THE FRAY IN PROGRESS. 273 



general overhauling of their equipments, and then 

 another charge was made. They rode across each 

 other's fronts and around in circles, firing their 

 arrows and yelling like demons, and occasionally, 

 when two combatants accidentally got close together, 

 prodding away with lances. The oddest part of the 

 whole terrible tragedy to us was that the charges 

 looked, when closely approaching each other, as if 

 they were being made by two riderless bands of wild 

 ponies. 



The Indians would lie along that side of their 

 horses which was turned away from the enemy, and 

 fire their pistols and shoot their arrows from under 

 the animals' necks, thus leaving exposed in the sad- 

 dle only that portion of the savage anatomy which 

 was capable of receiving the largest number of arrows 

 with results the least possibly dangerous. I noticed 

 one fat old fellow whose pony carried him out of bat- 

 tle with two arrows sticking in the portion thus un- 

 protected, like pins in a cushion. He still kept up 

 his yelling, but it struck me that there was a touch 

 of anguish in the tone, and I felt confident that he 

 would not sit down and tell his children of the bat- 

 tle for some time to come. 



We saw one exhibition of horsemanship which es- 

 pecially excited our admiration. An arrow struck a 

 Cheyenne on the forehead, glancing off, but stunning 

 him so with its iron point, that, after swaying in the 

 saddle for an instant, he fell to the earth. Another 

 of the tribe, who was following at full speed, leaned 

 toward the ground, and checking his pony but 

 slightly, seized the prostrate warrior by the waist- 



