LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. .45 



danced and howled round the scalp-pole, which had been deposited 

 m the center of the village, in front of the lodge of the great chief. 



Killbuck now learned that a scout having brought intelligence 

 that the two bands of Rapahos were hastening to form a junction, 

 as soon as they learned that their approach was discovered, the 

 Yutas had successfully prevented it ; and attacking one party, had 

 entirely defeated it, killmg thirteen of the Rapaho braves. The 

 other party had fled on seeing the issue of the fight, and a few of 

 the Yuta warriors were now pursuing them. 



To celebrate so signal a victory, great preparations sounded 

 their notes through the village. Paints — vermilion and ochers — 

 red and yellow — were in great request ; while the scrapings of 

 charred wood, mixed with gunpowder, were used as substitute for 

 black, the medicine color. 



The lodges of the village, numbering some two hundred or 

 more, were erected in parallel lines, and covered a large space of 

 the level prairie in shape of a parallelogram. In the center, how- 

 ever, the space which half a dozen lodges in length would have 

 taken up was left unoccupied, save by one large one, of red-painted 

 buffalo skins, tatooed with the mystic totems of the " medicine" 

 peculiar to the nation. In front of this stood the grim scalp-pole. 

 like a decayed tree trunk, its bloody fruit tossing in the wind ; 

 and on another pole, at a few feet distance, was hung the "bag" 

 with its mysterious contents. Before each lodge a tripod of spears 

 supported the arms and shields of the Yuta chivalry, and on many 

 of them, smoke-dried scalps rattled in the wind, former trophies of 

 the dusky knights who were arming themselves within. Heraldic 

 devices were not wanting — not, however, graved upon the shield, 

 but hanging from the spear-head, the actual " totem" of the 

 warrior it distinguished. The rattlesnake, the otter, the carcagien, 

 the mountain badger, the war-eagle, the kon-qua-kish, the por- 

 cupine, the fox, &c., dangled their well-stufTed skins, displaying 

 the guardian " medicine" of the warriors they pertained to, and 



