an you can imagine.

_Austin._ Ay, I remember that the Camanchees are capital riders. I was
a Camanchee in our buffalo hunt. Brian, you have not forgotten that?

_Brian._ But you had no horse to ride. I was a Sioux; and the Sioux
are capital riders too.

_Basil._ And so are the Pawnees, I was a Pawnee in the buffalo hunt.

_Hunter._ It was told me that the Camanchees--and, indeed, some of
the Pawnees also--were able, while riding a horse at full gallop, to
lie along on one side of him, with an arm in a sling from the horse's
neck, and one heel over the horse's back; and that, while the body was
thus screened from an enemy, they could use their lances with effect,
and throw their arrows with deadly aim. The Camanchees are so much on
their horses, that they never seem at their ease except when they are
flying across the prairie on horseback.

_Austin._ It would be worth going to the prairies, if it were only to
see the Camanchees ride.

_Hunter._ Besides horse-races, the Indians have foot-races and
canoe-races and wrestling. The Indians are also very fond of archery,
in which, using their bows and also arrows so much as they do, it is
no wonder they are very skilful. The game of the arrow is a very
favourite amusement with them. It is played on the open prairie. There
is no target set up to shoot at, as there is generally; but every
archer sends his first arrow as high as he can into the air.

_Austin._ Ay, I see! He who shoots the highest in the air is the
winner.

_Hunter._ Not exactly so. It is not he who shoots highest that is the
victor; but he who can get the greatest number of arrows into the air
at the same time. Picture to yourselves a hundred well-made, active
young men, on the open prairie, each carrying a bow, with eight or ten
arrows, in his left hand. He sends an arrow into the air with all his
strength, and then, instantly, with a rapidity that is truly
surprising, shoots arrow after arrow upwards, so that, before the
first arrow has reached the ground, half a dozen others have mounted
into the air. Often have I seen seven or eight shafts from the same
bow in the air at once.

_Austin._ Brian, we will try what we can do to-morrow; but we shall
never have so many as seven or eight up at once.

_Hunter._ The Indians are famous swimmers, and, indeed, if they were
not, it would often go hard with them. They are taught when very young
to make their way through the water, and though they do it usually