loose property, including ponies, dogs, pots, kettles, blankets, wick-e-up fixtures and guns. Such furs and peltries as they obtain they sell, or exchange for articles they may need. They patronize the butchers, provision dealers and dry-goods merchants to a considerable extent, and usually have good credit, as they discharge their obligations promptly upon receiving their annuities, the proceeds of their labor, or of hunting.

These Indians are very fond of games of chance, and frequently play for money, or other property, having no conception of any question of morality being involved in the obtaining of money in this way. They regard it as a business transaction, and pay their lost wagers as punctually as any other debt. As a rule they are strictly honest, and pay their debts according to contract. Formerly their ideas of the use of a promissory note were peculiar, and most of them doubtless still retain the same ideas. If Wah-pa-tuck-e wants a blanket, and has not the money to pay for it, he goes to the merchant and agrees to pay, say five dollars, for the article. The merchant writes a note for the amount, and Wah-pa-tuck-e signs it by touching the pen as the merchant makes the mark (X). The merchant does not keep the note himself, but gives it to Wah-pa-tuck-e, who keeps it to remind him that he owes the debt. When the day for payment comes he appears before the merchant and produces from the folds of his blanket the identical promise to pay. Having made the payment, he hands over the note to the merchant, who must then keep it to remind him that he has received his money. Should the merchant afterward present the note for payment, the fact of its being in his possession would