362 INDIANS. 



presents for his. favourite wife, or for a young girl whom 

 he wishes to make a wife, or possibly for the wife of some 

 other warrior to whom he has taken a fancy. When all 

 this is done, if any robes are left, he graciously permits 

 his wives to dispose of them as suits their own pleasure. 



For what the Indians have come to consider neces- 

 saries sugar, coffee, tea, flour, Indian cloth, blankets, 

 calico, beads, needles and thread, knives, paint, &c. the 

 price agreed upon beforehand is rigidly demanded of 

 each trader. 



Unless one has purchased at better rates than the 

 other, neither gains any special advantage in this regular 

 trade, except in the number of robes purchased. It is 

 in the sale of trinkets, gewgaws, and articles of Indian 

 finery and Indian luxury, and on which a stated price 

 cannot be set, that the real competition is created and 

 the great profits made. 



A novelty has great charms for an Indian, who will 

 pay a hundred times its value for an article new to him 

 which strikes his fancy. He has no real standard of 

 value, and what he will give for an article, not in the 

 sale, is regulated entirely by the greatness of his desire 

 for it. The trader understands this perfectly, and not 

 unfrequently gets two or three robes for a piece of tawdry 

 jewellery which probably cost him twenty-five cents. 

 The trade continues until each family has bought all it 

 needs, or until the robes give out. 



In some instances traders have established permanent 

 store tents at the Indian camp, kept open as an ordinary 

 store all the winter. This, however, is not so profitable 

 an arrangement as it would appear ; for the Indians are 

 not only arrant thieves, but most importunate beggars, 

 and the trader is compelled to be giving something all the 

 time, or risk losing the favour of the chiefs and head men. 



The price of a buffalo robe has very greatly increased 

 within the last two or three years. In 1871-2 it was 

 worth from seven to nine cups of sugar ; a red Mackinac 



