men, among my people, who study
their great medicines until they believe themselves to be gods, and who
laugh at all faith except in their own vanities. It may be true. It is
true; for I have seen them. When man is shut up in towns and schools,
with his own follies, it may be easy to believe himself greater than the
Master of Life; but a warrior, who lives in a house with the clouds for
its roof, where he can at any moment look both at the heavens and at the
earth, and who daily sees the power of the Great Spirit, should be more
humble. A Dahcotah chieftain ought to be too wise to laugh at justice."

The crafty Mahtoree, who saw that his free-thinking was not likely to
produce a favourable impression on the old man, instantly changed his
ground, by alluding to the more immediate subject of their interview.
Laying his hand gently on the shoulder of the trapper, he led him
forward, until they both stood within fifty feet of the margin of the
thicket. Here he fastened his penetrating eyes on the other's honest
countenance, and continued the discourse--

"If my father has hid his young men in the bush, let him tell them to
come forth. You see that a Dahcotah is not afraid. Mahtoree is a great
chief! A warrior, whose head is white, and who is about to go to the
Land of Spirits, cannot have a tongue with two ends, like a serpent."

"Dahcotah, I have told no lie. Since the Great Spirit made me a man, I
have lived in the wilderness, or on these naked plains, without lodge or
family. I am a hunter and go on my path alone."

"My father has a good carabine. Let him point it in the bush and fire."

The old man hesitated a moment, and then slowly prepared himself to give
this delicate assurance of the truth of what he said, without which he
plainly perceived the suspicions of his crafty companion could not be
lulled. As he lowered his rifle, his eye, although greatly dimmed and
weakened by age, ran over the confused collection of objects, that
lay embedded amid the party-coloured foliage of the thicket, until it
succeeded in catching a glimpse of the brown covering of the stem of a
small tree. With this object in view, he raised the piece to a level
and fired. The bullet had no sooner glided from the barrel than a tremor
seized the hands of the trapper, which, had it occurred a moment sooner,
would have utterly disqualified him for so hazardous an experiment. A
frightful silence succeeded the report, during which he expected to h