AT the risk of being tedious, I will tell of one more day'sbuffalo hunting, to show the vicissitudes of this kind ofsport. Before doing so we will glance at another importantfeature of prairie life, a camp of Sioux Indians.

　　One evening, after halting on the banks of the Platte, weheard distant sounds of tomtoms on the other side of theriver. Jim, the half-breed, and Louis differed as to thetribe, and hence the friendliness or hostility, of ourneighbours. Louis advised saddling up and putting the nightbetween us; he regaled us to boot with a few blood-curdlingtales of Indian tortures, and of NOUS AUTRES EN HAUT. Jimtreated these with scorn, and declared he knew by the 'tunes'

　　(!) that the pow-wow was Sioux. Just now, he asserted, theSioux were friendly, and this 'village' was on its way toFort Laramie to barter 'robes' (buffalo skins) for blanketsand ammunition. He was quite willing to go over and talk tothem if we had no objection.

　　Fred, ever ready for adventure, would have joined him in aminute; but the river, which was running strong, was full ofnasty currents, and his injured knee disabled him fromswimming. No one else seemed tempted; so, following Jim'sexample, I stripped to my flannel shirt and moccasins, andcrossed the river, which was easier to get into than out of,and soon reached the 'village.' Jim was right, - they wereSioux, and friendly. They offered us a pipe of kinik (thedried bark of the red willow), and jabbered away with theirkinsman, who seemed almost more at home with them than withus.

　　Seeing one of their 'braves' with three fresh scalps at hisbelt, I asked for the history of them. In Sioux gutturalsthe story was a long one. Jim's translation amounted tothis: The scalps were 'lifted' from two Crows and a Ponkaw.

　　The Crows, it appeared, were the Sioux' natural enemies'anyhow,' for they occasionally hunted on each other'sranges. But the Ponkaw, whom he would not otherwise haveinjured, was casually met by him on a horse which the Siouxrecognised for a white man's. Upon being questioned how hecame by it, the Ponkaw simply replied that it was his own.

　　Whereupon the Sioux called him a liar; and proved it bysending an arrow through his body.

　　I didn't quite see it. But then, strictly speaking, I am nocollector of scalps. To preserve my own, I kept the hair onit as short as a tooth-brush.

　　Before we left, our hosts fed us on raw buffalo meat. This,cut in slices, and dried crisp in the sun, is excellent.

　　Their lodges were very comfortable, most of them large enoughto hold a dozen people. The ground inside was covered withbuffalo robes; and the sewn skins, spread tight upon theconverging poles, formed a tent stout enough to defy allweathers. In winter the lodge can be entirely closed; andwhen a fire is kindled in the centre, the smoke escaping at asmall hole where the poles join, the snugness is complete.

　　At the entrance of one of these lodges I watched a squaw andher child prepare a meal. When the fuel was collected, a fatpuppy, playing with the child, was seized by the squaw, andknocked on the throat - not head - with a stick. The puppywas then returned, kicking, to the tender mercies of theinfant; who exerted its small might to add to the animal'smiseries, while the mother fed the fire and filled a kettlefor the stew. The puppy, much more alive than dead, was heldby the hind leg over the flames as long as the squaw'sfingers could stand them. She then let it fall on theembers, where it struggled and squealed horribly, and wouldhave wriggled off, but for the little savage, who took goodcare to provide for the satisfactory singeing of itsplaymate.

　　Considering the length of its lineage, how remarkably haleand well preserved is our own barbarity!

　　We may now take our last look at the buffaloes, for we shallsee them no more. Again I quote my journal:

　　'JULY 5TH. - Men sulky because they have nothing to eat butrancid ham, and biscuit dust which has been so often soakedthat it is mouldy and sour. They are a dainty lot! Samsonand I left camp early with the hopes of getting meat. Whilehe was shooting prairie dogs his horse made off, and cost menearly an hour's riding to catch. Then, accidentally lettinggo of my mustang, he too escaped; and I had to run him downwith the other. Towards evening, spied a small band ofbuffaloes, which we approached by leading our horses up ahollow. They got our wind, however, and were gone before wewere aware of it. They were all young, and so fast, it tooka twenty minutes' gallop to come up with them. Samson'shorse put his foot in a hole, and the cropper they both gotgave the band a long start, as it became a stern chase, andno heading off.

　　'At length I managed to separate one from the herd by firingmy pistol into the "brown," and then devoted my efforts tohim alone. Once or twice he turned and glared savagelythrough his mane. When quite isolated he pulled up short, sodid I. We were about sixty yards apart. I flung the reinsupon the neck of the mustang, who was too blown to stir, andhandling my rifle, waited for the bull to move so that Imight see something more than the great shaggy front, whichscreened his body. But he stood his ground, tossing up thesand with his hoofs. Presently, instead of turning tail, heput his head ............