RELIGIOUS TENETS OF MOUNTAIN TRIBES. 299 



permanent basis, word was forwarded to his benefactor, Fitzpatrick, inform- 

 ing" him of the circumstance. 



Friday, for this was the name by which the Indian youth had now be- 

 come known, on hearing the proposal of his relatives, steadily refused com- 

 pliance, decIariniT the whites to be his only relatives, and that with them he 

 would live and die. 



Subsequently, however, he was persuaded to accompany his guardian to 

 the mountains, expecting shortly to revisit the States. Here his father and 

 mother came forward to claim him as their long-lost son. 



But the lapse of seven years had served to efface all the recollections of 

 early childhood. Parents and friends were alike strangers to him ; he re- 

 fused to own them, and recoiled from their advances. Their language 

 grated upon his ear in a confused jargon of unknown sounds. His mother 

 wept from mingled emotions of grief and joy, while his father and brothers 

 pressed their mouths in unfeigned astonishment. Still his obstinacy was 

 unyielding, and the united entreaties of relatives failed to exert upon him 

 the least influence. 



At length, the arguments and advice of the fur traders induced him to 

 visit the Arapahos village, where he was received with distinguished honor 

 by his relatives and nation. Every one hastened to pay him respect, — 

 while feast succeeded feast, and council succeeded council, to welcome his 

 return, and the little boy, who, seven years before — lost amid the cheerless 

 sands of the American Desert, and weakened by hunger and suffering — 

 had lain down to die upon the bank of the Cimarone, now found himself 

 suddenly made famous as the " Little Chief " of his tribe, — the " Arapaho 

 American." 



Honor, whose potent spell exerts its influence upon older heads and 

 more enlightened minds, gradually reconciled him to the rude mode of life 

 his destiny seemed to mark out, and he again became identifled with the 

 associations of former years. 



Still, however, he retains an undiminished attachment to the whites, and 

 continues to merit and command their esteem. His character, for honesty, 

 integrity, and sobriety, has as yet stood unimpeached. A chief by birth, 

 he might assert a more prominent station among his people ; but he declines 

 it, with the noble resolve : — " Until by my own achievements I have earned 

 that honor, I shall never consent to become a chief; for certainly, then my 

 people will listen to me !" 



The hero of the above sketch is now on his way to visit his friends in 

 St. Louis for the second time, and is at present my only travelling com- 

 panion. As such I find him agreeable and interesting. I am indebted to 

 him for much valuable information relative to the habits and peculiarities 

 of his own and various other Indian tribes, while his vast fund of ready 

 anecdotes and amusing stories serves to beguile the weariness of camp 

 hours. 



The religious peculiarities of the mountain tribes furnished us a theme 

 for frequent conversation, inasmuch as their sentiments with regard to a 

 future existence are strangely interesting in detail. Most of them are 

 firm believers in the immortality of the soul, as well as the conditicai of 

 rewards and punishments after death — though some accredit the Hindoo 



36 



