SO LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE next morning Killbuck's leg was greatly inflamed, 

 and he was unable to leave the lodge ; but he made his 

 companion bring the old mule to the door, that he might 

 give her a couple of ears of Indian corn, the last remains 

 of the slender store brought by the Indians from the 

 Navajo country. The day passed, and sundown "brought 

 no tidings of the war-party. This caused no little wailing 

 on the part of the squaws, but was interpreted by the 

 whites as a favourable augury. A little after sunrise on 

 the second morning, the long line of the returning warriors 

 was discerned winding over the prairie, and a scout having 

 galloped in to bring the news of a great victory, the whole 

 village was soon in a ferment of paint and drumming. A 

 short distance from the lodges, the warriors halted to await 

 the approach of the people. Old men, children, and squaws 

 sitting astride their horses, sallied out to escort the victori- 

 ous party in triumph to the village. With loud shouts 

 and songs, and drums beating the monotonous Indian 

 time, they advanced and encircled the returning braves, 

 one of whom, his face covered with black paint, carried a 

 pole on which dangled thirteen scalps, the trophies of the 

 expedition. As he lifted these on high they were saluted 

 with deafening whoops, and cries of exultation and savage 

 joy. In this manner they entered the village, almost 

 before the friends of those fallen in the fight had ascer- 

 tained their losses. Then the shouts of delight were con- 

 verted into yells of grief; the mothers and wives of those 

 braves w*ho had been killed (and seven had " gone under ") 

 presently returned with their faces, necks, and hands 

 blackened, and danced and howled round the scalp-pole, 

 which had been deposited in the centre of the village, in 

 front of the lodge of the great chief. 



Killbuck now learned that a scout having brought in- 

 telligence that the two bands of Rapahos were hastening to 



