BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 163 
sharing their primitive ways of life and thereby learning many of 
their peculiar traits. The English traveler, Charles A. Murray, 
whose narrative is quoted in part on the following pages, left Fort 
Leavenworth July 7, 1835, and two weeks later reached the summer 
camp of the Pawnee: “and a more interesting or picturesque scene 
I never beheld. Upon an extensive prairie gently sloping down to a 
creek, the winding course of which marked a broken line of wood 
here and there interspersed with a fine clump of trees, were about five 
thousand savages, inclusive of women and children; some were sit- 
ting under their buffalo-skin lodges lazily smoking their pipes; while 
the women were stooping over their fires busily employed in prepar- 
ing meat and maize for these indolent lords of the creation. Far as 
the eye could reach, were scattered herds of horses, watched (or as 
we should say in Scotland, ‘ tented’) by urchins, whose whole dress 
and equipment was the slight bow and arrow, with which they exer- 
cised their infant archery upon the heads of the taller flowers, or 
upon the luckless blackbird perched near them. Here and there might 
be seen some gay young warrior ambling along the heights, his painted 
form partially exposed to view as his bright scarlet blanket waved in 
the breeze.” (Murray, (1), I, pp. 277-278.) Later he described the 
manner of moving and pitching their large temporary camps: “On 
reaching the camping-place, which is selected by the grand chief (or, 
in his absence, by the next in rank), the senior squaw chooses the 
spot most agreeable to her fancy, and orders the younger women and 
children, who lead the pack-horses and mules (generally from five to 
ten in narcben according to the size or wealth of the family), to 
halt; but in making this choice of ground, she is restricted within 
certain limits, and those of no great extent, as the Pawnees observe 
great regularity both in their line of march and encampment. I 
could not ascertain whether these regulations were invariable, or 
made at the pleasure of the chief; but I believe the latter; and that 
on leaving their winter, or stationary, villages, he issues the general 
orders on this subject, which are observed during the season or the 
expedition; at any rate, they never varied during my stay ape 
them. 
“They move in three parallel bodies; the left wing consisting of 
part of the Grand Pawnees and the Tapages; the centre of the re- 
maining Grand Pawnees; and the right of the Republicans... 
All these bodies move in ‘ Indian file, though of course in the min- 
gled mass of men, women, children, and pack-horses, it was not very 
regularly observed; nevertheless, on arriving at the halting-place, 
the party to hich I belonged invariably camped at the eastern 
extremity of the village, the great chief in the centre, and the 
fépubliques on the western side; and this arrangement was kept so 
