274 SLAVE TEABE AMONG THE INDIANS. Book II. 
inspected my carriage with much curiosity, and asked 
whether I too had not a wife. On my replying in the 
negative they offered to fetch me a girl out of their camp ; 
at the same time depicting in a lively manner by signs and 
words her charms and beauty. At last the man placed the 
forefinger of one hand on that of the other, adding an 
expressive " Bueno!" (good). " This woman," he said, 
pointing to his companion, "is a mere common woman" — 
mujer car . . . .a ; " the other, young, good — otra, chiquita, 
buena ! " So saying he held his fingers pointed before 
his breast. I replied that we were travelling further with- 
out delay, and that I could not wait for the girl ; to which 
he answered that his wife would fetch her, and in two 
days they would overtake us. On my positively declining 
the offer they both laughed, and rode off. Probably their 
intention was to sell me the girl, perhaps a Mexican, whom 
they had made prisoner. I might doubtless have had 
her for a few cups of well-sweetened coffee, as companion 
in our next camp ; for these procurers brought us the 
next evening a woman, richly bedaubed with red paint, 
who first tried her fortune in vain among the gentlemen of 
our party, and whom I afterwards saw amongst a group of 
our drivers by a camp-fire. 
From numerous enquiries I made respecting the customs 
of the Indians, I believe that most of the tribes keep pros- 
titutes on purpose ; either prisoners or women whom some 
peculiar circumstance has reduced to this degraded state. 
It is these women who are offered to strangers. 
On the 1 2th of September we crossed the Arkansas, the 
passage being successfully effected in three hours by our 
whole caravan. The bottom of the river is a quicksand, 
which is visible in parts above the surface of the water, 
apparently dry. If a waggon passes quickly over it the 
