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Show * H THE INDIANS OF THE gins to grow, and autumn when the leaves fall from the trees, while the years are indicated as the number of seasons. There is a language of signs common to all the tribes, by which one tribe may communicate with another, without being able to speak or understand its dialect. Each tribe is known by some particular sign. The Pawnee, called by some the Wolf Tribe, are known by the sign of placing by the side of the head the two forefingers of the right hand r representing a wolfs ears. The Cheyenne, or Cut Wrists, are known by the sign of drawing the edge of their hand across the left wrist \ the Sioux, or Cut- Throats, by drawing the edge of the hand across the throat ; the Utes have a com plicated sign denoting " Living in the Mountains ; " the Shoshone, or Snake Tribe, by making a motion similar to that made by the snake. The principal diet of the Indians of the West is meat, which they obtain by hunting wild game, and eat it fresh in season or where it abounds, and dry it for use when away from their hunting- grounds. They also make use of some varieties of wild vegetables, but none of the tribes that I have named cultivate the soil. They by no means despise many articles of the white man's diet. Of coffee they are fond, but sugar they prefer to eat alone and undissolved, and seem to regard it as a very great delicacy. The Indian is noted for his powers of endurance, of both fatigue and physical pain. A gentleman recently cited to> me a remarkable example of the latter, which he witnessed near Fort Laramie last summer. The representatives of a large number of tribes had collected there, with a view to* enacting the farce of a treaty. When riding out near the post one day, he observed a large collection of Indians appa rently enjoying very much some exhibition that was then taking place, and upon approaching the spot he saw Indians inflicting upon themselves the severest torture to prove their fitness to rank as warriors of the tribe. The process was this : a buck Indian would gather up in one hand as much of the skin and flesh as he could grasp over the pectoral |
