that the steelyard is a great medicine which no brave
can understand, and which can only be manipulated by a white
medicine-man.

This white medicine-man was in olden times a terrible demon in the eyes'
of the Indian. His power reached far into the plains; he possessed three
medicines of the very highest order: his heart could sing, demons sprung
from the light of his candle, and he had a little box stronger than the
strongest Indian. When a large band of the Blackfeet would assemble at
Edmonton, years ago, the Chief Factor would-win-dup his musical box, get
his magic lantern ready, and take out his galvanic battery. Imparting
with the last-named article a terrific shock to the frame of the Indian
chief, he would warn him that far out in the plains he could at will
inflict the same medicine upon him if he ever behaved badly. "Look," he
would say, "now my heart beats for you," then the spring of the little
musical box concealed under his coat would be touched, and lo! the heart
of the white trader would sing with the strength of his love for the
Blackfeet. "To-morrow I start to cross the mountains against the Nez
Perces," a chief would say, "what says my white brother, don't he dream
that my arm will be strong in battle, and that the scalps and horses of
the Nez Perces will be ours?" "I have dreamt that you are to draw one of
these two little sticks which I hold in my hand. If you draw the right
one, your arm will be strong, your eye keen, the horses of the Nez Perces
will be yours; but, listen, the fleetest horse must come to me; you will
have to give me the best steed in the band of the Nez Perces. Woe betide
you if you should draw the wrong stick!" Trembling with fear, the
Blackfoot would approach and draw the bit of wood. "My brother, you are a
great chief, you have drawn the right stick--your fortune is assured,
go." Three weeks later a magnificent horse, the pride of some Nez Perce
chief on the lower Columbia, would be led into the fort on the
Saskatchewan, and when next the Blackfoot chief came to visit the white
medicine-man a couple of freshly taken scalps would dangle from his spear
shaft.

In former times, when rum was used in the trade, the most frightful
scenes were in the habit of occurring in the Indian room. The fire-water,
although freely diluted with water soon reduced the assemblage to a state
of wild hilarity, quickly followed by stupidity and sleep. The fire-water
for the Crees was composed of thre