LIFE IN THE PAR WEST 87 



Sioux being friendly, and others bitterly hostile to the 

 whites. 



Gonneville, who spoke the Sioux language, and was 

 well acquainted with the nation, affirmed they belonged 

 to a band called the Yanka-taus, well known to be the 

 most evil-disposed of that treacherous nation ; another 

 of the party maintained they were Bruits, and that the 

 chief advancing towards them was the well-known 

 Tah-sha-tunga or Bull Tail, a most friendly chief of that 

 tribe. The majority, however, trusted to Gonneville, 

 and he volunteered to go out to meet the Indian, and 

 hear what he had to say. Divesting himself of all 

 arms save his butcher-knife, he advanced towards the 

 savage, who awaited his approach enveloped in the folds 

 of his blanket. At a glance he knew him to be a Yanka- 

 tau, from the peculiar make of his mocassins, and the 

 way in which his face was daubed with paint. 



" Howgh !" exclaimed both as they met ; and, after 

 a silence of a few moments, the Indian spoke, asking 

 " Why the Long-knives hid behind their packs when 

 his band approached ? Were they afraid, or were they 

 preparing a dog-feast to entertain their friends ? The 

 whites were passing through his country, burning his 

 wood, drinking his water, and killing his game ; but he 

 knew they had now come to pay for the mischief they 

 had done, and that the mules and horses they had 

 brought with them were intended as a present to their 

 red friends. 



"He was Mah-to-ga-shane," he said, "the Brave 

 Bear : his tongue was short, but his arm long ; and he 



