WAR PARTY. 235 
a camp, separate into small parties, each one taking a differ- 
ent route, and arriving at some appointed place. They eat 
nothing but meat, and are called among the other tribes 
“ the buffalo eaters.” 
Always travelling upon an empty stomach, they ride fast 
and far, then eat enormously, and afterwards sleep imme- 
diately, when they are again ready for the road. 
No young man is admitted into the ranks of the braves 
until he has stolen a number of horses and mules and taken 
scalps, the consequence is that parties will go off and begone 
sometimes two years, and it is these who commit the most 
horrid atrocities upon the plains. ff 
They require no equipments on these expeditions but their 
horses and weapons, subsisting upon what they find on their 
route, 
When a chief wishes to go to war, he mounts on horse- 
back, holding erect along pole with a red flag tipped with 
eagle’s feathers attached, and rides through the camp singing 
his war-song. Those who wish to go fall in, and after going 
round for a while they dismount, and the war-dance com- 
mences. This routine is gone through with several days, 
until sufficient volunteers are collected. Each warrior 
provides his own horse and equipments, and they manage to 
mount themselyes upon white or cream-colored horses if 
possible, which they paint all over in the most fantastic 
figures imaginable. 
The whole thing is voluntary, but one who beheae 
