the captives and loaded them with
insults and abuse, shaking their fists in the faces of the victims and
acting like mad women. The captives remained perfectly indifferent to
these insults, and made no sign of being aware that the women were in
existence.

When the party entered the camp, the prisoners were tied to different
posts. The warriors then indulged in a great rejoicing. "Snakyeye" or
whisky was brought out and drank. The warriors boasted of their deeds
in battle and divided the captives. Then they sprang up in a wild
dance, and menaced the captives with their knives and tomahawks. One
of the Blackfeet replied in contemptuous words to the taunts of the
Copper-Heads, which so exasperated them that several of the latter at
once rushed to the posts and tomahawked two of the captives. The third
was saved by a chief of our tribe, who proposed that he should be
burned instead of tomahawked.

This proposal met with favor, and preparations were at once made for
carrying it into execution. Wood was brought and piled up around the
victim until it ascended above his knees. He was then tormented by
descriptions of the horrible sufferings that he was to endure, but the
threats failed to shake his constancy in the least.

As soon as all the preparations were complete, a large number of
warriors and squaws encircled the victim and commenced a wild dance.
Fire was applied to the pile, and in a few moments the flames ascended
around the body of the captive Blackfoot. He commenced chanting a
deathsong, and did not stop till life was extinct. The dance was kept
up around the stake until the body was consumed, when a yell was given
and the assemblage dispersed to their lodges.

Next day another council was held, and it was decided not to go any
farther to the south, but to return and get through the winter as well
as possible in a territory where we should be out of the Blackfeet
range. Accordingly our tents were struck and packed, the ponies
loaded, and we once more took the northward trail.

CHAPTER VII.

MATTHEW BRAYTON'S NARRATIVE.

Marries the Chiefs Daughter -- Tattooing -- Packing for the
south -- Camping out -- Crossing the Mountains -- Skirmish
with Blackfeet -- Wounded -- The Red River Settlements.

The fact that the traders at the Hudson Bay Company's post had claimed
me to be of white birth was communicated to the principal chief after
the war excitement of the latter was over, and caused