Stopping to rest and take a smoke; chief with a war-eagle head-dress on; their shields and weapons lying on the ground behind them.
459. Camanchee War Party—the Chief discovering the enemy and urging on his men, at sunrise.
460. Religious Ceremony; a Sioux, with splints through his flesh, and his body hanging to a pole, with his medicine-bag in his hand, looks at the sun from its rising to its setting.
A voluntary cruel self-torture, which entitles him to great respect for the remainder of his life, as a medicine or mystery man.
461. Dragoons on the March, and a band of Buffalo breaking through their ranks, in Texas, 1835.
462. Prairie Dog Village.
Myriads of these curious little animals sometimes are found in one village, which will extend several miles. The animals are about twice the size of a rat, and not unlike it in appearance and many of their habits. They dig holes in the ground, and the dirt which is thrown up makes a little mound, on which they sit and bark when danger approaches. They feed upon the grass, which is their only food.
463. “Smoking Horses,” a curious custom of the Sacs and Foxes.
Foxes, going to war, come to the Sacs, to beg for horses; they sit in a circle and smoke, and the young men ride around them, and cut their shoulders with their whips until the blood runs, then dismount and present a horse.