an umbrella, an article of which they seemed to have the highest appreciation.
The distribution of the ox was followed, in due course, by the dance, which at once became the centre of attraction, and it was truly a most curious performance. It was confined to a body of men, who had divested themselves of their blankets, and were got up entirely for the occasion in the most fantastic style. A short printed cotton shirt (deriving what extra embellishment it could from daubs of paint smeared across the pattern), with a cloth round the loins, and a cap of some fanciful shape, were the features of dress common to most of them, while some added to these a pair of leathern leggings, reaching perhaps halfway above the knee, and looped up to the waist; others appeared with bare legs profusely painted, as were the faces of all. A few, dressed after the same fashion, and armed with various rude musical instruments, squatted down on the ground as an orchestra, and sent forth a low, moaning, but not inharmonious noise, to the time of which the dancers moved round and round them in a circle, yelling, howling, and throwing up their arms, with gestures and grimaces that defy description. The dance itself was, clearly, genuine enough; the motive of it not so much so, as it proved. We had not been watching the scene long, before (to our chagrin) somebody came round for subscriptions towards the expense of the ox which had purchased the dance. So, after all, the affair had been “got up” for the amusement of the visitors. But it made little difference. The performers certainly gave us our money’s worth, and we had already, before the conclusion of the dance, begun to weary of its monotony, when we learnt that the steamer, whose captain had decided some hours ago to prolong his stay till the dance was over, was going to start. Accordingly Black and I were on our way down hill to remove what little luggage we had on board, when the others came shouting after us to say that they were satisfied with what they had seen, and were for going back in the boat. Black and I were still for staying, so we all came to a friendly agreement, by which we two were to remain, while the rest should return to St. Paul and wait for us to rejoin them there, or in the neighbourhood, within a few days. So we bade them good-bye, saw them off, and remounted the hill with our traps.
Our first object was to make sure of our night’s lodging. Through the superintendent, who was good enough to use his influence on our behalf with the landlord of the boarding-house, we were shown at bed-time into a double-bedded room. One bed was already occupied, while the agent was lounging in his clothes on a neighbouring sofa, and the other bed was pointed out as the one assigned for our joint accommodation. Not holding by the American doctrine that for two to sleep in one bed is one of the essential characteristics of disinterested friendship, we ventured to suggest that it would be more agreeable that one of us should shake himself down with a blanket and pillow on the floor. Our host, however, pardoning the whim, was kind enough to turn the agent over to share the other bed with its present occupant, and gave us the sofa as well, and so we passed the night in comparative comfort.
The next morning, as before, Indians came flocking in from all sides to the Agency, which they seemed to regard for the present as a general rendezvous, and being undisturbed by any special cause of excitement, squatted down in groups under the shelter of their boughs and umbrellas, and fell at once to their own amusements. We thus had an opportunity of making acquaintance with them at leisure, as we sat ourselves down amongst them.
The men were a fine athletic set of fellows, and all, men and women, were endowed with a more or less pleasant cast of features, which, in the case of some of the women, almost merited the name of good looks. I cannot, however, call to mind that, either then or afterwards, I once saw a pure-blooded Indian woman who could be called either pretty or handsome, though fine-looking women were not unfrequently to be met with. But their beauty, such as it is, is, apparently, admired by the whites of the neighbourhood, many of whom take them to wife. The half-breed class, which springs from the union, occupies a most useful position between the two races, and some of the half-breed women have considerable claims to beauty.
The squaws (poor creatures!) are compelled to do all the hard work and drudgery of life, and you may frequently see a poor woman trudging slowly home, half bent beneath the weight of some heavy load, while her jovial lord trots cheerily by on his nag; or thrashing out a heap of Indian corn, while he lounges lazily near with a pipe to his mouth.
Though the Indians are so often spoken of as Red men, their skin is rather bronze in tone than red, and the term is a misnomer.
Not only are their features pleasant, but their manners are frank and good-natured. They always received us sociably, seeming to regard as a matter of course that we should come and look at them, and would examine us with as much curiosity as we expended on them. They appreciate a shake of the hand as a “white” custom which means friendship, and pass their pipes by way of offering a welcome of their own. Here and there a group was busily engaged with a well-thumbed pack of playing-cards, in the popular American game of “poker,” gambling with all the earnestness and calculation of old hands. So well known is their love of play, that the majority of those who crowded our boarding-house were card-sharpers, who had come to speculate on it, and to swindle them out of their money. They can hold their own against fair play. Now and then we drove a bargain for a pipe, or bow, or some such thing, and found, as we had expected, a much cheaper market than on the previous day.
On the next day (Saturday, 22nd), after spending the morning in much the same fashion, we hired a “team” (which, in the States, is another name for a pair of horses), and a long, light, shallow sort of van without springs (which represents the popular form of conveyance in the West), and making ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit, jogged across the