quite as many hardships and misfortunes. There
were times of plenty and times of scarcity, and we
had several narrow escapes from death. In sav-
age life, the early spring is the most trying time
and almost all the famines occurred at this period
of the year.

The Indians are a patient and a clannish people;
their love for one another is stronger than that of
any civilized people I know. If this were not so,
I believe there would have been tribes of cannibals
among them. White people have been known to
kill and eat their companions in preference to
starving; but Indians--never!

In times of famine, the adults often denied
themselves in order to make the food last as long
as possible for the children, who were not able to
bear hunger as well as the old. As a people, they
can live without food much longer than any other
nation.

I once passed through one of these hard springs
when we had nothing to eat for several days. I
well remember the six small birds which consti-
tuted the breakfast for six families one morning;
and then we had no dinner or supper to follow!
What a relief that was to me--although I had only
a small wing of a small bird for my share! Soon
after this, we came into a region where buffaloes