26 REJOIN MY COMPANIONS. 



second Indian to do the same thing, and it was almost 

 morning when I really got off to sleep. 



Sometimes there are other pleasant surprises for the visitor 

 to a lodge, such as a disconsolate widow, going round the camp 

 bewailing her lost husband, which she is supposed to do for six 

 months, unless she gets another in the meantime. He may 

 have beaten her every day with a lodge-pole, and she may have 

 been delighted to have got rid of him, but she must nevertheless 

 go through this performance, and it is always done at night. 

 Then, too, some Indian often gets up and sings for an hour or 

 more, beating an accompaniment on a tom-tom, and no one 

 thinks of sending for a policeman or of shooting him, as would 

 seem natural. 



In the morning five or six of the Indians mounted and rode 

 with me, seeming to know where our camp must be, from being 

 acquainted with all the water-holes in the country, most of the 

 small streams being now dry, and within an hour we met three 

 of our men coming to hunt for me. 



The Indians accompanied us to camp, from which I had been 

 distant only about four miles, where I made them a number of 

 presents and they left apparently very contented ; but I met 

 some of them afterwards at Fort Carlton, where they calmly 

 informed me that for several days after seeing me to camp 

 they had followed us, meaning to steal our horses, and said that 

 they would have had them if a snowstorm had not hidden our 

 tracks, so that they lost us. They owned that we kept very 

 good guard, as they had lain and watched us for hours hoping 

 for a chance, but did not get one, as we brought the horses in 

 before dark and tied them to the waggon. 



I had brought steel hobbles with me from England to lock on 





