k, but the woman overwhelmed him with reproaches.

"'What are you trying to do, you old idiot? Do you want to kill
yourself?' she screamed again and again.

"'Woman, be silent,' he replied, and he said nothing more. He did not
tell his dream for many years afterward. Not until he was a very old man
and about to die, did Hachah tell any one how he thought he could fly."

And at this they all laughed louder than ever.

XII. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CIVILIZATION

I WAS scarcely old enough to know anything definite about the "Big
Knives," as we called the white men, when the terrible Minnesota
massacre broke up our home and I was carried into exile. I have already
told how I was adopted into the family of my father's younger brother,
when my father was betrayed and imprisoned. We all supposed that he had
shared the fate of those who were executed at Mankato, Minnesota.

Now the savage philosophers looked upon vengeance in the field of battle
as a lofty virtue. To avenge the death of a relative or of a dear friend
was considered a great deed. My uncle, accordingly, had spared no pains
to instill into my young mind the obligation to avenge the death of my
father and my older brothers. Already I looked eagerly forward to
the day when I should find an opportunity to carry out his teachings.
Meanwhile, he himself went upon the war-path and returned with scalps
every summer. So it may be imagined how I felt toward the Big Knives!

On the other hand, I had heard marvelous things of this people. In
some things we despised them; in others we regarded them as wakan
(mysterious), a race whose power bordered upon the supernatural. I
learned that they had made a "fireboat." I could not understand how
they could unite two elements which cannot exist together. I thought the
water would put out the fire, and the fire would consume the boat if
it had the shadow of a chance. This was to me a preposterous
thing! But when I was told that the Big Knives had created a
"fire-boat-walks-on-mountains" (a locomotive) it was too much to
believe.

"Why," declared my informant, "those who saw this monster move said that
it flew from mountain to mountain when it seemed to be excited. They
said also that they believed it carried a thunder-bird, for they
frequently heard his usual war-whoop as the creature sped along!"

Several warriors had observed from a distance one of the first trains
on the Northern Pacific, and had gained an exaggerated i