IN THE FAR WEST. 97 



as " Tar Heels," on account of the large quantity of tar 

 manufactured in the State. 



The Indian who had left his trovvsers for safe-keeping, 

 quietly walked into the house and asked Mrs. V. for them, 

 but she, good woman, was so horrified at his appearance 

 and costume that she ran out at the back door, screaming. The 

 sad-eyed mourner, thinking he had done something wrong, 

 retreated rapidly, and, before I knew what he wanted, was out 

 on the road, and staring at the house in a surprised manner. 

 When I learned what he desired, I seized the prolongations 

 with the tongs, and handed them to him, and he received 

 them with evident feelings of pleasure. He then asked for 

 something to eat, and was furnished with a very large 

 piece of fresh beef. Running a string through this, lie 

 slung it on his back, and marched proudly away, though, 

 to me, he presented a most ludicrous aspect, for his nether 

 dirty-white garments were much too short for him, and were 

 entirely devoid of the portion on which a person usually sits ; 

 his body was perfectly naked, but his head was covered with 

 a battered and crowuless " stove-pipe " hat, so that he 

 looked like a " harmony " in black, dusky, and dirty-white. 



As a curious coincidence, the next time that I was suc- 

 cessful in bagging a cougar, I was also a spectator of an 

 Indian funeral service, but it was the opposite of the pre- 

 vious one in character. During a visit that I made to the 

 Snoqualmie Falls, in Washington Territory, I called at an 

 Indian reservation which was under the charge of a self-deny- 

 ing missionary, who had devoted his life to the physical and 

 spiritual welfare of the red man. While I was there a child be- 

 longing to one of the best young men in the tribe died, and the 

 priest was sent for to bury her. I accompanied him to the little 

 hamlet where a portion of the tribe dwelt, and as soon as we 

 landed from the canoe, all its members marched to the shore, and 

 each in turn touched the priest's hand, as a sign of welcome, 

 but no one spoke. When the greeting was over, the men and 

 women assembled in a log-cabin, and squatted themselves on 

 their heels around the coffin, or rather box, which was covered 

 with white cloth. After prayers, and the sprinkling of the 



H 



