Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/371

854 INDIAN MBDICAt- TEBATilEXT. Indians running along the bank afraid to shout as it might'JSr^f*; h^lp, but they were in the open; so our little pleaisure party (that was, but now a war party) know what thely have to contend with. One thought was uppermost in young Wasbasha's mind, and that was the necessity of procuring a trophy to display to his people, so he conceives the idea of trying to grab the drowning men as they come up in the last throes of death. This he does, but only succeeds in clutch- ing from one's neck a something, from another he tears a handful of hair, and his partner succeeds in grasping the third man and cutting off an ear; the fourth man is lost forever. By this time it is discovered that one of the par- ty is dead, the other is so badly wounded in the thigh and arm that it is impossible for him to walk; and knowing that the Padoucas sometimes used poisoned arrows, it is now resolved to get to shore on the oppo- site side and care for the wounds of their comrade, and this is soon done; the first thing is to get some clean mud from the river and plaster the wounds and bind them with the clout of the dead man, who is hid in some bushes untU such time as they can return and bury him according to Indian custom. The two young men hurriedly hold a council as to the best thing to do, and without hesitancy they agree that they had better plug up the canoe the best possiMe' way with something and proceed to return to the Little Osage village in order that their wounded companion could have care, and to get a party to run down the six remaining Indians. So the canoe is re- paired, and the wounded young Indian is carefully