168 YEARBOOK^ PUBLIC MUSEUM^ MILWAUKEE [Vol. II. 



his pony and he walked up pretty close, and Duroin he kept him cov- 

 ered with his Colt. 



" 'You know what we are ?' says this old man in signs. 'We are an 

 Osage war party and we have to have a scalp.' 



" 'Come and take it,' signs Duroin, 'But, remember, six of you is 

 the mtmber that are going to die.' 



" 'It is better that we do not shed blood,' signs the old fellow. 'Let 

 us come and cut off a lock of hair from each of you, and we will give 

 you a go.od horse.' 



" 'We have made up our minds to die fighting,' signs Duroin. 



" 'Only permit us to cut off a lock of hair from the two of you, and 

 we will give you each a horse.' 



"'Why should we live longer?' signs back Duroin. 'Already our 

 women have cut their hair and painted their faces black to mourn for 

 us. It is better to throw ourselves away. Then the people will say 

 'They took many Osages along with them to light their fires,' when 

 they speak of us i' 



" 'Well, now, two is the number of horses that we are willing to 

 give to each of you for only a little lock of loway hair,' says the old 

 Osage. 



" 'Hay, Duroin, let's give them the hair,' I says to the half-breed, 

 those ponies looked pretty good to me at that time, my friend. 



" 'Say, Little Elk,' he says to me, 'Have you no sense? All they 

 want is to get close to our throats with their scalping knives in their 

 hands ! What good would a hundred horses be to us when their women 

 are dancing our scalps?' Then he signs back, 'The hair we will only 

 give you if you come and take it. Who ever heard of an loway selling 

 his hair? Perhaps you want to put it on your leggings for fringe and 

 then boast that the Osages are men, and wear the scalps of the loways ! 

 Come on now, we have been waiting long enough. Let us see whether 

 Osage flesh can flatten bullets !' 



"By golly, my friend, I didn't like that talk ! There were mebbe 

 thirty of those Osages, and they could ride right over us. But that old 

 man he rode back and we could see them talking together in the gather- 

 ing dark. Bye and bye the old fellow jumped on his pony, and away 

 he went over the prairie, and the young men all turned their horses 

 and followed him. After it was dark we slipped back into the draw, 

 and we went home as fast as we could without those stray horses." 



Far away, in the distant oil fields, a whistle blew for one o'clock. 

 Old Dave Towhee quivered all over his enormous bulk and sat up sud- 



