Rocky Mountains. 157 



but they now appeared in honour of the occasion, and to 

 conciliate, in their best manner, the good will of the repre- 

 sentative of the government of the Big Knives. Amongst 

 these veteran warriors Ietan or Sha-mon-e-kus- se, Ha she-a 

 the broken arm, commonly called Cut-nose, and Wa-sa-ba- 

 jing-ga, or little Black Bear, three youthful leaders, in par- 

 ticular attracted our attention. In consequence of having 

 been appointed soldiers on this occasion to preserve order, 

 they were painted entirely black. The countenance of the 

 former indicated much wit, and had, in its expression, some- 

 thing of the character of that of Voltaire ; he frequently ex- 

 cited the mirth of those about him by his remarks and ges- 

 tures. Ha-she-a, called Cut-nose, in consequence of having 

 lost the tip of his nose in a quarrel with Ietan, wore a hand- 

 some robe of white wolf skin, with an appendage behind him 

 called a crow. This singular decoration is a large cushion, 

 made of the skin of a crow, stuffed with any light material, 

 and variously ornamented ; it has two decorated sticks pro- 

 jecting from it upward, and a pendant one beneath ; this ap- 

 paratus is secured upon the buttocks by a girdle passing 

 round the body. The other actors in the scene were deco- 

 rated with paints of several colours fantastically disposed 

 upon their persons. Several were painted with white clay, 

 which had the appearance of being grooved in many places. 

 This grooved appearance is given by drawing the finger 

 nails over the part, so as to remove the pigment from thence 

 in parallel lines. These lines are either rectilinear, undula- 

 ted, or zigzag ; sometimes passing over the forehead trans- 

 versely or vertically ; sometimes in the same directions, or 

 obliquely over the whole visage, or upon the breast, arms, 

 &c. Many were painted with red clay, in which the same 

 lines appeared. A number of them had the representation of 

 a black hand with outspread fingers, on different parts of the 

 body, strongly contrasting with the principal colour with 

 which the body was overspread ; the hand was depicted in 



