OCR Text |
Show 82 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE INDIANS. three days without eating before this second attempt was made. We enjoyed this sumptuous fare for about six weeks, and never had the gout. In February the first Indian came to our camp. He was of the Snake tribe, his people were located a day's travel up the river. At the time of his arrival we were out of everything, having not only eaten the hides taken from cattle killed, but had eaten the wrappings from the wagon- tongues, old moccasin- soles ' were eaten also, and a piece of buffalo hide that had been used for a foot mat for two months. The day the Indian came was fast- day, and for us fast- day in very truth. We met as usual for we kept our monthly fast- day. During meeting we became im-pressed that there were some wrongs existing among the brethren in camp that should be corrected, and that if we would make a general cleaning up, and present our case before the Lord, He would take care of us, for we were there on His business. On questioning some of the company privately, we found that several had goods in their possession not belonging to them. When we felt satisfied all goods were replaced we went en masse and cut a hole in the ice on the river. There were several carcasses of cattle that had died lying near the fort, that the wolves had not devoured. Some of the boys, contrary to counsel, had cut steaks from them during the time we were eating the hides ; it made them quite sick. There was a pile of offal in the butcher shop from the poor cattle killed. But what looked more tempting than all to starving men was a pile of more than one hundred fat wolf carcasses, skinned, piled up and frozen near the fort. They looked very much like nice fat mutton. Many of the company asked my opinion about eating them. I told them if they would all do as I |