the smart
war-pony, covered with vermilion hand-prints as thickly as the spots
on a brook-trout. The squaws ran from their fleshing, their chopping
or their other work to look at the warrior who made all the camp talk.
Wisdom mellowed by age, in the forms of certain old men, sat back and
thought disturbedly of the future, as is the wont of those who have
little time to live. They feared for the trade with the Yellow-Eyes, for
no Chis-chis-chash could forge iron into guns and knives, which were
the arbiter between the tribes. This the Bat had brought upon them. But
still they thought more than they said; warriors as promising as this
young one did not often appear.

There was a feast at the lodge. The Bat told his exploits to the
warriors, as he strode about the night-fire in the tepee, waving his
arms, giving his war-yell until he split the air and made his listeners'
ears ring. The medicine Bat had made him strong; it had opened the way
and he had proved his faith. He sang while a man beat on a dried skin
drum:

"Hi-ha-s' yehe's' yeye'!

'Hi-he-e' yehe' e' yeye'!

'Hi' niso' nihu'-Hi' yeye'!

'Hi' niso' nihu'-Hi' yeye'!"

And the yelping chorus came from the fire-lit circle, "Hi ya--hi y
a--hi--ye'ye'!--ya'--ya'--ya'--ya!--e' e' e'."

On the morrow, men from the military order of the "red lodges," the
"miayuma," came to the Bat with charcoal, and he fasted many days before
undergoing his initiation. The sacred symbols of the body, their signs
and ceremonies, were given him, and he had become a pillar in the
Chis-chis-chash social structure.

The nights were growing cold, and occasional bleak winds blew down from
the great mountains, warning the tribe to be about its mission. The
loads of dry meat made the horses weary, when the camp was broken;
the tepee-poles were bright and new, and the hair began to grow on the
ponies.

One day, as they moved, they could see far ahead on the plains the
colorless walls of Fort Laramie, and the wise-men feared for their
reception, but the pillage of the traders' horses sat lightly on
the people. The Yellow-Eyes should have a care how they treated the
Chis-chis-chash. It was in their power to put out the white man's fires.
The Bat's people were an arrogant band, and held their heads high in the
presence of aliens. Their hands were laid heavily and at once on anyone
who stood in their path. All the plains tribes, the French Indians at
the posts and the Yellow-Eyed trapper-