ire day in her
sight, it seemed as if the longings of her curiosity were increasing
with each new gaze. She regarded them as beings of an entirely different
nature and condition from the females of the prairie. Even the mystery
of their complicated attire had its secret influence on her simple mind,
though it was the grace and charms of sex, to which nature has made
every people so sensible, that most attracted her admiration. But
while her ingenuous disposition freely admitted the superiority of the
strangers over the less brilliant attractions of the Dahcotah maidens,
she had seen no reason to deprecate their advantages. The visit that she
was now about to receive, was the first which her husband had made
to the tent since his return from the recent inroad, and he was ever
present to her thoughts, as a successful warrior, who was not ashamed,
in the moments of inaction, to admit the softer feelings of a father and
a husband.

We have every where endeavoured to show that while Mahtoree was in all
essentials a warrior of the prairies, he was much in advance of
his people in those acquirements which announce the dawnings of
civilisation. He had held frequent communion with the traders and troops
of the Canadas, and the intercourse had unsettled many of those wild
opinions which were his birthright, without perhaps substituting any
others of a nature sufficiently definite to be profitable. His reasoning
was rather subtle than true, and his philosophy far more audacious than
profound. Like thousands of more enlightened beings, who fancy they
are able to go through the trials of human existence without any other
support than their own resolutions, his morals were accommodating and
his motive selfish. These several characteristics will be understood
always with reference to the situation of the Indian, though little
apology is needed for finding resemblances between men, who essentially
possess the same nature, however it may be modified by circumstances.

Notwithstanding the presence of Inez and Ellen, the entrance of the
Teton warrior into the lodge of his favourite wife, was made with the
tread and mien of a master. The step of his moccasin was noiseless,
but the rattling of his bracelets, and of the silver ornaments of his
leggings, sufficed to announce his approach, as he pushed aside the skin
covering of the opening of the tent, and stood in the presence of its
inmates. A faint cry of pleasure burst from the lips of T