Dancing was usually their chief amusement; but
on the present occasion they were spectators of a scene which
possessed more immediate interest.
Somewhat apart from the maidens was a group, on which the Osage girls
gazed curiously and enviously. Three Indian youths, all under twenty,
nowise related by blood, but connected only by the bonds of
friendship, stood on a rising bank in deep abstraction.
Nah-com-e-shee, Koha-tunha, and Mun-ne-pushee--for such were the
names of the young men--had at an early age contracted for one
another one of those peculiar affections which inexplicably arise
sometimes between persons of the same sex, and which often are more
sincere and durable even than love. So wedded were they to this
feeling, as to have publicly declared their intention of never
marrying, in order that their amity might suffer no division. Their
hearts, they said, were so occupied by friendship, that love could
not find the remotest corner to creep into. How many smiling faces
were clouded by this strange announcement, we cannot say; but sure we
are, if any had before suffered them to occupy their thoughts, this
resolution increased the number of their admirers manifold.
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