Stránka:book 1913.djvu/57

The Spartans of the West 35 "But if they are thus barbarous to those with whom they are at war, they are friendly, hospitable, and humane in peace. It may with truth be said of them, that they are the worst enemies and the best friends of any people in the whole world. " (" Trav- els, "p. 157.) "We shall likewise see them sociable and humane to those whom they consider as their friends, and even to their adopted enemies: and ready to partake with them of the last morsel, or to risk their lives in their defence." (P. 269.) And, again: "No people are more hospitable, kind and free than the Indians." (P. 171.) "Nothing can exceed the tenderness shown by them to their offspring." (P. 247.) Catlin, writing of the Plain Indians generally, says: "To their friends, there are no people on earth that are more kind; and cruelties and punishments (except for capital offences) are, amongst themselves, entirely dispensed with." (Vol. II., p. 241.) Schultz evidently went among the Blackfeet with the usual wrong ideas about the Indians, but he soon wrote: "I have read, or heard, that an Indian's loss of to-day is for- gotten on the morrow. That is certainly not true of the Black- feet, nor the Mandans. Often and often I have heard many of the Blackfeet mourn for one dead long years since." ("My Life as an Indian," p. 154.) And again: "I have often heard the Blackfeet speak of various white men as utterly heartless, because they had left their parents and their youthful home to wander and seek adventure in a strange land. They could not comprehend how one with right feeling might