278 MULE-HUNTING EXPEDITION. 



one end of the train to the other, in a most excited 

 state. 



Immediately on camping I am again thronged, 

 so ride on to see the chief at his lodge, about 

 four miles from camp; having first enclosed 

 my mules in a ring of fires, and desired my men, 

 in case I do not return in two hours, to abandon 

 the mules and escape as best they can. I find 

 the chiefs lodge, in the centre of a very extensive 

 Indian village, situated on the bank of a swift 

 stream. All the lodges are dome-shaped; like 

 beaver-houses, an arched roof covers a deep pit 

 sunk in the ground, the entrance to which is a 

 round hole ; through it I descend into the sable 

 dignitary's presence, his lodge differing from 

 the others only in being rather larger, and 

 having more dogs and children round it. 



Face to face I stand alone with the dreaded 

 chief more like bearding a hog in its stye than 

 the Forest Monarch, or the Scottish Douglas, in 

 his stronghold. On a few filthy skins squats 

 a flabby, red-eyed, dirt-begrimed savage, his 

 reoral robe a rasped blanket tied round his 



' o ~o 



waist. Sot and sensualist are legibly written 

 on his face, and greed, cruelty, and cunning 

 visible in every twist of the mouth and twinkle 



of the piglike eyes. My heart misgives me 



