rest with bows and arrows.

As soon as the spring opens they move down the right bank of Snake River
and encamp at the heads of the Boisee and Payette. Here their horses wax
fat on good pasturage, while the tribe revels in plenty upon the flesh
of deer, elk, bear, and beaver. They then descend a little further, and
are met by the Lower Nez Perces, with whom they trade for horses; giving
in exchange beaver, buffalo, and buffalo robes. Hence they strike upon
the tributary streams on the left bank of Snake River, and encamp at the
rise of the Portneuf and Blackfoot streams, in the buffalo range. Their
horses, although of the Nez Perce breed, are inferior to the parent
stock from being ridden at too early an age, being often bought when but
two years old and immediately put to hard work. They have fewer horses,
also, than most of these migratory tribes.

At the time that Captain Bonneville came into the neighborhood of these
Indians, they were all in mourning for their chief, surnamed The
Horse. This chief was said to possess a charmed life, or rather, to be
invulnerable to lead; no bullet having ever hit him, though he had been
in repeated battles, and often shot at by the surest marksmen. He had
shown great magnanimity in his intercourse with the white men. One of
the great men of his family had been slain in an attack upon a band of
trappers passing through the territories of his tribe. Vengeance had
been sworn by the Bannecks; but The Horse interfered, declaring himself
the friend of white men and, having great influence and authority among
his people, he compelled them to forego all vindictive plans and to
conduct themselves amicably whenever they came in contact with the
traders.

This chief had bravely fallen in resisting an attack made by the
Blackfeet upon his tribe, while encamped at the head of Godin River. His
fall in nowise lessened the faith of his people in his charmed life; for
they declared that it was not a bullet which laid him low, but a bit of
horn which had been shot into him by some Blackfoot marksman aware, no
doubt, of the inefficacy of lead. Since his death there was no one with
sufficient influence over the tribe to restrain the wild and predatory
propensities of the young men. The consequence was they had become
troublesome and dangerous neighbors, openly friendly for the sake of
traffic, but disposed to commit secret depredations and to molest any
small party that might fall within their rea