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Show 276 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. noticed for the great neatness of his dress and appearance. His lodge too, though not a large one, was the best in the vii. lage, his squaw was one of the prettiest girls, and altogether his dwelling presented a complete model of an Ogillallah domestic establishment. I was often a visitor there, for tlJC vV11ite Shield being rather partial to white men, used to invite me to continual feasts at all hours of the day. Once when the substantial part of the entertainment was concluded, and he and I were seated cross-legged on a buffalo-robe smoking together very amicably, he took down his warlike equiprnents, which were hanging around the lodge, and displayed them with great pride and selfimportance. Among the rest was a most superb head-dress of feathers. Taking this from its case, he put it on and stood before me, as if conscious of the gallant air which it gave to his dark face and his vigorous graceful figure. He told me that upon it were the feathers of three war-eagles, equal in value to the same number of good horses. He took up also a shield gayly painted and hung with feathers. The effect of these barbaric ornaments was admirable, for they were arranged with no little skill and taste. I-:lis quiver was made of the spotted skin of a small panther, such as are common among the Black Hills, from which the tail and distended claws were still allowed to hang. The White Shield concluded his entertainment in a manner characteristie of an Indian. He begged of me a little powder and ball, for he had a gun as weH as bow and arrows; but this I was obliged to refuse, because I had scarcely enough for my own use. Making him, however, a parting present of a paper of vermilion, I left him apparently quite contented. Unhappily on the next morning the White Shield took cold, THE HUNTING CAl\'IP. 277 and was attacked with a violent inflammation of the throat. Immediately he seemed to lose all spirit, and though before no warrior in the village had borne himself more proudly, he now moped about from lodge to lodge with a forlorn and de~ecte.d a1· r. At length he came and sat down, close wrapped In h1s robe, before the lodge of Reynal, but when he found that neither he nor I knew how to relieve him, he arose and stalked over to one of the medicine-men of the village. This old impostor thumped him for some time with both fists, howled and yelped over him, and beat a drum close to his_ ear to expel the evil spirit that had taken possession of him. This vigorous treatment failing of the desired effect, the White Shield withdrew to his own lodge, where he lay disconsolate for some hours. · Making his appearance once more in the afternoon, he again took his seat on the ground before Reynal's lodge, holding his throat with his hand. For some time he sat perfectly silent with hi~ eyes fixed mournfully on the ground. At last he began to speak in a low tone : 'I am a brave man,' he said; 'all the young men think me a great warrior, and ten of them are ready to go with me to the war. I will go and show them the enemy. Last summer the Snakes killed my brother. I cannot live unless I revenge his death. To-morrow we will set out and I will take their seal ps.' The White Shield, as he expressed this resolution, seemed to have lost all the accustomed fire and spirit of his look, and hung his head as if in a fit of despondency. As I was sitting that evening at one of the fires, I saw him arrayed in his splendid ·war-dress, his cheeks painted with vermilion, leading his favorite war-horse to the front of his rl |