Compare this composition with Plate 102. Here the artist has portrayed an "accidental" meeting as the woman goes for water---the most common opportunity for young people of opposite sex to visit, and perhaps exchange a few words. For this courting excursion Arrow has borrowed a beautifully-marked pinto, precisely as young men of a later day might borrow a friend's car.

An indication that the horse's owner is a member of the Bowstring Society is that the black mane has been cropped in sections, and the intervals painted yellow. This sort of black-and-yellow hair fringe appears on other Bowstring horses, and on the shirts, shields, and some rattles and lances of the society. Since the black-yellow combination was also favored by the Elks, it is possible they may occasionally have treated their horses' manes in similar fashion; but no other examples are known to the author. In any event, the horse has been borrowed, as it does not appear elsewhere in the ledger. This may explain why Arrow's "ownership" feather is absent from its tail.

There can be no doubt, however, that Arrow is portraying himself. His straw hat and breechcloth are repeated together in Plate 120; the silk shirt and brass armbands in Plates 100, 120 & 126; these yellow-stripe leggings in Plates 94 & 140; while the silver-mounted headstall, and yellow, vaquero saddle appear throughout. The Ballard carbine hanging from the saddle horn is the same weapon Arrow captured in Plate 13.

The young lady wears a high, choker necklace of dentalium shells; a striped dress, probably of silk; and is wrapped in a fringed, Mexican blanket. Her boot-moccasins are of a distinctive type, with the "legging" section formed of dark blue (shown as black) wool trade cloth sewn to the leather moccasin. These are tied above the calf, and the white selvedge turned down to provide a decorative accent below the hem of the dress. The ends of these legging ties are forked, decorated in a black/white pattern that probably indicates bands of nickel-silver crimped around the strips of leather. Other examples are shown by Arrow in Plates 34, 148, 150 & 154. Compare the 1880 photograph of a Northern Cheyenne woman wearing boot-moccasins and legging-ties of this type, in Cowdrey, 1999: Fig. 48.

The woman also wears a silver concho belt (entirely covered by her blanket, but compare Plate 150), with a drop covered in rectangular, silver plaques. The bottom of this belt drop hangs below the hem of the blanket, between the woman's legs.

On her errand to the river, the young woman's vessel of choice is a very small brass kettle---perhaps water was not the real reason for her excursion. Cheyenne use of brass kettles can be documented as early as 1840, for when the great peace council was held that year between the Cheyenne and Kiowa tribes, brass kettles filled with food were among the gifts given by the Cheyennes (Grinnell, 1915: 68). Lewis H. Garrard mentions them as well, in 1846 (1955: 91). Among the inventory of material which the U.S. Army plundered from the Dog Soldier village at Summit Springs in July 1869, were "67 brass or iron kettles" (Afton, et. al, 1997: 321).

Ben Clark, the interpreter at Fort Reno during the 1870's, who was married to a Cheyenne woman, recorded an example of the type of songs which might be ad-libbed on a similar occasion, when a young man was trying to convince a married woman to leave her husband:

"I am your lover. I am not afraid to court you. Though you have a brave husband, Will you elope with me?"

The woman then might sing in response:

"I will leave my husband, But attend to what I tell you: You must be good to me, And not make love to other women" (Dodge, 1882: 352-53).

Homer Wheeler was in command of the Southern Cheyenne Scouts at Fort Elliott, Texas, and Fort Reno, Indian Territory, from 1888-1892. He saw precisely what Arrow has depicted here:

"It was quite comical to watch the young men and women flirt, as I have often seen them. They dressed up in their very best colored blankets, beaded leggings and moccasins; their hair carefully combed and ornamented, their faces painted with yellow ochre, on each cheek a heart, a star, or a round spot in red, according to their individual tastes" (Wheeler, 1923: 308).

For similar courting scenes depicted by some of Wheeler's Southern Cheyenne Scouts, see Greene, 1992: Cover & Fig. 2.