THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 513 



Ba'tiste!' 'Then thou art surely mine (as he clenched both arms tight around my 

 bod6), lie still Ba'tiste.' Oh, holy Vierge! Saint Esprit! O, mon Dieu! I could not 

 breathe! miserable! je sui perdu! oh, pourqnoi have I been such a fool to get into 

 dese cold, cold arms ! ' Ba'tiste (drawing me some tighter and tighter !), do you not 

 belong to me, Ba'tiste?' Yes, suppose! oh, diable! belong? Oui, oui, je suis cer- 

 tainment perdu, lost, lost for evare! Oh! can you not possibe let me go? 'No, 

 Ba'tiste, we must never part.' Grand Dieu! c'est finis, finis, finis avec moi! 'Then 

 you do not love me anymore, Ba'tiste?' Quel! quoi! what!! est ce vous, Wee-ne- 

 on-kaf " Yes, Ba'tiste, it is the Bending Willow who holds you, she that loves you, 

 and will not let you go ! Are you dreaming, Ba'tiste ! ' Oui, diable, ! " 



"'Well, Ba'tiste, that's a very good story, and very well told. I presume you never 

 tried again to get a medicine-bag ? " 



" Non, Monsieur Bogard, je vous assure, I was satisfy wis de mistakes dat night, pour 

 for je crois qu'il fut l'Esprit, le Grand Esprit." 



After this, my entertaining companions sung several amusing songs, and then called 

 upon me for another story, which Mr. Wood had already heard me tell several times, 

 and which he particularly called for, as 



THE STORY OF THE DOG, 



and which I began as follows : 



" Well, some time ago, when I was drifting down the mighty Missouri, in a little 

 canoe, with two hired men, Bogard and Ba'tiste (and in this manner did we glide 

 along), amid all the pretty scenes and ugly that decked the banks of that river from 

 the mouth of the Yellowstone to Saint Louis, a distance of only 2,000 miles, Bogard 

 and Ba'tiste plied their paddles and I steered amid snag and sand-bar, amongst drift 

 logs and herds of swimming buffaloes. Our beds were uniformly on the grass, or upon 

 some barren beach, which we often chose to avoid the suffocating clouds of mus- 

 quitoes. Our fire was (by the way we had none at night) kindled at sundown, under 

 some towering bluff, our supper cooked and eaten, and we off again, floating some 

 4 or 5 miles after nightfall, when our canoe was landed at random on some unknown 

 shore. In whispering silence and darkness our buffalo robes were drawn out and 

 spread upon the grass, and our bodies stretched upon them. Our pistols were belted 

 to our sides, and our rifles always slept in our arms. In this way we were encamped, 

 and another robe drawn over us, head and foot, under which our iron slumbers were 

 secure from the tread of all foes, saving that of the sneaking gangs of wolves who 

 were nightly serenading us with their harmonics, and often quarrelling for the priv- 

 ilege of chewing off the corners of the robe which served us as a blanket. ' Caleb ' 

 (the grizzly bear) was often there too, leaving the print of his deep impressed foot- 

 steps where he had perambulated, reconnoiteriug though not disturbing us. Our food 

 was simply buffalo meat from day to day and from morning till night, for coffee and 

 bread we had not. The fleece (hump) of a fat cow was the luxury of luxuries, and 

 for it we would step ashore, or as often level our rifles upon the "slickest" of the 

 herds from our canoe, as they were grazing upon the banks. Sometimes the antelope, 

 the mountain sheep, and so the stately elk contributed the choicest cuts for our little 

 larder, and at others, while in the vicinity of war parties, where we dared not to fire 

 our guns, our boat was silently steered into some little cove or eddy, our hook and 

 line dipped, and we trusted to the bite of a catfish for our suppers. If we got him, 

 he was sometimes too large and tough, and if we got him not, we would swear (not 

 at all) and go to bed. 



" Our meals were generally cooked and eaten on piles of drift-wood, where our fire 

 was easily kindled, and a peeled log (which we generally straddled) did admirably 

 well for a seat and a table to eat from. 



"In this manner did we glide away from day to day, with anecdote and fun to 

 shorten the time, and just enough of the spice of danger to give vigor to our stomachs 

 and keenness to our appetites — making and meeting accident and incident sufficient 

 6744 33 



