A distant
and benighted race in the midst of the desert."
The only excesses indulged in by this temperate and exemplary
people, appear to be gambling and horseracing. In these they
engage with an eagerness that amounts to infatuation. Knots of
gamblers will assemble before one of their lodge fires, early in
the evening, and remain absorbed in the chances and changes of
the game until long after dawn of the following day. As the night
advances, they wax warmer and warmer. Bets increase in amount,
one loss only serves to lead to a greater, until in the course of
a single night's gambling, the richest chief may become the
poorest varlet in the camp.
10.
Black feet in the Horse Prairie Search after the
hunters Difficulties and dangers A card party in the
wilderness The card party interrupted "Old Sledge" a losing
game Visitors to the camp Iroquois hunters Hanging-eared Indians.
ON the 12th of October, two young Indians of the Nez Perce tribe
arrived at Captain Bonneville's encampment. They were on their
way homeward, but had been obliged to swerve from their ordinary
route through the mountains, by deep snows. Their new route took
them though the Horse Prairie. In traversing it, they had been
attracted by the distant smoke of a camp fire, and on stealing
near to reconnoitre, had discovered a war party of Blackfeet.
They had several horses with them; and, as they generally go on
foot on warlike excursions, it was concluded that these horses
had been captured in the course of their maraudings.
