Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 6).djvu/124

 from the village with great noise and tumult, pursuing the direction in which the signal was made, down the river, and past our encampment; observing no regular march, but running helter skelter, like persons in one of our towns to extinguish a fire—and keeping up a continual hallooing to encourage each other. A number were on horseback, but the greater part on foot. Some were dressed in their most gaudy {147} stile, with the cincture of feathers, and their ornaments of the head made of plumes, fitted round a kind of crown. The tops of the lodges were crowded with women and children, and with old men, who could give no assistance, but by their lungs, which they kept well employed: yet there were several who sallied forth, bending under the weight of years. I counted upwards of five hundred in all. They soon after returned; whether they had chased away the enemy, or the alarm had turned out false, I never learned.

In the course of the next day, several parties arrived from different directions. According to custom they were met by warriors and conducted to the council lodge, where they gave an account of what had occurred, which was afterwards announced to the village by heralds, who went round bawling out the news at the door of each lodge. These occurrences contribute to enliven the village; yet independently of these, it continually presents a busy and animated scene. Great numbers of men are engaged in the different games of address and agility, others judging, or looking on, and many employed in a variety of other ways. There are {148} a great number of women constantly at work in dressing buffaloe robes, which are placed on frames before the lodges. One of the parties which arrived to day, came from the snake nation, where they had stolen horses. This arrested their employments for a moment, the immediate friends and relatives of such as returned,