IN THE OLD WEST 227 



in the scenery had also a sensible effect on 

 the spirits of the mountaineers. They traveled 

 on in silence through the deserted plains ; the hi- 

 hi-hiya of their Indian chants was no longer heard 

 enlivening the line of march. More than once a 

 Digger of the Piyutah tribe took himself and hair 

 in safety from their path, and almost unnoticed; 

 but as they advanced they became more cautious 

 in their movements, and testified, by the vigilant 

 watch they kept, that they anticipated hostile 

 attacks even in these arid wastes. They had 

 passed without molestation through the country 

 infested by the bolder Indians. The mountain 

 Yutas, not relishing the appearance of the 

 hunters, had left them unmolested ; but they were 

 now entering a country inhabited by the most de- 

 graded and abject of the western tribes; who, 

 nevertheless, ever suffering from the extremities of 

 hunger, have their brutish wits sharpened by the 

 necessity of procuring food, and rarely fail to levy 

 a contribution of rations, of horse or mule flesh, 

 on the passenger in their inhospitable country. 

 The brutish cunning and animal instinct of these 

 wretches is such, that, although arrant cowards, 

 their attacks are more feared than those of bolder 

 Indians. These people — called the Yamparicas 

 or Root Diggers — are, nevertheless, the degen- 

 erate descendants of those tribes which once over- 

 ran that portion of the continent of North 

 America now comprehended within the boundaries 



