They had sense enough to perceive the advantage they
would gain from them, and they were immediately incorporated, as far as
possible, with their own.
The Shoshones now charge in squadrons with the lance, form squares,
wheel with wonderful precision, and execute many difficult manoeuvres;
but as they combine our European tactics with their own Indian mode of
warfare, one of the most singular sights is to witness the disappearance
behind their horses, after the Indian fashion, of a whole body of
perhaps five hundred horse when in full charge. The effect is most
strange; at one moment, you see the horses mounted by gallant fellows,
rushing to the conflict; at a given signal, every man has disappeared,
and the horses, in perfect line appear as if charging, without riders,
and of their own accord, upon the ranks of the enemy.
I have dwelt perhaps too long upon the manners and habits of these
people; I cannot help, however, giving my readers a proof of the
knowledge which the higher classes among them really possess. I have
said that they are good astronomers, and I may add that their intuitive
knowledge of geometry is remarkable. I once asked a young chief what he
considered the height of a lofty pine. It was in the afternoon, about
three o'clock. He walked to the end of the shadow thrown by the
pine-tree, and fixed his arrow in the ground, measured the length of the
arrow, and then the length of the shadow thrown by it; then measuring
the shadow of the pine, he deducted from it in the same proportion as
the difference between the length of the arrow, and the length of its
shadow, and gave me the result.
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