Indian sketches, taken during an expedition to the Pawnee and other tribes of American Indians (Vol. 1 of 2)Irving, John Treat
History
Indian sketches, taken during an expedition to the Pawnee and other tribes of American Indians (Vol. 1 of 2)
Irving, John Treat
Indians of North America -- Kansas; Indians of North America -- Nebraska; Pawnee Indians
Upon reaching the party, he sprang from his horse, and shook hands with
Mr. E——. He then gave directions, through the interpreter, that the
band should be drawn up in as small a compass as possible, to avoid
all contact with his warriors. After spending some time in completing
his arrangements, he galloped back, and gave the signal to the rest.
In an instant the hills were deserted, and the whole mass of warriors
were rushing towards us, across the broad bosom of the prairie. It was
a moment of intense and fearful expectation. On they came; each mad
horse with erect mane and blazing eye, urged forward by the bloody
spur of an Indian master. They had reached within two hundred yards
of the party, but still the speed of their horses was unchecked, and
the powerful tramp of their hoofs rang like thunder upon the sod of
the prairie. At a signal, however, from the chief, the band separated
to the right and left, and commenced circling round us, in one dark,
dense flood. Their whoops and yells, and the furious and menacing
manner in which they brandished their bows and tomahawks, would have
led a person unacquainted with their habits to have looked upon this
reception as any thing but friendly. There is something in the fierce,
shrill scream of a band of Indian warriors, which rings through the
brain, and sends the blood curdling back to the heart. Their ornaments,
though wild, were many of them beautiful. The closely shaved heads of
some were adorned with the plumage of different birds. Others wore an
ornament of deer’s hair, bound up in a form resembling the crest of an
ancient helmet; and a plume of the bald eagle floated from the long
scalp-locks of the principal warriors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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