most famous in our western annals and indian traditions is that of the white steed of the prairies; a magnificent milk-white charger, large-eyed, small-headed, bluff-chested, and with the dignity of a thousand monarchs in his lofty, overscorning carriage. he was the elected xerxes of vast herds of wild horses, whose pastures in those days were only fenced by the rocky mountains and the alleghanies. at their flaming head he westward trooped it like that chosen star which every evening leads on the hosts of light. the flashing cascade of his mane, the curving comet of his tail, invested him with housings more resplendent than gold and silver-beaters could have furnished him. a most imperial and archangelical apparition of that unfallen, western world, which to the eyes of the old trappers and hunters revived the glories of those primeval times when adam walked majestic as a god, bluff-browed and fearless as this mighty steed. whether marching amid his aides and marshals in the van of countless cohorts that endlessly streamed it over the plains, like an ohio; or whether with his circumambient subjects browsing all around at the horizon, the white steed gallopingly reviewed them with warm nostrils reddening through his cool milkiness; in whatever aspect he presented himself, always to the bravest indians he was the object of trembling reverence and awe.