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Show 24 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. bushes of a low oozy· mea do w. A drowsy spring-like sultri-ness perva d e d the air ' and the voices of ten .t housa.n d young f roas an d u· 1s ects , J·ust awakened into life, rose 1n vaned chorus 0 from the creek and the meadows. Scarcely were we seated when a visitor approached. This was an old Kanzas Indian ; a man of distinction, if one might judge from his dress. His head was shaved and painted red, and from the tuft of hair remaining on the crown dangled several eagle's feathers, and the tails of two or three rattlesnakes. I-Iis cheeks, too, were daubed with vermillion ; his ears were adorned with green glass pendants; a collar of grizzly bears' cia ws surrounded his neck, and several large necklaces of wampum hung on his breast. Having shaken us by the hand with a cordial grunt of salutation, the old man, dropping his red blanket from his shoulders, sat down cross-legged on the grourid. In the absence of liquor, We offered him a cup of sweetened water, at which he ejaculated 'Good !' and was beginning to tell us how great a man he was, and how rnany Pawnees he had killed, when suddenly a motley concourse appeared wading across the creek toward us. They filed past in rapid ·succession, men, women and children : some were on horseback, some on foot, but all were alike squalid and wretched. Old squaws, mounted astride of shaggy, meagre little ponies, with perhaps one or two snake-eyed children seated behind them, clinging to their tattered blankets ; tall lank young men on foot, with bows and arrows in their hands ; and girls whose native ugliness not all the charms of glass beads and scarlet cloth could disguise, made up the procession ; although here and there was a man who, like our visitor, seemed to hold s01ne rank in this respectable community. They were BREAKING THE ICE. 25 the dregs of the Kanzas nation, who, while their betters were gone to hunt the bufralo, had left the village on a begging expedition to Westport. When this ragamuffin horde had passed, we caught our horses, saddled, harnessed, and resumed our journey. Fording the creek, the low roofs of a number of rude buildings appeared, rising from a cluster of groves and woods on the left ; and riding up through a long lane, amid a profusion of wild roses and early spring flowers, we found the log-church and schoolhouses belonging to the Methodist Sha wanoe Mission. The Indians were on the point of gathering to a religious meeting. Some scores of them, tall men in half-civilized dre~s, were seated on wooden benches under the trees; while their horses were tied to the sheds and fences. Their chief, Parks, a remarkably large and athletic man, was just arrived from Westi)Ort, where he owns a trading establishment. Beside this, he has a fine farm and a considerable number of slaves. Indeed the Shawanoes have made greater progress in agriculture than any other tribe on the Missouri frontier; and both in appearance and in character form a marked contrast to our late acquaintance, the Kanzas. A few hours' ride brought us to the banks of the river Kanzas. Traversing the woods that lined it, and ploughing through the deep sand, we encamped not far from the bank, at the Lower IJela ware crossing. Our tent was erected for the first time, on a meadow close to the woods, and the camp preparations being complete, we began to think of supper. An old Delaware woman, of some three hundred pounds weight, sat in the porch of a little log-house, close to the 'vater, and a very pretty half-breed girl 'vas engaged, under her superin- |