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 affection for her, and assured
the captain that if he would but cure her, he would place the
Americans near his heart. The worthy captain needed no such
inducement. His kind heart was already touched by the sufferings
of the poor girl, and his sympathies quickened by her appearance;
for she was but about sixteen years of age, and uncommonly
beautiful in form and feature. The only difficulty with the
captain was, that he knew nothing of her malady, and that his
medical science was of a most haphazard kind. After considering
and cogitating for some time, as a man is apt to do when in a
maze of vague ideas, he made a desperate dash at a remedy.
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