Whoever Achieves Such An Object Worthily, Will Leave
A Monument To His Own Reputation.
To return from this digression.
As the travellers were now in a
country abounding with buffalo, they remained for several days
encamped upon the banks of Big River, to obtain a supply of
provisions, and to give the invalids time to recruit.
On the second day of their sojourn, as Ben Jones, John Day, and
others of the hunters were in pursuit of game, they came upon an
Indian camp on the open prairie, near to a small stream which ran
through a ravine. The tents or lodges were of dressed buffalo
skins, sewn together and stretched on tapering pine poles, joined
at top, but radiating at bottom, so as to form a circle capable
of admitting fifty persons. Numbers of horses were grazing in the
neighborhood of the camp, or straying at large in the prairie; a
sight most acceptable to the hunters. After reconnoitering the
camp for some time, they ascertained it to belong to a band of
Cheyenne Indians, the same that had sent a deputation to the
Arickaras. They received the hunters in the most friendly manner;
invited them to their lodges, which were more cleanly than Indian
lodges are prone to be, and set food before them with true
uncivilized hospitality. Several of them accompanied the hunters
back to the camp, when a trade was immediately opened. The
Cheyennes were astonished and delighted to find a convoy of goods
and trinkets thus brought into the very heart of the prairie;
while Mr. Hunt and his companions were overjoyed to have an
opportunity of obtaining a further supply of horses from these
equestrian savages.
During a fortnight that the travellers lingered at this place,
their encampment was continually thronged by the Cheyennes. They
were a civil, well-behaved people, cleanly in their persons, and
decorous in their habits. The men were tall, straight and
vigorous, with aquiline noses, and high cheek bones. Some were
almost as naked as ancient statues, and might have stood as
models for a statuary; others had leggins and moccasins of deer
skin, and buffalo robes, which they threw gracefully over their
shoulders. In a little while, however, they began to appear in
more gorgeous array, tricked out in the finery obtained from the
white men; bright cloths, brass rings, beads of various colors;
and happy was he who could render himself hideous with vermilion.
The travellers had frequent occasions to admire the skill and
grace with which these Indians managed their horses. Some of them
made a striking display when mounted; themselves and their steeds
decorated in gala style; for the Indians often bestow more finery
upon their horses than upon themselves. Some would hang around
the necks, or rather on the breasts of their horses, the most
precious ornaments they had obtained from the white men; others
interwove feathers in their manes and tails. The Indian horses,
too, appear to have an attachment to their wild riders, and
indeed, it is said that the horses of the prairies readily
distinguish an Indian from a white man by the smell, and give a
preference to the former.
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