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Show 288 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. the camp stood a line of old women singing a medicine-song to allay the tumult. As I approached the side of the brook, I heard gun-shots behind me, and turning back, I saw that the crowd had separated into two long lines of naked warriors confronting each other at a respectful distance, and yelling and jumping about t~ dodge the shot of their adversaries, while they discharged bullets and arrows against each other. At the same time certain sharp, humming sounds in the air over my head, like the flight of beetles on a summer evening, warned me that the danger was not wholly confined to the immediate scene of the fray. So wading through the brook, I joined Reynal and Raymond, and we sat down on the grass, in the posture of an armed neutrality, to watch the result. Happily it may be for ourselves, though quite contrary to our expectation, the disturbance was quelled almost as soon as it had commenced. When I looked again, the combatants were once more mingled togethe~ in a mass. Though yells sounded occasionally from the throng, the firing had entirely ceased, and I observed five or six persons moving busily about, as if acting the part of peace-makers. One of the village heralds or criers proclaimed in a loud voice something which rpy two companions were too much engrossed in their own observations ' to translate for me. The crowd began to disperse, . though many a deep-set black eye still glittered with an UD· natural lustre, as the warriors slowly withdrew to their lodges. This fortunate suppression of the disturbance was owing to a few of the old men, less pugnacious than Mene-Seela, who boldly ran in between the combatants, and aided by some 0: the ' soldiers,' or Indian police, su~ceeded in effecting then object. , THE TRAPPERS. 289 It seemed very strange to me that although many arrows and bullets were discharged, no one was mortally hurt, and I could only account for this by the fact that both the marksman and the object of his aim were leaping about incessantly during the whole time. By far the greater part of the villagers had joined in the fray, for although there were not more than a dozen guns in the whole camp, I heard at least eight or ten shots fired. In a quarter of an hour all was comparatively quiet. A large circle of warriors was again seated in the centre of the villaae but this time I did not venture to J'oin them, because I b ' could see that the pipe, contrary to the usual order, was passing from the left hand to the right around the circle ; a sure sign that a' medicine-smoke' of reconciliation was going forward, and that a white man would be an unwelcome intruder. When I again entered the still agitated camp it was nearly dark, and mournful cries, howls, and wailings resounded from many female voices. Whether these had any connection with the late disturbance, or were merely lamentations for relatives slain in some former war expeditions, I could not distinctly ascertain. To inquire too closely into the cause of the quarrel was by no means prudent, and it was not until sorne time after that I discovered what had given rise to it. Among the Dahcotah there are many associations, or fraternities, connected with the purposes of their superstitions, their warfare, or their social life. There Was one called 'The Arrow-Beakers,' now in a great measure disbanded and dispersed. In the village there were however four l11Bn belono-in()' to it 'dist.in()'uished by the peculiar :s b ' . b anangement of their hair, which rose in a high bristling mass above their foreheads, adding greatly to their apparent height, 13 |