exposing their aged people, that is, leaving
them alone to die. If a party are obliged to remove from one place to
another in search of food, and there is among them an aged man, who
can no longer fight, nor hunt, nor fish, nor do any thing to support
himself, he is liable, although in his time he may have been a
war-chief, to be left alone to die. I have seen such a one sitting by
a little fire left him by his tribe, with perhaps a buffalo skin
stretched on poles over his head, and a little water and a few bones
within his reach. I have put my pipe to his mouth, given him pemican,
and gathered sticks, that he might be able to recruit his fire; and
when, months after, I have returned to the spot, there has been
nothing left of him but his skeleton, picked clean by the wolves and
bleaching in the winds.

_Austin._ This is one of the worst things we have heard of the
Indians.

_Basil._ Oh, it is very sad indeed!

_Hunter._ You would not forsake your father, in old age, in that
manner, would you?

_Austin._ No! As long as we could get a bit of bread or a drop of
water, he should have part of it, and we would die with him rather
than desert him.

_Brian_ and _Basil._ Yes; that we would!

_Hunter._ I hope so. This is, I say, a cruel custom; but it forms a
part of Indian manners, so that the old men expect it, and, indeed,
would not alter it. Indians have not been taught, as we have, to
honour their parents, at least not in the same way; but I can say
nothing in favour of so cruel and unnatural a custom. Among the Sioux
of the Mississippi, it is considered great medicine to jump on the
Leaping Rock, and back again. This rock is a huge column or block,
between thirty and forty feet high, divided from the side of the Red
Pipe-stone Quarry. It is about seven feet broad, and at a distance
from the main rock of about six or eight feet. Many are bold enough to
take the leap, and to leave their arrows sticking in one of its
crevices; while others, equally courageous, have fallen from the top
in making the attempt, and been dashed to pieces.

_Brian._ When you go to Pipe-stone Quarry, Austin, have nothing to do
with the Leaping Rock. You must get your medicine in some other way.

_Austin._ I shall leave the Leaping Rock to the leaping Indians, for
it will never suit me.

_Hunter._ There is a very small fish caught in the river Thames,
called white bait, which is considered a very great luxury; but, to my
taste, the white