BOURGEOIS - Toronto Public Library

THE MISSISSOURI INDIANS 337
the woman to the husband, from the husband to the mulatto,
from the mulatto to the captains.
I was once present when vocabularies were being made of the
languages of the mandane villages; the two Frenchmen, who
happened to be the medium of information, had warm disputes
upon the meaning of every word that was taken down by the
expedition. As the Indians could not well comprehend the inten'tion
of recording their words, they concluded that the Americans
had a wicked design upon their country.
Buffaloes and other animals are in immense numbers destroyed
every winter by the Mississouri Indians. In stormy
weather, whole droves run from the mountains and plains to
seek shelter in the woods which form the margin of the Mi8sis­
SOUl'i; many of them, attempting to cross when the ice is weak,
sink and are drowned, and, in the spring, both sides of the river
are in several places covered with rotten carcases and skeletons
of buffaloes, elks, &c.
These dead animals, which often float down the current
among the ice for hundred at miles, are prefel'l'ed by the Natives
to any other kind of food. When the skin is raised you will
see the flesh of a greenish hue and ready to become alive at the
least exposure to the sun, and so ripe and tender that very little
boiling is required. The stench is absolutely intolerable, yet
the soup made from it., which becomes bottle green, is.reckoned
delicious. So fond are the Mandanes of putrid meat that they
bury animals whole in the winter for the consumption of the
spring.
The water of the Mississourie, this spring, was uncommonly
low, and in consequence dro\vned animals were not so very
abundant as usual at the breaking up of navigation. However
there were sti.ll plenty, and I had opportunity of obsarving the
courage and dexterity of the young Mandanes among the floating
ice, hauling ashore some scores of these nauseous carcasses,
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