[61] It may well be supposed that the horses used by the Indians on the prairie are never shod. The palfrey of Olitipa had probably been procured from some Mexican trader.
[62] Among some of the North American tribes it is the custom for an Indian entering into a solemn obligation, to place his hand against the thigh of the party to whom he makes the promise; and this usage has in several instances been triumphantly quoted by those authors who have laboured to prove the descent of the North–American Indians from the lost tribes of Israel: the origin and meaning of the custom, which is as ancient as the time of Abraham (Gen. xxiv. 2), are both involved in great obscurity: sundry explanations have been attempted by learned commentators of different ages and nations; the Jewish writings of the highest authority, such as the Targum of Jerusalem, and that of Jonathan Ben Uzziel, derive it from the covenant of Circumcision, to which they maintain its symbolic analogy by arguments which it is unnecessary here to produce. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary, leans to this view, but does not offer any conclusive reasoning in support of it. Bishop Patrick, following the learned Calmet, describes this usage as an ancient sign of subjection and homage prevalent throughout the East; and Locke mentions it as being “practised by some Indians to this day.”
[63] It is a frequent custom among the Missouri Indians to sketch upon the interior of a bison–robe the various battles in which they have fought and conquered.
[64] As the Great Spirit is designated by the Delawares, Chippeways, Sâkis, and other tribes on this side of the Mississippi by the name of “Manittó,” or “Manitoo,” familiar to every reader of Transatlantic travel or romance, so is he known among the Osages, Omahaws, Ioways, and other Missouri tribes, by the designation of Wah–con–da, or “Master of Life.”
[65] The various methods of counting adopted by the western tribes are curious in the extreme; some reckon chiefly by fives, and among these an expression equivalent to “hands and feet” signifies “twenty;” in one language the number eight is expressed by a word meaning six with two; in another by a word signifying ten without two: in fact, some very interesting illustrations of their language and modes of thought might be drawn from an accurate investigation of their numerals, but they would be entirely out of place in a work of fiction.
[66] Tobacco is extremely scarce, and highly valued among the western tribes; at the close of the last century it was probably unknown among the Crows, so that we must suppose that the horse–dealer produced this present from his own stores, and for purposes best known to himself.
[67] Some of the Indian warriors when leading a war–party carry a shrill whistle, wherewith they direct the movements of their followers. These whistles vary as to their form and ornament, according to the tribe to which the leader belongs. Those which the author has seen in most frequent use were made from the bone of the wild turkey’s leg, and were fancifully adorned with stained porcupine quills.
[68] It was at one time currently rumoured among the trappers of the Rocky Mountains, that a Crow warrior had found and killed a white bison–bull, the skin of which he wore as a robe. The story, whether true or false, is adopted here, and assigned to the husband of “Bending–willow.”
[69] “Angry airt,” the quarter whence the angry wind was blowing.
[70] Shelter.