36 INDIAN ARCHERY. 
portment not discernible in those by which 
he was surrounded. Far is it from me to say 
that the visits he received were upon busi- 
ness, or had anything to do with the local 
government of the village; but it certainly 
appeared so. If any animal has a system of 
laws regulating the body politic, it is certainly 
the prairie dog.” 
As we sat on our horses, looking at these 
‘village transactions, our Comanche guide 
drew an arrow for the purpose of cutting 
short the career of a little citizen that sat 
yelping most doggedly in the mouth of his 
hole, forty or fifty paces distant. The animal 
was almost entirely concealed behind the hil- 
lock which encompassed the entrance of his 
apartment, so that the dart could not reach it 
in a direct line; but the Indian had resort to 
a manceuvre which caused the arrow to de- 
scend with a curve, and in an instant it quiv- 
ered in the body of the poor little quadruped. 
The slayer only smiled at his feat, while we 
were perfectly astounded. There is nothing 
strange in the rifleman’s being able to hit his 
mark with his fine-sighted barrel; but the ac- 
curacy with which these savages learn to 
shoot their feathered missiles, with such 
random aim, is almost incomprehensible. I 
had at the same time drawn one of Colt’s re- 
peating pistols, with a view of paying a simi- 
lar compliment to another dog; when, find- 
ing that it excited the curiosity of the chief, 
I fired a few shots in quick succession, as an 
explanation of its virtues. He seemed to 
