164 BUFFALO LAND. 



your trap and get it. Pale-faces, remove your hats; 

 noble Cheyennes, remove their scalps ! " 



Nothing of this kind occurred, however. Our guide 

 informed us that the bold savage simply fastened one 

 button of his tailless coat, grunted out " Ugh ! " in a 

 satisfied way, and motioned his band to follow. This 

 they did, and we were soon retracing our steps to 

 Hays ; by the guide's advice, making the savages 

 keep a fair distance behind us. 



The roofs of Hays glistened across the plains, as 

 they say those of Damascus do in the East. We had 

 formed a boy's romantic acquaintance with that land, 

 where the sun burns and the simooms frolic, and once 

 were quite enamored of its wild Bedouins of the de- 

 sert. Our manhood was now experiencing the sensa- 

 tion of seeing a tribe fiercer than their eastern breth- 

 ren, not exactly at our doors, because we had none, 

 but following very closely at our heels. 



As our strange cavalcade re-entered the town the 

 people stopped to gaze a moment, and then came out 

 to meet us. News flew to the fort, and some of the 

 officers rode over. The Land Company's office was 

 selected for a council room, the Cheyennes tying their 

 ponies to the stage corral near. The Indians were a 

 strange-looking crew. Sachem, declared them all wo- 

 men, and Dobeen affirmed that they looked more like 

 a covey of witches than warriors. With their long- 

 hair divided in the middle, and falling, sometimes in 

 braids and again loosely, over their shoulders, and 

 their blankets hanging around them, they did really 

 look much like the traditional squaw who so kindly 

 assists one in cutting his eye-teeth at Niagara Falls, 



