Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/438

 fast as General Crook expected, partly on account of the soft state of the trails induced by a heavy January thaw, and partly because it would be necessary for him to hunt in order to get food for his women and children. If he, "Red Cloud," were permitted to take out enough food to support the women and children on their way to the agency, it would deprive "Crazy Horse" of any excuse for delay, granting that he was disposed to be dilatory in his progress; he would go out to see the band of "Crazy Horse," and tell them all to come in at once, and give to all the women and children who needed it the food for their support while coming down from the Black Hills. This proposition was approved, and "Red Cloud" started out and did good work, to which I will allude later on.

One day when the Cheyenne chief, "Dull Knife," was at headquarters, I invited him to stay for luncheon.

"I should be glad to do so," he replied, "but my daughters are with me."

"Bring them in too," was the reply from others of the mess, and "Spotted Tail," who was present, seconded our solicitations; so we had the pleasure of the company, not only of old "Dull Knife," whose life had been one of such bitterness and sorrow, but of his three daughters as well. They were fairly good-looking—the Cheyennes will compare favorably in appearance with any people I've seen—and were quite young; one of nine or ten, one of twelve, and the oldest not yet twenty—a young widow who, with the coquettishness of the sex, wore her skirts no lower than the knees to let the world see that in her grief for her husband, killed in our fight of November 25th, she had gashed and cut her limbs in accordance with the severest requirements of Cheyenne etiquette. Had she lost a child she would have cut off one of the joints of the little finger of her left hand.

Of the other Cheyennes, there were "Little Wolf," one of the bravest in fights, where all were brave; and "Standing Elk," cool and determined in action, wise in council, polite in demeanor, reserved in speech, and adhering in dress to the porcelain bead breastplates of the tribes of the plains. Last among this deputation was the medicine man, "High Wolf," or "Tall Wolf," or "Big Wolf "; he had been proud to wear, as his pet decoration, a necklace of human fingers, which he knew had