LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 63 



leaving their animals in charge of a few of the party, and, 

 scattering, advanced, under cover of the sage-bushes which 

 dotted the bottom, to about two hundred yards of the 

 whites. Then a chief advanced before the rest, and made 

 the sign for a talk with the Long-knives, which led to a 

 consultation amongst the latter as to the policy of acceding 

 to it. They were in doubts as to the nation these Indians 

 belonged to, some bands of the 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 Brules, and that the chief ad- 

 vancing towards them was the well-known Tah-sha-tunga 

 or Bull Tail, a most friendly chief of that tribe. The ma- 

 jority, 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 pre- 

 paring a dog-feast to entertain their friends ? The whites 

 were passing through his country, burning his wood, drink- 

 ing 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 loved 

 rather to speak with his bow and his lance than with the 

 weapon of a squaw. He had said it : the Long-knives had 

 horses with them and mules ; and these were for him, he 



