I 
- around, we comm nenced our dinner while he: eontinued to smo 
29. [ 174] 
will laugh at us,” said one of them, “returning to the village on foot, in- 
stead of driving back a drove of. Pawnee horses.”? He demanded to know 
_ if I loved my sorrel hunter very much; to which I replied, he was the 
object of my most intense affection. Far from being able to give, I was 
myself in want of horses ; and any suggestion of parting with the few I 
had valuable, was met with a peremptory refusal. In the mean time, the 
slaughter was about to commence on the other side. So soon as they 
reach , the Indians separated into two bodies.. One party proce 
directly across the prairie, toward the hills, in an extended line, while the: 
other went up the river; and instantly as they had given the wind to the 
herd, the chase commenced. The buffalo started for the hills, but were - 
intercepted and driven back toward the river, broken and running in every 
direction. .The clouds of dust soon covered the whole scene, preventing: 
us from: having any but.an occasional view. It had a very singular ap- 
pearance to us at a distance, especially when looks with the glass. We» 
were too far to hear the report of the guns, or any sound; and at every” 
— through the clouds of dust which the sun made luminous, we: 
see for a moment two or three buffalo dashifig along, and close be-' 
hind them an Indian with his long spear, or other weapon, and instantly — 
again they disappeared. The apparent silence, and the dimly seen figures. 
flitting by with such rapidity, gave it a kind of dreamy effeet, and seemed 
more like a picture than a scene of real life. It had been a large herd. 
when the cerne commenced, probably three or four hundred in number; 
but, ap I watched them closely, I did: not see one emerge from the 
ta ud where the work of destruction was going on. After remain- 
ing hee about an hour, we resummed our journey in the aicethiide of the 
"Ga are ually; as. we rode on, Indian after Indian came dropping onde 
laden with meat; and by the time we bad neared the lodges, the back- 
ward road was covered-with the returning horsemen. It was a -pleasant 
eontrast with the desert road we had been travelling. Several had joined 
company with us, and one of the chiefs invited us to his lodge. The vil- 
lage consisted. of about ‘one hundred and. twenty-five lodges, of whieh 
twenty were Cheyennes; the latter  phoncira a little Prete: from the — 
hoes. They were disposed in a scattering manner on sides of 
broad irregular street, about one hundred ond fifty fe feet wide, and egresng 
along the river. As we rode along, I remarked near some of the lodges a 
_kind of tripod frame, formed of three slender poles of birch, scraped Fery.. 
‘elean, to which were affixed the shield and spear, with some git reap 
ohs, of a chief. All were scrupulously clean, the spear head was b 
ed bright, and. the shield white and stainless. It reminded ‘am ‘of the 
days of feudal chivalry ; and when, as I rode by, I yielded to the passing 
impulse, and touched one of the spotless shields with. the muzzle of my 
gun, f almost expected a grim warrior to start from the lodge and resent 
my challenge. | ‘The master of the lodge’ spread out a robe for me to sit 
upon, and the sqtiaws set before us a ‘large wooden dish of buffalo meat. 
He’ had Jit his pipe in the mean while, and awhen it-had see eae pans 
“wally, five or’six other: chiefs came in, and took their seats in 
eis it eine: our host asked’a number of questions .re 
the object of our journey, of which I ae no ‘concealmel 
at I had made a visit to see see the | COU ntry, y. opal 
