311 
shield or not, however, every warrior had a war charm specially 
made for him by some old medicine-man/ A few individuals had 
special skin shirts and elaborate war-bonnets that were thoiip;ht to 
aid their wearers in battle; but the ri^aht of wearino- them came only 
from a vision, or by purchase from a man who himself had received 
])ermission in a vision. 
Two A.ssiiiiljoine Iridians rimniiio' a bull’aio, fiom a painting: by I’aiil Kano. (Photo hy 
courtesy of the h'oyo! Ontorio Muxeiuii of A rehiroiogy.) 
The introduction of horses and firearms j>ave the same stimulus 
to warfare that it gave to buffalo hunting. The horse materially 
widened the field of conflict, for enemies 200 or 300 miles away, who 
])reviously could be reached on foot only after many days of hard 
travelling, were now within measurable distance for a raid; anri fire- 
arms were more accurate and deadly tlian arrows that could not pene- 
trate a sluelfl.- The Assiniboine, like the other plains’ tribes, became 
infected with the war fever, and divided their energies between the 
exciting })uffalo hunt and raids and counter-raids against their 
enemies. Flashes of suidight from a mirror, the precursor of the 
1 Till' cliann mijrht l>e only thu hoail of a loon, Inil its cost was f:iirl\' standinilLztHl, Ix'in]^ .in later 
years a horse. 
2 C/. David Tliomp.son’s Narrati\'e, p. 411. 
86959—21 
