_Hunter._ A Sioux calls it _wee_; a Mandan, _menahka_; a Tuscarora, _hiday_; and a Blackfoot, _cristeque ahtose_. _Austin._ The Blackfoot is the hardest to remember. I should not like to learn that language. _Brian._ But you must learn it, if you go among them; or else you will not understand a word they say. _Austin._ Well! I shall manage it somehow or other. Perhaps some of them may know English; or we may make motions one to another. What do they call the moon? _Hunter._ A Blackfoot calls it _coque ahtose_; a Sioux, _on wee_; a Riccaree, _wetah_; a Mandan, _esto menahka_; and a Tuscarora, _autsunyehaw_. _Brian._ I wish you joy of the languages you have to learn, Austin, if you become a wood-ranger, or a trapper. Remember, you must learn them all; and you will have quite enough to do, I warrant you. _Austin._ Oh! I shall learn a little at a time. We cannot do every thing at once. What do the red men call a buffalo? _Hunter._ In Riccaree, it is _watash_; in Mandan, _ptemday_; in Tuscarora, _hohats_; in Blackfoot, _eneuh_. _Basil._ What different names they give them! _Hunter._ Yes. In some instances they are alike, but generally they differ. If you were to say "How do you do?" as is the custom with us; you must say among the Indians, _How ke che wa?_ _Chee na e num?_ _Dati youthay its?_ or, _Tush hah thah mah kah hush?_ according to the language in which you spoke. I hardly think these languages would suit you so well as your own. _Brian._ They would never suit me; but Austin must learn every word of them. _Austin._ Please to tell us how to count ten, and then we will ask you no more about languages. Let it be in the language of the Riccarees. _Hunter._ Very well. _Asco, pitco, tow wit, tchee tish, tchee hoo, tcha pis, to tcha pis, to tcha pis won, nah e ne won, nah en._ I will just add, that _weetah_, is twenty; _nahen tchee hoo_, is fifty; _nah en te tcha pis won_, is eighty; _shok tan_, is a hundred; and _sho tan tera hoo_, is a thousand. _Austin._ Can the Indians write? _Hunter._ Oh no; they have no use for pen and ink, excepting some of the tribes near the whites. In many of the different treaties which have been made between the white and the red man, the latter has put, instead of his name, a rough drawing of the animal or thing after which he had been called. If the Indian chief was named "War hatchet," he made a rough outline of a tomahawk. If his name was "The great buffalo" then the outline of a buffalo was his signature. _Basil._ How curious! _Hunter._ The _Big turtle_, the _Fish_, the _Scalp_, the _Arrow_, and the _Big canoe_, all draw the form represented by their names in the same manner. If you were to see these signatures, you would not think these Indian chiefs had ever taken lessons in drawing. _Brian._ I dare say their fish, and arrows, and hatchets, and turtles, and buffaloes, are comical figures enough.