and found his bow and arrows of far more service.

However naturally the usages of warfare may come to the Indians, they
are also made a part of their education.

The children are taught that it is wicked to murder without a cause;
but when offence has been given, they are in duty bound to retaliate.

The day after the return of Fiery Wind, the boys of the village were to
attack a hornet's nest. This is one of the ways of training their sons
to warfare. One of the old warriors had seen a hornet's nest in the
woods, and he returned to the village, and with the chief assembled all
the boys in the village. The chief ordered the boys to take off all
their clothes, and gave them each a gun. He then told them how brave
their forefathers were--that they never feared pain or danger--and that
they must prove themselves worthy sons of such ancestors. "One of these
days you will be men, and then you will go on war parties and kill your
enemies, and then you will be fit to join in the dog feast. Be brave,
and do not fear the sting of the hornet, for if you do, you will be
cowards instead of warriors, and the braves will call you women and
laugh at you."

This was enough to animate the courage of the boys--some of them not
more than five years old pushed ahead of their elder brothers, eager to
show to their fathers, who accompanied them, how little they feared
their enemies, as they termed the hornets. And formidable enemies they
were too--for many of the little fellows returned sadly stung, with
swollen limbs, and closed eyes; but they bore their wounds as well as
brave men would have endured their pain on a battle-field.