him away. He had put on his best dress, and had, on his breast, a rosette of dyed porcupine quills, eight or ten inches in diameter. On this day there was a great crowd of Indians in the fort, to barter several articles of their dress; part of them went away in the course of the day, for when we went to their camp in the afternoon we found most of the huts empty, and saw, at a distance, many Indians, seldom more than two or three together, returning in three principal directions. A great part of them went up the Missouri, parallel with the river, but avoided the wood on the bank, and traversed the prairie in a western direction; another part turned to the north-east, and these, about an hundred in number, went to join in a military expedition against the Mandans and the Manitaries. On occasions like the present, when many Indians assemble about the trading posts of the Whites, they are obliged to be constantly on their guard, because their enemies endeavour to obtain information of these moments, and take advantage of them for their sudden attacks. On the evening of this day, we had a violent storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, and, as the rain continued on the following day, the 29th of June, the expected arrival of more Assiniboins was delayed; they do not willingly travel with their leather tents in wet weather, because their baggage then becomes very heavy; several Indians, however, soon appeared, wet through and through, and covered with mud up to their knees, which, however, they did not mind. A sketch was taken of a tall young warrior,[6] who preserved a most inflexible gravity of countenance till Mr. Bodmer set his musical snuff-box agoing, on which he began to laugh. Another interesting young man of the branch of the Stone Indians,[7] whose name was Pitatapiu, had his portrait taken at a later period. His hair hung down like a lion's mane, especially over his eyes, so that they could scarcely be seen; over each of them a small white sea shell was fastened with a hair string; in his hand he carried a long lance, such as they use only for show, to which a number of slips of the entrails of a bear were fastened, and smeared with red paint. This slender young man had his painted leather shield on his back, to which a small packet, well wrapped up, his medicine or amulet in horse-stealing, was fastened, and which he greatly prized. These people will not part with such things on any terms. The handle of his whip was of wood, with holes in it like a flute. He and several Indians brought word that his countrymen, from the environs of the Fort des Prairies, on the Saskatschawan River, would shortly visit us, to dispose of all their beaver skins. It made us shiver to see the Indians, in the damp, cold weather, run about barefoot the whole day in the deep mud, while we, in our room, sat constantly by the fireside. They, too, greatly enjoyed the warm room, and a number of them were always sitting with us, to smoke their pipes, while Mr. Bodmer was drawing Pitatapiu's likeness. We took care that their pipes should be constantly filled, and, in general, tried every means to amuse them, that they might not lose their patience during the operation.

{203} On the 30th of June, at noon, a band of Indians had arrived, and twenty-five tents were set up near the fort. The women, who were short, and mostly stout, with faces painted red, soon finished this work, and dug up with their instruments the clods of turf, which they lay round the lower part of the hut. One of these tents, the dwelling of a chief, was distinguished from the rest. It was painted of the colour of yellow ochre, had a broad reddish-brown border below, and on each of its sides a large black bear was painted (something of a caricature it must be confessed), to the head of which, just above the nose, a piece of red cloth, that fluttered in the wind, was fastened, doubtless a medicine.[8] We now saw the Indian women returning in all directions from the forest, panting under the weight of large bundles of wood, which were fastened on their backs. Their dogs lay about the tents; they were large, quite like wolves, and of different colours, chiefly of the colour of the wild grey wolf, and some spotted black and white. Reduced to skeletons by want of food, they could not stretch out their sharp backbone; but, for the most part, went crooked and contracted, looked about for old bones, and growled at each other, showing their white teeth. They were not so savage to strangers as the dogs of the Crows, at Fort Clarke, and if one of them seemed inclined to bite us, he was immediately very roughly kicked and beaten by the Indians.

We had not been long in this camp, when another band of Assiniboins appeared at a distance. To the west, along the wood by the river-side, the prairie was suddenly covered with red men, most of whom went singly, with their dogs drawing the loaded sledges. The warriors, about sixty in number, formed a close column. They came without music, with two chiefs at their head, and proceeded towards the gate of the fort. Among them there were many old men, one, especially, who walked with the support of two sticks, and many who had only one eye.[9] The first chief of this new band was Ayanyan (as translated by the Canadians, le fils du gros Français), generally called General Jackson, because he had made a journey to Washington.[10] He was a handsome man, in a fine dress; he wore a beautifully embroidered black leather shirt, a new scarlet blanket, and the great medal round his neck. The whole column entered the fort, where they smoked, ate, and drank; and, meantime, forty-two tents were set up. The new camp had a very pretty appearance; the tents stood in a semicircle, and all the fires were smoking, while all {204} around was life and activity. We witnessed many amusing scenes; here, boys shot their arrows into the air; there, a little, brown, monkey-like child was sitting alone upon the ground, with a circle of hungry dogs round it. In one of the tents there was a man very ill, about whom the medicine men were assembled, singing with all their might. Many people had collected about this tent, and were peeping through the crevices. After the conjuration had continued some time, the tent was opened, and the men who had been assembled in it went away by threes, the one in the middle always stepping a little before the others, and they continued singing till they reached their own tents. In another tent, belonging to a young married couple, we found a child hung up in a leather pouch, of very beautiful workmanship. These pouches, which serve instead of cradles, are so large that only the head of the child is visible. This pouch had, on the upper side, two broad stripes of dyed porcupine quills, and several very pretty rosettes, with long strings of different colours, and was lined with fur. I purchased it from the woman, but, with many other