AMONG THE MORMON SETTLEMENTS. 135 



tribes east of the mountains had banded together to exterm- 

 inate his own, which much excited him. He then angered 

 him by calling him a ''bad Injun," in the assumption that the 

 good ones were all dead, or doing sentry duty before cigar 

 stores. The term seemed full of insult, for on hearing it his 

 wdiole nature underwent a change. With wild gesticulations 

 and glistening of his snake-like eyes he commenced yelling 

 and screaming a string of phrases, half English and half 

 Indian, at his insulter, who tried to soothe him when the 

 Mormons told him what might be the result of his imprudence 

 in the lone journeys ahead. Tom grew so wild that we feared he 

 might do bodily harm to his enemy; but the Mormons acting 

 as peacemakers in part allayed the storm, though the fierce 

 looks remained on his face still. Before leaving us he extended 

 his hand towards his insulter, but upon the latter preparing 

 to meet this proffer of forgiveness, Tom dropped his hand, and 

 spitting on the ground to show his contempt, turned his back 

 on us, and, followed by the rest of his gang, struck for the 

 mountains. As we had to travel a long reach inhabited by his 

 tribe, our Mormons felt uneasy, not so much from direct 

 attack, but from stealing or killing of our animals. 



One of the beauties of Mormonism had lately been exhibited 

 in Beaver, where a girl of thirteen had just been married, or 

 " sealed," as they termed it, to a man of forty. The groom 

 was a tar-maker, and to see this oddly mated couple two of 

 our boys visited them, ordering a gallon of tar as an excuse. 

 Having none on hand, he engaged to make some at once ; but 

 I judge he was stuck with it, as the interviewers, having grati- 

 fied their curiosity, never fulfilled their contract. 



In my notes I refer to the above gentleman as an "old man 

 of forty," which goes to show what a relative term "old" is. 

 From my then youthful standpoint he seemed well towards 

 the foot of life's downward slope; now that I have cut my 

 fiftieth notch on time's reckoning stick, the man of tar appears 



