more horses, and goes better clad than he. Like the Teutonic chiefs of
old, he ingratiates himself with his young men by making them presents,
thereby often impoverishing himself. Does he fail in gaining their
favor, they will set his authority at naught, and may desert him at any
moment; for the usages of his people have provided no sanctions by which
he may enforce his authority. Very seldom does it happen, at least among
these western bands, that a chief attains to much power, unless he is
the head of a numerous family. Frequently the village is principally
made up of his relatives and descendants, and the wandering community
assumes much of the patriarchal character. A people so loosely united,
torn, too, with ranking feuds and jealousies, can have little power or
efficiency.

The western Dakota have no fixed habitations. Hunting and fighting, they
wander incessantly through summer and winter. Some are following the
herds of buffalo over the waste of prairie; others are traversing the
Black Hills, thronging on horseback and on foot through the dark gulfs
and somber gorges beneath the vast splintering precipices, and emerging
at last upon the "Parks," those beautiful but most perilous hunting
grounds. The buffalo supplies them with almost all the necessaries of
life; with habitations, food, clothing, and fuel; with strings for
their bows, with thread, cordage, and trail-ropes for their horses, with
coverings for their saddles, with vessels to hold water, with boats to
cross streams, with glue, and with the means of purchasing all that they
desire from the traders. When the buffalo are extinct, they too must
dwindle away.

War is the breath of their nostrils. Against most of the neighboring
tribes they cherish a deadly, rancorous hatred, transmitted from father
to son, and inflamed by constant aggression and retaliation. Many times
a year, in every village, the Great Spirit is called upon, fasts are
made, the war parade is celebrated, and the warriors go out by handfuls
at a time against the enemy. This fierce and evil spirit awakens their
most eager aspirations, and calls forth their greatest energies. It is
chiefly this that saves them from lethargy and utter abasement. Without
its powerful stimulus they would be like the unwarlike tribes beyond
the mountains, who are scattered among the caves and rocks like beasts,
living on roots and reptiles. These latter have little of humanity
except the form; but the proud a