hoped that
they would not forget the promise of annual presents from the hand of
the great chief who lived in the big village near the rising sun.

Having settled this matter amicably, Joe distributed among the Indians
the proportion of his goods designed for them, and then they all
adjourned to another tent where a great feast was prepared for them.

"Are ye hungry?" inquired Joe of Dick as they walked along.

"Ay, that am I. I feel as if I could eat a buffalo alive. Why, it's my
'pinion we've tasted nothin' since daybreak this mornin'."

"Well, I've often told ye that them Red-skins think it a disgrace to
give in eatin' till all that's set before them at a feast is bolted.
We'll ha' to stretch oursel's, we will."

"I'se got a plenty room," remarked Henri.

"Ye have, but ye'll wish ye had more in a little."

"Bien, I not care!"

In a quarter of an hour all the guests invited to this great _medicine_
feast were assembled. No women were admitted. They never are at Indian
feasts.

We may remark in passing, that the word "medicine," as used among the
North American Indians, has a very much wider signification than it has
with us. It is an almost inexplicable word. When asked, they cannot
give a full or satisfactory explanation of it themselves. In the
general, we may say that whatever is mysterious is "medicine." Jugglery
and conjuring, of a noisy, mysterious, and, we must add, rather silly
nature, is "medicine," and the juggler is a "medicine-man." These
medicine-men undertake cures, but they are regular charlatans, and know
nothing whatever of the diseases they pretend to cure, or their
remedies. They carry bags containing sundry relics; these are "medicine
bags." Every brave has his own private medicine bag. Everything that
is incomprehensible, or supposed to be supernatural, religious, or
medical, is "medicine." This feast, being an unusual one, in honour of
strangers, and in connection with a peculiar and unexpected event, was
"medicine." Even Crusoe, since his gallant conduct in saving the Indian
child, was "medicine"; and Dick Varley's double-barrelled rifle, which
had been an object of wonder ever since his arrival at the village, was
tremendous "medicine!"

Of course the Indians were arrayed in their best; several wore necklaces
of the claws of the grizzly bear, of which they are extremely proud; and
a gaudily picturesque group they were. The chief, however, had
undergone a transformati