stinguished without having given
proofs of it, nor can there be any preferment, or influence among the
nation, without some warlike achievement. Those important events which
give reputation to a warrior, and which entitle him to a new name, are
killing a white bear, stealing individually the horses of the enemy,
leading out a party who happen to be successful either in plundering
horses or destroying the enemy, and lastly scalping a warrior. These
acts seem of nearly equal dignity, but the last, that of taking an
enemy's scalp, is an honour quite independent of the act of vanquishing
him. To kill your adversary is of no importance unless the scalp is
brought from the field of battle, and were a warrior to slay any number
of his enemies in action, and others were to obtain the scalps or first
touch the dead, they would have all the honours, since they have borne
off the trophy.

Although thus oppressed by the Minnetarees, the Shoshonees are still a
very military people. Their cold and rugged country inures them to
fatigue; their long abstinence makes them support the dangers of
mountain warfare, and worn down as we saw them, by want of sustenance,
have a look of fierce and adventurous courage. The Shoshonee warrior
always fights on horseback; he possesses a few bad guns, which are
reserved exclusively for war, but his common arms are the bow and arrow,
a shield, a lance and a weapon called by the Chippeways, by whom it was
formerly used, the poggamoggon. The bow is made of cedar or pine covered
on the outer side with sinews and glue. It is about two and a half feet
long, and does not differ in shape from those used by the Sioux, Mandans
and Minnetarees. Sometimes, however, the bow is made of a single piece
of the horn of an elk, covered on the back like those of wood with
sinews and glue, and occasionally ornamented by a strand wrought of
porcupine quills and sinews, which is wrapped round the horn near its
two ends. The bows made of the horns of the bighorn, are still more
prized, and are formed by cementing with glue flat pieces of the horn
together, covering the back with sinews and glue, and loading the whole
with an unusual quantity of ornaments. The arrows resemble those of the
other Indians except in being more slender than any we have seen. They
are contained, with the implements for striking fire, in a narrow quiver
formed of different kinds of skin, though that of the otter seems to be
preferred. It is just lon