Adventure Magazine Cover — page 125: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Gentlemen of the North Mandans to the southeast, the river being the boundary. We needed fresh meat badly, but the hunting party would greatly. delay our journey up the river, so we pressed on more determinedly than ever. I assured Miss Dearness that we could make the villages, ride through them and start back for Black Cat’s village before dark. On returning and recrossing the river we could decide whether to start north immediately, unaccompanied, or wait till morning and endeavor to obtain an escort from the Mandans. The girl was for an immediate departure. I had planned to take my white robes with me, thinking I might have a chance to trade them for horses, they being about the only thing the Minnetarees would ex- change horses for. Flat Mouth, however, insisted such a trade would consume all the day, that the horses we had were fresh enough, and that the hides had better be left behind in the hut, where they would be perfectly safe. So we rode forth. Miss Dearness’ peculiar type of loveliness was greatly accented by the appearance of the Mandan women, who could not be called comely even by Indian standards. J never could under- stand why the Crows, the most lascivious of all the Indians I ever met, should be the most prepossessing in appearance, or why the women of the Aricaras, the most treacherous of any tribe I ever encountered, should approach the nearest to the white standard of good looks. Miss Dearness was not inclined to talk, and we rode rapidly, as if eager to have done with a disagreeable errand. The road we followed was very decent and led us over two hills and then for two miles across a plain, skirting a small village which we did notenter. The whole distance was through an area of gardens which included much ground given over to the cultivation of sun- flowers. In every direction were horses grazing on the early grass, and Flat Mouth’s eyes glittered as became a true Pillager. All these animals were brought into the villages at night, revealing the Indians’ constant dread of their inveterate enemies, the Sioux and the Assiniboins. The Man- dans kept their ponies in their huts while the Minnetarees used small corrals. These villages on the Missouri and Knife were distinct from any I ever became ac- quainted with. They suggested per- Itt manency and a strong devotion to the soil, especially the villages of the Mandans. Our road along the south bank of the Missouri to the Knife afforded almost continuous glimpses of a bucolic life which made me think of Canadian villages. All hunting was done in large bands, Flat Mouth told me, for fear of surprize attacks. Each hunting party, therefore, contained the potentials of a war-party. Even when in large numbers the warriors did not care to wander far from their homes lest the villages be assaulted in force during their absence. Because of this caution it became necessary to conserve the buffalo and under no circumstances scare him away. It resulted that they aimed to surround a small herd of a few hundred and kill every one. They believed that if a survivor escaped he would communicate his alarm to other herds. Nor did they use their guns in hunting, but always the bow and arrow. The first pause in our journey was at the Minnetaree village at the mouth of the Knife, consisting of half a hundred huts and called the ‘little village.” We very quickly learned there was a great difference between this and either of the Mandan villages in regard to manners. The moment we were sighted a mob of young demons surrounded us, hooting and deriding. Their elders sat smoking their miserable tobacco on top of the huge circular huts and enjoying the spectacle. More troublesome even than the children were the dogs which swarmed from all directions. They were as vicious as wolves and much more daring. Miss Dearness, who had drawn her capote over her head when we neared the village, gave a cry of alarm, and I spurred forward and brained a brute with the butt of my gun as he leaped high to pull her from the saddle. This act caused much scowling and mumbling from the spectators, which I interpreted to be threats. Flat Mouth leaned low from his saddle and did for another beast with his ax. The mumbling broke into a sullen roar, and the men on the huts began rising and preparing to descend. Flat Mouth pulled out his string of Sioux scalps and, waving them above his head, . shouted his name and the fact that he had once lived among the Mandans and the Minnetarees. Then in their own tongue he chanted his record of coups, touching Gomicbooks.co