INDIAJq^ WHIPS. 175 



strolling around, and straightway fell to coveting his 

 neighbors' straps, which observing, Sachem at once 

 purchased from a store the emblems of power and 

 pinned them upon him. He whispered to us that 

 when White Wolf took his first step as a colonel, it 

 had been accompanied by a snort of pain, the unlucky 

 slipping of a pin having evidently conveyed to the 

 chief the idea that one of the eagles had grasped 

 his shoulder in its talons. 



The chief modestly requested similar honors for 

 his "papoose," and that individual was treated to the 

 straps of a captain. A different application of strap, 

 it occurred to me, would have seemed more proper 

 upon the six feet of unpromising humanity which 

 appeared above the " papoose's " moccasins. 



It had been a matter of surprise to us how the 

 Indians could make such inferior looking stock as 

 theirs capable of such speed and extraordinary jour- 

 neys ; but it ceased to excite our wonder after an 

 examination of their whips. These ingenious instru- 

 ments of torture have handles, which in form and 

 size resemble a policeman's club. To one end are 

 attached some thongs of thick leather, half a yard in 

 length, and to the other a loop of the same material, 

 just large enough to go over the hand and bind 

 slightly on the wrist. Dangling from the latter, the 

 handle can be instantly grasped, and the body of 

 thongs brought down on the pony's skin, with a 

 crack like a flail on the sheaves, and the result is 

 what Sachem called an astonishing "shelling out" 

 of speed. 



We explained to White Wolf that Tammany 



