[Transcriber's note: All stage directions appear in italics in the
original]

At the opening of the scene the glade is deserted, the men of the tribe
being engaged in a skirmish with the white men, while the women and
children have gone foraging. There are two teepees, one at right, and
one at left, their doors closed. By the side of teepee at left a pile
of fagots, and a wooden block.

Further front, facing audience, a great war-drum, gaily painted. A
skin-covered drum-stick. At right, towards front, the smoldering
remains of a fire. The whole appearance of the camp shows that it is
not permanent--a mere pausing-place.

The space between the teepees is absolutely unobstructed, but there are
trees and bushes at the back and sides.

By degrees the Indians who have been foraging begin to return. One of
the Indian women enters carrying fagots. One of the older squaws
rekindles the fire. Next come the children, with merry shouts, carrying
their little bows and arrows. The Indian maidens enter gaily, carrying
reeds for weaving. They move silently, swiftly, gracefully. Two of
their number begin to grind maize between stones. Two others plait
baskets. An old medicine-man, with a bag of herbs, comes from the
background, and seats himself near the drum, at left, taking an Indian
flute from his deerskin belt, and fingering it lovingly. An Indian
woman, arriving later than the others, unstraps from her back a small
papoose, and hangs it to the limb of a tree. The Indian children stand
towards the front of the greensward, shoot in a line their feathered
arrows, run and pick up the arrows, and acclaim in pantomime the one