7.Y THE PAR U'EST. 31 



dignity or gravity, a Sioux chief once pointed out a string of 

 ugly-looking grizzly claws that hung around his dirty neck, 

 and then to the anklets of the same material that encircled 

 his blanket-clad legs, and in what a heroic tone he assured 

 me that he had killed their former owner himself, and was 

 now considered to be unrivalled as a brave. He thought that 

 if the Great Father in Washington knew he was so great he 

 would send him plenty of meat, flour, tea, coffee, and sugar, and 

 keep him from the necessity of going out buffalo-hunting to 

 keep his family from starvation. He wished me to tell the 

 Great Father who lie really was, and what were his wants ; 

 and when I, to test the generous phase of an Indian's nature, 

 volunteered to do so on condition that he gave me the prized 

 trophies, he rejected my offer at once, and said he would not 

 part with them on any account; he would rather lose his 

 favourite wife first. "\Vhen he saw that I seemed indifferent 

 to the matter, he said that if I could procure him permission 

 to hunt in the Republican Valley he would give me one claw ; 

 and when I told him I would not have such articles, as I could 

 get them, if I wished, by simply going- on a hunt myself, 

 he looked rather astonished, if an Indian can express that feel- 

 ing, and grunted out an "uch'" of disapprobation, as if he 

 thought I was lessening his importance. 



A Nez Perce sub-chief whom I met in Idaho was also 

 exceedingly proud of a necklace of the same material which 

 he wore, and strutted around among his compeers as if he felt 

 that none could approach him in dignity and courage. 



Hunting the grizzly has its comic side sometimes as well as 

 its tragic, though the former is too often the result or sequence 

 of the latter. I knew a man in Wyoming named Grizzly 

 Bill, an individual who was equally fond of a joke and a hunt, 

 but who had a thorough contempt for cold water. All the 

 temperance lecturers in the world could not induce him to 

 look with favour on "Adam's ale/' and he had a standing joke 

 which was uttered many times a dav when he was in a certain 

 humour. This was, " Look here, boys; don't drink water; 

 you oughtn't to. You know that it rots boots; and if it rots 

 boots, what will it do to a man's stomach. Let's have a drink, 



