On the Border With Crook - ERBzine

304 ON THE BORDER WITH CROOK.General Crook and his staff, the interpreters Frank Gruard and''Big Bat" and Louis and the Indian chiefs. One quadrant wasreserved for the Shoshones, another for the Crows. Each tribeselected one spokesman, who repeated to his people the words ofthe General as they were made known by the interpreters.Ejaculations of !"Ugh ugh !" were the only signs of approval,but it was easy enough to see that nothing was lost that wasaddressed to them. Pipes of the same kind as those the Siouxhave were kept in industrious circulation. The remarks madeby General Crook were almost identical with those addressed tothe Crows alone earlier in the evening the Indians asked the;privilege of scouting in their own way, which was conceded.An adjournment was ordered at between ten and eleveno'clock to allow such of our allies as so desired to seek muchneededrest. The Shoshones had ridden sixty miles, and nightwas far advanced. The erroneousness of this assumption wasdisclosed very speedily. A long series of monotonous howls,shrieks, groans, and nasal yells,emphasized by a perfectly earpiercingsuccession of thumps upon drums improvised from " parfleche" (tanned buffalo skin), attracted nearly all the soldiersand many of the officers not on duty to the allied camp. Peeping into the different lodges was very much like peeping throughthe key-hole of Hades.Crouched around little fires not affording as much light as anof the naked andordinary tallow candle, the swarthy figureshalf-naked Indians were visible, moving and chanting in unisonwith some leader. No words were distinguishable ;the ceremony partook of the nature of an abominable incantation, andas far as I could judge had a semi-religious character. One ofthe Indians, mounted on a pony and stripped almost naked,passed along from lodge to lodge, stopping in front of each andcalling upon the Great Spirit (so our interpreter said) to sendthem plenty of scalps, a big Sioux village, and lots of ponies.The inmates would respond with, if possible, increased vehemence, and the old saying about making night hideous wasemphatically suggested. With this wild requiem ringing in hisears one of our soldiers, a patient in hospital, Private WilliamNelson, Company "L," Third Cavalry, breathed his last. Theherd of beef cattle, now reduced to six, became scared by the dinand broke madly for the hills. All night the rain pattered down.