II
It was long ago, upon the rolling prairie
south of the Devil's Lake, that a motley
body of hunters gathered near a mighty
herd of the bison, in the Moon of Falling
Leaves. These were the first generation of the
Canadian mixed-bloods, who sprang up in such
numbers as to form almost a new people.
These semi-wild Americans soon became a ne-
cessity to the Hudson Bay Company, as they
were the greatest hunters of the bison, and
made more use of this wonderful animal than
even their aboriginal ancestors.
A curious race of people this, in their make-up
and their customs! Their shaggy black hair
was allowed to grow long, reaching to their
broad shoulders, then cut off abruptly, making
their heads look like a thatched house. Their
dark faces were in most cases well covered with
hair, their teeth large and white, and their eyes
usually liquid black, although occasionally one
had a tiger-brown or cold-gray eye. Their cos-
tume was a buckskin shirt with abundance of
fringes, buckskin pantaloons with short leg-
gins, a gay sash, and a cap of fox-fur.
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