284 FIRST OF THE " BRAVES." 



romantic personage, is a very prosaic and commonplace 

 individual.] 



Still, it must be owned that the plains and woods of 

 North America still afford ample scope for the exercise, 

 on a moderate scale, of the hunter's craft. Under the 

 zone where the tribe of the Osages is located in the 38th 

 parallel of latitude, and the 19th meridian of longitude 

 the hunter still meets, and not infrequently, with the 

 grisly bear, the most formidable animal in the North 

 American forests, who shows himself insensible to the 

 pain of a severe wound, and whose strength is so great 

 that he crushes like a grain of sand the enemy who falls 

 into his deadly grasp. The Indian warriors, whatever 

 the tribe to which they belong, in the regions haunted by 

 the grisly bear, regard his claws as the fittest and noblest 

 ornament for a muscular neck. This ornament, added to 

 the feather of an eagle shot while flying, which the Red- 

 skin fastens in the centre of the tuft of hair, raised above 

 his head and tied up so as to resemble a helmet, gives 

 him a bold and daring mien, and entitles him to a place in 

 the first rank of the "braves." 



The fire lighted in the shelter of a rocky crag, around 

 which the Indians assemble at the evening watch, does 

 not glow more brightly than the astonishing spirit dis- 

 played by this primitive race of men in the narration of 

 their exploits. While listening to their wild, fierce 

 stories oite finds the hours glide by with surprising 

 rapidity, and the time of repose always arrives too quickly. 

 Very frequently, in the course of this exciting talk, an 

 old sachem who, during the day, has not uttered ten words 

 successively, suddenly recovers his speech, babbles like a 



