All this being adjusted, they were conducted to the main buildingor council house of the village, where an ample repast, or ratherbanquet, was spread, which seemed to realize all thegastronomical dreams that had tantalized them during their longstarvation; for here they beheld not merely fish and roots inabundance, but the flesh of deer and elk, and the choicest piecesof buffalo meat. It is needless to say how vigorously theyacquitted themselves on this occasion, and how unnecessary it wasfor their hosts to practice the usual cramming principle ofIndian hospitality.
When the repast was over, a long talk ensued. The chief showedthe same curiosity evinced by his tribe generally, to obtaininformation concerning the United States, of which they knewlittle but what they derived through their cousins, the Upper NezPerces; as their traffic is almost exclusively with the Britishtraders of the Hudson's Bay Company. Captain Bonneville did hisbest to set forth the merits of his nation, and the importance oftheir friendship to the red men, in which he was ably seconded byhis worthy friend, the old chief with the hard name, who did allthat he could to glorify the Big Hearts of the East.
The chief, and all present, listened with profound attention, andevidently with great interest; nor were the important facts thusset forth, confined to the audience in the lodge; for sentenceafter sentence was loudly repeated by a crier for the benefit ofthe whole village.
This custom of promulgating everything by criers, is not confinedto the Nez Perces, but prevails among many other tribes. It hasits advantage where there are no gazettes to publish the news ofthe day, or to report the proceedings of important meetings. Andin fact, reports of this kind, viva voce, made in the hearing ofall parties, and liable to be contradicted or corrected on thespot, are more likely to convey accurate information to thepublic mind than those circulated through the press. The officeof crier is generally filled by some old man, who is good forlittle else. A village has generally several of these walkingnewspapers, as they are termed by the whites, who go aboutproclaiming the news of the day, giving notice of publiccouncils, expeditions, dances, feasts, and other ceremonials, andadvertising anything lost. While Captain Bonneville remainedamong the Nez Perces, if a glove, handkerchief, or anything ofsimilar value, was lost or mislaid, it was carried by the finderto the lodge of the chief, and proclamation was made by one oftheir criers, for the owner to come and claim his property.
How difficult it is to get at the true character of thesewandering tribes of the wilderness! In a recent work, we have hadto speak of this tribe of Indians from the experience of othertraders who had casually been among them, and who representedthem as selfish, inhospitable, exorbitant in their dealings, andmuch addicted to thieving; Captain Bonneville, on the contrary,who resided much among them, and had repeated opportunities ofascertaining their real character, invariably speaks of them askind and hospitable, scrupulously honest, and remarkable, aboveall other Indians that he had met with, for a strong feeling ofreligion. In fact, so enthusiastic is he in their praise, that hepronounces them, all ignorant and barbarous as they are by theircondition, one of the purest hearted people on the face of theearth.
Some cures which Captain Bonneville had effected in simple cases,among the Upper Nez Perces, had reached the ears of their cousinshere, and gained for him the reputation of a great medicine man.
He had not been long in the village, therefore, before his lodgebegan to be the resort of the sick and the infirm. The captainfelt the value of the reputation thus accidentally and cheaplyacquired, and endeavored to sustain it. As he had arrived at thatage when every man is, experimentally, something of a physician,he was enabled to turn to advantage the little knowledge in thehealing art which he had casually picked up; and was sufficientlysuccessful in two or three cases, to convince the simple Indiansthat report had not exaggerated his medical talents. The onlypatient that effectually baffled his skill, or rather discouragedany attempt at relief, was an antiquated squaw with a churchyardcough, and one leg in the grave; it being shrunk and rendereduseless by a rheumatic affection. This was a case beyond hismark; however, he comforted the old woman with a promise that hewould endeavor to procure something to relieve her, at the forton the Wallah-Wallah, and would bring it on his return; withwhich assurance her husband was so well satisfied, that hepresented the captain with a colt, to be killed as provisions forthe journey: a medical fee which was thankfully accepted.
While among these Indians, Captain Bonneville unexpectedly foundan owner for the horse which he had purchased from a Root Diggerat the Big Wyer. The Indian satisfactorily proved that the horsehad been stolen from him some time previous, by some unknownthief. "However," said the considerate savage, "you got him infair trade--you are more in want of horses than I am: keep him;he is yours--he is a good horse; use him well."Thus, in the continued experience of acts of kindness andgenerosity, which his destitute condition did not allow him toreciprocate, Captain Bonneville passed some short time amongthese good people, more and more impressed with the generalexcellence of their character. [Return to Contents].
