A PROBLEM IN MORALITY. 73 



eighty miles northwest of the main trading- post. The latter party included 

 myself with its number. 



Our purpose was to build houses in the vicinity of White river, and thus 

 secure the trade of several villages of Bruits that had selected their winter 

 quarters in the neighborhood, and were anxiously awaiting our arrival. 



On the last of November we were under way with two carts freighted 

 with goods and liquor, accompanied by only six whites, one negro, and an 

 Indian. 



Crossing the Platte opposite the Fort, we continued our course, west 

 by north, over a broken and tumulous prairie, occasionally diversified by 

 thick clusters of pines and furrowed by deep ravines, and abounding in 

 diminutive valleys, whose tall, withered grass gave evidence of the rich 

 soil producing it. To our left the high, frowning summits of the Black 

 Hills began to show themselves in the long distance, like dark clouds, and 

 planted their dense pine forests upon the broken ridges whose irregular 

 courses invaded the cheerless prairie far eastward. 



A ride of twenty miles brought us to Rawhide, where we passed the 

 following night and day. 



This creek traces its course over a broad sandy bed, through a wide valley 

 of rich clayey loam, slightly timbered and luxuriant in grasses. Towards 

 its head, it is shut in upon both sides by high pine hills ; but, in passing on, 

 these mural confines are exchanged for the prairies, and the creek finally 

 debouches into the Platte. 



An abundance of prelee and rushes afforded fine pasturage to our animals, 

 and a kindly grove of dry cottonwood gave us requisite fuel for camp-fire. 



Before leaving, we were joined by another Indian mounted upon a dark 

 bay horse, the noblest animal of its kind I remember to have seen among 

 the mountain tribes. It had been stolen from the Snakes during the past 

 summer, as its present owner informed us, and he seemed not a little proud 

 of the admiration we bestowed upon it. 



The new comer proved Arketcheta-waka, (Medicine Soldier,) a brother 

 of Bello-tunga, the brave referred to on a former occasion. Seating him- 

 self by the fire, he looked dejected and melancholy, and liis face bore in- 

 dubitable evidence of a personal encounter with some one. 



On enquiring the cause of this, we learned that he had left liis fatlier's 

 lodge by reason of a quarrel he had had witii his eldest brother, — the latter 

 having struck him with a fire-brand and burnt his body in several places 

 during a drunken spree, — he was now on his way to White river, there to 

 await the suitable time for revenge, when he should kill his brotlier. 



We told him this would not be right ; — it was liquor that had done him 

 the wrong, and not his brother ; — liquor was bad ! 



He seemed to acknowledge the truth of our suggestions, and asked " why 

 the pale-faces brought the fire-water to do the red man so much harm ?" 

 Our trader replied, " The whites -want robes, and can get them for liquor 

 when nothing else will do it." 



The answer evidently perplexed him, while he sat gazing silently into 

 ttie fire, with his arms akimbo upon his knees, and palms supporting his 

 chin, as if striving to work out to his own satisfaction this strange problem 

 in morality . 



