_L._—“What seek you there?” _M._—“Beaver, otter, and grisly bear–skins.” _L._—“Good. What is in the green–branch wigwam?” _M._—“Great Medicine—let the Aricará beware.” To this the chief added the sign usually employed for their most solemn mysteries. While this conversation was going on, the rovers of the wilderness had gradually drawn nearer, not, however, unperceived by Mahéga, who, throwing down a strip of blanket at a distance of twenty yards from the arbour of Prairie–bird, explained by a sign sufficiently intelligible, that if the main body of them crossed that line, his party would shoot. At a signal from their leader they again halted; and Mahéga observed that from time to time they threw hasty glances over the hill whence they had come, from which he inferred that more of their tribe were in the immediate neighbourhood. Meanwhile their leader, whose curiosity urged him to discover what Great Medicine was contained in the arbour, advanced fearlessly alone within the forbidden precincts, thus placing his own life at the mercy of the Osages. Ordering his men to keep a strict watch on the movements of the Aricarás, and to shoot the first whom they might detect in fitting an arrow to his bow–string, Mahéga now lighted a pipe, and courteously invited their leader to smoke; between every successive whiff exhaled by the latter, he cast an inquisitive glance towards the arbour, but the packages and the leafy branches baffled his curiosity; meanwhile the preliminaries of peace having been thus amicably interchanged, the other Aricarás cast themselves from their horses, and having given them in charge to a few of the youngest of the party, the remainder sat in a semicircle, and gravely accepted the pipes handed to them by order of Mahéga. That chief, aware of the mischievous propensities of his new friends, and equally averse to intimacy or hostility with such dangerous neighbours, had bethought himself of a scheme by which he might at once get rid of them by inspiring them with superstitious awe, and gratify himself with a sight of one of those wonders which the missionary had referred to in his last warning respecting the Prairie–bird. It was not long before the curious Aricará again expressed his desire to know the Great Medicine contents of the arbour. To this Mahéga replied, “A woman,” adding again the sign of solemn mystery. “A woman!” replied the leader, in his own tongue, expressing in his countenance the scorn and disappointment that he felt. “A woman,” repeated Mahéga, gravely; “but a Medicine Spirit. We travel to the mountains; she will then go to the land of spirits.” The Aricará made here a gesture of impatient incredulity, with a sign that, if he could not see some medicine–feat, he would believe that the Osage spoke lies.