sed to invite me to continual feasts at all hours of the
day. Once when the substantial part of the entertainment was concluded,
and he and I were seated cross-legged on a buffalo robe smoking together
very amicably, he took down his warlike equipments, which were
hanging around the lodge, and displayed them with great pride and
self-importance. Among the rest was a most superb headdress of feathers.
Taking this from its case, he put it on and stood before me, as if
conscious of the gallant air which it gave to his dark face and his
vigorous, graceful figure. He told me that upon it were the feathers of
three war-eagles, equal in value to the same number of good horses. He
took up also a shield gayly painted and hung with feathers. The effect
of these barbaric ornaments was admirable, for they were arranged with
no little skill and taste. His quiver was made of the spotted skin of a
small panther, such as are common among the Black Hills, from which the
tail and distended claws were still allowed to hang. The White Shield
concluded his entertainment in a manner characteristic of an Indian. He
begged of me a little powder and ball, for he had a gun as well as bow
and arrows; but this I was obliged to refuse, because I had scarcely
enough for my own use. Making him, however, a parting present of a paper
of vermilion, I left him apparently quite contented.

Unhappily on the next morning the White Shield took cold and was
attacked with a violent inflammation of the throat. Immediately he
seemed to lose all spirit, and though before no warrior in the village
had borne himself more proudly, he now moped about from lodge to lodge
with a forlorn and dejected air. At length he came and sat down, close
wrapped in his robe, before the lodge of Reynal, but when he found that
neither he nor I knew how to relieve him, he arose and stalked over to
one of the medicine-men of the village. This old imposter thumped him
for some time with both fists, howled and yelped over him, and beat a
drum close to his ear to expel the evil spirit that had taken possession
of him. This vigorous treatment failing of the desired effect, the White
Shield withdrew to his own lodge, where he lay disconsolate for some
hours. Making his appearance once more in the afternoon, he again took
his seat on the ground before Reynal's lodge, holding his throat with
his hand. For some time he sat perfectly silent with his eyes fixed
mournfully on the ground. At last h