ugh severely wounded, with the darts still sticking in
their flesh.

The grand scamper of the hunt being over, the Indians proceeded to
dispatch the animals that had been disabled; then cutting up the
carcasses, they returned with loads of meat to the camp, where the
choicest pieces were soon roasting before large fires, and a hunters'
feast succeeded; at which Captain Bonneville and his men were qualified,
by previous fasting, to perform their parts with great vigor.

Some men are said to wax valorous upon a full stomach, and such seemed
to be the case with the Bannack braves, who, in proportion as they
crammed themselves with buffalo meat, grew stout of heart, until, the
supper at an end, they began to chant war songs, setting forth their
mighty deeds, and the victories they had gained over the Blackfeet.
Warming with the theme, and inflating themselves with their own
eulogies, these magnanimous heroes of the trencher would start up,
advance a short distance beyond the light of the fire, and apostrophize
most vehemently their Blackfeet enemies, as though they had been within
hearing. Ruffling, and swelling, and snorting, and slapping their
breasts, and brandishing their arms, they would vociferate all their
exploits; reminding the Blackfeet how they had drenched their towns in
tears and blood; enumerate the blows they had inflicted, the warriors
they had slain, the scalps they had brought off in triumph. Then, having
said everything that could stir a man's spleen or pique his valor, they
would dare their imaginary hearers, now that the Bannacks were few
in number, to come and take their revenge--receiving no reply to
this valorous bravado, they would conclude by all kinds of sneers and
insults, deriding the Blackfeet for dastards and poltroons, that
dared not accept their challenge. Such is the kind of swaggering and
rhodomontade in which the "red men" are prone to indulge in their
vainglorious moments; for, with all their vaunted taciturnity, they are
vehemently prone at times to become eloquent about their exploits, and
to sound their own trumpet.

Having vented their valor in this fierce effervescence, the Bannack
braves gradually calmed down, lowered their crests, smoothed their
ruffled feathers, and betook themselves to sleep, without placing a
single guard over their camp; so that, had the Blackfeet taken them at
their word, but few of these braggart heroes might have survived for any
further boasting.

On