MIS-TICK-OOS OR " SHORTSTICK." 35.9 



A dreadful scene of confusion and slaughter then begins, 

 the oldest and strongest animals crush and toss the 

 weaker ; the shouts and screams of the excited Indians 

 rise above the roaring of the bulls, the bellowing of the 

 cows, and the piteous moaning of the calves. The dying 

 struggles of so many huge and powerful animals crowded 

 together, create a revolting and terrible scene, dreadful 

 from the excess of its cruelty and waste of life, but with 

 occasional displays of wonderful brute strength and rage ; 

 while man in his savage, untutored, and heathen state 

 shows both in deed and expression how little he is 

 superior to the noble beasts he so wantonly and cruelly 

 destroys. 



Mis-tick-oos, or " Shortstick," is about fifty years old, of 

 low stature, but very powerfully built. His arms and breast 

 were deeply marked with scars and gashes, records of grief 

 and mourning for departed friends. His son's body was 

 painted with blue bars across the chest and arms. The 

 only clothing they wore consisted of a robe of dressed 

 elk or buffalo hide, and the breech cloth ; the robe was 

 often cast off the shoulders and drawn over the knees 

 when in a sitting posture ; they wore no covering on the 

 head, their long hair was plaited or tied in knots, or hung 

 loose over their shoulders and back. The forms of some 

 of the young men were faultless, of the middle-aged men 

 bony and wiry, and of the aged men, in one instance at 

 least, a living skeleton. I inquired the age of an ex- 

 tremely old fellow who asked me for medicine to cure 

 a pain in his chest ; he replied he was a strong man 

 when the two Companies (the Hudson's Bay and the 

 North West) were trading with his tribe very many sum- 

 mers ago. He remembers the time " when his people 

 were as numerous as the buffalo are now, and the buffalo 



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