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Show 264 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. work incessantly, and immense quantities of meat and hides were brought in. Great alarm, however, prevailed in the vil. 1a ge. All were on the alert. The young men were ranging thTough the country as scouts, and the old men paid careful at. tention to omens and prodigies, and especially to their dreams. In order to convey to the enemy (who, if they were in the neighborhood, must inevitably have known of our presence,) the impression that we were constantly on the watch, piles of sticks and stones were erected on all the surrounding hills, in such a manner as to appear at a distance like sentinels. Often, even to this hour, that scene will rise before my mind like a visible reality ;-the tall white rocks ; the old pine-trees on their summits; the sandy stream that ran along their bases and half encircled the village ; and the wild-sage bushes, with their dull green hue and their medicinal odor, th at covered all the neighboring declivities. E£our after hour the squaws would pass and repass with their vessels of water between the stream and the lodges. For the most part, no one was to be seen in the camp but women and children, two or three superannuated old men, and a few lazy and worthless young ones. These, together with the dogs, now grown fat and good-natured with the abundance in the camp, ·were its only tenants. Still it presented a busy and bustling scene. In all quarters the meat, hung on cords of hide, was drying in the sun, and around the lodges the squaws, young and old, were l a b orm· g on the fres.h hi.d es that were stretched upon the groun d, sCi.a pw. oa the halr from one side and the still adhering flesh from the other, and rubbing into them the brains of the buffalo, 1. n or de r to render them soft and pliant. In mercy to myself and my horse, I never wen t °u t with THE HUNTING CAMP. 265 the hunters after the first day. Of late, however, I had been gaining strength rapidly, as was always the case upon every respite of my disorder. I was soon able to walk with ease. Raymond and I would go out upon the neighboring prairies to shoot antelope, or sometimes to assail straggling buffalo, on foot; an attempt in which we m€t with rather indifferent success. To kill a bull with a rifle-ball is a difficult art, in the secret of which I was as yet very imperfectly initiated. As I came out of Kongra-Tonga's lodge one morning, Reynal called to me from the opposite side of the village, and asked me over to breakfast. The .breakfast was a substantial one. It consisted of the rich, juicy hump-ribs of a fat cow; a repast absolutely unrivalled. It was roasting before the .fire, impaled upon a stout stick, which Reypal took up and planted in the ground before his lodge; when he, with Raymond and myself, taking our seats around it, unsheathed our knives and assailed it with good will. In spite of all medical experience, this solid fare, without bread or salt, seemed to agree vvith me admirably. 'We shall have strangers here before night,' said Reyna!. 'How do you know that ?' I asked. 'I dreamed so. I am as good at dreaming as an Indian. There is the Hail-Storm; he dreamed the same thing, and he and his crony, the Rabbit, have gone out on discovery.' I laughed at Reyna} for his credulity, went over to my host's lodge, took down my rifle, walked out a mile or two on the pr · · aifle, saw an old bull standing alone, crawled up a ravine, shot him, and saw him escape. Then, quite exhausted and rat.h er. ill -h umore d, I wa lke d back to the v1. llage. By a strange cornmdence, Reynal's prediction had been verified; for the first persons whom I saw were the two trappers, Rouleau and Sara- |