That braggart horde was encamped but about three miles off, and were just then in high glee and festivity, and more swaggering than ever, celebrating a prodigious victory.  It appeared that a party of their braves being out on a hunting excursion, discovered a band of Blackfeet moving, as they thought, to surprise their hunting camp.  The Bannacks immediately posted themselves on each side of a dark ravine, through which the enemy must pass, and, just as they were entangled in the midst of it, attacked them with great fury.  The Blackfeet, struck with sudden panic, threw off their buffalo robes and fled, leaving one of their warriors dead on the spot.  The victors eagerly gathered up the spoils; but their greatest prize was the scalp of the Blackfoot brave.  This they bore off in triumph to their village, where it had ever since been an object of the greatest exultation and rejoicing.  It had been elevated upon a pole in the centre of the village, where the warriors had celebrated the scalp dance round it, with war feasts, war songs, and warlike harangues.  It had then been given up to the women and boys; who had paraded it up and down the village with shouts and chants and antic dances; occasionally saluting it with all kinds of taunts, invectives, and revilings.

The Blackfeet, in this affair, do not appear to have acted up to the character which has rendered them objects of such terror.  Indeed, their conduct in war, to the inexperienced observer, is full of inconsistencies; at one time they are headlong in courage, and heedless of danger; at another time cautious almost to cowardice.  To understand these apparent incongruities, one must know their principles of warfare.  A war party, however triumphant, if they lose a warrior in the fight, bring back a cause of mourning to their people, which casts a shade over the glory of their achievement.  Hence, the Indian is often less fierce and reckless in general battle, than he is in a private brawl; and the chiefs are checked in their boldest undertakings by the fear of sacrificing their warriors.

This peculiarity is not confined to the Blackfeet.  Among the Osages, says Captain Bonneville, when a warrior falls in battle, his comrades, though they may have fought with consummate valor, and won a glorious victory, will leave their arms upon the field of battle, and returning home with dejected countenances, will halt without the encampment, and wait until the relatives of the slain come forth and invite them to mingle again with their people.

29.

Winter camp at the Portneuf—­Fine springs—­The Bannack Indians—­Their honesty—­Captain—­Bonneville prepares for an expedition—­Christmas—­The American—­Falls—­Wild scenery—­ Fishing Falls—­Snake Indians—­Scenery on the Bruneau—­View of volcanic country from a mountain—­Powder River—­ Shoshokoes, or Root Diggers—­Their character, habits, habitations, dogs—­Vanity at its last shift

In establishing his winter camp near the