He Was Left,
Therefore, To Shift For Himself In His Naked Condition; Which,
However, Did Not Seem To Give Him Any Concern, Or To Abate One
Jot Of His Good-Humor.
In the course of his lounging about the
camp, however, he got possession of a deer skin; whereupon,
cutting
A slit in the middle, he thrust his head through it, so
that the two ends hung down before and behind, something like a
South American poncho, or the tabard of a herald. These ends he
tied together, under the armpits; and thus arrayed, presented
himself once more before the captain, with an air of perfect
self-satisfaction, as though he thought it impossible for any
fault to be found with his toilet.
A little further journeying brought the travellers to the petty
village of Nez Perces, governed by the worthy and affectionate
old patriarch who had made Captain Bonneville the costly present
of the very fine horse. The old man welcomed them once more to
his village with his usual cordiality, and his respectable squaw
and hopeful son, cherishing grateful recollections of the hatchet
and ear-bobs, joined in a chorus of friendly gratulation.
As the much-vaunted steed, once the joy and pride of this
interesting family, was now nearly knocked up by travelling, and
totally inadequate to the mountain scramble that lay ahead,
Captain Bonneville restored him to the venerable patriarch, with
renewed acknowledgments for the invaluable gift. Somewhat to his
surprise, he was immediately supplied with a fine two years' old
colt in his stead, a substitution which he afterward learnt,
according to Indian custom in such cases, he might have claimed
as a matter of right.
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