Indian sketches, taken during an expedition to the Pawnee tribes (Vol. 2 of 2)Irving, John Treat
History
Indian sketches, taken during an expedition to the Pawnee tribes (Vol. 2 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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