I sprang
impulsively to the spot, with Major Forsyth, who was present. Within
fifty yards, directly in front of the house, stood two Indians, who
were, apparently, the murderers, and a middle aged female, near them,
bleeding profusely. I seized one of them by his long black hair, and,
giving him a sudden wrench, brought him to his back in an instant, and,
placing my knees firmly on his breast, held him there, my hand clenched
in his hair. The Major had done something similar with the other fellow.
Inquiry proved one of these men to be the perpetrator of the deed. He
had drawn his knife to stab his mother-in-law, she quickly placed her
arms over her breast and chest and received the wounds, two strokes, in
them, and thus saved her life. It was determined, as her life was saved,
though the wounds were ghastly, to degrade the man in a public
assemblage of all the Indians, the next day, by _investing him with a
petticoat_, for so unmanly an act. The thing was, accordingly, done with
great ceremony.
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