80 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



Gonneville, who spoke the Sioux language, and was well ac- 

 quainted with the nation, affirmed that 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 Brule s, and that the chief advancing toward them was the 

 well-known Tah-sha-tunga or Bull Tail, a most friendly chief of 

 that tribe. The majority, 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 toward the savage, who awaited his approach envel- 

 oped in the folds of his blanket. At a glance he knew him to be 

 a Yanka-tau, from the peculiar make of his moccasins, and the 

 way in which his face was daubed with paint. 



" Howgh I" 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 preparing a dog-feast to entertain their 

 friends ? The whites were passing through his country, burning 

 his wood, drinking 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 in- 

 tended 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, 



