THE INDIANS REINFORCED. 219 



When Indians have plenty of time, they like to take the 

 whole skin of the head, beginning behind, skinning the head 

 and the whole face, including the ears ; and the scalp when 

 thus taken presents a ghastly appearance when stretched. 

 Soon after we left the stream we could hear the Indians 

 howling over the body of the man we had scalped, and they 

 came by a few minutes later, yelling their war-whoop, and 

 placing their closed fists against their foreheads and then 

 opening and shutting them, which means " war to the knife." 

 As they passed we fired a good many shots, and three horses 

 went down, their riders getting bad falls, though it was impos- 

 sible to tell whether any of them were hit, as when a man has 

 fallen and seems hurt, two of them will at once gallop by 

 him, one on either side, reaching down and catching a limb, 

 when they swing him on to the saddle in front of one of them 

 and ride off. 



The scalping of their companion had evidently made them 

 frantic, as it is their belief that a scalped warrior has to act as 

 servant to the others in the happy hunting-grounds ; and they, 

 in consequence, came much nearer, several times gathering as 

 if for a rush, and then giving up the idea on our firing a volley 

 at them. Towards evening a large party of Indians suddenly 

 appeared and joined the others, making their number up to 

 about two hundred. They all met and had a short consulta- 

 tion, we in the meantime camping, as we were in a capital 

 place to receive them a clump of timber standing on a rise 

 about two hundred yards from a stream, and there was no 

 other cover near but a few small bushes, which we at once 

 cut down. We drove the waggon in among the trees, and all 

 set to work to cut down some of the smallest of these to make 

 a breastwork. 



