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Show PLAINS AND MOUNTAINS. 213 subjects herself to all manner of torture as evidence of the sincerity of her grief. They often lacerate their bodies in the most horrid manner, and subject themselves to various other kinds of suffering. The squaw, like her sex general ly, is proud of her hair, but on such occasions it is cut close to the head. The tribes that bury their dead are careful to leave nothing that would indicate a grave, though the friends observe landmarks by which they can ever afterward tell the exact spot where they lie. These places of sepulture are held as sacred as a Christian nation's, and when a tribe is again passing such localities, they will make a detour, rather than go the more direct road, by the resting- place of their dead, while the relatives leave the trail and go alone to the spot, and there repeat their mourning as if in the pres ence of the departed. They also leave their presents for the dead of such little trinkets as he most prized before he departed to his new hunting- ground. How beautiful this practice of a barbarous nation, which savors so much of the finer sensibilities of the most enlightened ! The Indians are almost universally fond of whiskey, and have a strong propensity for gambling. They will risk at cards almost everything they own, and if unsuccessful ap pear quite satisfied with their loss. I wonder if there is something in the atmosphere of the Far West that makes gambling so general. Upon that hypothesis I might ac count for the habits of a good many of my pale- faced friends. The Indians have a peculiar way of defining time. When they wish to designate an hour of the day they point to the position the sun should be in at that time. The number of days is the number of sleeps. Ask a Sho-shone how far it is from Salt Lake City to Fort Bridger, and he will place the side of his head upon the palm of his hand, signifying sleep, and hold up four fingers, meaning that num ber of days or sleeps will be passed on the journey. Their next division of time is the number of moons, instead of our months, and the seasons are indicated by the state of vegetation, & c. For instance, spring is when the grass be- |