rs, whooping and yelling
like maniacs.

This done, their mock fury sank into a calm, and the chief, approaching
the captain, who had remained warily drawn up, though informed of the
pacific nature of the maneuver, extended to him the hand of friendship.
The pipe of peace was smoked, and now all was good fellowship.

The Crows were in pursuit of a band of Cheyennes, who had attacked their
village in the night and killed one of their people. They had already
been five and twenty days on the track of the marauders, and were
determined not to return home until they had sated their revenge.

A few days previously, some of their scouts, who were ranging the
country at a distance from the main body, had discovered the party of
Captain Bonneville. They had dogged it for a time in secret, astonished
at the long train of wagons and oxen, and especially struck with the
sight of a cow and calf, quietly following the caravan; supposing them
to be some kind of tame buffalo. Having satisfied their curiosity, they
carried back to their chief intelligence of all that they had seen. He
had, in consequence, diverged from his pursuit of vengeance to behold
the wonders described to him. "Now that we have met you," said he to
Captain Bonneville, "and have seen these marvels with our own eyes, our
hearts are glad." In fact, nothing could exceed the curiosity evinced by
these people as to the objects before them. Wagons had never been seen
by them before, and they examined them with the greatest minuteness; but
the calf was the peculiar object of their admiration. They watched it
with intense interest as it licked the hands accustomed to feed it, and
were struck with the mild expression of its countenance, and its perfect
docility.

After much sage consultation, they at length determined that it must
be the "great medicine" of the white party; an appellation given by the
Indians to anything of supernatural and mysterious power that is guarded
as a talisman. They were completely thrown out in their conjecture,
however, by an offer of the white men to exchange the calf for a horse;
their estimation of the great medicine sank in an instant, and they
declined the bargain.

At the request of the Crow chieftain the two parties encamped together,
and passed the residue of the day in company. The captain was
well pleased with every opportunity to gain a knowledge of the
"unsophisticated sons of nature," who had so long been objects of his
poetic