declaimed against their bad faith towards the stranger, vowed that he would neither touch food nor drink until complete restoration should be made. He then took his seat with the trapper in his wigwam, and awaited the result, desiring his companion to make no remarks if the skins were brought, but simply to keep account of them.

More than a hundred of the stolen articles were brought in before night, but notwithstanding Campbell's expressions of satisfaction, the old Indian would neither eat nor drink. throughout that night and the next day. The skins slowly made their appearance, "one and two at a time throughout the day; until but a few were wanting to make the number complete. Campbell was now anxious to put an end to this fasting of the old chief, and again declared that he was perfectly satisfied. Arapooish demanded what number of skins were yet wanting. On being told, he whispered to some of his people, who disappeared. After a time the number were brought in, though it was evident they were not any of the skins that had been stolen, but others gleaned in the village."

Arapooish then broke his fast, and gave his guest much wholesome advice, charging him always, when he visited a Crow village to put himself and his goods under protection of the chief. Of Campbell's conclusions upon the character of the race, Mr. Irving says: "He has ever since maintained that the Crows are not so black as they have been painted. Trust to their honor,' says he, and you are safe; trust to their honesty, and they will steal the hair off your head.""

The manner in which old Arapooish enlarged upon the natural advantages of the Crow country in conversation with Mr. Campbell is too quaint to be passed over. He averred that it was located in precisely the right spot for the security of all that was desirable in life, and the avoidance of its usual trials and wants. He enlarged upon the

cold of the north, where dogs must take the place of horses; and upon the barren and arid plains of the south, replete with pestilential vapors. At the west, he said: "On the Columbia, they are poor and dirty, paddle about in canoes, and eat fish. Their teeth are worn out; they are always taking fish-bones out of their mouths. Fish is poor food.

"To the east, they dwell in villages; they live well; but they drink the muddy water of the Missouri — that is bad. A Crow's dog would not drink such water.

"About the forks of the Missouri is a fine country; good water; good grass; plenty of buffalo. In summer it is almost as good as the Crow country; but in winter it is cold; the and there is no salt-weed for the horses." (Bonneville's Adventures.)

grass is

gone;

Then followed an enthusiastic enumeration of the blessings enjoyed by the Crows; the variety of climate; the abundance of game; the winter resources for man and beast; and the relief from the heat of summer afforded by the cool breezes and fresh springs of the mountains.

In a former chapter, we have devoted some little space to illustrations, from Mr. Catlin's letters, of the strength of parental affection among the Western Indians, particularly the Sioux in the work last cited are numerous anecdotes exemplifying, in a manner equally forcible, the enduring and powerful attachment often noticeable between the sexes; and this not only among the Indians alone, but where they have intermarried with whites.

One of these instances was as follows: "Among the free trappers in the Rocky Mountain band was a spirited young Mexican, named Loretto; who, in the course of his wanderings, had ransomed a beautiful Blackfoot girl from a band of Crows, by whom she had been captured. He made her his wife, after the Indian style, and she had followed his fortunes ever since with the most devoted affection."

The company, one day, fell in with a numerous party

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of Blackfoot warriors, and the preliminary steps were taken for a parley, and for smoking the calumet, in token of peace. At this moment, Loretto's Indian wife perceived her own brother among the band. Leaving her infant with Loretto, she rushed forward and threw herself upon her brother's neck; who clasped his long-lost sister to his heart, with a warmth of affection but little compatible with the reputed stoicism of the savage."

Meanwhile, Bridger, one of the trapper leaders, approaching the Blackfeet, from an imprudent excess of caution, cocked his rifle just as he come up with them. The Indian chief, who was in the act of proffering a friendly salutation, heard the click of the lock, and all his native fury and suspicion were instantly aroused. He sprang

upon Bridger, forced the muzzle of the rifle into the ground, where it was discharged, knocked him down, seized his horse, and rode off. A general, but disorderly fight ensued, during which Loretto's wife was hurried away by her relations.

The noble young Mexican saw her in their power, vainly entreating permission to return, and, regardless of the danger incurred, at once hastened to her side, and restored the child to its mother. The Blackfoot braves admired his boldness, and respected the confidence which he had reposed in them by thus venturing in their midst, but they were deaf to all the prayers of himself and his wife that they might remain together. He was dismissed unharmed,

but the woman and child were detained.

Not many months afterwards the faithful Loretto procured his discharge from the company in whose service he was enlisted, and followed his wife to her own country. A happy reunion took place, and the loving pair took up their residence at a trading-house among the Blackfeet, where the husband served as interpreter between the Indians and white traders.

Another tale of Indian love and rivalry is that of a Blackfoot warrior, named Kosato, residing among the Nez-Percés when that tribe was visited by Bonneville.

He had fallen in love with the wife of a chief of his own tribe, and his affection was returned. According to his own positive asseverations, although they "talked together -laughed together and were always seeking each other's society," they were "as innocent as children."

The jealousy of the husband was at last completely aroused, and he visited his vengeance upon both the offending parties. The wife was cruelly beaten, and sternly bid not even to bestow a look upon Kosato, while the youth himself suffered the loss of all his horses, upon which the chief had seized. Maddened with love and revenge, Kosato waited his opportunity; slew the object of his hate; and hastened to entreat his mistress to fly with him. At first she only wept bitterly, but finally, overcome by his persuasions, and the promptings of her own affection, she forsook her people, and sought, with her lover, an asylum among the peaceful and kindly Nez-Percés.

Kosato was foremost in rousing up a warlike and manly spirit among the tribe of his adoption, but he found the disposition of his new allies far different from that of the hot-blooded Blackfeet and Crows. "They are good and kind," said he to Bonneville; "they are honest; but their hearts are the hearts of women."

From these and numberless similar tales, it is sufficiently evident that the cloak of reserve in which the Indian wraps himself from the scrutiny of strangers, covers passions and affections as fiery and impetuous as are to be witnessed in more demonstrative races.

CHAPTER V.

TRIBES ON THE COLUMBIA AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. THE NEZ-PERCÉS. THEIR RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. THE WALLA-WALLAS.-THE CHINOOKS. MODE OF FLATTENING THE HEAD. THE BOTOQUE.-CANOES OF THE TRIBES ON THE LOWER WATERS OF THE COLUMBIA. -FISHING. -HOUSES OF THE FLAT-HEADS.

THE principal tribe dwelling within the vast amphitheatre drained by the Koos kooske, westward from the Blackfoot country, and across the Rocky Mountains, is that of the Nez-Percés or Pierced-Nose Indians. Proceeding down the river, we find numerous tribes, known, collectively, as Flat-heads, although the physical peculiarity from which they derive their name is by no means universal.

Upon the main southern branch, the Lewis Fork of the Columbia, or Snake river, dwell the Shoshonees, or Snake Indians, a race perhaps more widely disseminated than any other of the present descendants of the North American aborigines.

The Nez-Percés are, as mentioned in a preceding chapter, a quiet, inoffensive people, although, when fairly aroused, they are not wanting in courage and efficiency. Their susceptibility to religious impressions is remarkable, and their patient reliance upon and sincere invocations to the Great Spirit, in times of want or danger, might shame the most enlightened nation.

In a time of great scarcity Captain Bonneville fell in with a party of these Indians, in a state of the utmost destitution. They were subsisting upon wild rose-buds, roots, and other crude and innutritious food, and their only weapon was a single spear. With this they finally set out, on horseback, upon what appeared to the whites an utterly hopeless expedition in search of game. They rode off, however, with cheerful confidence that their prayers