for the winter, which it always retains. In pursuing a fur, and therefore not worth stripping off. Mr. Catlina

feelingly regrets this-for the red men and the buffaloes, he is of opinion, have taken up their last homes in the prairies, and the bones of the extinct races will bleach together. And yet this, he says, will be profitless to white men :

large herd of buffaloes at the season when their calves are but a few weeks old, I have often been exceedingly amused with the curious manoeuvres of these shy little things. Amidst the thundering confusion of a throng of several hundreds or several thousands of these animals, there will be many of the calves that lose sight of their dams; and being left behind by the throng, and the swift "This strip of the country, which extends from the passing hunters, they endeavour to secrete themselves, province of Mexico to lake Winnepeg on the North, is when they are exceedingly put to it on a level prairie, almost one entire plain of grass, which is, and ever inust where nought can be seen but the short grass of six or be, useless to cultivating man. It is here, and here chiefly, eight inches in height, save an occasional bunch of wild that the buffaloes dwell; and with, and hovering about sage, a few inches higher, to which the poor affrighted them, live and flourish the tribes of Indians whom God things will run, and, dropping on their knees, will push made for the enjoyment of that fair land and its luxuries. their noses under it, and into the grass, where they will It is a melancholy contemplation for one who has travelstand for hours, with their eyes shut, imagining them-led as I have, through these realms, and seen this noble selves securely hid, whilst they are standing up quite straight upon their hind feet and can easily be seen at

a

animal in all its pride and glory, to contemplate it so rapidly wasting from the world, drawing the irresistible conclusion too, which one must do, that its species is soon to be extinguished, and with it the peace and happiness (if not the actual existence) of the tribes of Indians, who are joint tenants with them, in the occupancy of * Such scenes might easily these vast and idle plains. have been preserved, and sti" could be cherished on the great plains of the West, without detriment to the country or its borders; for the tracts of country on which the buffaloes have assembled, are uniformly sterile, and of no It is on these plains, available use to cultivating man. which are stocked with buffaloes, that the finest speciIt is here that mens of the Indian race are to be seen. It is here, the savage is decorated in the richest costume. and here only, that his wants are all satisfied, and even the luxuries of life are afforded him in abundance. And here also is he the proud and honourable man (before he has had teachers or laws,) above the imported wants, which beget meanness and vice; stimulated by ideas of honour and virtue, in which the God of Nature has certainly not curtailed him. There are, by a fair calculation, more than 300,000 Indians, who ere now subsisted on the flesh of the buffaloes, and by those animals supplied with all the luxuries of life which they desire, as they know of none others. The great variety of uses to which they convert the body and other parts of that animal, are almost incredible to the person who has not actually dwelt amongst these people, and closely studied their modes and customs. Every part of their flesh is converted into food, in one shape or another, and on it they entirely subsist. The robes of the animals are worn by the Indians instead of blankets-their skins, when tanned, are used as coverings for their lodges, and for "It is truly a melancholy contemplation for the travel- their beds; undressed, they are used for constructing ler in this country, to anticipate the period, which is not canoes-for saddles, for bridles,-l'arrêts, lasos, and thongs. far distant, when the last of these noble animals, at the The horns are shaped into ladles and spoons-the brains hands of white and red men, will fall victims to their are used for dressing the skins-their bones are used for cruel and improvident rapacity; leaving these beautiful saddle trees-for war clubs, and scrapers for graining the green fields, a vast and idle waste, unstocked and unpeo- robes-and others are broken up for the marrow-fat which pled for ages to come, until the bones of the one, and the is contained in them. Their sinews are used for strings traditions of the other will have vanished, and left scarce and backs to their bows-for thread to string their beads an intelligible trace behind. That the reader should not and sew their dresses. The feet of the animals are boiled, think me visionary in these contemplations, or romancing with their hoofs, for the glue they contain, for fastening in making such assertions, I will hand him the following their arrow points, and many other uses. The hair from item of the extravagancies which are practised in these the head and shoulders, which is long, is twisted and regions, and rapidly leading to the results which I have braided into halters, and the tail is used for a fly brush. just named. Only a few days before I arrived, (when In this wise do these people convert and use the various an immense herd of buffaloes had showed themselves on parts of this useful animal, and with all these luxuries of the opposite side of the river, almost blackening the plains life about them, and their numerous games, they are happy for a great distance,) a party of five or six hundred Sioux (God bless them) in the ignorance of the disastrous fate Indians on horseback, forded the river about mid-day, and that awaits them. Yet this interesting community, with spending a few hours amongst them, recrossed the river its sports, its wildnesses, its languages, and all its manat sundown and came into the Fort with fourteen hun-ners and customs, could be perpetuated, and also the bufdred fresh buffalo tongues, which were thrown down in falo, whose numbers would increase and supply them a mass, and for which they required but a few gallons of with food for ages and centuries to come, if a system of whiskey, which was soon demolished, indulging them in non-intercourse could be established and preserved. But a little and harmless carouse." such is not to be the case-the buffalo's doom is sealed, and This was at the season when their skins were without with their extinction must assuredly sink into real despair

several miles distance. It is a familiar amusement for us accustomed to these scenes, to retreat back over the ground where we have just escorted the herd, and approach these little trembling things, which stubbornly maintain their position, with their noses pushed under the grass, and their eyes strained upon us, as we dismount from our horses and are passing around them. From this fixed position they are sure not to move, until hands are laid upon them, and then, after a desperate struggle, for moment, the little thing is conquered, and makes no further resistance. I have often, in concurrence with a known custom of the country, held my hands over the eyes of the calf, and breathed a few strong breaths into its nostrils; after which I have, with my hunting companions, rode several miles into our encampment, with the little prisoner busily following the heels of my horse the whole way, as closely and as affectionately as its instinct would attach it to the company of its dam! This is one of the most extraordinary things that I have met with in the habits of this wild country, and although I had often heard of it, and felt unable exactly to believe it, 'I am now willing to bear testimony to the fact, from the numerous instances which I have witnessed since I came into the country. During the time that I resided at this post, in the spring of the year, on my way up the river, I assisted (in numerous hunts of the buffalo, with the Fur Company's men,) in bringing, in the above manner, several of these little prisoners, which sometimes followed for five or six miles close to our horses' heels, and even into the Fur Company's Fort, and into the stable where our horses were led."

and starvation, the inhabitants of these vast plains, which | to appease the spirits of the dead, whose misfortunes they afford for the Indians no other possible means of subsist- attribute to some sin or omission of their own, for which ence; and they must at last fall a prey to wolves and buz- they sometimes inflict the most excruciating self-torture. zards, who will have no other bones to pick." When the scaffolds on which the bodies rest decay and We have now only to await the publication of the fall to the ground, the nearest relations, having buried the second volume, which is promised forthwith.

beginning to decay, the woman cuts a fresh bunch, and as it is discovered that the sage on which the skull rests is places the skull carefully upon it, removing that which which draw the women to this spot, they visit it from inwas under it. Independent of the above-named duties, clination, and linger upon it to hold converse and company with the dead. There is scarcely an hour in a pleasant day, but more or less of these women may be band-talking to it in the most pleasant and endearing seen sitting or lying by the skull of their child or huslanguage that they can use (as they were wont to do in former days,) and seemingly getting an answer back. It is not unfrequently the case, that the woman brings her needle-work with her, spending the greater part of the day sitting by the side of the skull of her child, chatting ing a pair of moccasins; and perhaps, overcome with faincessantly with it, while she is embroidering or garnishtigue, falls asleep, with her arms encircled around it, forgetting herself for hours; after which she gathers up her things and returns to the village. There is something which are so strikingly dissimilar, and yet within a few exceedingly interesting and impressive in these scenes, rods of each other; the one is the place where they pour forth the frantic anguish of their souls-and afterwards pay their visits to the other, to jest and gossip with the

The Mandans are (were?) altogether a peculiar race; and Mr. C. hints that they may have descended from a Welsh immigration (of which more perhaps anon; and see Lit. Gaz. No. 1280, p. 489, which relates and gives facts in support of the remarkable theory on this point.) He informs us:

Being a small tribe, and unable to contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming tribes, who are ten times more numerous, they have very judiciously located themselves in a permanent village, which is strongly fortified, and ensures their preservation. By this means they have advanced further in the arts of manufacture; have supplied their lodges more abundantly with

"These facts," and others which are adduced, Mr. Catlin remarks, "with the host of their peculiarities which stare a traveller in the face, lead the mind back in search of some more remote and national cause for such striking singularities; and in this dilemma, I have been almost disposed (not to advance it as a theory, but) to inquire whether here may not be found yet existing the remains of the Welsh colony-the followers of Madoc; who, history tells us, if I recollect right, started with ten ships, to colonize a country which he had discovered in the Western Ocean; whose expedition I think has been pretty clearly traced to the mouth of the Mississippi, or the coast of Florida, and whose fate further than this seems

the horn. of biblical authority, and so often mentioned in The following notice of their costume reminds us of records of Asia the most ancient, as well as in modern

instances:

the comforts, and even luxuries, of life than any Indian | passing this hair through my hands, as I often have, I nation I know of. The consequence of this is, that this have found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a tribe have taken many steps ahead of other tribes in man-horse's mane; differing materially from the hair of other ners and refinements (if I may be allowed to apply the colours, which amongst the Mandans is generally as fine word refinement to Indian life;) and are therefore fami- and as soft as silk. The reader will at once see by the liarly (and correctly) denominated, by the traders and above facts, that there is enough upon the faces and heads others who have been amongst them, the polite and of these people to stamp them peculiar,-when he meets friendly Mandans.' There is certainly great justice in the them in the heart of this almost boundless wilderness preremark; and so forcibly have I been struck with the pe-senting such diversities of colour in the complexion and culiar ease and elegance of these people, together with the hair,-when he knows, from what he has seen and what diversity of complexions, the various colours of their hair he has read, that all other primitive tribes known in Ameand eyes-the singularity of their language, and their pe- rica are dark copper-coloured, with jet-black hair.” culiar and unaccountable customs,-that I am fully convinced that they have sprung from some other origin than that of the other North American tribes, or that they are an amalgam of natives with some civilized race. Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for discussion; and, after further familiarity with their character, customs, and traditions, if I forget it not, I will eventually give it further consideration. Suffice it, then, for the present, that their personal appearance alone, independent of their modes and customs, pronounces them at once as more or less than savage. A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the different shades of complexion and various colours of hair which he sees in a crowd about him; and is at once almost disposed to ex-sealed in unsearchable mystery." claim that these are not Indians.' There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear as light distinct light on this interesting inquiry; and, again begThe appendix to the second volume throws a more as half-breds; and amongst the women particularly there ging our readers to refer back to Mr. Murray's letter in are many whose skins are almost white, with the most the Literary Gazette, No. 1280, for a strangely correspleasing symmetry and proportion of features; with hazel, ponding or corroborating "notion" respecting a Welsh with gray, and with blue eyes, with mildness and sweet-immigration, we for the present proceed to other matters. ness of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanour, which render them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful. Why this diversity of complexion I cannot tell, nor can they themselves account for it. Their traditions, as far as I have yet learned them, afford us no information of their having had any knowledge of white men before the visit of Lewis and Clarke, made to their village thirty-ordinary three years ago. Since that time there have been but very few visits from white men to this place, and surely not enough to have changed the complexions and the customs of a nation. And I recollect perfectly well that Governor Clarke told me, before I started for this place, that I would find the Mandans a strange people and half white. The diversity in the colour of hair is also equally as great as that in the complexion; for in a numerous group of these people (and more particularly amongst the females, who never take pains to change its natural colour, as the men often do,) there may be seen every shade and colour of hair that can be seen in our own The same custom, it may be observed, prevails among country, with the exception of red or auburn, which is the Sioux, Crows, Blackfeet, and Assinneboins; and benot to be found. And there is yet one more strange and longs to all the north-western tribes, according to their unaccountable peculiarity, which can probably be seen earliest traditions. "No one (says our author) wears the nowhere else on earth, nor on any rational grounds ac-head-dress surmounted with horns except the dignitaries counted for, other than it is a freak or order of Nature, for which she has not seen fit to assign a reason;-there are very many, of both sexes, and of every age, from infancy to manhood and old age, with hair of a bright silvery gray; and in some instances almost perfectly white. This singular and eccentric appearance is much oftener seen among the women than it is with the men; for many of the latter who have it seem ashamed of it, and artfully conceal it by filling their hair with glue and black and fed earth. The women, on the other hand, seem proud of it, and display it often in an almost incredible profusion, which spreads over their shoulders and falls as low as the knee. I have ascertained, on a careful inquiry, that about one in ten or twelve of the whole tribe are what the French call cheveux gris, or gray hairs; and that this strange and unaccountable phenomenon is not the result of disease or habit, but that it is unquestionably a hereditary character which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in disposition or intellect. And by

"There is occasionally a chief or a warrior of so extrarenown, that he is allowed to wear horns on his head-dress, which give to his aspect a strange and majes tic effect. These are made of about a third part of the horn of a buffalo bull; the horn having been split from end to end, and a third part of it taken and shaved thin and light, and highly polished. These are attached to the top of the head-dress on each side, in the same place that they rise and stand on the head of a buffalo; rising out of a mat of ermine skins and tails, which hang over the top of the head-dress, somewhat in the form that the large and profuse locks of hair hang and fall over the head of a buffalo-bull."

who are very high in authority, and whose exceeding valour, worth, and power, is admitted by all the nation. He may wear them, however, who is not a chief; but a brave, or warrior of such remarkable character, that he is esteemed universally in the tribe as a man whose 'voice is as loud in council' as that of a chief of the first grade, ad consequently his power as great. This head-dress with horns is used only on certain occasions, and they are very seldom. When foreign chiefs, Indian agents, or other important personages, visit a tribe, or at war-pa-, rades, at the celebration of a victory, at public festivals, &c., they are worn; but on no other occasions-unless, sometimes, when a chief sees fit to lead a war-party to battle, he decorates his head with this symbol of power, to stimulate his men, and throws himself into the foremost of the battle, inviting his enemy to concentrate their shafts upon him. The horns on these head-dresses are but loosely attached at the bottom, so that they easily fall back or forward, according as the head is inclined forward

But a Mandan beau, or dandy, is a creature without horns; and a curious variety of that widely diffused race, of which specimens exist among every people on the face of the earth. On the banks of the upper Missouri, Mr.

Cathin informs us,—

and

or backward; and by an ingenious motion of the head, | eat sparingly; but the women and children stuff themwhich is so slight as to be almost imperceptible, they are selves profoundly. And further:-"The Mandans, like made to balance to and fro, and sometimes one backward all other tribes, lead lives of idleness and leisure; and, of and the other forward, like a horse's ears, giving a vast course, devote a great deal of time to their sports and deal of expression and force of character to the appear- amusements, of which they have a great variety. Of ance of the chief who is wearing them." these, dancing is one of the principal, and may be seen in a variety of forms; such as the buffalo-dance, the boastdozen other kinds of dances, all of which have their peing-dance, the begging-dance, the scalp-dance, and a culiar characters and meanings, or objects. These exercises are exceedingly grotesque in their appearance; to the eye of a traveller, who knows not their meaning or "Such personages may be seen on every pleasant day importance, they are an uncouth and frightful display of strutting and parading round the villages in the most starts, and jumps, and yelps, and jarring gutturals, which beautiful and unsoiled dresses, without the honourable are sometimes truly terrifying. But when one gives trophies, however, of scalp-locks and claws of the grizzly them a little attention, and has been lucky enough to be bear attached to their costume, for with such things they initiated into their mysterious meaning, they become a deal not. They are not peculiarly anxious to hazard subject of the most intense and exciting interest. Every their lives in equal and honourable combat with the one, dance has its peculiar step, and every step has its meanor disposed to cross the path of the other; but generally ing; every dance also has its peculiar song, and that is so remain about the village, to take care of the women, and intricate and mysterious oftentimes that not one in ten of attire themselves in the skins of such animals as they can the young men who are dancing and singing it know the easily kill, without seeking the rugged cliffs for the war- meaning of the song which they are chanting over. None agle, or visiting the haunts of the grizzly bear. They but the medicine men are allowed to understand them; me themselves with swan's-down and quills of ducks, and even they are generally only initiated into these sewith braids and plaits of sweet-scented grass and other cret arcana on the payment of a liberal stipend for their harmless and unmeaning ornaments, which have no other tuition, which requires much application and study. merit than they themselves have-that of looking pretty There is evidently a set song and sentiment for every and ornamental. These clean and elegant gentlemen, dance; for the songs are perfectly measured, and sung in who are very few in each tribe, are held in very little esexact time with the beat of the drum; and always with a tination by the chiefs and braves; inasmuch as it is known uniform and invariable set of sounds and expressions, by all that they have a most horrible aversion to arms, which clearly indicate certain sentiments, which are exand are denominated faint hearts,' or 'old women,' by pressed by the voice, though sometimes not given in any the whole tribe; and are therefore but little respected. known language whatever. They have other dances and They seem, however, to be tolerably well contented with songs which are not so mystified, but which are sung and the appellation, together with the celebrity they have ac-understood by every person in the tribe, being sung in quired amongst the women and children for the beauty their own language, with much poetry in them, and perand elegance of their personal appearance; and most of fectly metred, but without rhyme." them seem to take and enjoy their share of the world's pleasures, although they are looked upon as drones in society. These gay and tinselled bucks may be seen in a pleasant day in all their plumes astride of their pied or dappled ponies, with a fan in the right hand, made of a turkey's tail, with whip and a fly-brush attached to the wrist of the same hand, and underneath them a white and beautiful and soft pleasure-saddle, ornamented with porcupine-quills and ermine,-parading through, and loung- The chief issues his order to his runners or criers, ing about, the village for an hour or so, when they will who proclaim it through the village-and in a few cautiously bend their course to the suburbs of the town, minutes the dance begins. The place where this strange where they will sit or recline upon their horses for an operation is carried on is in the public area in the centre hour or two, overlooking the beautiful games where the of the village, and in front of the great medicine or mysbraves and the young aspirants are contending in manly tery-lodge. About ten or fifteen Mandans at a time join And athletic amusements. When they are fatigued with in the dance, each one with the skin of the buffalo's head is severe effort, they wend their way back again, lift off (or mask,) with the horns on, placed over his head, and their fine white saddle of doe's-skin, which is wadded in his hand his favourite bow or lance, with which he is with buffalo's hair, turn out their pony, take a little re-used to slay the buffalo. I mentioned that this dance alfreshment, smoke a pipe, fan themselves to sleep, and doze away the rest of the day."

What glorious effeminacy? Might not our HydePark or West-end loungers take a profitable and graceful leaf out of the Mandan's book? Their self-satisfaction seems to be equal-the contempt in which they are held by men, and the little, fond partialities with which they are favoured by the other sex. We should like to see turkey-tail fans sported in the theatres; and a buffalo-tail rush would surely be a fashionable novelty in St. James's or Bond Street. The matter is worthy of the best consideration of the nonentities who court notoriety by similar and less effectual means.

Mr. Catlin, in the course of his observations, states, that the Indians live entirely on meat; but yet he often mentions their cultivation of corn, and their feasts and festivals upon that product both in a green condition and when ripened and ground. The men, it seems, always

The engravings of their dances and revels are extravagantly grotesque, especially in their imitations of animals; and we regret that we have not the means of shewing them in picture; but they will be found exceedingly curious and well done in the work before us. Our concluding quotation for this week gives a striking account of one, and a tragical catastrophe which resulted from it. It follows:

ways had the desired effect, that it never fails-nor can
it, for it cannot be stopped (but is going on incessantly
day and night) until buffalo come.' Drums are beating
and rattles are shaken, and songs and yells incessantly
are shouted, and lookers-on stand ready with masks on
their heads, and weapons in hand, to take the place
of each one as he becomes fatigued, and jumps out of the
ring. During this time of general excitement, spies or
'lookers' are kept on the hills in the neighbourhood of the
village, who, when they discover buffaloes in sight, give
the appropriate signal, by throwing their robes,' which
is instantly seen in the village, and understood by the
whole tribe. At this joyful intelligence there is a shout
of thanks to the Great Spirit, and more especially to the
mystery-man, and the dancers, who have been the imme-
diate cause of their success! There is then a brisk pre-
paration for the chase—a grand hunt takes place. The
choicest pieces of the victims are sacrificed to the Great

Spirit, and then a surfeit and a carouse. These dances | picked, and dishes half emptied, and then handed to the have sometimes been continued in this village two and dogs. I was not forgotten neither, in the general surthree weeks without stopping an instant, until the joyful feit: several large and generous wooden bowls of pemican moment when buffaloes made their appearance. So they and other palatable food were sent to my painting-room; never fail; and they think they have been the means of and I received them in this time of scarcity with great bringing them in. Every man in the Mandan village (as pleasure. After this general indulgence was over, and I have before said) is obliged, by a village-regulation, to the dogs had licked the dishes, their usual games and keep the mask of the buffalo hanging on a post at the amusements ensued-and hilarity, and mirth, and joy, head of his bed, which he can use on his head whenever took possession of, and reigned in, every nook and corner he is called upon by the chiefs to dance for the coming of the village; and in the midst of this, screams and of buffaloes. The mask is put over the head, and gene- shrieks were heard and echoed every where. Women rally has a strip of the skin hanging to it, of the whole and children scrambled to the tops of their wigwams, length of the animal, with the tail attached to it, which, with their eyes and their hands stretched in agonizing passing down over the back of the dancer, is dragging on earnestness to the prairie, whilst blackened warriors ran the ground. When one becomes fatigued of the exercise, furiously through every winding maze of the village, and he signifies it by bending quite forward, and sinking his issuing their jarring gutturals of vengeance, as they body towards the ground; when another draws a bow snatched their deadly weapons from their lodges, and struck upon him, and hits him with a blunt arrow, and he falls the reddened post as they furiously passed it by! Two like a buffalo-is seized by the by-standers, who drag him of their hunters were bending their course down the sides out of the ring by the heels, brandishing their knives of the bluff towards the village, and another broke sudabout him; and having gone through the motions of skin- denly out of a deep ravine, and yet another was seen ning and cutting him up, they let him off, and his place dashing over and down the green hills, and all were goadis at once supplied by another, who dances into the ring ing on their horses at full speed! and then came another, with his mask on; and by this taking of places, the scene and another, and all entered the village, amid shouts and is easily kept up night and day, until the desired effect groans of the villagers, who crowded around them: the has been produced, that of making buffalo come.' The story was soon told in their looks; for one was bleeding, day before yesterday, however, readers, which, though it and the blood that flowed from his naked breast had commenced in joy and thanksgiving to the Great Spirit crimsoned his milk-white steed as it had dripped over for the signal success which had attended their several him; another grasped in his left hand a scalp that was days of dancing and supplication, ended in a calamity reeking in blood, and in the other his whip; another which threw the village of the Mandans into mourning grasped nothing, save the reins in one hand and the mane and repentant tears, and that at a time of scarcity and of the horse in the other, having thrown his bow and his great distress. The signal was given into the village on arrows away, and trusted to the fleetness of his horse for that morning from the top of a distant bluff, that a band his safety;-yet the story was audibly told, and the fatal of buffaloes were in sight, though at a considerable dis- tragedy recited in irregular and almost suffocating ejacutance off, and every heart beat with joy, and every eye lations-the names of the dead were in turns pronounced, watered and glistened with gladness. The dance had and screams and shrieks burst forth at their recitallasted some three or four days; and now, instead of the murmurs and groans ran through the village, and this doleful tap of the drum and the begging-chants of the happy little community were in a moment smitten with dancers, the stamping of horses was heard as they were sorrow and distraction. Their proud band of hunters, led and galloped through the village-young men were who had started full of glee and mirth in the morning, throwing off their robes and their shirts,-we -were seen had been surrounded by their enemy, the Sioux, and eight snatching a handful of arrows from their quivers, and of them killed. The Sioux, who had probably reconnoistringing their sinewy bows, glancing their eyes and their tred their village during the night, and ascertained that smiles at their sweethearts, and mounting their ponies. they were dancing for buffaloes, laid a stratagem to enA few minutes there had been of bustle trap them in the following manner :-Some six or eight and boasting, whilst bows were twanging and spears of them appeared the next morning (on a distant bluff, in were polishing by running their blades into the ground-sight of their sentinel) under the skins of buffaloes, imievery face and every eye was filled with joy and gladness-horses were pawing and snuffing in fury for the onset, when Louison Frénié, an interpreter of the Fur Company, galloped through the village with his rifle in his hand and his powder-horn at his side; his head and his waist were bandaged with handkerchiefs, and his shirtsleeves rolled up to his shoulders-the hunter's yell is sued from his lips, and was repeated through the village; he flew to the bluffs, and behind him, and over the graceful swells of the prairie, galloped the emulous youths, whose hearts were beating high and quick for the onset. In the village, where hunger had reigned, and starvation was almost ready to look them in the face, all was instantly turned to joy and gladness. The chiefs and doctors, who had been for some days dealing out minimum rations to the community from the public crib, now spread before their subjects the contents of their own private caches, and the last of every thing that could be mustered, that they might eat a thanksgiving to the Great Spirit, for his goodness in sending them a supply of buffalo-meat. A general carouse of banqueting ensued, which occupied the greater part of the day; and their hidden stores, which might have fed an emergency for several weeks, were pretty nearly used up on the occasion-bones were half

tating the movements of those animals whilst grazing; and
being discovered by the sentinel, the intelligence was
telegraphed to the village, which brought out the hunters
as I have described. The masked buffaloes were seen
grazing on the top of a high bluff; and when the hunters
had approached within half a mile or so of them, they
suddenly disappeared over the hill. Louison Frénié, who
was leading the little band of hunters, became at that
moment suspicious of so strange a movement, and came
to a halt.
'Look!' (said a Man-
dan, pointing to a little ravine to the right, and at the
foot of the hill, from which suddenly broke some forty or
fifty furious Sioux, on fleet horses and under full whip,
who were rushing upon them;) they wheeled, and in front
of them came another band more furious from the other
side of the hill! they started for home (poor fellows,) and
strained every nerve; but the Sioux were too fleet for
them; and every now and then, the whizzing arrow and
the lance were heard to rip the flesh of their naked back,
and a grunt and a groan, as they tumbled from their
horses. Several miles were run in this desperate race;
and Frénié got home, and several of the Mandans, though
eight of them were killed and scalped by the way. So
ended that day and the hunt."