Volume 1

358 BURYING-GROUND—BLEACHING SIOUX BONES.
balls, about the size of a hen's egg, made of pears, dried
meat, and parched corn, beaten together in a mortar.
When I had done eating he took the dish back, and gave
me another of water. After this he brought me his pipe
with some of their own tobacco, a very disagreeable substitute
for the real article. We soon emptied his pipe by
their custom of each drawing the smoke with great violence,
and frequently returning it to the other. He then
presented me with a buffalo robe, making signs that he
desired ammunition for it. But as I wanted nothing of the
kind, I gave him a few inches of tobacco, and returned to
my hut. They often call in this ceremonious manner when
their business is only to trade a wolfskin or some other
trifle ; and it is exactly in this manner that they wait upon
a guest whom they invite into their huts to eat.
This morning we took a walk to the burying-ground,
aboilt a mile S. W. of the village, upon the declivity of a
hill. Here we saw many melancholy spectacles of decayed
and decaying human forms. Some were tumbling to the
ground, while others obliged us to keep to windward, to
avoid the horrid stench. We also observed a great pile of
human bones, which we were given to understand were the
remains of a large number of Sioux, killed on the spot by
the Big Bellies about i6 years ago, when the Sioux formed
a scheme to extirpate every Big Belly in the country, and
take possession of their villages.
The Yanktons and Titons
were the principal tribes concerned in this enterprise, and
formed a camp of 600 tents, who came with their families
to undertake this great affair. They had previously made
peace with the Mandanes and Saulteurs [Souliers], who
remained idle spectators during the siege. The Sioux
appeared openly, and pitched their 600 tents between
Knife river and the village, almost within gunshot of the
latter. In this situation they remained for 15 days, in
full hopes of reducing the inhabitants for want of water,
having completely intercepted communication with Knife
river, and keeping a guard to prevent them from getting a