CHARLES L. YOUNGBLOOD. 23 



anxiety until we discovered that they were 

 friends. There were about fifteen hundred of 

 them and they had a permit from the Govern- 

 ment to hunt for thirty days. This was the 

 first large band of Indians I had seen, and it 

 was quite a sight to me. The warriors were 

 in front, followed by the squaws and luggage. 

 The papooses, or babies, were lashed on* 

 horses, w^hich were turned loose and driven in 

 a kind of herd. Besides the papooses, the 

 luggage was lashed on the pack horses and 

 w^ere driven by the squaws, while the men rode 

 on before at their ease. The weather was 

 very cold and it w^as snowing at the time, and 

 pelting the little papooses in the face and on 

 the hands, but they seemed to be tough enough 

 and were taking it easy, laughing and crowing 

 and their little black eyes shining like black 

 beads. 



Buffalo meat was low and it did not pay 

 much to save it, and we went hunting just 

 for the hides, and in a few days had killed 

 over a hundred, which we skinned and left 

 the carcasses to rot on the prairie. 



