LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 33 



lodges to seek for Yuta husbands ; " that the Yuta warriors 

 and young men despised them, and chastised them for their 

 forwardness and presumption, bringing back their scalps to 

 their own women." 



After sufficiently proving that they had anything but 

 lost the use of their tongues, but possessed, on the contrary, 

 as fair a length of that formidable weapon as any of their 

 sex, they withdrew, and left the field in undisputed posses- 

 sion of the men ; who, accompanied by tap of drum, and 

 by the noise of many rattles, broke out into a war-song, in 

 which their own valour was by no means hidden in a 

 bushel, or modestly refused the light of day. After this 

 came the more interesting ceremony of a warrior " count- 

 ing his coups." 



A young brave, with his face painted black, mounted on 

 a white horse mysteriously marked with red clay, and 

 naked to the breech-clout, holding in his hand a long taper 

 lance, rode into the circle, and paced slowly round it ; then, 

 flourishing his spear on high, he darted to the scalp-pole, 

 round which the warriors were now seated in a semicircle ; 

 and in a loud voice, and with furious gesticulations, related 

 his exploits, the drums tapping at the conclusion of each. 

 On his spear hung seven scalps, and holding it vertically 

 above his head, and commencing with the top one, he told 

 the feats in which he had raised the trophy hair. When 

 he had run through these the drums tapped loudly, and 

 several of the old chiefs shook their rattles, in corrobofation 

 of the truth of his achievements. The brave, swelling with 

 pride, then pointed to the fresh and bloody scalps hanging 

 on the pole. Two of these had been torn from the heads 

 of Rapahos struck by his own hand, and this feat, the ex- 

 ploit of the day, had entitled him to the honour of count- 

 ing his coups. Then, sticking his spear into the ground 

 by the side of the pole, he struck his hand twice on his 

 brawny and naked chest, turned short round, and, swift as 

 the antelope, galloped into the plain, as if overcome by 

 the shock his modesty had received in being obliged to re- 

 count his own high-sounding deeds. 



" Wagh ! " exclaimed old Killbuck, as he left the circle, 

 c 



