it. "They could speak only their native dialect," said Colton, "not a word of which I could understand. We had to make ourselves intelligible by signs. They wanted to purchase the belt, and each laid down a piece of gold, which were worth in the aggregate some $200. I took one of the pieces and gave the Indian to whom it belonged the belt. They made signs for a piece of coin. I offered them an eagle but it was not what they wanted; a Spanish mill dollar, but they wanted something smaller; a fifty-cent piece, and they signified it would do. Taking the coin they fastened it in the end of a stick so as to expose nearly the entire circle, and set it up about forty yards distant. Then they cast lots, by a bone which they threw into the air, for the order in which they should discharge their arrows. The one who had the first shot drew his long, sinewy bow and missed; the second, he missed; the third, and he missed, though the arrow of each flew so near the coin that it would have killed a deer at that distance. The second now shot first and grazed the coin; then the third, who broke his string and shot with the bow of the second, but missed. And now the first took his turn and struck the coin, whirling it off at a great distance. The other two gave hiim the belt which he tied around his head instead of a blanket, and away they started over the hills full of wild life and glee, leaving the coin as a thing of no importance in the bushes where it had been whirled."
To the discharged volunteer, Henry I. Simpson, who was there in August 1848, the natives at work near Mormon island appeared exceedingly singular. They "were dressed in strange fantastic guise; instead of the breech clout, which used to be their ch ief article of the toilet, gaudy calicoes, bright colored handkerchiefs, and strips of red cloth were showily exhibited about their persons. The first party with whom we came up, consisted of an old Indian with his squaw, and a youth about fifteen; they seemed to
