IN THE OLD WEST 123 



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 knew, and for 

 his braves. Let the White-face go back to his 

 people and return with the animals, or he, the 

 Brave Bear, would have to come and take them; 

 and his young men would get mad and would feel 

 blood in their eyes ; and then he would have no 

 power over them; and the whites would have to 

 go under." 



The trapper answered shortly. " The Long- 

 knives," he said, " had brought the horses for 

 themselves — their hearts were big, but not 

 towards the Yanka-taus ; and if they had to give 

 up their animals, it would be to men and not 

 squaws. They were not * wah-keitcha ' * (French 

 engages), but Long-knives; and, however short 

 were the tongues of the Yanka-taus, theirs were 

 still shorter, and their rifles longer. The Yanka- 

 taus were dogs and squaws, and the Long-knives 

 spat upon them." 



* The French Canadians are called wah-keitcha — " bad 

 medicine " — by the Indians, who account them treacherous 

 and vindictive, and at the same time less daring than the 

 American hunters. 



