258 CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA (eth.ann. 17 



on the headwaters of Otter creek, not 2 miles northwest from Saddle 

 mountain and about 25 miles northwest from Fort Sill. 



It was in early spring and the Kiowa were camped at the month of 

 Eainy-monntain creek, a southern tributary of the Washita, within the 

 present limits of the reservation ; nearly all the warriors had gone 

 against the Ute, so that few, excelling women, children, and old men, 

 were at home. One morning some young men going out to look for 

 horses discovered signs of Osage and immediately gave the alarm. 

 According to one story, they found a buflalo with an Os<age arrow stick- 

 ing in it; according to TV-bodal and other old men, they came upon the 

 Osage themselves and exchanged shots, wounding an Osage, but with 

 the loss of one of their own men killed. On the alarm being given, 

 the Kiowa at once broke camp in a panic and fled in four parties in 

 different directions — one party toward the west, another toward the 

 east, and two other bands, among whom was T'cbodal, then a boy, 

 went directly south toward the Comanche. Three of these escaped, 

 but the fourth, under A'd<4te, " Island-man," thinking the pursuit was 

 over, stopped on a small tributary of Otter creek, just 

 C\ west of the mountain. 



\^» Early in the morning, almost before it was yet light, a 



young man ( whose grandson was present during T'l-bodal's 

 nai'ration) went to look for his ponies, when he saw the 

 Osage creeping up on foot. He hastily ran back with the 

 Fig. 63-summer ncws, but all the camp was still sleeping, except the wife 

 1833— They cut Qf (^j^g chief Adiitc, who was outside preparing to scrape a 

 hide. Entering the tipi, he roused the chief, who ran out 

 shouting to his people, " Ts« biitso! Tso batso.'^^ — To the rocks! To 

 the rocks! Thus rudely awakened, the Kiowa sprang up and fled to 

 the mountain, the mothers seizing their children and the old men hur- 

 rying as best they could, with their bloodthirsty enemies close behind. 

 The chief himself was pursued and slightly wounded, but got away; 

 his wife, Semiitmii, "Apache-woman," was taken, but soon afterward 

 made her escape. One woman fled with a baby girl on her back and 

 dragging a larger girl by the hand; an Osage pursuing caught the 

 older girl and was drawing his knife across her throat when the 

 mother rushed to her aid and succeeded in beating him oft' and rescued 

 the child with only a slight gash upon her head. A boy named Aya, 

 "Sitting-on-a-tree" (?), was saved by his father in about the same way, 

 and is still alive, an old man, to tell it. His father, it is said, seized 

 and held him in his teeth, putting him down while shooting arrows to 

 keep off' the pursuers, and taking him up again to run. A party of 

 women was saved by a brave Pawnee living in the camp, who succeeded 

 in fighting off the pursuers long enough to enable the women to reach 

 a place of safety. 



The warriors being absent, the Kiowa made no attempt at a stand; 

 it was simply a surprise and flight of pauic-strickeu women, children, 



