LIFE IN THE FAB WEST 43 



up was left unoccupied, save by one large one, of red- 

 painted buffalo-skins, tatooed with the mystic totems 

 of the " medicine " peculiar to the nation. In front 

 of this stood the grim scalp-pole, like a decayed tree 

 trunk, its bloody fruit tossing in the wind; and on 

 another pole, at a few feet distance, was hung the 

 " bag " with its mysterious contents. Before each lodge 

 a tripod of spears supported the arms and shields of 

 the Yuta chivalry, and on many of them, smoke-dried 

 scalps rattled in the wind, former trophies of the dusky 

 knights who were arming themselves within. Heraldic 

 devices were not wanting not, however, graved upon 

 the shield, but hanging from the spear-head, the actual 

 " totem " of the warrior it distinguished. The rattle- 

 snake, the otter, the carcagien, the mountain badger, 

 the war-eagle, the kon-qua-kish, the porcupine, the fox, 

 &c., dangled their well-stuffed skins, displaying the 

 guardian " medicine " of the warriors they pertained to, 

 and representing the mental and corporeal qualities 

 which were supposed to characterise the braves to whom 

 they belonged. 



From the centre lodge, two or three " medicine men," 

 fantastically attired in the skins of wolves and bears, 

 and bearing long peeled wands of cherry in their hands, 

 occasionally emerged to tend a very small fire which 

 they had kindled in the centre of the open space ; and, 

 when a thin column of smoke arose, one of them planted 

 the scalp-pole obliquely across the fire. Squaws in 

 robes of white dressed buckskin, garnished with beads 

 and porcupines' quills, and their faces painted bright 



