revelations.  Again and again the form of an antelope appeared before him.  The antelope is the graceful peace spirit of the Ogallalla; but seldom is it that such a gentle visitor presents itself during the initiatory fasts of their young men.  The terrible grizzly bear, the divinity of war, usually appears to fire them with martial ardor and thirst for renown.  At length the antelope spoke.  He told the young dreamer that he was not to follow the path of war; that a life of peace and tranquillity was marked out for him; that henceforward he was to guide the people by his counsels and protect them from the evils of their own feuds and dissensions.  Others were to gain renown by fighting the enemy; but greatness of a different kind was in store for him.

The visions beheld during the period of this fast usually determine the whole course of the dreamer’s life, for an Indian is bound by iron superstitions.  From that time, Le Borgne, which was the only name by which we knew him, abandoned all thoughts of war and devoted himself to the labors of peace.  He told his vision to the people.  They honored his commission and respected him in his novel capacity.

A far different man was his brother, Mahto-Tatonka, who had transmitted his names, his features, and many of his characteristic qualities to his son.  He was the father of Henry Chatillon’s squaw, a circumstance which proved of some advantage to us, as securing for us the friendship of a family perhaps the most distinguished and powerful in the whole Ogallalla band.  Mahto-Tatonka, in his rude way, was a hero.  No chief could vie with him in warlike renown, or in power over his people.  He had a fearless spirit, and a most impetuous and inflexible resolution.  His will was law.  He was politic and sagacious, and with true Indian craft he always befriended the whites, well knowing that he might thus reap great advantages for himself and his adherents.  When he had resolved on any course of conduct, he would pay to the warriors the empty compliment of calling them together to deliberate upon it, and when their debates were over, he would quietly state his own opinion, which no one ever disputed.  The consequences of thwarting his imperious will were too formidable to be encountered.  Woe to those who incurred his displeasure!  He would strike them or stab them on the spot; and this act, which, if attempted by any other chief, would instantly have cost him his life, the awe inspired by his name enabled him to repeat again and again with impunity.  In a community where, from immemorial time, no man has acknowledged any law but his own will, Mahto-Tatonka, by the force of his dauntless resolution, raised himself to power little short of despotic.  His haughty career came at last to an end.  He had a host of enemies only waiting for their opportunity of revenge, and our old friend Smoke, in particular, together with all his kinsmen, hated him most cordially.  Smoke sat one day in his lodge in the midst of his own village,