snow likest to hail, and so sharp that one can hardly have his hands bare. The chief who went ahead has started a good fire for us. The three little children of Sata, Nicholas' son, have come to sit by us. Hardly had little Antoine's hands seen the fire, when he runs to pull from a cherry tree near by a branch full of cherries, which he brings to his sister Adele; but she passes them on to her younger sister Marie; a moment later, seeing a little unbaptized Blackfoot eating cherries, she said to her brother: " Did you see him? He didn't pray before eating." -After a long fatiguing march, we passed the night in a poplar grove on the banks of Judith river.
The bad weather prevents the two camps from coming together; the reunion will be only the more notable, for to-morrow is the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The Blackfoot chief asks whether it will not be grievous to us to see them testify their joy in their manner, namely, by painting their faces and dancing and singing at a great rate.- My answer was, " Do your best to show your friends and brothers that your hearts are glad."
We learn that the head chief of the Piegans, called Big Lake, himself admonished his people to listen well when the Black-robes were there; an occurrence the more remarkable because he scarcely ever speaks save through the mouth of another, who is called Tail Bearer (Grosse Toque) by reason of the enormous toque that he wears on his forehead. The toque among the Blackfeet is a tail, seven or eight feet long, made of horse and buffalo hair, interwoven with their own. But instead of floating behind in the ordinary way, this tail is located upon the party's forehead and stands out spirally, something like a rhinoceros horn. Such a tail among the Blackfeet is a mark of great distinction and bravery; the longer the tail, the greater courage must the bearer display upon occasion.
Akasia, another Piegan chief, who was met two years ago by a Flathead war party, and whom the Flatheads let go, out of respect to their missionary (Father Point) comes