42 LIFE IN THE FAB WEST 



saluted with deafening whoops, and cries of exultation 

 and savage joy. In this manner they entered the 

 village, almost before the friends of those fallen in the 

 fight had ascertained their losses. Then the shouts of 

 delight were converted into yells of grief ; the mothers 

 and wives of those braves who had been killed (and 

 seven had " gone under ") presently returned with their 

 faces, necks, and hands blackened, and danced and 

 howled round the scalp-pole, which had been deposited 

 in the centre of the village, in front of the lodge of the 

 great chief. 



Killbuck now learned that a scout having brought 

 intelligence that the two bands of Rapahos were hasten- 

 ing to form a junction, as soon as they learned that 

 their approach was discovered, the Yutas had success- 

 fully prevented it; and attacking one party, had entirely 

 defeated it, killing thirteen of the Rapaho braves. The 

 other party had fled on seeing the issue of the fight, and 

 a few of the Yuta warriors were now pursuing them. 



To celebrate so signal a victory, great preparations 

 sounded their notes through the village. Paints 

 vermilion and ochres, red and yellow were in great 

 request ; whilst the scrapings of charred wood, mixed 

 with gunpowder, were used as substitute for black, the 

 medicine colour. 



The lodges of the village, numbering some two 

 hundred or more, were erected in parallel lines, and 

 covered a large space of the level prairie in shape of a 

 parallelogram. In the centre, however, the space 

 which half a dozen lodges in length would have taken 



