THE MULE DEER. 319 



not before he received such a shower of perfume as made 

 him the bane of every person he came in contact with for a 

 week or two afterward. 



Our stock of venison was so large that we had to trans- 

 port it in detail on the backs of the mules and mustangs to 

 the valley, and this required two days to accomplish ; for 

 some of the deer were so heavy that one was an ample load 

 over rough ground. When all were together we cached 

 them in a ravine ; and while my friend went home after 

 two wagons to take our trophies back, I remained behind 

 to keep guard over them, and to spend a day by myself in 

 the mountains. 



Mounting my mustang early in the morning, I rode to- 

 ward the Indian camp, and reached it in three hours ; but 

 where all had been barbaric revelry a few days before, noth- 

 ing was now to be seen except old poles and piles of bones 

 and offal. While wandering carelessly through it, I was 

 startled to see two creatures, which bore a strong resem- 

 blance to revivified mummies, seated under a loickiup made 

 of a few fir-branches ; and, on drawing near them, I found 

 they were a squaw and a buck, who were so aged that their 

 skin was one mass of flabby wrinkles, and so decayed that 

 their features looked like old and crumpled parchment. 

 They were so blind that they could not see me, though 

 only a few feet distant; and it was only when I spoke that 

 they recognized my presence, and gave me to understand 

 by the sign language they knew I was a white man. 



The only food they had was a few pieces of dog-meat, 

 which were hung from a pole near them, while a feeble fire 

 of wet boughs was the only heat they had to warm their 

 stagnant blood. Though I could not speak to them, I knew 

 what their fate was; for it is a common custom among the 

 Indians to leave the aged and decrepit behind them when 

 they go on a long march or on a hunt; because they are 

 considered to be too much of a burden to be taken along, 

 and are deemed to be of no greater use than to feed wild 

 animals, which they sometimes do, or to eat up the sub- 

 stance of the young, which they are not often allowed to 



