284 WAR EQUIPAGE. 
flint points are still met with among some of 
the wildest tribes. 
Besides these, the lance or spear, the use 
of which they may have learned from the 
Mexicans, is.an effective weapon in the charge 
as well as the chase. Many are also provided 
with the Northwestern fusil, and some have 
rifles. Very few, however, have acquired the 
dexterity of our frontier Indians with this 
deadly weapon. But no Indian deems his 
equipage complete without a ‘ scalping-knife ; 
yet among the western prairie Indians the 
tomahawk is but little known. These em- 
ploy, in its stead, the war-club or ‘ war- 
hawk,’ which are bludgeons with an encased 
stone for a head in the former, and with a 
transverse blade or spike in its place in the 
latter. Many are provided with shields of 
raw buffalo or elk skin, upon which are fre- 
quently painted some rude : hignoghyphical de- 
vices representing the enemies they have 
slain, as well as any other notable exploits of 
which they can boast. Such as are without 
these have their titles to renown recorded 
commonly upon the handles of their hatchets, 
their war-clubs, or perhaps tattooed upon their 
breasts or arms 
Besides war, hunting seems the only credit- 
able employment in which a warrior can en- 
gage. Every ‘other labor is put upon the 
squaws; and even when a party of hun- 
ters set out, they generally provide themselves 
with enough of these ‘ menials’ to take charge 
of the meat: the Indian” only deigns to shoot 
