The Bannacks Immediately Posted
Themselves On Each Side Of A Dark Ravine, Through Which The Enemy
Must Pass, And, Just As They Were Entangled In The Midst Of It,
Attacked Them With Great Fury.
The Blackfeet, struck with sudden
panic, threw off their buffalo robes and fled, leaving one of
their warriors dead on the spot.
The victors eagerly gathered up
the spoils; but their greatest prize was the scalp of the
Blackfoot brave. This they bore off in triumph to their village,
where it had ever since been an object of the greatest exultation
and rejoicing. It had been elevated upon a pole in the centre of
the village, where the warriors had celebrated the scalp dance
round it, with war feasts, war songs, and warlike harangues. It
had then been given up to the women and boys; who had paraded it
up and down the village with shouts and chants and antic dances;
occasionally saluting it with all kinds of taunts, invectives,
and revilings.
The Blackfeet, in this affair, do not appear to have acted up to
the character which has rendered them objects of such terror.
Indeed, their conduct in war, to the inexperienced observer, is
full of inconsistencies; at one time they are headlong in
courage, and heedless of danger; at another time cautious almost
to cowardice. To understand these apparent incongruities, one
must know their principles of warfare. A war party, however
triumphant, if they lose a warrior in the fight, bring back a
cause of mourning to their people, which casts a shade over the
glory of their achievement. Hence, the Indian is often less
fierce and reckless in general battle, than he is in a private
brawl; and the chiefs are checked in their boldest undertakings
by the fear of sacrificing their warriors.
This peculiarity is not confined to the Blackfeet. Among the
Osages, says Captain Bonneville, when a warrior falls in battle,
his comrades, though they may have fought with consummate valor,
and won a glorious victory, will leave their arms upon the field
of battle, and returning home with dejected countenances, will
halt without the encampment, and wait until the relatives of the
slain come forth and invite them to mingle again with their
people.
29.
Winter camp at the Portneuf Fine springs The Bannack
Indians Their honesty Captain Bonneville prepares for an
expedition Christmas The American Falls Wild scenery Fishing
Falls Snake Indians Scenery on the Bruneau View of volcanic
country from a mountain Powder River Shoshokoes, or Root
Diggers Their character, habits, habitations, dogs Vanity at its
last shift
IN ESTABLISHING his winter camp near the Portnenf, Captain
Bonneville had drawn off to some little distance from his Bannack
friends, to avoid all annoyance from their intimacy or
intrusions. In so doing, however, he had been obliged to take up
his quarters on the extreme edge of the flat land, where he was
encompassed with ice and snow, and had nothing better for his
horses to subsist on than wormwood.
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