"Our Game To-Day," Proceeds The Journal, "Were Deer, Elk, And Buffalo:
We Also Procured Three Beaver.
They were here quite gentle,
as they have not been hunted; but when the hunters are in pursuit,
they never leave their huts during the day.
This animal we esteem
a great delicacy, particularly the tail, which, when boiled,
resembles in flavor the fresh tongues and sounds of the codfish,
and is generally so large as to afford a plentiful meal for two men.
One of the hunters, in passing near an old Indian camp,
found several yards of scarlet cloth suspended on the bough of a tree,
as a sacrifice to the deity, by the Assiniboins; the custom of making
these offerings being common among that people, as, indeed, among all
the Indians on the Missouri. The air was sharp this evening;
the water froze on the oars as we rowed."
The Assiniboin custom of sacrificing to their deity, or "great medicine,"
the article which they most value themselves, is not by any means peculiar
to that tribe, nor to the Indian race.
An unusual number of porcupines were seen along here, and these creatures
were so free from wildness that they fed on, undisturbed, while the explorers
walked around and among them. The captains named a bold and beautiful stream,
which here entered the Missouri from the north, - Porcupine River; but modern
geography calls the water-course Poplar River; at the mouth of the river,
in Montana, is now the Poplar River Indian Agency and military post.
The waters of this stream, the explorers found, were clear and transparent, -
an exception to all the streams, which, discharging into the Missouri,
give it its name of the Big Muddy.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 66 of 362
Words from 20063 to 20349
of 110166
