This is how a bargain was concluded before my eyes. A young Crow chief, of gigantic stature and covered with his gayest raiment, advanced to the midst of tile gathering, leading his horse by the bridle, and placed it in front of the Flathead, as if to offer it in exchange for his. The latter giving no sign of approval, tile Crow then laid at his feet his gun, then his scarlet robe, then all his ornaments one after another, then his leggings too, and finally his moccasins. Then the Flathead took the horse by tile bridle, picked up the goods, and the bargain was concluded without a word being said. The Crow chief, though despoiled of all his fine clothes and plumage, leaped with joy upon his new courser and ran him around the camp several times, uttering yells of triumph and trying the horse at all his gaits.
The main wealth of the western Indians consists of horses; every chief and warrior owns a great number of them, which may be seen grazing in herds about their camps. They are objects of trade for them in time of peace and of booty in war, so that they often pass from one tribe to another at a very great distance. The horses that the Crows have are principally from the wild races of the prairies: but they had stolen some from the Sioux, the Cheyennes and other tribes of the southwest, who in turn had got them from the Spanish in their raids into the Mexican territory. The Crows are considered the most indefatigable marauders of the plains; they cross and recross tile mountains in every direction, carrying to one side what they have stolen bn the other. This is how they get the name of Absaroka, which signifies " Crow." a From their childhood they are practiced in this kind of larceny; they acquire an astonishing ability in it; their glory increases with the number of their captures, so that an accomplished robber is in their eyes a hero. Their country seems to stretch from the Black Hills [of Dakota] to the Rocky Mountains, embracing the Wind River Moun
a Sparrow-hawk, not crow.