288 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



in charge escaped by leaving it where it stood, and fleeing 

 toward the settlements when they observed us retreating. 



After resting a short time in the chasm, we resumed our 

 retrograde movement, and continued it for three nights, 

 when we reached an army post, where we were kindly 

 treated and hospitably entertained by the officers. We 

 suffered a good deal from hunger and thirst during our 

 retreat, as water was scarce, and the only food we had was 

 the flesh of the sage hare and sage cock; and that, though 

 tender, is anything but pleasing even to the palate of a hun- 

 gry man, as it tastes as if it had been steeped in a decoc- 

 tion of quinine, gall, and bitter -almonds. We were so 

 thankful at escaping a terrible death, however, that we 

 grumbled but little at our diet; yet we were very glad 

 when we exchanged it for something more palatable. 



Several months after this affair I happened to be at the 

 Sioux reservation, and there learned the full particulars of 

 the horrible death of poor Evans. The murderers who had 

 been out devastating the country during the spring and 

 summer, and slaying men, women, and children in the most 

 merciless manner, returned to the reservation to rest dur- 

 ing the winter, and grow fat on the generous rations sup- 

 plied them by the Government, in order that they might 

 be in good condition to resume the slaughter of innocent 

 whites the following spring. Having nothing to do except 

 to eat, time became rather heavy on their hands, and, to es- 

 cape this dulness, they instituted a round of their various 

 dances, some of which were kept up for a fortnight at a 

 time, night and day. I witnessed their hideous scalp- 

 dance, in which the scalps were placed on long wands, 

 which were held by women in the centre of a large circle, 

 while the sanguinary braves yelled and jumped around 

 them like so many lunatics, and each related in the most 

 boasting manner imaginable how many scalps he had tak- 

 en; how he secured them; and went through horrifying 

 pantomimic gestures with hands and face and body to 

 show how he acted in the terrible contest that had made 

 him such a famous warrior, and furnished him with so 



