of shells around their waists and ankles. They sat in a big 

 ring under my shade, and there was much smoking, talking, 

 and feasting on buffalo and deer meat. After they had gone 

 away, the crows told me that their talk was in regard to having 

 peace among themselves, for red men to quit killing other red 

 men, and in place of that to make war on and kill the white 

 men who lived far away towards the sunset. The crows said 

 that they all finally agreed to this, and went away with that 

 understanding. But the crows all laughed about it, and called 

 the red creatures fools, and said that they would keep on killing 

 one another just as they always had done ever since the crow 

 people had known them. 



"But the white creatures seemed to be just as foolish as 

 the red ones. A great distance away, towards the rising sun, 

 there were many of the whites, as I learned from the birds, 

 and it seemed that those creatures were engaged in fighting 

 and killing one another the most of the time. The crows often 

 talked to me about these killings. It seems there were two 

 breeds or sorts of white people in this distant land, and they 

 were jealous of each other, and each one wanted all the coun- 

 try, and didn't want the other to have any. And the red men 

 mixed up in it too, some fighting on one side and some on 

 the other. Finally one tribe of the white people gave up, and 

 got on some big ships and went away — and there was no 

 more killing for a little while. But soon these white men who 

 now owned all the country fell out among themselves, and 

 began killing each other. There were many ship-loads of them 

 all wearing red coats, who came across the ocean, and fell 

 upon the people who were living in the land, and killed them, 

 and burnt their homes. This lasted for some years, but finally 

 the red-coated men quit, and got on their boats and went away. 



"It was several years after the end of this war that one 

 summer there came a great flood in the river. It was the big- 

 gest I ever saw, and lasted the longest. When it at last went 

 down, I saw that I was on an island. The river had biroken 

 through the bank on my side, and part of it flowed for some 

 distance in a winding way, and then went back into the main 

 river some distance below me. And as far as I could see to- 



13 



