rary, the Indian horses are suffered to remain in
every respect the superb and beautiful animals which nature formed them.

The wealth of an Indian of the far west consists principally in his
horses, of which each chief and warrior possesses a great number, so
that the plains about an Indian village or encampment are covered with
them. These form objects of traffic, or objects of depredation, and
in this way pass from tribe to tribe over great tracts of country. The
horses owned by the Arickaras are, for the most part, of the wild stock
of the prairies; some, however, had been obtained from the Poncas,
Pawnees, and other tribes to the southwest, who had stolen them from
the Spaniards in the course of horse-stealing expeditions into Mexican
territories. These were to be known by being branded; a Spanish mode of
marking horses not practiced by the Indians.

As the Arickaras were meditating another expedition against their
enemies the Sioux, the articles of traffic most in demand were guns,
tomahawks, scalping-knives, powder, ball, and other munitions of war.
The price of a horse, as regulated by the chiefs, was commonly ten
dollars' worth of goods at first cost. To supply the demand thus
suddenly created, parties of young men and braves had sallied forth
on expeditions to steal horses; a species of service among the Indians
which takes precedence of hunting, and is considered a department of
honorable warfare.

While the leaders of the expedition were actively engaged in preparing
for the approaching journey, those who had accompanied it for curiosity
or amusement, found ample matter for observation in the village and its
inhabitants. Wherever they went they were kindly entertained. If they
entered a lodge, the buffalo robe was spread before the fire for them
to sit down; the pipe was brought, and while the master of the lodge
conversed with his guests, the squaw put the earthen vessel over the
fire well filled with dried buffalo-meat and pounded corn; for the
Indian in his native state, before he has mingled much with white men,
and acquired their sordid habits, has the hospitality of the Arab: never
does a stranger enter his door without having food placed before him;
and never is the food thus furnished made a matter of traffic.

The life of an Indian when at home in his village is a life of indolence
and amusement. To the woman is consigned the labors of the household
and the field; she arranges the lodge; brings w