ith cords fastened to the splints, towards the
top of the lodge. Not a muscle of their features expressed fear or
pain.

_Basil._ Shocking! shocking!

_Brian._ That must be horrible!

_Hunter._ After this, other splints were run through their arms,
thighs and legs; and on these were hung their shields, arms and
medicine bags. In this situation they were taunted, and turned round
with poles till they fainted; and when, on being let down again, they
recovered, those who had superior hardihood would crawl to the buffalo
skull in the centre of the lodge, and lay upon it the little finger of
their left hand to be chopped off; and even the loss of a second or
third finger is counted evidence of superior boldness and devotion.
After this, they were hurried along between strong and fleet runners:
this was called "the last race," round and round the Great Canoe, till
the weight of their arms having pulled the splints from their bodies,
they once more fainted, and in this state, apparently dead, they were
left to themselves, to live or die, as the Great Spirit might
determine.

_Austin._ I should think that hardly any of them would ever come to
life again.

_Hunter._ Nor would they, under common circumstances; but, when we
consider that these young men had fasted for four days, and lost much
blood in their tortures, there was not much danger of inflammation
from their wounds, and their naturally strong constitutions enabled
them to recover. All these tortures were willingly undertaken; nor
would any one of those who endured them, on any account whatever, have
evaded them. To propitiate the Great Spirit, and to stand well in the
estimation of his own tribe, are the two highest objects in the mind
of an Indian.

* * * * *

The day after that on which Austin and his brothers heard from the
hunter the account of the mystery lodge, and the sufferings of the
young Mandans before they were thought equal to engage in a war-party,
two or three little accidents occurred. In the first place, Austin, in
making a new bow, cut a deep gash in his finger: and, in the next,
Brian and Basil, in scrambling among the hedges in quest of straight
twigs for arrows, met with their mishaps; for Brian got a thorn in his
thumb, while Basil had a roll down the bank into a dry ditch.

It is always a good sign in young people, when they put into practice
any real or supposed good quality of which they hear or read. Th