The scouts are stationed
on the hills, therefore, to look out both for game and for enemies,
and are, in a manner, living telegraphs conveying their intelligence by
concerted signs. If they wish to give notice of a herd of buffalo in the
plain beyond, they gallop backwards and forwards abreast, on the summit
of the hill. If they perceive an enemy at hand, they gallop to and fro,
crossing each other; at sight of which the whole village flies to arms.
Such an alarm was given in the afternoon of the 15th. Four scouts were
seen crossing and recrossing each other at full gallop, on the summit of
a hill about two miles distant down the river. The cry was up that the
Sioux were coming. In an instant the village was in an uproar. Men,
women, and children were all brawling and shouting; dogs barking,
yelping, and howling. Some of the warriors ran for the horses to gather
and drive them in from the prairie, some for their weapons. As fast as
they could arm and equip they sallied forth; some on horseback, some
on foot. Some hastily arrayed in their war dress, with coronets of
fluttering feathers, and their bodies smeared with paint; others naked
and only furnished with the weapons they had snatched up. The women and
children gathered on the tops of the lodges and heightened the confusion
of the scene by their vociferation.
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