wild man of the Prairies. My body is
naked; my hands, empty; my skin, red. I have struck the Pawnees, the Konzas, the
Omawhaws, the Osages, and even the Long knives. I am a man amid warriors, but a
woman among the conjurors. Let my Father speak; the ears of the Teton are open.
He listens like a deer to the step of the cougar.«
    »Such are the wise and uns'archable ways of one, who alone knows, good from
evil!« exclaimed the trapper in English. »To some he grants cunning and on
others he bestows the gift of manhood! It is humbling, and it is afflicting to
see so noble a creatur' as this, who has fou't in many a bloody fray, truckling
before his superstition, like a beggar asking for the bones you would throw to
the dogs. The Lord will forgive me, for playing with the ignorance of the
savage, for he knows I do it, in no mockery of his state or in idle vaunting of
my own, but in order to save mortal life, and to give justice to the wronged,
while I defeat the deviltries of the wicked! Teton,« speaking again in the
language of the listener, »I ask you, is not that a wonderful medicine? If the
Dahcotahs are wise they will not breathe the air he breathes, nor touch his
robes. They know that the Wahconshecheh (bad spirit) loves his own children, and
will not turn his back on him that does them harm.«
    The old man delivered this opinion in an ominous and sententious manner, and
then rode apart, as if he had said enough. The result justified his
expectations. The warrior to whom he had addressed himself was not slow to
communicate his important knowledge to the rest of the rear guard, and in a very
few moments the naturalist was the object of general observation and reverence.
The trapper, who understood that the natives often worshipped, with a view to
propitiate, the evil spirit, awaited the workings of his artifice, with the
coolness of one who had not the smallest interest in its effects. It was not
long before he saw one dark figure after another, lashing his horse and
galloping ahead into the centre of the band, until Weucha, alone, remained nigh
the persons of himself and Obed. The very dullness of this grovelling-minded
savage, who continued gazing at the supposed conjuror with a sort of stupid
admiration, opposed, now, the only obstacle to the complete success of his
artifice.