Volume 1

THE BIG BELLIES CHARACTERIZED. 347
was then on a visit to a camp of Schians, settling the preliminaries
of peace with that nation, who are tented about
two days' journey S. E. from here. We were not so well
received at this village as at the Mandanes ; no attention
was shown us, after conducting us to the hut where the
white people lodged. They do not appear to be of such
sociable and affable disposition as their neighbors ;
they
are proud and haughty, and think there is no race upon
earth equal to themselves ; they despise other nations.
Were it not that they must have traders to bring them the
arms and ammunition of which they stand in such great
need, being surrounded by enemies, a white man would
stand a poor chance for his life and property among this
set of savages, whose sole glory is in bloodshed and devastation.
But they are obliged to be civil, and this policy is
inculcated in the daily harangues made by the old principals
and chiefs.
All have manly and warlike countenances,
and are remarkably stout, well-proportioned men, with a
similarity of physiognomy among themselves not to be
found in the other tribes of these quarters. The commonest
feature is a large aquiline nose. Their dress is nearly
the same as the Mandanes', excepting that the men wear
their hair somewhat differently. It is generally of great
length, sometimes even trailing on the ground. They
divide it, and plat from 10 to 25 tresses about one inch
broad ;
on
those quaittes they stick pieces of gum three or
four inches square and an inch apart, which every morning,
after washing and freshening, they carefully daub with
or white clay, always painting the patches of gum one
color, and the intervening spaces another. This decoration
at a distance has nearly the same effect as a Saulteur head
covered with silver brooches. Their hair is of the same
bright hue as that of their neighbors.
Upon the whole they appeared to me to be a
savage set of scoundrels, still
red
fierce and
more loose and licentious than
is reported to have said in characterizing John Calvin—Le Borgne was a
great man.