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Show 178 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. wreck of by-gone strength, than did his dark, wasted features, still prominent and commanding, bear the stamp of mental energies. I recalled, as I saw him, the eloquent metaphor of the Iroquois sachem: 'I am an aged hemlock ; the winds of an hundred winters have whistled through my branches, and I am dead at the top!' Opposite the patriarch was his nephew, the young aspirant Mahto-Tatonka; and beside these, there were one or two women in the lodge. The old man's story is peculiar, and singularly illustrative of a superstitious custom that prevails in full force among many of the Indian tribes. He was one of a powerful family, renowned for their warlike exploits. When a very young man, he submitted to the singular rite to which most of the tribe subject themselves before entering upon life. He painted his face black; then seeking out a cavern in a sequestered part of the Black I-Iills, he lay for several days, fasting, and praying to the Great Spirit. In the dreams and visions produced by his weakened and excited state, he fancied, like all Indians, that he saw supernatural revelations. Again and again the form of an antelope appeared before him. The antelope is the graceful peace-spirit of the Ogillallah ; but seldom is it that such a gentle visitor presents itself during the initiatory fasts of their young men. The terrible grizzly bear, the divinity of war, usually appears to fire them with martial ardor and thirst for renown. At length the antelope spoke. He told the young dreamer that he was not to follow the path of war ; that a life of peace and tranquillity was marked out for him ; that thenceforward he was to guide the people by his counsels, and protect them from the evils of their own feuds and dissensions. Others SCENES A'l' THE CAMP. 179 were to gain renown by fighting the enemy; but greatness of a different kind was in store for him. The visions beheld during the period of this fast usually determine the whole course of the dreamer's life, for an Indian. is bound by iron superstitions. From that tjme, Le Borgne, which was the only name by which we knew him, abandoned all thoughts of war, and d~voted himself to the labors of peace. He told his vision to the people. · They honored his commission and respected him in his novel capacity. A far different man was his brother, lVIahto-Tatonka, who had transmitted his names, his features, and many of his characteristic qualities, to his son. He was the father of Henry Chatillon's squaw, a circumstance which proved of some advantage to us, as securing for us the friendship of a family perhaps the most distinguished and powerful in the whole Ogillallah band.. Mahto-Tatonka, in his rude way, was a hero. No chief could vie with him in warlike renown, or in power over his people. I-Ie had a fearless spirit, and a most impetuous and inflexible resolution. I-Iis will was law. He was politic and sagacious, and with true Indian craft he always befriended the whites, well knowing that he might thus reap great advantages for himself and his adherents. When he had resolved on any course of conduct, he would pay to the warriors the empty compliment of calling them together to deliberate upon it, and when their debates were over, he would quietly state his ' own opinion, which no one ever disputed. The consequences of thwarting his imperious will were too formidable to be encountered. Wo to those who incurred his displeasure! He Would strike them or stab them on the spot; and this aut, which if attempted by any other chief would instantly have |