Volume 1

;
356 FICKLE IN TRADING AND STINGY IN HUNTING.
longer listen to any offer, threw down my ammunition, and
insisted upon my returning him the tail, which I was
obliged to do. This fickle manner of dealing is common
even among themselves, and provided every article of
the
price is punctually returned, the buyer cannot object to
return to the other his property, even should the bargain
have been closed for several days. Though so changeable
in dealing for horses and trifles, they are quite the reverse
in trading for buffalo robes, wolves, foxes, etc. They put
little value on any of those skins, and cannot imagine what
use we make of such trash, as they call it. They kill some
beavers and a few grizzly bears, all of which they dispose
of, and call the whites fools for giving them valuable
articles for such useless skins. Were it not for the H. B.
Co.'s servants, who come here to trade every winter, and
have spoiled the natives by giving good prices for summer
wolves, and other rubbish, we might carry on a very advantageous
trade with these people from our establishment on
the Assiniboine, as the articles they require are of little
real value to us.
This afternoon I was present at the return of a party of
Big Bellies from a hunting excursion ;
they had been away
eight days. It consisted of about 200 men, and as many
women and children, who had accompanied them to attend
to their horses and dogs and dry the flesh ;
all their
numerous train of beasts were heavily loaded with the
spoils, such as dried meat, hides, skins, and a quantity of
dried pears and chokecherries. They had killed, as nearly
as I could judge, about 500 animals—buffalo, red deer, and
cabbrie. But I did not observe amongst them that sociable
custom of sharing their hunt with their friends, as the Mandanes
do. Everyone kept what he brought home, and
appeared very careful of all he had. Some of them invited
us to their huts to eat, in expectation of receiving a bit of
tobacco, but we found it impossible to taste their dried
meat ; it was so nearly putrid that the pieces would scarcely
hold together. This, however, is entirely to their liking