TWENTY YEARS IN THE ROCKIES. !$! 



cause they think these feathers strengthen their medicine, 

 and make them like the owl a bird which can see in the 

 dark, and moves noiselessly, seeking its food after the other 

 birds have folded their wings for the night. Otter skins, 

 they think, impart to them the shrewdness of the otter. 

 They are quick to notice the peculiarities of animals,, and 

 value them accordingly. When hunting, they scarcely ever 

 kill a bear, a wolf or a lion, for these animals are bad medi- 

 cine, and bring poor luck. 



The name Absarokee (Crow), originated from the 

 sparrow hawk. The Crows speak a dialect of their own and 

 also have a method of making known their ideas by signs 

 and gestures. The latter they use altogether when low- 

 spirited or when traveling. The Crows, Sioux, Piegans, 

 the Bloods and Gros Ventres, are properly Blackfeet 

 Indians. Little quarrels have separated them, until they 

 themselves scarcely know to what tribe their forefathers 

 belonged, and historians are getting them badly confounded. 

 These Crows stayed with us two days, and then started for 

 the buffalo range on the dry fork of the Missouri River, to 

 obtain their yearly supply of meat and robes. 



Geese were valuable for their feathers in those days. 

 Steward and I made a bargain with Mrs. Hoskins,, to kill 

 one hundred geese for her, at one dollar each. We thought 

 we had the best of the bargain, as we felt sure we could kill 

 that number in two days, or less, so we went down the river, 

 and camped the first night near the water's edge, just above 

 Pompey's pillar. 



We were upon the road before it was fairly light the 

 next morning, to take advantage of the early hours, when 

 geese are flying about in greater numbers than at any other 

 time of the day. We reached the mouth of Fly Creek in 

 good time, stopped there two whole days, industriously hunt- 



