Indians to anything of supernatural and mysterious power that is guarded
as a talisman. They were completely thrown out in their conjecture,
however, by an offer of the white men to exchange the calf for a horse;
their estimation of the great medicine sank in an instant, and they
declined the bargain.

At the request of the Crow chieftain the two parties encamped together,
and passed the residue of the day in company. The captain was
well pleased with every opportunity to gain a knowledge of the
"unsophisticated sons of nature," who had so long been objects of his
poetic speculations; and indeed this wild, horse-stealing tribe is one
of the most notorious of the mountains. The chief, of course, had
his scalps to show and his battles to recount. The Blackfoot is the
hereditary enemy of the Crow, toward whom hostility is like a cherished
principle of religion; for every tribe, besides its casual
antagonists, has some enduring foe with whom there can be no permanent
reconciliation. The Crows and Blackfeet, upon the whole, are enemies
worthy of each other, being rogues and ruffians of the first water. As
their predatory excursions extend over the same regions, they often come
in contact with each other, and these casual conflicts serve to keep
their wits awake and their passions alive.

The present party of Crows, however, evinced nothing of the invidious
character for which they are renowned. During the day and night that
they were encamped in company with the travellers, their conduct was
friendly in the extreme. They were, in fact, quite irksome in their
attentions, and had a caressing manner at times quite importunate. It
was not until after separation on the following morning that the captain
and his men ascertained the secret of all this loving-kindness. In the
course of their fraternal caresses, the Crows had contrived to empty the