as complicated as that celebrated anathema of the church, for a
knowledge of which most unlettered Protestants are indebted to the pious
researches of the worthy Tristram Shandy. But as Middleton recovered from his
exhaustion he was fain to appease the boisterous temper of his associate, by
admonishing him of the uselessness of such denunciations, and of the possibility
of their hastening the very evil he deprecated, by irritating the resentments of
a race, who were sufficiently fierce and lawless even, in their most pacific
moods.
    In the mean time the trapper and the Sioux chief pursued their way to the
lodge. The former had watched, with painful interest the expression of
Mahtoree's eye, while the words of Middleton and Paul were pursuing their
footsteps, but the mien of the Indian was far too much restrained and
self-guarded to permit the smallest of his emotions to escape through any of
those ordinary outlets, by which the condition of the human volcano is commonly
betrayed. His look was fastened on the little habitation they approached, and,
for the moment, his thoughts appeared to brood alone on the purposes of this
extraordinary visit.
    The appearance of the interior of the lodge corresponded with its exterior.
It was larger than most of the others, more finished in its form and finer in
its materials, but there its superiority ceased. Nothing could be more simple
and republican than the form of living that the ambitious and powerful Teton
chose to exhibit to the eyes of his people. A choice collection of weapons for
the chace, some three or four medals bestowed by the traders and political
agents of the Canadas as a homage to, or rather as an acknowledgement of his
rank, with a few of the most indispensable articles of personal accommodation,
composed its furniture. It abounded in neither venison, nor the wild beef of the
Prairies, its crafty owner, having well understood that the liberality of a
single individual, would be abundantly rewarded by the daily contributions of a
band. Although as pre-eminent in the chase, as in war, a deer or a buffaloe was
never seen to enter whole into his lodge. In return, an animal was rarely
brought into the encampment, that did not contribute to support the family of
Mahtoree. But the policy of the chief seldom permitted more to remain, than
sufficed for the wants of the day, perfectly assured that all must suffer,
before hunger, the bane of savage life, could lay its fell fangs on so important
a victim.
    Immediately beneath the favorite bow of the chief, and encircled in a sort
of magical ring, of spears, shields, lances and arrows