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Show 7" of the Snakes' equipment. Only one instance it, recorded of a Utah having a shield. The tribes that had horses always fought mounted. Warfare was, of course, extremely cruel, accompanied by torture, scalping, and killing of prisoners. The chief's power w& s limited, being merely advisory; no fixed laws to punish murder or other offences. The Utahs did not hesitate to sell wives and children into slavery. Many were sold to Navahoes for blankets. Polygamy, though common, was not universal. To the women fell the hardest work; as is usual among nomadic Indians, the old and infirm were abandoned at pleasure. Reports differ concerning the general character of the Snakes and Utahs. The better Shoshone tribes are described as brave and cunning, fierce and war- like, as dishonest and treacherous, and again as peaceful and industrious. The Utahs are described <*. B brave and fierce, industrious and crafty; the Pah-^ Jtes in particular, as docile, kind and unwarlike. The Bannocks were considered treacherous and dangerous; the poorer Shoshones, ignorant and degraded, subsisting on grass and insects in the spring, after a winter spent in semi- torpor in holes in the ground. |