Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/223

each other. The “pony,” as the animal is now affectionately named by the owner, is the chief object in an Indian's inventory of his private possessions. It is the standard estimate of value for the purchase-price in marriage of the daughter of a brave by the young buck who wishes to enter into the bonds of wedlock; and the more ponies the buck possesses, the more of such helpmeets can he gather at the same time in his lodge. And when he wishes the privilege of divorce, he can always salve the wounded sensibilities of a father-in-law by giving him some of the same sort of currency which obtained for him the bride who has become an incumbrance: the father will always take her back if she is well mounted and has relays, — only the animals become his, not hers. The pride of the Indian all over our central and western regions now rests upon his ponies (their number not infrequently running into the hundreds), their training for the chase of beasts, or men, and their fleetness in flight. Symmetry of form, grace of movement, quality of blood, are not generally to any extent objects of critical concern to their owners. They are seldom groomed, though often petted; they are rough and shaggy in appearance, and untrimmed. The breed, as modified from progenitors under a different clime and usage though not wholly unlike forms of service, has adapted itself to new conditions of food, exposure, riders, and treatment. Wholly in contrast with the sleek and glossy Arab courser, the Indian pony, who never knows stable, and but seldom shelter, conforms himself patiently and as by consent of Nature to these changed terms of his experience. Coralled in companies by night, or singly fettered or tied to tree or stake, with a range for browsing, according as security or apprehension from all furtive prowlers might dictate to the owner, the pony finds his chance for resting and for eating at the same time. His food, as well as that of his master, is always contingent, often meagre, and sometimes lacking for days together. On favored expanses of the prairie