as a
most welcome luxury, having lost their smoking apparatus twelve days
before, among the mountains.

While they were thus enjoying themselves, their poor horses were led to
the best pastures in the neighborhood, where they were turned loose to
revel on the fresh sprouting grass; so that they had better fare than
their masters.

Captain Bonneville soon felt himself quite at home among these quiet,
inoffensive people. His long residence among their cousins, the Upper
Nez Perces, had made him conversant with their language, modes of
expression, and all their habitudes. He soon found, too, that he
was well known among them, by report, at least, from the constant
interchange of visits and messages between the two branches of the
tribe. They at first addressed him by his name; giving him his title of
captain, with a French accent: but they soon gave him a title of their
own; which, as usual with Indian titles, had a peculiar signification.
In the case of the captain, it had somewhat of a whimsical origin.

As he sat chatting and smoking in the midst of them, he would
occasionally take off his cap. Whenever he did so, there was a sensation
in the surrounding circle. The Indians would half rise from their
recumbent posture, and gaze upon his uncovered head, with their usual
exclamation of astonishment. The worthy captain was completely bald; a
phenomenon very surprising in their eyes. They were at a loss to know
whether he had been scalped in battle, or enjoyed a natural immunity
from that belligerent infliction. In a little while, he became
known among them by an Indian name, signifying "the bald chief." "A
sobriquet," observes the captain, "for which I can find no parallel in
history since the days of 'Charles the Bald.'"

Although the travellers had banqueted on roots, and been regaled
with tobacco smoke, yet their stomachs craved more generous fare. In
approaching the lodges of the Nez Perces, they had indulged in fond
anticipations of venison and dried salmon; and dreams of the kind still
haunted their imaginations, and could not be conjured down. The keen
appetites of mountain trappers, quickened by a fortnight's fasting, at
length got the better of all scruples of pride, and they fairly begged
some fish or flesh from the hospitable savages. The latter, however,
were slow to break in upon their winter store, which was very limited;
but were ready to furnish roots in abundance, which they pronounced
excellent food.