Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/301

284 RACING AND THE CEREMONIAL DANCE. commenced; but after a good degtl of -wallowing over ttie snow, and having his clothes rift like ribbons, he finally succeeded in cutting the animal's throat with his pocket Imife. This man who accomplished the feat was no "green" man, but a sturdy, bull dog of a fellow, otherwise he would not have succeeded. You may be sure the crowd is watching the deer runners whenever an opportunity is offered, so When our two are observed approaching, waving the oollftr, there goes up a shout rarely heard on the prairie in those days; and soon our two men arrive, the older man giving the younger one the credit for the capture. While the deer chasing was progressing, the horse racing and other sports are going on. To spin out the program, it is arranged to have three races, with eight horses in two and nine in the third; then the three winners are to see which gets the pot. It has been agreed that the Pawnee chief should select the twenty-five riders, and of course he cannot slight young Tatarrax, and racing like, he gets a winning horse, for Ysopete has procured the assent of his young master to let his young chief have the fastest horse in the herd. These three races ynJl not be described, as it is about the same as before; hut the ceremonial dance would hke to be given in full as described in the government work. It requires more space than such a story as this would justify, but our flying expedition were regaled with a display which caused many of the party who were members'of se- cret orders in Spain to wonder. Readers may doubt the Toruth of there being a secret order in Quivira at the date of our narrative, but in 1720 to 1769, the great