the warbling of the birds in the fall. At the great council of the
Arrapahoes, the ten girls will be offered to ten great chiefs, and ten
great chiefs will offer their own daughters to our ten young warriors;
they will offer peace for ever; they will exchange all the scalps, and
they will say that their fathers, the Shoshones, will once more open
their arms to their brave children. Our best hunting-ground shall be
theirs; they will fish the salmon of our rivers; they will be Arrapahoes
Shoshones; we will become Shoshones Arrapahoes. I have already sent to
the settlement of the Watchinangoes my ancient Pale-face friend of the
stout heart and keen eye; shortly we will see at the Post a vessel with
arms, ammunition, and presents for the nation. I will go myself with a
party of warriors to the prairies of the Apaches, and among the
Comanches.

"Yet I hear within me a stout voice, which I must obey. My grandfather,
the old chief, has said he should be no more a chief. It was wrong, very
wrong; the Manitou is angry. Is the buffalo less a buffalo when he grows
old, or the eagle less an eagle when a hundred winters have whitened his
wings? No! their nature cannot change, not more than that of a chief and
that chief, a chief of the Shoshones!

"Owato Wanisha will remain what he is; he is too young to be the great
chief of the whole of a great nation. His wish is good, but his wisdom
is of yesterday; he cannot rule. To rule belongs to those who have
deserved doing so, by long experience. No! Owato Wanisha will lead his
warriors to the war-path, or upon the trail of the buffalo; he will go
and talk to the grandchildren of the Shoshones; more he cannot do!

"Let now the squaws prepare the farewell meal, and make ready the green
paint; to-morrow I shall depart, with fifty of my young men. I
have spoken."

The council being broken up, I had to pass through the ceremony of
smoking the pipe and shaking hands with those who could call themselves
warriors. On the following morning, fifty magnificent horses, richly
caparisoned, were led to the lawn before the council lodge. Fifty
warriors soon appeared, in their gaudiest dresses, all armed with the
lance, bow, and lasso, and rifle suspended across the shoulder. Then
there was a procession of all the tribe, divided into two bands, the
first headed by the chiefs and holy men; the other, by the young
virgins. Then the dances commenced; the elders sang their exploits of
former days, as an