At the back of the War Tepee was the figure of a person holding a pipe, which was symbolic of the vision of the founder. On the left side of the door was a circle enclosing four figures surrounded by many others, to represent Running Rabbit as leader with three companions, standing in a pit and holding back a number of enemies. A series of crossed lines, representing picket stakes to which horses were tied, recorded the capture of a number of horses. There was one symbol for the number of times Running Rabbit was leader of war expeditions, and another for his being detailed as scout. The sign for scout was a curved line to represent the waiting warriors; and a zigzag line going off, to show his [[266]]irregular course while scouting, in order to hide the position of his followers from the enemy.
Other brave deeds recorded were the cutting loose of a horse picketed close to the lodge of a Gros Ventre Indian and a dog barking; the enemy pursuing and their narrow escape; the seizing of a gun from the hand of an enemy; also the taking of a war bonnet, a lance, and a shield; there was the picture of a brave warrior who saved the lives of two wounded comrades, carrying one on his own horse and leading the horse with the other; their wounds were marked by dashes of red for blood; another picture showed Running Rabbit taking part in the making of a treaty with the white men.
In these pictures, the travois mark was used to indicate the direction taken by a war party; stops by day and traveling by night were marked by different colors—yellow for day and black for night. Mountains were marked, also lakes, streams, and rivers; a long crooked line ending in a fork represented a river; a red mark in the bend of this river showed where a fight took place with a war party of Crow Indians. [[267]]
CHAPTER XXXVIII
A NATIVE DOCTOR AND HIS PATIENT
One evening I crossed the meadow and climbed the ridge on the north side of the plain to the big rock, which commanded a broad view of the circle camp, the billowy hills stretching away to the horizon, north, south, east, and in the west the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains. The sun was setting and the birds were calling. High over the mountains the sky was like a golden sea with many tints, broken into bays and inlets by cloud promontories, in purple and somber red.
The lodges of the big camp were a ghostly white in the fading twilight; and soon became illuminated by bright inside fires, until the camp looked like an enormous group of colored Japanese lanterns, the flickering lights of many outside fires resembling fireflies in a summer’s dusk.
[[audio/mpeg]] | [MuseScore]]