face again if I can help it."

I was not sorry, however, to eat some of the venison which the Indians
gave me; and then I lay down and pretended to go to sleep. They sat up
feeding for some time after this; then, greatly to my disappointment,
one got on his feet and began to walk backwards and forwards, while the
rest stretched themselves on the ground, as they had done the night
before. I watched and watched, and at last believing that they were too
cunning to allow me to escape, I closed my eyes and went to sleep. I
awoke twice, and on each occasion observed that one of them was on the
watch.

When daylight appeared they all rose, and after shaking themselves, the
horses were caught and they got on horseback; their leader making a sign
to me to mount one of the spare animals, of which there were several.
This done, we immediately set off at full gallop across the plain,
taking a south-westerly direction. We stopped twice during the day, to
allow our animals to crop the grass; while we took some food, a stream
near at hand supplying us with water.

Towards evening I espied several wigwams partly concealed by the wood
before us. On approaching nearer, I saw that they were very different
from those to which I had been accustomed further east, where the Indian
dwellings are constructed of birch-bark. These were, however, much
larger; the framework, consisting of long poles tied together at the top
in a conical shape, was covered with the tanned skins of buffalo and
deer, and was ornamented with figures of animals and men,--apparently
hunting scenes.

There were five or six of these wigwams pitched close together. Several
women were moving about, or sitting on the ground. In front of one
stood a tall man wrapped in a buffalo robe, with a spear in his hand,
whom I at once guessed to be the chief. He contemplated us, as we drew
near, without moving, or seeming in any way interested. This manner
was, I suspected, put on to show his own importance, when he discovered
that a white person was among our party. Getting still nearer, another
Indian, who had been, I concluded, sleeping, and just awakened by the
tramp of our horses, crawled out of the tent to have a look at us. It
was a perfect scene of Indian domestic life. Near the chief, his wife
sat on the ground playing with her child, a fat little urchin; a second
woman was busy chopping wood; a third was coming in, axe in hand, with a
huge bundle of sticks on