whiskey and tobacco; so he had nothing
left wherewith to purchase the indispensable horse. Without the animal
no wife was to be had, and he was in a terrible predicament; for the
hunting season was long since over, and it wanted a whole month of the
time for a new starting out.

Baptiste was a very determined man, however, and he shouldered his
rifle, intent on accomplishing by a laborious prosecution of the chase
the means of winning his loved one from her parents, notwithstanding
that the elements and the times were against him. He worked
industriously, and after many days was rewarded by a goodly supply of
beavers, otters, and mink which he had trapped, besides many a deerskin
whose wearer he had shot. Returning to his lodge, where he cached his
peltry, he again started out for the forest with hope filling his heart.
Three weeks passed in indifferent success, when one morning, having
entered a deep canyon, which evidently led out to an open prairie where
he thought game might be found, while busy cutting his way through a
thicket of briers with his knife, he suddenly came upon a little valley,
where he saw what caused him to retrace his footsteps into the thicket.

And here it is necessary to relate a custom peculiar to all Indian
tribes. No young man, though his father were the greatest chief in the
nation, can range himself among the warriors, be entitled to enter the
marriage state, or enjoy any other rights of savage citizenship until
he shall have performed some act of personal bravery and daring, or
be sprinkled with the blood of his enemies. In the early springtime,
therefore, all the young men who are of the proper age band themselves
together and take to the forest in search--like the knight-errant of
old--of adventure and danger. Having decided upon a secluded and secret
spot, they collect a number of poles from twenty to thirty feet in
length, and, lashing them together at the small ends, form a huge
conical lodge, which they cover with grass and boughs. Inside they
deposit various articles, with which to "make medicine," or as a
propitiatory offering to the Great Spirit; generally a green buffalo
head, kettles, scalps, blankets, and other things of value, of which the
most prominent and revered is the sacred pipe. The party then enters the
lodge and the first ceremony is smoking this pipe. One of the young men
fills it with tobacco and herbs, places a coal on it from the fire
that has been already kindl