(Span. estampado, foot-steps, noise of stamping feet.) A general scamper of animals on the Western prairies, generally caused by a fright. Mr. Kendall gives the following interesting account of them:
'A stampede!' shouted some of the old campaigners, jumping from the ground and running towards their frightened animals; 'a stampede! look out for your horses, or you'll never see them again!' was heard on every side.
It is singular, the effect that sudden fright has, not only upon horses, but oxen, on the prairies. The latter will, perhaps, run longer and farther than the former; and although not as difficult to 'head,' because they can not run so fast, their onward course it is impossible to stay. Oxen have been known to run forty miles without once stopping to look back. Not one in fifty of them has seen the least cause of fear, but each simply run because his neighbor did. Frequent instances have occurred where some worthless but skittish horse has caused the loss of hundreds of valuable animals.
Nothing can exceed the grandeur of the scene when a large cavallada, or drove of horses, take a 'scare.' Old, weather-beaten, time-worn, and broken-down steeds--horses that have nearly given out from hard work, or old age--will at once be transformed into wild and prancing cults. When first seized with that indescribable terror which induces them to fly, they seem to have been suddenly endowed with all the attributes of their original wild nature. With heads erect, tails and manes streaming in the air, eyes lit up, and darting beams of fright, old and jaded hacks will be seen prancing and careering about with all the buoyancy of action which characterizes the antics of young colts. The throng will sweep along the plain with a noise which may be likened to something between a tornado and an earthquake, and as well might feeble man attempt to arrest either of the latter.
Were the earth rending and cleaving beneath their feet, horses, when under the terrifying influence of a stampede, could not bound away with greater velocity, or more majestic beauty of movement.--Santa Fé Expedition, Vol. I. p. 96.
The boys leaped and whooped, flung their hats in the air, chased one another in a sort of stampede, &c.--Margaret, p. 120.
After him I went, and after me they came, and perhaps there wasn't the awfullest stampede down three pair of stairs that ever occurred in Michigan!--Field, Western Tales.
TO STAMPEDE
To cause to scamper off in a fright.
Col. Snively was on the point of marching in pursuit of the Mexicans, when an incident occurred which frustrated the purposes of the expedition. This was effected by a war party of Indians, who succeeded in stampeding a large band of the army horses.--Scenes in the Rocky Mountains, p. 268.