History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the sources of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean : performed during the years 1804-5-6 by order of the government of the United States; Volume 1

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150 Lewis aud Clw·k~'s E x pedit:on kiJlctl a hare and a wolf. Amon,; the Indians who visited us was a ~finnetarce who came to seek his wife: she had been much abused and came here for pt·otcction, but rcturne(l with him, as we had no authority to se1>arate those whom even the Mandan rites had united. Fl'iday tit. The morning was cloudy and warm, the mer­cury being 28° above 0: but towards evening the wind chan­ged to northwest, and the weather became cold. We sent some hunters down the river, but they killed only one buffa­loe and a wolf. We received the visit of Kagohami who is very friendly, and to whom we gave a hankerchief and two tiles. Saturday 5. We hadhighaml boisterous winds last night and this morning: the Indians continue to purchase repairs with grain of different kinds. In the fh·st village there hai been a buffaloe dance for the last three nights, which has put them all into commotion, and the description which we received from those of the party who visited the village and from other sources, is not a little ludicrous: ihe buft'a. loe dance is an institution originally intended for the bene­fit of the old men. and practised at their suggestion. "\Vhcn buffaloe becomes scarce they send a man to hat·angue the village, declaring that the game is far off and that a feast is necessary to bring it back, and if the village be disposed a day and place is named fot• the celebration of it. At the appointed hour the old men arrive, and seat themselves crosslegged· on skins round a fire in the middle of the lodge with a sort of doll or small image, da•essed like a female, placed before them. The young men bring with them a. platter of provisions, a pipe of tobacco, and their wives, whose dress on the occasion is only a robe or mantle loosely thrown round the body. On their arrival each youth selects the old man whom he means to distinguish by his favour, and spreads before him the provisions, after which he pre~ sents the pipe and smokes with him. Mox sen ex vir simula­crum parvre puellre ostensit. Tunc egrediens eretu, jecit Up the .Missouri. 151 effigium solo et supcrincumbcns, senili ardore veneris com­plexit. Hoc est signum. Deniquc uxor e turba recessit, et jactu corporis, fovct am11lexus viri solo recubantc. Ma­ritus appropinquans senex via· dejccto vultu, ct bonorem et dignitatem ejus conservare amplexu uxoris ilium oravit. ~~orsitan imprimis ille t•cfcllit; dehinc, maritus multis prc­cibus, multis lachrymis, et multis donis vchrmenter inter­cessit. 'I'unc sen ex amator perculsus miserecorclia, tot preci­bus, tot lachrymis, et tot donis, conjugali amplexu submisit. Multum ille jactatus est, sed debilis ct t.'ffretus senectuto, frustt·a jactatus est. Maritus interdum stans juxta guadit multum honore, et ejus dignitati sic conservata. Unus nos­trum sodalium multum alacrior et potentior juventute, hac nocte honorem quartuor maritorum custodivit. Sunday 6. A clear cold morning with high wind: we caught in a trap a large gray wolf, and last night obtained in the same way a fox who had for some time infested the neighbou1·hood of the fort. Only a few Indians visited us to-day. Monday 7. r.rhe weather was again clear and cold with a high northwest wind, and the thermometer at sunrise 22" below 0: the river fell an inch. Shabaka the Big,Vllite chief dined with us, and gave a connected sketch of the country as far as the mountains. 'l'uesday 8. 'l'hc wind was still t"rom the northwest, the tlay cold, and we received few Indians at the fort. Be8ides the buffaloe dance we have just described, there is another called medjcinc dance, an entertainment given by any per­son desirious of doing honour to his medicine or genius. He announces, that on such a day be will sacrifice his horses, or other prope1•ty, and invites the young females of the vil­lage to assist in rendering homage to his medicine; all the inhabitants may join in the solemnity, which is performed in the open plain and by daylight, but the dance is reserved for the virgins or at least the unmarried females, who dis­dain the incumbrance or the ornament of dres!'. 'rhc feast