PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE—AN INDIAN VILLAGE ON THE MOVE—SCALP DANCE—A HORRIBLE SCENE OF SAVAGE EXULTATION—COMPELLED TO JOIN THE ORGIES—A CAUSE OF INDIAN HOSTILITY—ANOTHER BATTLE WITH THE WHITE TROOPS—BURIAL OF AN INDIAN BOY—A HASTY RETREAT—MADE TO ACT AS SURGEON OF THE WOUNDED—MAUVE TERRE, OR BAD LANDS. The next morning the whole village was in motion. The warriors were going to battle against a white enemy, they said, and old men, women, and children were sent out in another direction to a place of safety, as designated by the chief. Every thing was soon moving. With the rapidity of custom the tent-poles were lowered and the tents rolled up. The cooking utensils were put together, and laid on cross-beams connecting the lower ends of the poles as they trail the ground from the horses’ sides, to which they are attached. Dogs, too, are made useful in this exodus, and started off, with smaller burdens dragging after them, in the same manner that horses are packed. The whole village was in commotion, children screaming or laughing; dogs barking or growling under their heavy burdens; squaws running hither and thither, pulling down tipi-poles, packing up every thing, and leading horses and dogs with huge burdens. [Illustration: Indian Family on the Move.] The small children are placed in sacks of buffalo skin and hung upon saddles or their mothers’ backs. The wrapped up lodges, which are secured by thongs, are fastened to the poles on the horses’ backs, together with sundry other articles of domestic use, and upon these are seated women and children. To guide the horse a woman goes before, holding the bridle, carrying on her back a load nearly as large as the horse carries. Women and children are sometimes mounted upon horses, holding in their arms every variety of plunder, sometimes little dogs and other forlorn and hungry looking pets. In this unsightly manner, sometimes two or three thousand families are transported many miles at the same migration, and, all being in motion at the same time, the cavalcade extends for a great distance. The men and boys are not so unsightly in their appearance, being mounted upon good horses and the best Indian ponies, riding in groups, leaving the women and children to trudge along with the burdened horses and dogs.