第87章

On the 25th of July, late in the afternoon, the camp broke up, with the usual tumult and confusion, and we were all moving once more, on horseback and on foot, over the plains.We advanced, however, but a few miles.The old men, who during the whole march had been stoutly striding along on foot in front of the people, now seated themselves in a circle on the ground, while all the families, erecting their lodges in the prescribed order around them, formed the usual great circle of the camp; meanwhile these village patriarchs sat smoking and talking.I threw my bridle to Raymond, and sat down as usual along with them.There was none of that reserve and apparent dignity which an Indian always assumes when in council, or in the presence of white men whom he distrusts.The party, on the contrary, was an extremely merry one; and as in a social circle of a quite different character, "if there was not much wit, there was at least a great deal of laughter."When the first pipe was smoked out, I rose and withdrew to the lodge of my host.Here I was stooping, in the act of taking off my powder-horn and bullet-pouch, when suddenly, and close at hand, pealing loud and shrill, and in right good earnest, came the terrific yell of the war-whoop.Kongra-Tonga's squaw snatched up her youngest child, and ran out of the lodge.I followed, and found the whole village in confusion, resounding with cries and yells.The circle of old men in the center had vanished.The warriors with glittering eyes came darting, their weapons in their hands, out of the low opening of the lodges, and running with wild yells toward the farther end of the village.Advancing a few rods in that direction, I saw a crowd in furious agitation, while others ran up on every side to add to the confusion.Just then I distinguished the voices of Raymond and Reynal, shouting to me from a distance, and looking back, I saw the latter with his rifle in his hand, standing on the farther bank of a little stream that ran along the outskirts of the camp.He was calling to Raymond and myself to come over and join him, and Raymond, with his usual deliberate gait and stolid countenance, was already moving in that direction.

This was clearly the wisest course, unless we wished to involve ourselves in the fray; so I turned to go, but just then a pair of eyes, gleaming like a snake's, and an aged familiar countenance was thrust from the opening of a neighboring lodge, and out bolted old Mene-Seela, full of fight, clutching his bow and arrows in one hand and his knife in the other.At that instant he tripped and fell sprawling on his face, while his weapons flew scattering away in every direction.The women with loud screams were hurrying with their children in their arms to place them out of danger, and Iobserved some hastening to prevent mischief, by carrying away all the weapons they could lay hands on.On a rising ground close to 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 lines of naked warriors confronting each other at a respectful distance, and yelling and jumping about to 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 together 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 peacemakers.One of the village heralds or criers proclaimed in a loud voice something which my 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 unnatural luster, as the warriors slowly withdrew to their lodges.