2 IO 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 8, 1908. 
went to water to the same river, lake or spring 
at about the same time. The Indians, therefore, 
knew about where to look for them, and after 
all their preparations had been made, when they 
approached the range of the horses, they sent 
out young men to find them much as scouts 
were commonly sent out by war parties. Under 
ordinary conditions the horse catchers seldom dis¬ 
turbed a great band of mares and young colts 
in charge of a stallion. They much preferred to 
find a band of young horses as just described. 
When the young men reported the discovery 
of a herd of horses in a favorable situation, the 
horse catchers mounted their best animals and 
went out slowly, approaching the herd as nearly 
as possible, and perhaps by driving out loose, 
gentle horses as hereafter explained, bringing 
the herd still closer to them. Then followed the 
swift chase, which often was not long, and the 
capture of the young animals. 
The rope was rarely or never thrown over 
the head of the animals to be taken by the 
ordinary method of throwing a lasso, but was 
passed over the head on the end of a long, light 
willow pole—sometimes twelve or fifteen feet 
long. One part of the noose was tied at the 
end of this pole, and two or three feet back 
from the end another part was tied, both with 
light strings. The rope ran back along the 
pole to the rider's hand. When he ran a horse 
down, so that he had come up beside it, it was 
not difficult to pass the noose over the animal’s 
head and the small loop stopped about its neck 
and did not fall down low against the chest. 
When the noose had been passed over the head, 
the rider gave a pull on the pole, which broke 
the light strings and allowed the noose to 
draw up on the animal’s neck. He then dropped 
the pole, and gradually shortening the rope, 
rode up beside the animal, and by a dexterous 
throw passed a loop of the rope up over the 
horse’s nose, which gave him good control 
over it. 
Horse chasers usually rode up on the right- 
hand side of the horse to be captured, and after 
giving the pull on the pole, which tightened the 
noose and freed the pole, the pole was pulled 
across the man’s body and thrown away on his 
right-hand side, while the loose end of the rope 
was dropped down at the rider’s left hand— 
that is, between the horse he was riding and the 
one he was capturing. The purpose of this was 
to avoid the danger of becoming entangled in 
the rope in case of any accident, such as the 
falling of a horse or the exhibition of unusual 
strength on the part of a captured animal. This 
was one of the special directions given to 
young men by old horse runners. 
It is said that the Kiowa taught them the 
proper method of throwing down the loose end 
of the rope, having themselves learned by ex¬ 
perience the danger of getting entangled in it 
if it were dropped on the outside, and so across 
the rider’s body. 
Occasionally—as in the case of a left-handed 
person—a man might find it more convenient 
to pass the rope from the left-hand side of the 
animal to be captured, in which case these 
operations would be reversed; the pole would 
be thrown away on the outside of the animal 
he was riding, and the end of the rope dropped 
down between his mount and the captive. 
Although the most favorable time to catch 
wild horses was in the spring, it might be done 
at any time of the year. Horses caught in the 
spring, however, could at once be gentled and 
partially broken, and after being ridden for a 
month or two, could be turned out with the 
herd and allowed to rest and feed on the sum¬ 
mer grass and so grow fat and in good con¬ 
dition before the coming of cold weather. Those 
caught in the fall, after their breaking was over, 
did not have time to recuperate before the 
winter. They were likely either to die or to 
lose a year’s growth. 
Often horse running parties would start out 
with a meagre outfit of ropes, expecting to 
make the ropes, hobbles, head-stalls, etc., which 
they might require on the buffalo range. Green 
buffalo hides were fleshed with a knife, then 
DR. EDWARD BRECK, AUTHOR OF “THE WAY OF THE 
WOODS,” WITH YANKEE AND HER BACK- 
WOODS COUSIN. 
thrown into the water until the hair would slip 
off, and then taken out, freed from the hair 
and dried. They were then cut into long strips 
in the ordinary manner, beginning on the out¬ 
side of the hide and cutting in a circle until the 
middle of the hide was reached. These strips were 
worked over pieces of sand stone which were 
firmly fastened in the ground, being pulled back¬ 
ward and forward, much in the manner in which 
a woman softened a hide over a sinew rope or 
through a hole in a buffalo shoulder-blade. Be¬ 
sides this, they cut wide strips of hide, some¬ 
times two inches or more in width, made them 
very soft and with these made hobbles for the 
newly captured animals. From similar soft 
strips they made head-stalls with side pieces 
and a nose band. These were often left on the 
young horses for a long time, and usually they 
were tied up by them. 
Another method of making lines and ropes 
was to take a very long line cut from the green 
hide of a young bull and in one end of it to cut 
a button hole slit lengthwise of the rope, long 
enough to pass through it the end of the strip still 
covered with hair. Two or more feet below 
the slit a knot was tied, leaving length enough 
of rope between the knot and the slit to fit 
loosely about the horse’s neck. The knot kept 
the rope from drawing up and choking the 
horse. The knotted end of the rope was then 
passed around the horse’s neck, the other end 
passed through the slit, up to which the knot 
was drawn, and the line was left on the 
horse, to be dragged along the ground for 
days or weeks. 1 his dragging wore the hair 
from the line and softened and made it limber. 
After the hair had all been worn from it, the 
line was cut away, just above the knot, the 
green hide removed from the horse’s neck, and 
the whole line folded up was pounded with a 
heavy stone, which broke up the fibre and al¬ 
most completed the softening of the rope. After 
that a very little dragging backward and for¬ 
ward around a stone made it a soft and useful 
line. 
I have said that the horse catchers were al¬ 
ways prepared for war when they set out, and 
as a matter of fact they were not infrequently 
attacked by enemies, and sometimes had to fight 
and even lost members of their party; or if not 
that, might lose the animals that they had cap¬ 
tured and those that they had with them. For 
in journeying over the prairie in the old days 
the life and property of the traveler depended 
very largely on the caution which he exer¬ 
cised, the sharpness with which he watched all 
the signs of the earth and the air, the prairie 
and the actions of the animals that lived on the 
prairie. Were the buffalo running as if fright¬ 
ened, the man kept himself hid, for he knew 
that somewhere not far off people were hunt¬ 
ing buffalo, and these might be friends or 
enemies. Did a little herd of antelope suddenly 
stop feeding and gallop to the top of a nearby 
hill, he knew that they had seen some strange 
sight, and that it would not be safe for him to 
show himself until he had discovered the cause 
which had startled the swift-footed beasts. Were 
wolves seen feeding or dragging something 
about over the grass, the Indian wished to know 
whether they had killed food for themselves, 
whether they were working over the carcass ot 
a buffalo killed by some human hunter, or 
whether, perhaps, they were quarreling over the 
remains of people who had been killed on the 
prairie. 
A distant smoke rising from the clear air, a 
cloud of dust hanging over the land behind the 
hills, the unusual action of any bird or beast 
gave the Indian food for thought, and made 
him feel either that he must get away as fast 
as possible, or must have a satisfactory explana¬ 
tion of the cause of the unusual appearance. 
[to be continued.] 
It Ain't a Feller's Fault. 
a fell er likes drowsin’ in this weather, let him drowse. 
Go dreamiiT with the daisies, or loafin' with the cows; 
If the weather makes him tired, it is time to call a halt. 
For the good Lord made the weather, an’ it ain’t a fel¬ 
ler’s fault. 
Thar’s sich a joy in freedom—when a feller wants to be 
As natural as a daisy or a bird a-flyin’ free, 
That I’m always full in favor of his callin’ of a halt, 
I - or the good Lord—He made the freedom, an’ it ain’t a 
feller's fault. —Atlanta Constitution. 
