IN THE OLD WEST 281 



assemble for their " talks," whilst the third Is the 

 common dining-hall, where the traders, trappers, 

 and hunters, and all employes, feast upon the best 

 provender the game-covered country affords. 

 Over the culinary department presided of late 

 years a fair lady of color, Charlotte by name, who 

 was, as she loved to say, " de onlee lady in de dam 

 Injun country," and who, moreover, was celebrated 

 from Long's Peak to the Cumbres Espanolas for 

 slapjacks and pumpkin pies. 



Here congregate at certain seasons the mer- 

 chants of the plains and mountains, with their 

 stocks of peltry. Chiefs of the Shian, the Kio- 

 way, and Arapaho, sit in solemn conclave with the 

 head traders, and smoke the calumet over their 

 real and imaginary grievances. Now 0-cun-no- 

 whurst, the Yellow Wolf, grand chief of the 

 Shian, complains of certain grave offenses against 

 the dignity of his nation! A trader from the 

 " big lodge " (the fort) has been in his village, and 

 before the trade was opened, in laying the custom- 

 ary chief's gift " on the prairie " has not " opened 

 his hand," but " squeezed out his present between 

 his fingers," grudgingly and with too sparing 

 measure. This was hard to bear, but the Yellow 

 Wolf would say no more ! 



Tah-kai-buhl, or, " He Who Jumps," Is deputed 

 from the Kioway to warn the white traders not to 

 proceed to the Canadian to trade with the Com- 

 anche. That nation is mad — a " heap mad " 



