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Show 114: THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. prairie with a better and more practised eye, soon discovered its real nature. 'Indians !' he said. 'Old Smoke's lodges, I b'lieve. Come! let us go! Wah! get up, now, "Five Hun. dred Dollar!"' And laying on the lash with good will, he galloped forward, and I rode by his side. Not long after, a black speck became visible on the prairie, full two miles off. It grew larger and larger; it assumed the form of a man and horse; and soon we could discern a naked Indian, careering at • full gallop toward us. When within a furlong he wheeled his horse in a wide circle, and made hi1n describe various mystic figures upon the prairie ; and Henry immediately compelled 'Five Hundred Dollar' to execute similar evolutions. 'It is Old Smoke's village,' said he, interpreting these signals; 'didn't I say so?' As the Indian approached we stopped to wait for him, when suddenly he vanished, sinking, as it were, into the earth. He had come upon one of the deep ravines that every where intersect these prairies. In an instant the rouah head of his horse 5 stretched upward from the edge, and the rider and steed came scrambling out, and bounded up to us; a sudden jerk of the rein brought the wild panting horse to a full stop. Then followed the needful formality of shaking hands. I forget our visitor's name. He was a young fellow, of no note in his nation; yet in his person and equipments he was a good specimen of a Dahcotah war-rior 1'n hI' s or d'm ary travellm· g dress. Li·k e mos t of his people, he was nearly six feet high; lithely and gracefully, yet strongly proportioned; and with a skin singularly clear and deli. cate. He wor e no pam· t ; h'1 s head was bare ; an d h'I S long hair was gathered in a clump behind, to the top of which was attached transversely, both by way of ornament and of TAKING FRENCH LEAVE. 115 talisman, the 1nystic whistle, made of the wing-bone of the war. eagle, and endowed with various magic virtues. From the back of his head descended a line of glittering brass plates, tapering from the size of a doubloon to that of a half dime, a cumbrous ornament, in high vogue among the Dahcotahs, and for which they pay the traders a most extravagant price; his chest and arms were naked, the buffalo robe, worn over them when at rest, had fallen about his waist, and was confined there by a belt. This, with the gay moccasons on his feet, completed his attire. For arms he carried a quiver of dog-skin at his back, and a rude but powerful bow in his hand. His horse had no bridle; a cord of hair, lashed around his jaw, served in place of one. The saddle was of most singular construction ; it was made of wood covered with raw hide, and both pommel and cantle rose perpendicularly full eighteen inches, so that the warrior was wedged firm I y in his seat, whence nothing could dislodge him but the bursting of the girths. Advancing with our new companion, we found more of his people, seated in a circle on the top of a hill ; while a rude procession came straggling down the neighboring hollow, men, women, and children, with horses dragging the lodge-poles behind them. All that morning, as we moved forward, tal] savages were stalking silently about us. At noon, we reached Horse Creek ; and as we waded throuah the shallow water b ' we saw a wild and striking scene. The main body of the Indians had arrived before us. On the farther bank, stood a large and strong man, nearly naked, holding a white horse by a long cord an d eyei· ng us a·s we approached. This was the chief, whom Henry called 'Old Smoke.' Just behind him, his youngest and favorite squaw sat astride of a fine mule: it |