534 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
in gathering wild plums, bull-berries, and other small fruits. The bas- 
kets are usually made of thin splints of wood, and very similar in manner 
of construction to the well known bushel-basket of our eastern farmers. 
Vig. 747.—Hunting buffalo. Hidatsa. 
Fig. 746 was also made by Lean- Wolf, and illustrates the old manner 
of hunting antelope and deer. The hunter would disguise himself by 
covering his head with the head and skin of an antelope, and so be 
enabled to approach the game near enough to use his bow and arrow. 
In a similar manner the Hidatsa would mask themselves with a wolf 
skin to enable them to approach buffalo. This is illustrated in Fig. 
747, which is a reproduction of a drawing made by the above-men- 
tioned chief. 
The next group of figures illustrates the custom of gaining and after- 
wards counting coups or hits, the French expression, sometimes spelled 
by travelers ‘‘coo,” being generally adopted. This is an honor gained = - 
by hitting an enemy, whether dead or alive, with an ornamented lance, 
or sometimes a stick, carried for the purpose as part of a warrior’s 
equipment. These sticks or wands are about 12 feet long, often of wil- 
low, stripped of leaves and bark, and each having some distinguishing 
objects, such as feathers, bells, brightly-colored cloth, or else painted 
in a special manner. Further remarks on this custom appear in Chap- 
ter x11I, Section 4. : 
a, Fig. 748, Kills-the-Enemy, from Red-Cloud’s 
Census, exhibits the coup stick in contact with the 
Fic. 748.—Counting 3 a SPS 
coups. Dakota. dead enemy’s head. b is taken from Bloody-Knife’s 
robe and shows an Indian about to strike his prostrate enemy. 
