a little and feel oneasy.” But San-it-sa-rish stood honestly to his word, said that it would be well that the Pale-faces and the Pawnees should be brothers, and hoped that they would not forget the promise of annual presents from the hand of the great chief who lived in the big village near the rising sun.
Having settled this matter amicably, Joe distributed among the Indians the proportion of his goods designed for them; and then they all adjourned to another tent, where a great feast was prepared for them.
“Are ye hungry?” inquired Joe of Dick as they walked.
“Ay, that am I. I feel as if I could eat a buffalo alive. Why, it’s my ’pinion we’ve tasted nothin’ since mornin’.”
“Well, I’ve often told ye that them Redskins think it a disgrace to give in eatin’ till all that’s set before them at a feast is bolted. We’ll ha’ to stretch oursel’s, we will.”
“I’se got a plenty room," remarked Henri.
“Ye have, but ye’ll wish ye had more in a little.”
“Bien, I not care!”
In quarter of an hour all the guests invited to this great “medicine feast” were assembled. No women were admitted. They never are at Indian feasts.
We may remark in passing that the word “medicine,” as used among the North American Indians, has a very much wider signification than it has with us. It is an almost inexplicable word. When asked, they cannot give a full or satisfactory explanation of it themselves, In the general, we may say that whatever is mysterious is “medicine.” Jugglery and conjuring, of a noisy, mysterious, and, we must add, rather silly nature, is “medicine,” and the juggler is a “medicine man.” These medicine men undertake cures; but they are regular charlatans, and know nothing whatever of the diseases they pretend to cure or their remedies. They carry bags containing sundry relics; these are “medicine bags.” Every brave has his own private medicine bag. Everything that is incomprehensible, or supposed to be supernatural, religious, or medical, is “medicine.” This feast being an unusual one, in honour of strangers, and in connection with a peculiar and unexpected event, was “medicine.” Even Crusoe, since his gallant conduct in saving the Indian child, was “medicine;” and Dick’s rifle was “medicine.”
Of course the Indians were arrayed in their best. Several wore necklaces of the claws of the grizzly bear, of which
