A NOVEL HORSE-FAIR. 87 
like maddened fiends. Hoping to attract my 
attention, they ride much closer than seems quite 
consistent with my personal safety. So I en- 
sconce myself in a ‘Coral,’ and contemplate the 
fair over the strong railings quite as agreeably 
and very much more safely than outside. 
Half-naked savages, one after another (often 
two or three together), dash up to the rails, and 
fling themselves from off the panting horses; run 
their hands down the length of the horse’s back, 
to show it has no galls or sores; tickle its flanks 
and creep under its belly, to demonstrate its 
docility; drag open the lips, to show the teeth ; 
invariably ask four times the sum they intend to 
take ; give a frantic yell on being offered less ; 
spring again upon the horses’ backs, to gallop 
furiously about, until, tired of further exhibition, 
and hopeless of exacting a larger sum, they ride 
quietly to the ‘ Coral,’ turn in the horses, and re- 
ceive payment. The detail of all my bargainings 
would afford the reader but little interest; suffice 
it to say, I made many purchases, and afterwards 
adjourned to the American garrison. 
It is difficult to say when horses were intro- 
duced into the Indian country west of the Rocky 
Mountains, but most probably about the com- 
mencement of this century. They are clearly 
