122 SPORTING AB VENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



something wrong, retreated rapidly, and before I knew 

 what he wanted, was out on the road, and staring at the 

 house in a surprised manner. When I learned what he 

 desired, I seized the prolongations with the tongs and hand- 

 ed them to him, and he received them with evident feelings 

 of pleasure. He then asked for something to eat, and was 

 furnished with a very large piece of fresh beef. Running 

 a string through this, he slung it on his back and marched 

 proudly away, though to me he presented a most ludicrous 

 aspect ; for his nether dirty-white garments were much too 

 short for him, and were entirely devoid of the portion on 

 which a person usually sits ; his body was perfectly naked, 

 but his head was covered with a battered and crownless 

 " stove-pipe " hat, so that he looked like a " harmony " in 

 black, dusky, and dirty-white. 



As a curious coincidence, the next time that I was suc- 

 cessful in bagging a cougar, I was also a spectator of an 

 Indian funeral service, but it was the opposite of the pre- 

 vious one in character. During a visit that I made to the 

 Snoqualmie Falls, in Washington Territory, I called at an 

 Indian reservation which was under the charge of a self- 

 denying missionary, who had devoted his life to the physical 

 and spiritual welfare of the red man. While I was there a 

 child belonging to one of the best young men in the tribe 

 died, and the priest was sent for to bury her. I accompa- 

 nied him to the little hamlet where a portion of the tribe 

 dwelt, and as soon as we landed from the canoe, all its 

 members marched to the shore, and each in turn touched 

 the priest's hand as a sign of welcome, but no one spoke. 

 When the greeting was over, the men and women assem- 

 bled in a log-cabin, and squatted themselves on their heels 

 around the coffin, or rather box, which was covered with 

 white cloth. After prayers, and the sprinkling of the bier, 

 all formed in procession, the head men being in advance, 

 and they were followed by the young braves and squaws. 

 The pall-bearers consisted of two relatives of the deceased, 

 and they were preceded by a lad who rung a weird-sound- 

 ing bell in measured time every few moments. When the 



