200 SrORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



burned alive, after being terribly mutilated and having his 

 body filled with arrows. He bore his fate with Indian 

 stoicism ; and this and his bravery had induced his captors 

 to consider him a great warrior, and his scalp to be there- 

 fore unusually important. When I heard the tale, I felt 

 as if I should like to see the whole murderous, boasting 

 throng shot like dogs; and so anxious was I that they 

 should be punished, that I left the savage scene, with its 

 ghastly accessories, and hastened at once to the house of 

 the agent or sub-agent, and told him of the incident, and 

 asked him to see that the murderers were punished. 



He, however, treated the matter rather indifferently, say- 

 ing that it would be difficult to bring those engaged in the 

 brutal deed to justice, as none of their own people would 

 testify against them, and a scalp could not be identified or 

 produced in evidence to prove their guilt. When I told 

 him that those present had told the tale themselves, he said 

 that was nothing, as they would deny it all in a body if 

 questioned about it; and he thought it was better to let 

 the matter rest, as the dead could not be called to life, and 

 any attempt at punishing his murderers would only create 

 a useless disturbance, and probably send a portion of the 

 tribe on the war-path. 



Seeing that nothing could be done, I relinquished my ef- 

 forts at having them punished, and the next week I went to 

 see another dance of the braves. This was like the preced- 

 ing, except that the scalps were not held up by the women ; 

 but I noticed that several were employed to fringe the gar- 

 ments of the warriors, and that they pointed to their dress 

 instead of to wands when they Avere relating their great 

 deeds and the number of scalps they had taken. I tried 

 to buy some of these garments, but found they were deem- 

 ed invaluable, and that neither money nor ammunition 

 could induce their owners to part with them. I have 

 been in that country since I was so unceremoniously hunt- 

 ed out of it, but I never think of it without recalling the 

 horrible fate of Evans, and feeling thankful for my own 

 escape from an ignominious death. 



