56 THE ADVENTURES OF 



the Crows, and came in with one prisoner. 

 He was a warrior about twenty, and arrange- 

 ments were soon made to put him to the 

 torture. He w^as stripped and tied firmly to 

 a wagon wheel. Next, a large pine plank 

 was shaved into splinters. Then one was 

 selected to apply the torture, and the rest 

 prepared to execute the war-dance around 

 him. The one selected to torture him took 

 a knife, and taking up a piece of his flesh 

 between his fingers plunged the knife through 

 it, then thrust into the wound a bunch of the 

 pine splinters, which were then set on fire and 

 allowed to burn out. As soon as one bunch 

 of splinters died out, another was inserted in 

 a fresh gash as before. The process was kept 

 up until the skin was crisped all over the body. 

 Notwithstanding the agony he must have suf- 

 fered, he never murmured nor gave any other 

 signs of pain, but appeared more unconcerned 

 than most people would to simply witness 

 such torture. During the whole time the 

 torture was going on the Indians danced 

 around their victim in the most wierd and un- 



