; they plant corn, tobacco, and sweet melons;
they have trees that bear figs and peaches; they feed swine and goats,
and tame buffaloes. They are a great people.

"A red-skin warrior is nothing but a warrior; he is strong, but he is
poor; he is not a wood-chunk, nor a badger, nor a prairie dog; he cannot
dig the ground; he is a warrior, and nothing more. I have spoken."

Of course the tenor of this speech was too much in harmony with Indian
ideas not to be received with admiration. The old man took his seat,
while another rose to speak in his turn.

"The great chief hath spoken: his hair is white like the down of the
swan; his winters have been many; he is wise; why should I speak after
him, his words were true? The Manitou touched my ears and my eyes when
he spoke (and he spoke like a warrior); I heard his war cry. I saw the
Umbiquas running in the swamps, and crawling like black snakes under the
bushes. I spied thirty scalps on his belt, his leggings and mocassins
were sewn with the hair of the Wallah Wallahs. [See note 1.]

"I should not speak; I am young yet and have no wisdom; my words are
few, I should not speak. But in my vision I heard a spirit, it came
upon the breeze, it entered within me.

"Nanawa is my father, the father to all, he loves us, we are his
children; he has brought with him a great warrior of the pale faces, who
was a mighty chief in his tribe; he has given us a young chief who is a
great hunter; in a few years he will be a great warrior, and lead our
young men in the war path on the plains of the Wachinangoes [see note
2], for Owato Wachina [see note 3] is a Shoshone, though his skin is
paler than the flower of the magnolia.

"Nanawa has also given to us two Makota Konayas [see note 4], to teach
wisdom to our young men; their words are sweet, they speak to the heart;
they know every thing and make men better. Nanawa is a great chief,
very wise; what he says is right, what he wishes must be done, for he is
our father, and he gave us strength to fight our enemies.

"He is right, the Shoshones must have their lodges full of corn and
tobacco. The Shoshones must ever be what they are, what they were, a
great nation. But the chief of many winters hath said it; the
hedge-hogs and the foxes may dig the earth, but the eyes of the
Shoshones are always turned towards their enemies in the woods, or the
buffaloes in the plains.

"Yet the will of Nanawa must be done, but not by a Shoshone.