vy 
Daeiel 
“ A TRAMP WITH REDSKINS.” 253 
the matter of time on a long walk; and this holds true 
even when both are unburdened. On the other hand, 
the Redman has an immense advantage in being able to 
carry such enormous weights. This weight-carrying 
capacity in the case of the men is somewhat remarkable, 
as they are not accustomed to endure this on their own 
account. That the women carry well may be regarded 
merely as a matter of praétise. 
Such a walk as I now undertook—it lasted about four 
weeks—at the head of a long single file of most gentle, 
willing, and pleasant savages is a curious enough experi- 
ence, especially if one happens to be the only European 
of the party. Trudging ahead, over those bare swelling 
plains, from dawn to a couple of hours before dark 
at night, with only brief intervals of rest, snatched now and 
again when one sits down for a quarter of an hour, to 
eat the breakfast from one’s pocket or to smoke a 
meditative pipe, as one watches the line of followers, 
which line when one first sits down extends often from 
beyond the range of sight right across the plain to one’s 
feet, till at last even the hindmost laggard has come 
up and it is time to make a start again, one has plenty 
of time for thought. My own personal state of feeling 
at such times is that of curious absorption in the circum- 
stances of the moment and forgetfulness of the totally 
different circumstances under which one once lived, far 
away in civilization, The novelty and unexpeétedness of 
each little incident in this perfectly new life seem to take 
up the whole attention and to impress it upon the mind 
with a vividness far greater than would attend the events 
of a journey among more ordinary surroundings. Though 
that four weeks’ journey was taken a good many years 
KK 
