STRENGTH OF INDIANS 23 



track shark, and the sorrier he can make his pony look, 

 if he knows he has speed, the better he is pleased. His 

 pony will, of course, beat a thorough-bred at short dis- 

 tances ; any pony can. He is half down the track before 

 the racer has got his stride. At a mile or two miles the 

 tables are turned, though there are many Avho insist that 

 the bronco is the better at a ten or twenty mile gallop. 

 This opinion is, I think, founded on an intimate knowl- 

 edge of the bronco, but a lack of intimacy with the thor- 

 ough-bred. In the late Berlin -Vienna ride the ponies 

 came in with less apparent injury ; but they W' ere not the 

 winners — and many other factors came into play. 



The Indian does not rank high in beauty, strength, or 

 endurance. There have been tribes in America which 

 produced the finest of specimens ; but if we read Parkman 

 carefully we shall find the Indian of two hundred years 

 ago much what he is to-day, bar a few nasty white man's 

 tricks, learned to the eternal disgrace of the latter. While 

 wonderfully agile and Avith the fortitude which all wild 

 tribes possess, the Indian lacks the strength of our ath- 

 letes ; and in boxing or wrestling, even after a course of 

 instruction, would be no match for an average American. 

 A Sullivan — or rather a Corbett — could knock out two- 

 score of them, " one down t'other come on." But for all 

 that the Indian can perform equestrian feats which strike 

 us as wonderful enough. It is a point of honor with him, 

 as it was with the ancients and is still among many peo- 

 ples, not to leave his dead or wounded in the hands of the 

 enemy, liable to butchery or deprived of the rites of bur- 

 ial ; and he will pick up a warrior from the ground with- 

 out dismounting, almost without slacking speed, throw 

 him across his pony and gallop off. This requires and 

 receives much practice. Sometimes two act together in 

 picking up the man, but one is quite able to accomplish it. 



