The mothers first applauded the bravery of their sons; and then applied
herbs to their swollen limbs, and the mimic war furnished a subject of
amusement for the villages for the remainder of the day.
CHAPTER IV.
It would be well for the Dahcotahs if they only sought the lives of
their enemies. But they are wasting in numbers far more by their
internal dissensions than from other causes. Murder is so common among
them, that it is even less than a nine days' wonder; all that is thought
necessary is to bury the dead, and then some relative must avenge
his quarrel.
Red Earth told her lover of the threat of Shining Iron, and the young
man was thus put on his guard. The sons of Good Road's first wife were
also told of the state of things, and they told Fiery Wind that they
would take up his quarrel, glad of an opportunity to avenge their own
and their mother's wrongs. It was in the month of April, or as the
Dahcotahs say in "the moon that geese lay," that Red Earth took her
place by the side of her husband, thus asserting her right to be
mistress of his wigwam. While she occupied herself with her many duties,
she never for a moment forgot the threat of Shining Iron.
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