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Show 170 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. tn· 1 cup of coaw-e e and a biscuit, at which they ejaculated from the bottom of their throats, ' I-Iow! how !' a monosyllable by which an Indian contrives to express half the emotions that he is susceptible of. Then we lighted the pipe, and passed it to them as they squatted on the ground. ' Where is the village 1' 'There,' said Mahto-Tatonka, pointing southward ; 'it will come in two days.' 'Will they go to the war 1' 'Yes.' N 0 man is a philanthropist on the prahie. We welcomed this news most cordially, and congratulated ourselves that Bordeaux's interested efforts to divert the Whirlwind from his congenial vocation of bloodshed had failed of success, and that no additional obstacles would interpose between us, and our plan of repairing to the rendezvous at La Bonte's Camp. For that and several succeeding days, Mahto-Tatonka and his friends remained our guests. They devoured the relics of our meals; they filled the pipe for us, and also helped us to smoke it. Sometimes they stretched themselves side by side in the shade, indulging in raille1·y and practical jokes, ill becoming the dignity of brave and aspiring warriors, such as two of them in reality were. Two days dragged away, and on the morning of the third WA hoped confidently to see the Indian village. It did not come ; so we rode out to look for it. In place of the eight hundred Indians we expected, we met one solitary savage riding toward us over the prairie, who told us that the Indians had changed their plan, and would not come within three days; still he persisted that they we~e going to the war. Taking SCENES AT THE CAMP. 171 along with us this messenger of evil tidings, we retraced our footst eps to the camp, amusing ourselves by the way with execrating Indian inconstancy. When we came in sight of our little white tent under the big tree, we saw that it no longer stood alone. A huge old lodge was erected close by its side, discolored by rain and storms, rotten with age, with the uncouth figures of horses and men, and outstretched hands that were painted upon it, well nigh obliterated. The long poles which supported this squalid habitation thrust themselves rakishly out from its pointed top, and over its entrance were suspended a ,·medicine-pipe' and various other implements of the magic art. While we were yet at a distance, we observed a greatly increased population of various colors and dimensions, swarming around our quiet encampment. Moran, the trapper, having been absent for a day or two, had returned, it seemed, bringing all his family with him. He had taken t<> himself a wife, for whom he had paid t~e established price of one horse. This looks cheap at first sight, but in truth the purchase of a squaw is a transaction which no man should enter into without mature deliberation, since it involves not only the payment of the first price, but the formidable burden of feeding and supporting a rapacious horde of the bride's relatives, who hold themselves entitled to feed upon the indiscreet w~ite man. They gather round like leeches, and drain him of all he has. Moran, like Reynal, had not allied himself to an aristocratic circle. His relatives occupied but a contemptible position in Ogillallah society ; for among these wild democrats of the prairie, as among us, there are virtual distinctions of rank and place; though this great advantage they have over us, tha~ |
