In the Old West

might give her a couple of ears of Indian corn, the last remains of the slender store brought by the Indians from the Navajo country. The day passed, and su

rious party in triumph to the village. With loud shouts and songs, and drums beating the monotonous Indian time, they advanced and encircled the returning braves, one of whom, his face covered with black paint, carried a pole on which dangled thirteen scalps, the trophies of the expedition. As he lifted these on high they were saluted with deafening whoops, and cries of exultation and savage joy. In this manner they entered the village,

learned that their approach was discovered, the Yutas had successfully prevented it; and attacking one party, had entirely defeated it, killing

e. Paints-vermilion and ochres, red and yellow-were in great request; whilst the scrapings

-pole, like a decayed tree-trunk, its bloody fruit tossing in the wind; and on another pole, at a few feet distance, was hung the bag with its mysterious contents. Before each lodge a tripod of spears supported the arms and shields of the Yuta chivalry, and on many of them smoke-dried scalps rattled in the wind, former trophies of the dusky knights who were arming themselves within. Heraldic devices were not wanting-not, however, graved upo

enter of the open space; and when a thin column of smoke arose, one of them planted the scalp-pole obliquely across the fire. Squaws in robes of white dressed buckskin, garnished with beads and porcupines' quills, and their faces painted b

hant, which swelled from a low whisper to the utmost extent of their voices-now dying away, and again bursting into vociferous measure. Thus they advanced to the center and retreated to their former positions; when six squaws, with their faces painted a dead black, made their appearance from the crowd, chanting, in soft and sweet measure, a lament for the braves the nation had lost in the late battle: but soon as they drew near the scalp-pole, their melancholy note changed to the music (to them) of gratified revenge. In a succession of jumps, raising the feet alternately but a little distance from the ground, they made their wa

and naked to the breech-clout, holding in his hand a long taper lance, rode into the circle, and paced slowly round it; then, flourishing his spear on high, he darted to the scalp-pole, round which the warriors were now seated in a semicircle; and in a loud voice, and with furious gesticulations, related his exploits, the drums tapping at the conclusion of each. On his spear hung seven scalps, and holding it vertically above his head, and commencing with the top one, he told the feats in which he had raised the trophy hair. When he had run through these the drums tapped loudly, and several of the old chiefs shook their r

his pipe-stem towards the fast-fading figure of the brave, "that

e valleys of the Del Norte. As they followed the trail from the Bayou, at sundown, just as they thought of camping, they observed ahead of them a solitary horseman * riding along, followed by three mules. His hunting-frock of fringed buckskin, and the rifle resting across the horn of his saddle, at once proclaimed him white; but as he saw the mountaineers winding through the canon, driving before them hal

Ruxton him

the saddle once more reined in his horse and waited their approach; for the spot where he the

from, s

r meat; and you are from there,

t that. What's the si

rly raised my animals. Sign, too, of more on left fork of Boiling S

But whar's you

alo

w do you get you

and they foll

s a smart-looking hoss, now;

, it

s from? They look

untry-away

r's yours

away,

aver worth

lla

aint

am

call for

are half froze for leather; and

n Arkansa, and what'

ing smart. On North Fork, Jim Waters got a hu

Bill W

y say: the Digge

powder

llars a

ac

ew a

ny abo

ve

haw; and now

re of genuine mountain-make. His face, clean shaved, exhibited, in its well-tanned and weatherbeaten complexion, the effects of such natural cosmetics as sun and wind; and under the mountain-hat of felt which covered his head, long uncut hair hung in Indian fashion on his shoulders. All this would have passed muster, had it not been for the most extraordinary equipment of a double-barreled rifle, which, when it had attracted the eyes of the mountaineers, elicited no little ast

o unsaddle; and whilst so engaged, the three mules, two of which were packed, one with the unbutchered carcass of a deer, the other with a pack of skin

still his clean and well-set legs, oblique shoulder, and withers fine as a deer's, in spite of his gaunt half-starved appearance, bore ample testimony as to what he had been; while his clear cheerful eye, and the hearty a

it come to that,"

to subsist, which was no more than natural, when their master observed to h

good temper and docility (most uncommon qualities in a mule). Her neck was thick, and rendered more so in appearance by reason of her mane not being roached (or, in English,

emoved he advanced to her head, and resting it on his shoulder, rubbed her broad and grizzled cheeks with both his hands for several minutes, the old mule laying her ears, like a rabbit, back upon her neck, and with half-closed eyes enjoyed migh

-up nose, and tail compressed between her legs. As her pack was being removed, she groaned and whined like a dog as a thong or loosened strap touched her ticklish body, lifting her hind quarters in a succession of jumps or preparatory kicks, and looked wicked as a panther. When nothing but the

of course, followed her and brought back the saddle, which he piled on the others to windward of the fire one of the trappers was kindling. Fire-making is a simple process with the mountaineers. Their bullet-pouches always contain a flint and steel, and sundry pieces

stance found

as the burning logs had deposited a sufficiency of ashes, a hole was raked in them, and the head of

iful the game about the creek, and so abundant the pasture for their winter-starved animals, that before the carcass of the two-year buck had been more than four-fifths consumed-and although rib after rib had been picked and chucked over their shoulders to the wolves, and one fore leg

urning campfire, where one always remained to guard the animals, and unloading their packs of meat (all choicest portions), ate late

ory, no little curiosity in the stranger's mind to learn the ups and downs of his career; and one night, when they assembled

the biggest kind of band to trap the Columbia and head-waters of Missoura and Yello

once into tolerable English, and to tell in the third person, but from his own lips, the scrapes which befell him in a sojourn of more than twenty years in the Far

d, with the rifle, and always had a hankering for the West; particularly when, on accompanying his father to Saint Louis every spring, he saw the different bands of traders and hunters start upon their annual expeditions to the mountains. Gre

ounty-by the susceptible Mississippians. From that moment he was "gone beaver;" "he felt queer," he said, "all over, like a buffalo shot in the lights; he had no relish for mush and molasses; hominy and johnn

rapper is perpetuate

atte River 66 miles

n the old Oreg

e introduction to

it plainly when he cocked it, to raise a shaking sight at a deer. Mary Brand, Mary Brand! the whip-poor-will sang it instead of her own well-known note; th

y Brand. And who can big Pete Herring be dressing that silver-fox skin so carefully for? For whom b

because the lovesick boo

d herself-what

ny man, woman, or child in the county, and truly spoken too; always understanding that the pumpkin is the f

surpass the same class in England, or elsewhere, where the features, although far prettier, are more vulgar and commonplace. Mary Brand had the bright blue eye, thin nose, and small but sweetly-formed mouth, the too fair complexion and dark-brown hair, which characterize the beauty of the Anglo-American, the heav

ad of twenty-six feet in his moccasins-the best hunter and rifle-shot in the country, with many other advantages too numerous to mention. But when did the course, &c., e'er run smooth? When the affair had becom

s world; and by a flirtation over the corn-cobs with big Pete, La Bonté's former and only rival, struck so hard a blow at the latter's heart, that on the moment his brain caught fire, blood danced before his eyes, an

by encircling the slender waist of the girl with his arm, and snatching a sudden kiss, he jumped upright from his seat, and seizing a small whiskey-keg whic

fferences between the hot-blooded youths; and of such frequent occurrence and invariably bloody termination did t

le who had witnessed the affair, but all the neighborhood, thronged to the scene of action, in a large field in front o

be to attempt to interfere. The poor girl, who was most ardently attached to La Bonté, was carried swooning into the house, where all the women congrega

had the usual hunting pouches, containing ammunition, hanging over the shoulder. Standing with the butts of their rifles on the ground, they confronted each other; and the crowd, drawing away a few

eadily for a few moments, the blood running down La Bonté's neck from a wound under the left jaw, whilst his opponent was seen to place his hand once to his right breast, as if to feel the position of his wound, they commenced reloading th

the constables were soon on the trail of La Bonté to arrest him. He easily avoided them; and, taking to

country and betake himself to the mountains,

in their search of him, and that the coast was comparatively clear

ect into execution, he sought and obt

g me like a fall buck, and I'm bound to quit. Don't

n she again raised it, she saw La Bonté, his long rifle upon his shoulder, stridin