They All Had A Wild And Startled Look, Very
Different From The Staid And Sober Aspect Of A Well-Bred City Steed.
Those most noted for swiftness and spirit were decorated with eagle-
feathers dangling from their manes and tails.
Fifty or sixty Dakotas
were present, wrapped from head to foot in their heavy robes of
whitened hide. There were also a considerable number of the
Cheyenne, many of whom wore gaudy Mexican ponchos swathed around
their shoulders, but leaving the right arm bare. Mingled among the
crowd of Indians were a number of Canadians, chiefly in the employ of
Bisonette; men, whose home is in the wilderness, and who love the
camp fire better than the domestic hearth. They are contented and
happy in the midst of hardship, privation, and danger. Their
cheerfulness and gayety is irrepressible, and no people on earth
understand better how "to daff the world aside and bid it pass."
Besides these, were two or three half-breeds, a race of rather
extraordinary composition, being according to the common saying half
Indian, half white man, and half devil. Antoine Le Rouge was the
most conspicuous among them, with his loose pantaloons and his
fluttering calico skirt. A handkerchief was bound round his head to
confine his black snaky hair, and his small eyes twinkled beneath it,
with a mischievous luster. He had a fine cream-colored horse whose
speed he must needs try along with the rest. So he threw off the
rude high-peaked saddle, and substituting a piece of buffalo robe,
leaped lightly into his seat.
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