LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 69 



tioii to their will excites. One of the trappers, on arriving at the 

 camping-place, dismounted from his horse, and, after divesting it 

 of the saddle, endeavored to lead his mule by the rope up to the 

 spot where he wished to deposit his pack. Mule-like, however, 

 the more he pulled the more stubbornly she remained in her tracks, 

 planting her fore-legs firmly, and stretching out her neck with 

 provoking obstinacy. Truth to tell, it does require the temper of 

 a thousand Jobs to manage a miule ; and in no case does the willful 

 mulishness of the animal stir up one's choler more than in the very 

 trick this one played, and which is a daily occurrence. After 

 tugging ineffectually for several minutes, winding the rope round 

 his bq^y, and throwing himself suddenly forward with all his 

 strength, the trapper actually foamed Avith passion ; and although 

 he might have subdued the animal at once by fastening the rope 

 with a half-hitch round its nose, this, with an obstinacy equal to 

 that of the mule itself, he refused to attempt, preferring to vanquish 

 her by main strength. Failing so to do, the mountaineer, with a 

 voUy of blasphemous imprecations, suddenly seized his rifle, and 

 leveling it at the mule's head, shot her dead. 



Passing the Wa-ka-rifeha, a well-timbered stream, they met a 

 band of Osages going '' to buffalo." These Indians, in common 

 with some tribes of the Pawnees, shave the head, with the ex- 

 ception of a ridge from the forehead to the center of the scalp, 

 which is " reached" or hogged like the mane of a mule, and stands 

 erecfr, plastered with unguents, and ornamented with feathers of 

 the hawk and turkey. The naked scalp is often painted in mosaic 

 with black and red, the face with shining vermilion. This band 

 were all naked to the breech-clout, the warmth of the sun having 

 made them throw their dirty blankets from their shoulders. These 

 Indians not unfrequently levy contributions on the strangers they 

 accidentally meet ; but they easily distinguish the determined 

 mountaineer from the incautious greenhorn, and think it better to 

 let the former alone. 



