Rocky Mountains. 309 



my's village, and even into the village itself, to capture hor- 

 ses or kill one of the nation. The Borgne, or One Eye, 

 Ka-ko-a-kis, late grand chief of the Minnetarees, entered the 

 village of an enemy at night, with his robe covering his head 

 for concealment. He passed into several lodges, until at 

 length he found one tenanted, at the moment, only by a young 

 squaw ; he drew his knife, compelled her to submit to his 

 desires, then stabbed her to the heart, and bore off her scalp. 

 He was a chief possessed of much power, but was almost 

 universally disliked as a very bad man, and was at length 

 killed by the Red-shield chief, E-tam-ina-geh-iss-sha. 



The warriors often meet together and narrate, emulcusly 

 their war exploits ; two of them were one day thus engaged, 

 one of whom, Wa-ke-da, or the Shooter, had killed more ene- 

 mies than any other individual of his nation, although he 

 had never struck more than two or three bodies of the slain. 

 They continued for some time to boast of their feats, when 

 the father of Wakeda, an old man of seventy years, in order 

 to terminate the altercation, leaped from his seat and after 

 striking upon several nations, concluded by the following 

 witticism, " I approached the Pawnee-mahaws alone, for the 

 purpose of stealing horses. I entered their village in the 

 evening, succeeded in getting into one of their stalls, and 

 was proceeding to take out the horses, when I was surround- 

 ed and made prisoner. They flogged me, thrust a stick in- 

 to my anus, and sent me off, with the stick depending like 

 a tail." This, as was intended, terminated the boasting, and 

 the parties joined in general good humour. 



Their notions of the attributes of bravery, differ in many 

 respects from those which we entertain of them. It is in 

 their estimation no proof either of valour or good sense, for a 

 warrior to advance into the plain, stand still, and suffer his 

 enemy to take deliberate aim, in order to shoot him down, 

 when such a course of conduct can be avoided ; but they say 

 that when a warrior goes to battle, it is a duty, which is due 



