98 THE FIERY ORDEAL. 



fore resorts to it when time and opportunity serve. The 

 victim is 'staked out' (that is, both hands and feet, stretched 

 widely apart, are made fast to pickets driven firmly into the 

 ground so that movement of any kind is almost impossible). 

 He is then pleasantly talked to ; it is the best kind of a joke. 

 Then a small fire is built near one of his feet; when that 

 is so cooked as to have little sensation, another is built near 

 the other foot; then the legs, arms, and body, until the 

 whole person has been crisped. Finally a small fire is built 

 on the naked breast, and kept up until life is extinct." * 



An instance of this kind occurred in 1868, when an 

 attack was made by Sioux Indians upon a station on 

 the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Some men who were 

 herding stock in its vicinity were captured almost 

 without resistance and carried off by these savages. 



" The remaining two or three men successfully defended 

 themselves, to the great exasperation of the red skins, who 

 after losing several men, drew off. Just at nightfall they took 

 their prisoners to a position in plain view, but beyond rifle 

 range of the station, stripped them, and staked them to the 

 ground, built a fire on the breast of each, and while some 

 sat warming themselves with great apparent satisfaction, the 

 others indulged in a dance of rejoicing. The cries and groans 

 of the unfortunate men could be plainly heard by their friends, 

 but nothing could be done ; and it was not till far on in the 

 night that the cessation of complaints proved that life was 

 extinct. Next morning the Indians were gone, but the black- 

 ened and half burned bodies were found still fastened to 

 the ground, scalped and terribly mutilated, and one, an 

 unusually hairy man, almost skinned." f 



Here we shall take leave of this revolting subject 

 and proceed to give a short sketch of the redeeming 



* Our Wild Indians, or 33 Years' Experience among the Red Men of 

 the Great West, by Lieut.-Colonel Richard J. Dodge, U.S.A., 1882, 



P- 538- 



f Ibid., p. 529. 



