'206 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTEK. 



faces of the Indians are still lit up with excitement, that 

 will soon pass away, and leave them cold and expression- 

 less. The successful hunters spare not the gibe and 

 joke at the expense of the unfortunate. Slowly they 

 wend their way back to '*' the encampment ; " their work 

 is done. 



The squaws, who, like vultures, follow on in the rear, 

 eagerly begin their disgusting work. The maiden is 

 not among them ; slavery commences only with married 

 life ; but the old, the wrinkled, the viragoes and vixens, 

 tear off the skins, jerk the meat, gather together the 

 marrow bones, and the humps, the tongues, and the 

 paunch ; and before the sun has fairly set, they are in 

 the camp with the rewards of the day's hunt. 



The plain, so beautiful in the morning, is scattered 

 over with carcasses already offensive with decay; the 

 grass is torn up, the flowers destroyed ; and the wolf and 

 buzzard and the carrion crow are disputing for the 

 loathsome meal, while their already gorged appetites 

 seem bursting with repletion. 



As might be supposed, the members of a party 

 of adventurers once accustomed to the luxuries of 

 refined life, and who had recently for wrecks slept in the 

 open air, congratulated themselves when they discovered 

 upon the distant horizon the signs that mark the habita- 

 tion of a " squatter." A thousand recollections of the 

 comforts of civilized life pressed upon us before we 

 reached the abode. We speculated upon the rich treat 



