The boys,
who had held the horses behind the hill, made their appearance, and
the work of flaying and cutting up began in earnest all over the
field.
I noticed my host Kongra-Tonga beyond the stream, just
alighting by the side of a cow which he had killed. Riding up to him
I found him in the act of drawing out an arrow, which, with the
exception of the notch at the end, had entirely disappeared in the
animal. I asked him to give it to me, and I still retain it as a
proof, though by no means the most striking one that could be
offered, of the force and dexterity with which the Indians discharge
their arrows.
The hides and meat were piled upon the horses, and the hunters began
to leave the ground. Raymond and I, too, getting tired of the scene,
set out for the village, riding straight across the intervening
desert. There was no path, and as far as I could see, no landmarks
sufficient to guide us; but Raymond seemed to have an instinctive
perception of the point on the horizon toward which we ought to
direct our course. Antelope were bounding on all sides, and as is
always the case in the presence of buffalo, they seemed to have lost
their natural shyness and timidity. Bands of them would run lightly
up the rocky declivities, and stand gazing down upon us from the
summit. At length we could distinguish the tall white rocks and the
old pine trees that, as we well remembered, were just above the site
of the encampment.
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