, yet the greater portion of it is only imitation porcelain, sold by the traders, the real article being now almost unknown. Such is the ordinary dress of these people, but in every tribe there are dandies, effeminate creatures, gorgeous in paint and oiled locks, decorated with elegantly-dressed, easily-obtained furs, fanning themselves in hot weather, bestriding natty piebald ponies, unskilful in any athletic exercises, owners of no scalps but their own exquisites, in fine, but who find their consolation for the contempt of the chiefs and the braves, in the admiration of the women and the young people. The dress of the prairie Indians consists of leggings and mocassins (tanned buckskin shoes), with a cloth wrapped round the loins. With the exception of the invariable buffalo robe, the body is naked about the middle. The women are short and crooked-legged, and are by no means so good-looking as the men. They are obliged to crop their hair close, and in addition to the leggings and mocassins, wear a shirt of dressed deer-skins. They also to a slight extent tattoo their faces and breasts, and are, in general, far from cleanly in their persons. Hospitable on occasions, and not unfrequently kind to strangers, like all their race they are implacable in revenge; no insult or wrong, fancied or real, but must be wiped out by the most cruel retaliation that can be devised. Forgiveness they do not know the meaning of. Unlike the coast Indian, no presents can wipe out a wrong with them. Money they use only as ornaments; but paint, red and blue, is in great demand as an article of toilet decoration. Vermilion forms a large portion of the stock-in-trade of a prairie merchant, and after his visit the aboriginal coxcomb appears in all his glory. Like all their race they have a sufficiently good opinion of themselves. "Some few of those chiefs who have visited their great father at Washington, have returned strongly impressed with the numerical power and prosperity of the

whites; but the great majority of them, ignorant of everything that relates to us, and a portion of them never having seen a white man, believe the prairie Indians to be the most powerful people in existence, and the relation of facts which conflict with this notion by their own people to the masses of the tribes at their prairie firesides, only subjects the narrator to ridicule, and he is set down as one whose brain is turned by the necromancy of the pale-faces, and is thenceforth regarded as wholly unworthy of confidence." I remember a man who had visited Washington telling such tales to his tribe, but he was always looked upon a wondrous archer with the long bow, and still his people dreamt on, of exterminating the whole " Boston tribe" (Americans), believing that the whole race was what they saw before them, notwithstanding the warning of the travelled man, that "kill all these off to-day, and like the grass on the burntover prairie, next year they would spring up more numerous and stronger than ever." The first Shoshone Indian who saw Lewis and Clark's party-the first white men who had ever crossed the country-was entirely discredited when he, in horror, ran off and told his tribe what he had seen, "men with pale faces, like ashes, and who had tools in their hands with which they could make thunder and lightning." In council assembled, it was gravely resolved that a man capable of telling falsehoods so vile and blasphemous as these, should be put to death; and, undoubtedly, his life would have paid penalty for telling to his untravelled brethren such traveller's tales, had not the appearance of the white men themselves settled the point in his favour. A semi-civilised Indian, named Black Beaver, who was a favourite henchman of our friend General Marcy, had visited St. Louis, and the small frontier towns on the Missouri. Accordingly, he prided himself not a little on his knowledge of cities and men, white and civilised. Camping one night with a Comanche guide, the general overheard the two in an apparently earnest and amicable talk. On inquiring, it appeared, to use his own language, that "I've been telling this Comanche what I've seen 'mong the white folks. I tell

him 'bout the steam-boats, and the railroads, and the heap o' house I seen in St. Louis, but he say I'ze fool. I tell him the world is round, but he keep all 'e time say, ' Hush, you fool! do you s'pose I'ze child? Haven't I get eyes? Can't I see the prairie? You call him round?' He say too, 'Maybe so I tell you something you not know before. One time my grandfather he made long journey that way' (pointing to the west); 'when he got on big mountain, he seen heap water on t'other side, jest so flat he can be, and he seen the sun go straight down on t'other side.' I then tell him all the 'serivers (rivers) he seen, all 'e time the water he run, s'pose the world flat, the water he stand still. May be so he not b'lieve me?" General Marcy then told Beaver to explain the telegraph; but there he was nonplussed. "What you call that magnetic telegraph?" He was told. "You have heard of New York and New Orleans?" "Oh yes." "Very well; we have a wire connecting these two cities, which are about a thousand miles apart, and it would take a man thirty days to ride it upon a good horse. Now a man stands at one end of this wire in New York, and by touching it a few times he inquires of his friend in New Orleans what he had for breakfast. His friend in New Orleans touches the other end of the wire, and in ten minutes the answer comes back-ham and eggs. Tell him that, Beaver." He remained silent, his countenance all the time with a most comical puzzled expression playing over it. Again he was asked to tell him, when he observed, "No, captain, I not tell him that, for I don't b'lieve that myself." He was assured it was the fact, but no assurances of the personal experience of his informant would induce Black Beaver

to pin his faith on such a seemingly incredible statement. All he would reply was simply, "Injun not very smart; sometimes he's big fool, but he holler pretty loud; you hear him maybe half a mile; you say 'Merican man he talk thousand miles: I 'spect you try to fool me now, cap'n. May be so you lie !"

Unacquainted with the luxuries of civilisation, the plain Indian does not fret his life away in wearying or striving for them; the healthy prairie is his home, his trusty bow his friend, his horse his companion, the skin of the buffalo supplies him with raiment, its flesh with abundance of food. What more does he require?

The women are quite as expert as the men in horsemanship, and in throwing the lasso (or coiled rope with a running noose at the end of it) over the heads of horse, cattle, or even the prong-horned antelope of the prairie. The Indian never mounts his favourite war-horse except when going into battle, on the buffalo-chase, or express state occasions. He will part with him at no price. When he returns to his home from his distant expedition, his wife-or one of them at least-humbly waits upon him, leads his horse off to pasture, and otherwise attends to it. So skilful are they in horsemanship that they habitually throw themselves on the side of the horse, clinging to its back simply by one foot in a sort of loop formed by the mane. Their whole bodies are out of sight. In this manner they will discharge arrow after arrow, either over the horse's back or under its belly. Their only bridle is the horsehair rope, or lariat (l'arrét, the arrest of the French traders), twisted by a loop round the lower jaw of the animal. Swinging on the sides of their steeds, they will approach a herd of half-wild horses, or an enemy, and before either imagines (seeing that the troop of horses approaching have no riders) a shower of arrows in one case, or a lariat over their necks in the other, is the first intimation of their mistake. Wild horses are tamed a good deal à la Rarey. After the running noose of the lariat is over its neck, the captor dismounts and approaches, tightening the noose sufficiently to let the horse know it is in his power, but not sufficiently to choke it. He then breathes strongly in its nostrils, and soon it is perfectly obedient, and very often so tame as to be ridden into camp. If hobbled for a few days, it is broken. The prairie warrior would consider it beneath him to do any menial labour. His wives—a trifle dearer to him than his horse (if it happen to be of inferior quality) -is his obedient slave, beaten on the smallest provocation by her haughty lord, who passes his leisure hours in smoking, eating, and sleeping. Polygamy, however, among the Indians, is not an unmitigated evil. Among a people so much at war there are always many widows and unmarried women who would, unless they were married, be left destitute. A chief, moreover, causing his wives to work, dress skins, &c., is no great loser by them. On the contrary, they are really a source of wealth to him, and the man who has most wives has in general the most comfortable, well-appointed lodge and the best-stocked larder. Among many tribes prisoners taken in war are tortured ; but, again, many of them are married to the widows of the slain, are adopted into the tribe, and treated accordingly. In his own opinion, the Indian is the most lordly soul in the universe, and his wives have almost as high an opinion of him as he has himself, the proverb that no man is a hero to his valet de chambre notwithstanding.

Even in time of peace the horses are carefully guarded day and night, and on the slightest sign of danger, or even upon the approach of a stranger, are driven to a place of safety, and preparations made for their defence. A stranger is received by the chief with much hugging and face-rubbing; a lodge is prepared for him, and he is welcome to entertainment as long as he likes to remain. Among themselves they are kind and charitable, and in times of scarcity the last bite of food is shared all round. But with this we have finished their short catalogue of virtues.

Polygamy is permitted, and is common amongst them, food being in general abundant. Catlin tells an amusing story of a Puncah boy of only eighteen, whose father considering that he had arrived at the years of discretion, presented him with a lodge, several horses, and goods enough to establish him in life. The first thing the precocious youth did was to go and secretly bargain with a chief for his daughter, enjoining secrecy, and then to a second,

third, and fourth, the result of which was that on a fixed day he claimed all four ladies, to the astonishment of the tribe and the indignation of the fathers. Public opinion, however, was in his favour, and his four wives were marched off to his wigwam. Not only did the quadruplymarried man obtain his brides, but the chiefs determined that a youth of such tender years capable of devising and accomplishing so extraordinarily bold an act, must be a person of discretion, and deserved a seat in the council among the warriors and medicine-men!

Slavery is almost unknown among the prairie Indians, though the more civilised tribes— like the now almost extinct Seminoles of Florida, and the Cherokees, who are almost altogether civilised-had until the outbreak of the American civil war many negro slaves. Yet these people, so fond of freedom themselves, treat their wives as little better than slaves. Though a beast of burden and drudge to her inconsiderate, harsh master, the wife submits to her lot without a murmur, never having known anything better, and tradition alone assigning such a lot to her unfortunate sex. Between herself and her husband there is a wide gulf, which she never imagines can be filled. He treats her as a Southern planter would treat a negro, but without the good-natured indulgence the kindly white accords the well-behaved "boy." No office is too degraded for her, and the result is that in mental characteristics and general morale the prairie Indian woman is inferior to even the most degraded coast tribes, where so much more liberty of action is accorded to the squaws.

An old chief once told me that he thought that the Indian and the white man were both much alike, only among the Indians the squaw worked and the man idled; among the whites the man worked and the squaw dressed and enjoyed herself; otherwise he did not see that there was any material difference. In a word, the Indian, without knowing it, is ever in his daily conduct repeating, in deeds, in regard to his dusky spouse, what Petruchio says of Catherine:

"I will be master of what is mine own.

She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,
My household stuff, my field, my barn,

My horse, my ox, my ass, my everything."

They are, like all Indians, not a prolific race, three or four children being about the average; and even then, owing to exposure and a hundred accidents, many never attain maturity. Boys are generally matured with care, while girls, unlike what we found among the coast Indians, being of comparatively little value, are often beaten unmercifully. Idiots and deformed people are as excessively rare among them as among other savages: the reason, I think, is not difficult to find-at least as regards deformed people-the climate does not agree with them. (See p. 106).

Like all their race they are fond of spirituous liquor, though conscious that it "makes fools of them;" and all are excessively addicted to smoking tobacco, inhaling the smoke into their lungs, and sending it out through their nostrils. Their diet is simple, and, as we have already remarked, chiefly of animal food. They can eat an immense meal at a time, and can fast long.

The verbal language consists of but a few words, some of which are common to all the prairie tribes, even though these tribes speak different languages. Accustomed to live much in situations where noise is dangerous, they have acquired a sort of pantomimic language, even more expressive than the verbal one, and Indians will sit round a camp-fire for hours almost