Adventure Magazine Cover — page 130: what you’re looking at

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

116 On being informed of our decision, Choke- cherry violently objected. He needed the medicine of her hair, he said. Never had the Cheyennes seen such hair. Her at- tendance was absolutely necessary, he insisted. “You'd better come,” I urged after Flat Mouth had interpreted. “It will give us better standing with them. We can ride directly from the ceremony to the lower village.”’ “Tf you think best,’ she surrendered, rising and gathering up her capote. : Choke-cherry had had small chance to wear the purple, I took it, and his dignity and conceit were terrific. As Choke-cherry, the warriors would have laughed at him; as the mouth-piece of his illustrious brother, his orders were obeyed with great celerity. Our horses were brought to the hut, and the buck who acted as hostler did not even pause to beg for the usual piece of trade tobacco. We found the village humming with unusual activity, and Choke-cherry, every few rods, halted his pony and hoarsely harangued the people. These speeches had no point, I deduced from Flat Mouth’s grim smile of contempt, but they killed the time which I believed to be precious. _ Finally we were ready and rode beside Choke-cherry at the head of two hundred or more mounted warriors. They had decorated their ponies with white and red earth, some showing white or red hand- prints to advertise that their riders had grappled bare-handed with an enemy. Others were marked with stripes. The riders, too, were painted, but they would have been very ferocious to be- hold even without any coloring, for the majority of them showed wide welts in the flesh, produced by pushing an arrow-head along under the skin. Many had several of these hideous ridges running from the hand to the shoulder and then down on the chest, wheresthey ended in a series of circles. Nearly all had scalps hanging from their bridles or from the handles of their axes and spears. The wamen, also mounted, brought up the rear. These were uniformly tattooed with broad lines from the nose to the ears, and from the corners of the mouth down to the throat. As we galloped along behind Choke- cherry, Flat Mouth festooned his scalps down the front of his robe, while I hung the Sioux medicine pouch on my breast. Adventure , Several groups of young men now swung in ahead of us, riding ten abreast and chanting their war-songs and sounding their rattles. Choke-cherry produced the ceremonial pipe from a case carried across his saddle, and held it high in one hand so that it could not touch his horse. Now, while we went in superior numbers to sign a peace pact, yet we moved in a compact body as if fearing an attack. Nor was this because of any ceremony. We were afraid of an attack. Word was given for the young men to cease racing their ponies and stay close with the main body, and more than one of the gun- bearers saw that his piece was properly primed and slipped an extra ball into his mouth. When, within about a quarter of a mile of the Cheyenne camp, a score of warriors came racing out to meet us, on horse-flesh that was far superior to anything the Minnetarees owned, their animals’ heads were cunningly concealed in masks repre- senting buffalo and red deer heads. The riders were all young men and they rode up to us, shook hands and cried out greet- ings in their own language. On beholding Miss Dearness they seemed strangely affected and lost much of their noisy manner. Flat Mouth and his decora- tions also impressed them, although he wore none of the finery the Minnetarees were displaying. But he had the proof of having been at hand-grips with the Sioux. As they galloped back to their camp they repeatedly turned to gaze at us. Choke- cherry took all this to his own credit, but I knew it was the girl and her vivid hair that attracted these backward glances. She, too, was moved by the stirring spec- tacle, and her blue eyes flashed and sparkled and roamed back and forth to take in all the details of the lively panorama. For the moment she was forgetting the filth and the annoyance and was beholding only the barbaric grace of the riders, and the pictorial rioting of colors. Choke-cherry, the old wind-bag, now halted the long line and rode from front to rear, pausing every rod to spout and roar his orders, determined to live his brief authority to the limit. He lectured them on the virtue of keeping their finery un- soiled, so as to do honor to their tribe. He exhorted them to carry themselves care- fully, so as to give no offense and spoil the GEomicbooks.co >