et,
where all the choicest viands that the village could furnish, were
served up in rich profusion. They were afterwards entertained by feats
of agility and horseraces; indeed, their visit to the village seemed the
signal for complete festivity. In the meantime, a skin lodge had been
spread for their accommodation, their horses and baggage were taken care
of, and wood and water supplied in abundance. At night, therefore, they
retired to their quarters, to enjoy, as they supposed, the repose of
which they stood in need. No such thing, however, was in store for them.
A crowd of visitors awaited their appearance, all eager for a smoke and
a talk. The pipe was immediately lighted, and constantly replenished
and kept alive until the night was far advanced. As usual, the utmost
eagerness was evinced by the guests to learn everything within the scope
of their comprehension respecting the Americans, for whom they professed
the most fraternal regard. The captain, in his replies, made use of
familiar illustrations, calculated to strike their minds, and impress
them with such an idea of the might of his nation, as would induce them
to treat with kindness and respect all stragglers that might fall in
their path. To their inquiries as to the numbers of the people of the
United States, he assured them that they were as countless as the blades
of grass in the prairies, and that, great as Snake River was, if they
were all encamped upon its banks, they would drink it dry in a single
day. To these and similar statistics, they listened with profound
attention, and apparently, implicit belief. It was, indeed, a striking
scene: the captain, with his hunter's dress and bald head in the midst,
holding forth, and his wild auditors seated around like so many statues,
the fire lighting up their painted faces and muscular figures, all
fixed and motionless, excepting when the pipe was passed, a question
propounded, or a startling fact in statistics received with a movement
of surprise and a half-suppressed ejaculation of wonder and delight.

The fame of the captain as a healer of diseases, had accompanied him to
this village, and the great chief, O-push-y-e-cut, now entreated him to
exert his skill on his daughter, who had been for three days racked with
pains, for which the Pierced-nose doctors could devise no alleviation.
The captain found her extended on a pallet of mats in excruciating pain.
Her father manifested the strongest paternal affectio