are, where they are soon slaughtered by the
arrow or the gun.

The buffaloe tongue, when well cured, is of excellent flavour, and is
much esteemed, together with the _bos_, or hump of the animal, that is
formed on the point of the shoulders. The meat is much easier of
digestion than English beef; and many pounds of it are often taken by
the hungry traveller just before he wraps himself in his buffaloe robe
for the night without the least inconvenience.

On my return to the Fort, I had an opportunity of hearing from a chief
of a small tribe of Chipewyans, surrounded by a party of his young men,
a most pathetic account, and a powerful declaration of revenge against
the Sioux Indians, who had tomahawked and scalped his son. Laying his
hand upon his heart as he related the tragical circumstance, he
emphatically exclaimed, 'It is _here_ I am affected, and _feel_ my
loss;' then raising his hand above his head, he said, 'the spirit of my
son cries for vengeance. It must be appeased. His bones lie on the
ground uncovered. We want ammunition: give us powder and ball, and we
will go and revenge his death upon our enemies.' Their public speeches
are full of bold metaphor, energy and pathos. "No Greek or Roman orator
ever spoke perhaps with more strength and sublimity than one of their
chiefs when asked to remove with his tribe to a distance from their
native soil." 'We were born,' said he, 'on this ground, our fathers lie
buried in it, shall we say to the bones of our fathers, arise, and come
with us into a foreign land?'

One of the Indians left his wampum, or belt, at the Fort as a pledge
that he would return and pay the value of an article which was given to
him at his request. They consider this deposit sacred and inviolable,
and as giving a sanction to their words, their promises and their
treaties. They are seldom known to fail in redeeming the pledge; and
they ratify their agreements with each other by a mutual exchange of
the wampum, regarding it with the smoking of tobacco, as the great test
of sincerity.

In conducting their war excursions, they act upon the same principle as
in hunting. They are vigilant in espying out the track of those whom
they pursue, and will follow them over the praries, and through the
forests, till they have discovered where they halt; when they wait with
the greatest patience, under every privation, either lurking in the
grass, or concealing themselves in the bushes, till an opportunity
of