Campfire Stories of Indian Character 519
cease, and for the last time summoned the Apaches to
surrender, or to let their women and children come out
unmolested. On their side, the Apaches also ceased all
hostile demonstrations, and it seemed to some of us Ameri-
cans that they must be making ready to yield, and were
discussing the matter among themselves. Our Indian
guides and interpreters raised the cry, "Look out! there
goes the Death Song; they are going to charge!" It was a
weird chant,* one not at all easy to describe, half wail and
half exultation — the frenzy of despair, and the wild cry
for revenge. Now, the petulant, querulous treble of the
squaws kept time with the shufiiing feet, and again the
deeper growl of the savage bull-dogs, who represented man-
hood in that cave, was flung back from the cold, pitiless
brown of the cliffs.
"Look out! here they come!" Over the rampart,
guided by one impulse, moving as if they were all part of
one body, jumped and ran twenty of the warriors — superb-
looking fellows, all of them; each carried upon his back a
quiver filled with the long reed arrows of the tribe; each
held in his hands a bow and a rifle, the latter at full cock.
Half of the party stood upon the rampart, which gave
them some chance to sight our men behind the smaller
rocks in front, and blazed away for aU they were worth —
they were trying to make a demonstration to engage our
attention, while the other part suddenly slipped down and
around our right flank, and out through the rocks which
had so effectively sheltered the retreat of the one who had
so nearly succeeded in getting away, earlier in the morning.
Their motives were divined, and the move was frustrated;
- A Death Song, probably the one used here, is:
"Father we are going out to die, Let not fear enter into our hearts. For ourselves, we grieve not, but for those that are left behind. We are going out to die."
