A GENERAL MASSACRE. 367 



ing gaze when I reached the summit of the ridge along 

 which we had been hitherto advancing ! Never in my 

 life shall I forget the sight I saw on the 27th of October 

 1845 ! Before me swept a torrent of huge animals, 

 bellowing with incredible energy, and galloping more 

 swiftly than a horse at its utmost speed. 



"Mort! tue ! whoop!" howled the Sioux in their 

 expressive language ; and yet, among this section of the 

 tribe, Rahm-o-j-or alone had driven his horse into the 

 middle of the herd. His eagle-eye had discovered the 

 largest beast, and his nimble arms pierced his heaving 

 sides with a cloud of arrows discharged with prodigious 

 vigour. Following in his rear, I poured into this royal 

 animal both barrels of my rifle ; the balls penetrated his 

 flesh, but did not inflict a mortal wound. Suddenly, the 

 tenth arrow of Rahm-o-j-or, passing through the animal's 

 carotid artery, arrested his wandering course, and he fell 

 heavily to the ground, like a rock loosened from a moun- 

 tain-side, with a crash like that of an avalanche. 



While I\ahm-o-j-or, at a single coup, thus cut short 

 the life of the gigantic bison, his subjects, in the thick of 

 the frightened herd, which rushed to and fro in all direc- 

 tions, were accomplishing an apparently interminable 

 slaughter. The sight of the blood flowing from each 

 animal's side seemed to augment their ardour, and on 

 every side we heard a fusillade, mingled with the hissing 

 of rapid arrows. Had it been possible to " assist" calmly 

 and composedly at this universal excitement, and study 

 its details with care, nothing could have offered to a 

 romancist or a painter a more admirable subject for his 

 descriptive powers ; but, involved in the very centre of 



