356 



ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS. 



have attracted them back, frequently compose 

 songs of derision, in regard to their behaviour. 



The occasions of war among the Indians are 

 various. Sometimes a person in one tribe has 

 been murdered by a person belonging to another 

 tribe ; sometimes the members of one tribe have 

 hunted on the lands of another ; and sometimes 

 horses have been stolen. The Indians, who in- 

 habit the large plains, who always go to war on 

 horseback, frequently attack their neighbours, 

 merely to obtain, by this means, horses and slaves. 

 It is not uncommon, also, for the Natives, when 

 they lose a respected chief, or any other person 

 generally beloved, either by an ordinary or a vio- 

 lent death, to form a war party, for the purpose 

 of killing one person or more, of a neighbouring 

 tribe ; and the case is the same, whether this 

 tribe be at peace with them, or not. This slaugh- 

 ter, they say, enables them to calm their grief, 

 and sets their hearts at rest, as blood has thus 

 been offered to the manes of their departed 

 friend. 



A person appointed to head a war party, is 

 called a chief, or O-ke-maw. He must have given 

 distinguished proof of his bravery, prudence and 

 cunning, in former war expeditions, in order that 

 he should be considered as qualified to fill this 

 post. Great skill, in coming upon an enemy by 



