Page:The life and adventures of James P. Beckwourth, mountaineer, scout, pioneer, and chief of the Crow nation of Indians (IA lifeadventuresof00beckrich).pdf/200

190 impossible that she could ever have the secret unveiled to her; that, should she break her trust, she would surely pay the forfeit with her life. She would become angry at such representations, and her black eyes would glow like fire.

Soon after this capture, a band of Black Feet made reprisals by breaking our enclosure and take seven hundred horses. I immediately collected a small party and went in pursuit. We speedily overtook them, and recovered all the horses except sixty, bearing the enemy, who precipitately fled, leaving two of their party dead. On our return we were received with the usual demonstrations of joy, and the horse-dance was performed by the village, together with the scalp-dance, which lasted nearly all night.

About this time my allied friend raised a war-party, and went in quest of the enemy; the heroine, ever active and prepared, accompanying him. I stayed behind. They returned in a few days, bringing eight scalps of the Coutnees—one of the bands of the Black Feet. They had lost two of their warriors, much to the annoyance of the heroine, as she was prevented from dancing, although she had counted two coos. She then declared that she would go to war no more, except in my company; but she had to break her word, and the next time she engaged in fight she received a severe wound. She wished me to raise a force immediately, and go and kill an enemy, so that she could wash her face. I declined, however, on the ground that I was soon to go to the fort, and that I would engage in no hostile encounters until my return.

When a war party loses one of its members, the survivors are compelled to wear their mourning-paint, until that same party, or an individual member of it, has wiped out the blot by killing one of the enemy without incurring loss of life. Thus it not unfrequently happens, when no opportunity of avenging a loss occurs, that the mourners wear paint for months, regularly renewing it as it wears off.

Small parties were continually going out and returning with varying success. The grand total of horses stolen by the Crows from all other tribes during that year amounted to nearly six thousand head. During the same period, however, they lost a great number stolen from them.