Rocky Mountains. 125 



curred in one family. A woman had three children at a birth, 

 all lived. 



" The young men are generally coupled out as friends ; the 

 tie is very permanent, and continues often throughout life. 



" They bear sickness and pain with great fortitude, seldom 

 uttering a complaint ; bystanders sympathize with them, and 

 try every means to relieve them. Insanity is unknown ; the 

 blind are taken care of by their friends and the nation gene- 

 rally, and are well dressed and fed. Drunkenness is rare, 

 and is much ridiculed ; a drunken man is said to be bereft 

 of his reason, and is avoided. As to the origin of the nation, 

 their belief is, that the Master of life formed a man, and 

 placed him on the earth ; he was solitary and cried to the 

 Master of life for a companion, who sent him down a woman ; 

 from the union of these two proceeded a son and daughter, 

 who were married, and built themselves a lodge distinct 

 from that of their parents ; all the nations proceeded from 

 them, excepting the whites, whose origin they pretend not to 

 know. When a man is killed in battle the thunder is suppos- 

 ed to take him up, they do not know where. In going to battle 

 each man traces an imaginary figure of the thunder on the 

 soil ; and he who represents it incorrectly is killed by the 

 thunder. A person saw this thunder one day on the ground, 

 with a beautiful mockasin on each side of it ; having much 

 need of a pair, he took them and went his way ; but on his 

 return by the same spot the thunder took him off, and he has 

 not been since heard of. They seem to have vague notions 

 of the future state. They think that a brave warrior, or good 

 hunter, will walk in a good path ; but a bad man or coward 

 will find a bad path. Thinking the deceased has far to travel 

 they bury with his body, mockasins, some articles of food, 

 &c. to support him on the journey. Many persons, they 

 believe, have become reanimated, who had been, during their 

 apparent death, in strange villages ; but as the inhabitants 

 used them ill they returned. They say they have never seen 



