The six Sioux, when they found that they were pursued, left the mules that they had taken, and ran; and the Pawnees, after chasing them eight or ten miles, caught up with one of them, a brother of the well-known chief Spotted Tail.  Baptiste Bahele, a half-breed Skidi, had a very fast horse, and was riding ahead of the other Pawnees, and shooting arrows at the Sioux, who was shooting back at him.  At length Baptiste shot the enemy’s horse in the hip, and the Indian dismounted and ran on foot toward a ravine.  Baptiste shot at him again, and this time sent an arrow nearly through his body, so that the point projected in front.  The Sioux caught the arrow by the point, pulled it through his body, and shot it back at his pursuer, and came very near hitting him.  About that time, a ball from a carbine hit the Sioux and knocked him down.

Then there was a race between Baptiste and the Pawnee next behind him, to see which should count coup on the fallen man.  Baptiste was nearest to him and reached him first, but just as he got to him, and was leaning over from his horse, to strike the dead man, the animal shied at the body, swerving to one side, and he failed to touch it.  The horse ridden by the other Pawnee ran right over the Sioux, and his rider leaned down and touched him.

Baptiste claimed the coup—­although acknowledging that he had not actually touched the man—­on the ground that he had exposed himself to all the danger, and would have hit the man if his horse had not swerved as it did from the body; but the Pawnees would not allow it, and all gave the credit of the coup to the other boy, because he had actually touched the enemy.

On another occasion three or four young men started on the warpath from the Pawnee village.  When they came near to Spotted Tail’s camp on the Platte River, they crossed the stream, took some horses, and got them safely across the river.  Then one of the boys recrossed, went back to the camp, and cut loose another horse.  He had almost got this one out of the camp, when an Indian came out of a lodge near by, and sat down.  The Pawnee shot the Sioux, counted coup on him, scalped him, and then hurried across the river with the whole Sioux camp in pursuit.  When the party returned to the Pawnee village, this boy was the only one who received credit for a coup.

Among the Blackfeet the capture of a shield, bow, gun, war bonnet, war shirt, or medicine pipe was deemed a coup.

Nothing gave a man a higher place in the estimation of the people than the counting of coups, for, I repeat, personal bravery is of all qualities the most highly respected by Indians.  On special occasions, as has been said, men counted over again in public their coups.  This served to gratify personal vanity, and also to incite the young men to the performance of similar brave deeds.  Besides this, they often made a more enduring record of these acts, by reproducing