ir hiding places behind the animals, and drove them over
the cliff, where they were killed in large numbers.

Not until Cortez came with his cavalry from Spain, were there horses on
this continent, and then generations passed ere the plains tribes
possessed this valuable animal, that so materially changed their lives.
Dogs dragged the Indian's travois or packed his household goods in the
days before the horse came, and for hundreds--perhaps thousands of
years, these people had no other means of transporting their goods and
chattels. As the Indian is slow to forget or change the ways of his
father, we should pause before we brand him as wholly improvident, I
think.

He has always been a family-man, has the Indian, and small children had
to be carried, as well as his camp equipage. Wolf-dogs had to be fed,
too, in some way, thus adding to his burden; for it took a great many
to make it possible for him to travel at all.

When the night came and we visited War Eagle, we found he had other
company--so we waited until their visit was ended before settling
ourselves to hear the story that he might tell us.

"The Crows have stolen some of our best horses," said War Eagle, as
soon as the other guests had gone. "That is all right--we shall get
them back, and more, too. The Crows have only borrowed those horses
and will pay for their use with others of their own. To-night I shall
tell you why the Mountain lion is so long and thin and why he wears
hair that looks singed. I shall also tell you why that person's nose
is black, because it is part of the story.

"A long time ago the Mountain-lion was a short, thick-set person. I am
sure you didn't guess that. He was always a great thief like OLD-man,
but once he went too far, as you shall see.

"One day OLD-man was on a hilltop, and saw smoke curling up through the
trees, away off on the far side of a gulch. 'Ho!' he said, 'I wonder
who builds fires except me. I guess I will go and find out.'

"He crossed the gulch and crept carefully toward the smoke. When he
got quite near where the fire was, he stopped and listened. He heard
some loud laughing but could not see who it was that felt so glad and
gay. Finally he crawled closer and peeked through the brush toward the
fire. Then he saw some Squirrel-people, and they were playing some
sort of game. They were running and laughing, and having a big time,
too. What do you think they were doing? They were running abo