42 SNOW-SHOES. 



He seemed to be as friendly as usual with Tom Boot, till the 

 latter happened to leave the cabin, -when he showed me a lock 

 of Tom Boot's hair, which he said he had pulled out during 

 the struggle, and by means of which he assured me he could 

 make him " heap-a-sick." It seems that Indians who are 

 very superstitious believe that if an enemy can get hold of a 

 bit of their hair, he can, by throwing a little now and then into 

 the fire, cause them to have a very serious illness. 



A-ta-ka-koup had come to make peace with me, as I was 

 much too valuable a friend to quarrel with, and he had brought 

 me a pair of moccasins as a peace offering. 



For a long time I would not look at him or his offering, 

 though the latter lay just in front of me, and when he called 

 my attention to it I pushed it towards him, when he would 

 wait a few moments and then put it in front of me again. 

 This went on for fully an hour, as I was employed in making 

 some dog-harness. When I had finished what I had been 

 doing, I called Badger and gave the old fellow a good talking 

 to, ending by saying that if I had any more trouble I should 

 leave that part of the country, and he would then lose all I had 

 intended giving him before I went away in the spring. He 

 was very penitent, and we eventually shook hands, and I had 

 no reason to find fault with him again. After this I often went 

 hunting with him, and found him to be a first-rate tracker and 

 a wonderful man on snow-shoes in deep snow. 



I had come to America believing that a man could do eight 

 or even ten miles an hour on snow-shoes, and that you went 

 along on the surface ; but all this I found to be a mistake 

 the fact being that when the snow is soft you frequently go 

 in to your knees, and have at each step to shake off the snow 



