He then appointed a young Nez Perce
to accompany his guest to the next village, and "to carry his talk"
concerning them; and the two parties separated with mutual expressions
of good will.
The vapor bath of which we have made mention is in frequent use among
the Nez Perce tribe, chiefly for cleanliness. Their sweating houses, as
they call them, are small and close lodges, and the vapor is produced by
water poured slowly upon red-hot stones.
On passing the limits of O-push-y-e-cut's domains, the travellers left
the elevated table-lands, and all the wild and romantic scenery which
has just been described. They now traversed a gently undulating country,
of such fertility that it excited the rapturous admiration of two of the
captain's followers, a Kentuckian and a native of Ohio. They declared
that it surpassed any land that they had ever seen, and often exclaimed
what a delight it would be just to run a plough through such a rich and
teeming soil, and see it open its bountiful promise before the share.
Another halt and sojourn of a night was made at the village of a
chief named He-mim-el-pilp, where similar ceremonies were observed and
hospitality experienced, as at the preceding villages. They now pursued
a west-southwest course through a beautiful and fertile region, better
wooded than most of the tracts through which they had passed. In their
progress, they met with several bands of Nez Perces, by whom they were
invariably treated with the utmost kindness.
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